Editing Trajan (section)

=== Greek-Roman relations ===
[[File:Traianus Glyptothek Munich 72.jpg|thumb|left|Bust of Trajan wearing the [[Civic Crown]], [[Glyptothek]], Munich]]
As a senatorial Emperor, Trajan was inclined to choose his local base of political support from among the members of the ruling urban oligarchies. In the West, that meant local senatorial families like his own. In the East, that meant the families of Greek notables. The Greeks, though, had their own memories of independence{{snds}}and a commonly acknowledged sense of cultural superiority{{snds}}and, instead of seeing themselves as Roman, disdained Roman rule.{{sfn|Veyne|2005|pp=195–196}} What the Greek oligarchies wanted from Rome was, above all, to be left in peace, to be allowed to exert their right to self-government (i.e., to be excluded from the provincial government, as was Italy) and to concentrate on their local interests.{{sfn|Veyne|2005|p=229}} This was something the Romans were not disposed to do as from their perspective the Greek notables were shunning their responsibilities in regard to the management of Imperial affairs{{snds}}primarily in failing to keep the common people under control, thus creating the need for the Roman governor to intervene.{{sfn|Veyne|2005|pp=229–230}} An excellent example of this Greek alienation was the personal role played by Dio of Prusa in his relationship with Trajan. Dio is described by [[Philostratus]] as Trajan's close friend, and Trajan as supposedly engaging publicly in conversations with Dio.<ref>Giovanni Salmeri, "Dio, Rome, and the Civic Life of Asia Minor" IN Simon Swain, ed., ''Dio Chrysostom: Politics, Letters, and Philosophy''. Oxford U. Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-925521-0}}, p. 91.</ref>

Nevertheless, as a Greek local magnate with a taste for costly building projects and pretensions of being an important political agent for Rome,<ref>Simon Goldhill, ''Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire''. Cambridge University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|0-521-66317-2}}, p. 293.</ref> Dio of Prusa was actually a target for one of Trajan's authoritarian innovations: the appointing of imperial [[corrector|''correctores'']] to audit the civic finances<ref>Bradley Hudson McLean, ''An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods from Alexander the Great Down to the Reign of Constantine (323 B.C.{{nsndns}}A.D. 337)''. University of Michigan Press, 2002, p.{{nbsp}}334.</ref> of the [[Free city (antiquity)|technically free Greek cities]].<ref>A. G. Leventis, ''Hellenistic and Roman Sparta''. London: Routledge, 2004, {{ISBN|0-203-48218-2}}, p.{{nbsp}}138.</ref> The main goal was to curb the overenthusiastic spending on public works that served to channel ancient rivalries between neighbouring cities. As Pliny wrote to Trajan, this had as its most visible consequence a trail of unfinished or ill-kept public utilities.<ref>Pliny, ''Letters'', 10.70.2.</ref> Competition among Greek cities and their ruling oligarchies was mainly for marks of pre-eminence, especially for titles bestowed by the Roman emperor. Such titles were ordered in a ranking system that determined how the cities were to be outwardly treated by Rome.<ref>David S. Potter, ed. ''A Companion to the Roman Empire''. Malden, MA: Wiley, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-631-22644-4}}, p.{{nbsp}}246.</ref> The usual form that such rivalries took was that of grandiose building plans, giving the cities the opportunity to vie with each other over "extravagant, needless{{nbsp}}... structures that would make a show".<ref>Ramsey Macmullen, ''Enemies of the Roman Order''. London, Routledge, 1992, {{ISBN|0-415-08621-3}}, p. 185.</ref> A side effect of such extravagant spending was that junior and thus less wealthy members of the local oligarchies felt disinclined to present themselves to fill posts as local magistrates, positions that involved ever-increasing personal expense.<ref>Graham Anderson, ''Second Sophistic: A Cultural Phenomenon in the Roman Empire''. London, Routledge, 2005, Google e-book, available at [https://books.google.com/books?id=V4qJAgAAQBAJ]. Retrieved 15 December 2014.</ref> Roman authorities liked to play the Greek cities against one another<ref>Potter, 246.</ref>{{snds}}something of which Dio of Prusa was fully aware:
{{blockquote|[B]y their public acts [the Roman governors] have branded you as a pack of fools, yes, they treat you just like children, for we often offer children the most trivial things in place of things of greatest worth [...] In place of justice, in place of the freedom of the cities from spoliation or from the seizure of the private possessions of their inhabitants, in place of their refraining from insulting you [...] your governors hand you titles, and call you 'first' either by word of mouth or in writing; that done, they may thenceforth with impunity treat you as being the very last!"<ref>Dio, Discourse 38,''To the Nicomedians on Concord with the Nicaeans'', 37. Available at [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/38*.html]. Retrieved February 20, 2016.</ref>{{sfn|Veyne|2005|pp=232–233}}}}These same Roman authorities had also an interest in assuring the cities' solvency and therefore ready collection of Imperial taxes.<ref>Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase, eds., ''Politische Geschichte: Provinzen und Randvoelker – Griescher Balkanraum: Kleinasien''. Berlin; de Gruyter, 1980, {{ISBN|3-11-008015-X}}, pp.{{nbsp}}668{{nsndns}}669.</ref> Last but not least, inordinate spending on civic buildings was not only a means to achieve local superiority, but also a means for the local Greek elites to maintain a separate cultural identity{{snds}}something expressed in the contemporary rise of the [[Second Sophistic]]; this "cultural patriotism" acted as a kind of substitute for the loss of political independence,<ref>Paul Veyne, "L'identité grecque devant Rome et l'empereur", ''Revue des Études Grecques'', 1999, V.122-2, p. 515. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/reg_0035-2039_1999_num_112_2_4382]. Retrieved 20 December 2014.</ref> and as such was shunned by Roman authorities.<ref>Jesper Majbom Madsen, Roger David Rees, eds. ''Roman rule in Greek and Latin Writing: Double Vision''. Leiden: Brill, 2014, {{ISBN|978-90-04-27738-0}}, p.{{nbsp}}36.</ref> As Trajan himself wrote to Pliny: "These poor Greeks all love a [[Gymnasium (Ancient Greece)|gymnasium]]{{nbsp}}... they will have to content with one that suits their real needs".<ref>Quoted by Hooper, ''Roman Realities'', 429.</ref> The first known ''corrector'' was charged with a commission "to deal with the situation of the free cities", as it was felt that the old method of ''ad hoc'' intervention by the Emperor and/or the proconsuls had not been enough to curb the pretensions of the Greek notables.<ref>JC Carrière, "À propos de ''la Politique'' de Plutarque "{{snds}}''Dialogues d'histoire ancienne'', V.3, no.3, 1977. Available at [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/dha_0755-7256_1977_num_3_1_2693] Retrieved 13 December 2014.</ref> It is noteworthy that an embassy from Dio's city of Prusa was not favourably received by Trajan,<ref>Fergus Millar, ''Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Government, society, and culture in the Roman Empire''. University of North Carolina Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-8078-2852-1}}, p. 31.</ref> and that this had to do with Dio's chief objective, which was to elevate Prusa to the status of a free city, an "independent" city-state exempt from paying taxes to Rome.<ref>Jesper Majbom Madsen, ''Eager to be Roman: Greek Response to Roman Rule in Pontus and Bithynia''. London: [[Bloomsbury Publishing]], 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-7156-3753-1}}, p. 116.</ref> Eventually, Dio gained for Prusa the right to become the head of the assize-district, [[conventus iuridicus|conventus]] (meaning that Prusans did not have to travel to be judged by the Roman governor), but ''eleutheria'' (freedom, in the sense of full political autonomy) was denied.<ref>Simon Swain, ed., ''Dio Chrysostom: Politics, Letters, and Philosophy''. Oxford University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-925521-0}}, p.{{nbsp}}68.</ref>

Eventually, it fell to Pliny, as imperial governor of Bithynia in AD{{nbsp}}110, to deal with the consequences of the financial mess wrought by Dio and his fellow civic officials.<ref>Paraskevi Martzavou, Nikolaos Papazarkadas, eds., ''Epigraphical Approaches to the Post-Classical Polis: Fourth Century BC to Second Century AD'' . Oxford University Press, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-19-965214-3}}, p.{{nbsp}}115.</ref> "It's well established that [the cities' finances] are in a state of disorder", Pliny once wrote to Trajan, plans for unnecessary works made in collusion with local contractors being identified as one of the main problems.<ref>Temporini & Haase, ''Politische Geschichte'', 669.</ref> One of the compensatory measures proposed by Pliny expressed a thoroughly Roman conservative position: as the cities' financial solvency depended on the councilmen's purses, it was necessary to have more councilmen on the local city councils. According to Pliny, the best way to achieve this was to lower the minimum age for holding a seat on the council, making it possible for more sons of the established oligarchical families to join and thus contribute to civic spending; this was seen as preferable to enrolling non-noble wealthy upstarts.{{sfn|de Ste. Croix|1989|p=530}} Such an increase in the number of council members was granted to Dio's city of Prusa, to the dismay of existing councilmen who felt their status lowered.<ref>Jesper Majbom Madsen, ''Eager to be Roman'', 117.</ref> A similar situation existed in [[Claudiopolis (Bithynia)|Claudiopolis]], where a public bath was built with the proceeds from the entrance fees paid by "supernumerary" members of the council, enrolled with Trajan's permission.<ref>Sviatoslav Dmitriev, ''City Government in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor''. Oxford University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-19-517042-9}}, p. 155.</ref> According to the [[Digest (Roman law)|Digest]], Trajan decreed that when a city magistrate promised to achieve a particular public building, his heirs inherited responsibility for its completion.<ref>Fergus Millar, '' Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Government, society, and culture in the Roman Empire''. [[University of North Carolina Press]], 2004, {{ISBN|0-8078-5520-0}}, pp. 37/38.</ref>