Zuiderhoek A. The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire. Citizens, Elites and Benefactors in Asia Minor

Cambridge - New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. – 206 p. – (Greek Culture of the Roman World).
ISBN13: 978-0-511-51791-4 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN13: 978-0-521-51930-4 hardbackIn the flrst two centuries AD, the eastern Roman provinces experienced a proliferation of elite public generosity unmatched in their previous or later history. In this study, Arjan Zuiderhoek attempts to answer the question why this should have been so. Focusing on Roman Asia Minor, he argues that the surge in elite public giving was not caused by the weak economic and flnancial position of the provincial cities, as has often been maintained, but by social and political developments and tensions within the Greek cities created by their integration into the Roman imperial system. As disparities of wealth and power within imperial polis society continued to widen, the exchange of gifts for honours between elite and non-elite citizens proved an excellent political mechanism for deflecting social tensions away from open conflicts towards communal celebrations of shared citizenship and the legitimation of power in the cities.List of maps, tables and flgures page
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviationsIntroducing euergetism: questions, deflnitions and data
What was euergetism?
Why Asia Minor?
Elites and non-elites
The data
ChronologyThe size and nature of gifts
Elite muniflcence: a quantitative assessment
The size and nature of benefactors’ giftsThe icing on the cake?
What if there were no benefactions?
The state of civic flnances
Superfluous benefactorsThe concentration of wealth and power
Growing elite wealth
Increasing oligarchisation
Growing social tensionsThe politics of public generosity
Benefactions: the civic ideal and civic hierarchy
Civic surroundings: gifts towards public building
Citizens and hierarchies: gifts of games, festivals and distributions
Conclusion and a digressionGiving for a return: generosity and legitimation
Hierarchy and its justiflcation
A model of legitimation
Social turnover and the ‘individualism’ of honoriflc rhetoric
Social continuity in power
Legitimation of oligarchic rule in a wider context: the absence of exploitation and the entitlements of citizenshipEpilogue: The decline of civic muniflcenceAppendix 1: List of source references for the benefactions assembled in the database
Appendix 2: Capital sums for foundations in the Roman east (c. I–III AD)
Appendix 3: Public buildings, distributions, and games and festivals per century (N = 399)