Multiple Staatsbürgerschaft im römischen Kleinasien (I- III Jhd.)
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
The project aimed at taking a position within the ongoing research on ancient citizenship, filling a gap in the knowledge of the intersection and interaction between different kinds of citizenships (local Greek citizenships, global Roman citizenship) and civic practices in the urban communities of imperial Asia Minor. Specifically, the focus of the project was the phenomenon of multiple citizenship – namely, the practice of holding citizenship in several poleis, in some cases also in addition to Roman citizenship. Multiple citizenship spread out and consolidated itself in the first, second and beginning of the third century CE in Asia Minor. This phenomenon marked a difference with the classical and early Hellenistic period, in which citizenship was regarded almost as an exclusive condition and the cases of double citizenship were rare. Arguing that the traditional dichotomic model between real citizenship and honorific (or potential) citizenship does not explain the phenomenon of multiple citizenship and its implications, this project attempted to provide a new interpretation of this phenomenon, exploring and analysing honorific decrees, funerary inscriptions and literary texts, above all he speeches of Dio Chrysostomus and Aelius Aristides. Two regions, i.e. Pontus-Bithynia and Lycia have been chosen as macro case studies. Multiple citizenship in these regions has been studied in relation to family networks (in the case of the elites) political participation (office holding), fiscal policy (liturgies), euergetic donations, jurisdiction, and professional careers. The overall picture is that the practice of accumulating citizenships of different poleis is not simply bound to the honorific habit, nor does it represent simply a formal element in the ‘ceremony’ of honouring individuals. Multiple citizenships in the imperial period define a new way of building relations between individuals and communities. Among the elites, acquired citizenships amounted to important tools in the system of reciprocity between cities and benefactors; among ordinary citizens, they provided a way to strengthen professional careers, helping individuals to integrate in professional guilds and giving them the possibility of accessing local courts. While becoming important elements of civic discourse, however, additional citizenships did not diminish the value of native citizenship, which in fact remained generally the most important and strongest bond individuals could have – or were expected to have – with a city.
Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)
- A. Duplouy, R. Brock (eds.) Defining Citizenship in Archaic Greece. Pp. xiv 370. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018 The Classical Review, 70(1), 156-159.
Cecchet, L.
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.1017/s0009840x19002166) - ,,Multiple Citizenship in Roman Asia Minor”, in J. Filonik, B. Griffith-Williams, J. Kucharski (Hrsg.), Citizenship in Classical Antiquity, London: Routledge, pp. 525-539.
Lucia Cecchet
