A Name and a Place: Settlement and Land Use Patterns, Identity Expression and Social Strategies in Hellenistic and Roman Thessaly

Theories that presented decline and depopulation as defining characteristics of
\nGreece at the transitions from the Hellenistic to the Roman period have been
\nchallenged by recent regional studies that investigated landscape, political,
\neconomic and social change. This thesis adds to this growing discourse by
\ninvestigating the impact of, and responses to, increasing Roman hegemony in
\nThessaly from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. This thesis focuses on
\nquantitative and qualitative evidence for change in three inter-related aspects, (1)
\nsettlement and land use, (2) identity expression and (3) reciprocal benefactions. The
\nresults highlight the complex and regionally specific impact of Roman hegemony as
\nwell as the discrepant responses of local elite members of the population.
\nUrbanization, a decrease in small settlement site numbers and a rise in the number
\nof large rural estates, villae rusticae, and imperial estates, all indicating changes in
\nland ownership patterns, are characteristic of the middle Hellenistic and early
\nRoman periods in Thessaly. Epigraphic data demonstrate that honorary grants,
\nparticularly citizenship and land ownership rights, peaked in the 2nd century BCE
\nfollowed by a gradual decline. This suggests that during the transitional period
\ntowards Roman rule, elite citizens increasingly engaged in the system of euergetism
\nin order to accumulate property and obtain citizenship in poleis other than their own
\nas part of their strategies for social advancement. With the advent of the Principate,
\nelite members of society engaged more frequently with the Roman authority
\nthrough honouring members of the imperial family and participating in the imperial
\ncult. In addition, the increasing number of local elite members of society who
\nobtained Roman citizenship and adopted Roman nomenclature, while maintaining
\ntheir Greek personal name in place of the cognomen highlights how the local elites
\nbecame Roman but stayed Thessalian.

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