Conquest and Republican period In 150–148 BC the Romans fought the
Fourth Macedonian War, after which they annexed
Macedon, formerly the largest and most powerful state in mainland Greece. In 146 BC the
Achaean League initiated the
Achaean War against Rome. The contemporary historian
Polybius blames the demagogues of the cities of the Achaean League for encouraging a rash decision and inciting a suicidal war. The League was quickly defeated by
Lucius Mummius and its main city,
Corinth, was destroyed. After the war, the Romans annexed mainland Greece. A group of ten commissioners "put down democracies" in the Greek cities (
Pausanias) through a programme of "constitutional restructuring" which involved the introduction of property qualifications for participating in civic politics, temporarily abolished the Achaean,
Boeotian, Locrian, and Phocaean Leagues, and levied tribute on the individual cities. However, the cities remained mostly self-governing.
Athens and
Sparta, which had not participated in the war remained autonomous and free. It is disputed whether Greece became part of the Roman province
Macedonia or was left unincorporated. Interventions by the governor of Macedonia in Greek affairs are attested, but also the dispatch of separate
legates direct from Rome. Roman governance over the following century remained "rather ad hoc." In the
Dyme Affair of 144 BC, a faction in the city of
Dyme passed laws "contrary to the type of government granted by the Romans," staged a revolution, and destroyed their town hall and official records. At the request of the Dymaean town councillors, Quintus Fabius Maximus issued a ruling, sentencing the revolutionaries to death. An inscription recording judicial decisions made in the Greek city of
Demetrias in the mid-second century BC says that the judgements were made in accordance with local law and "the edicts and judgements of the Romans", indicating that Roman law was already considered to apply to the region only a few years after the Achaean War. In the following decades, many Greek communities sought to establish treaty relationships of "friendship and alliance" with Rome, apparently finding this preferable to free status. Treaties are attested, mostly by inscriptions, with
Epidaurus and
Troezen in the late second century BC,
Astypalaea in 105 BC,
Thyrium in 94 BC. The cities probably sought these treaties as a way of safeguarding their territory from their larger neighbours. Rome was increasingly called upon by the Greek communities to arbitrate in disputes between them, instead of seeking inter-state arbitration as had been common in the Hellenistic period. In these disputes, "friends and allies" of the Romans were usually favoured.
Mithridatic and civil wars The
First Mithridatic War (89–85 BC) was fought in Attica and Boeotia, two regions which were to become part of the province of Achaia. In 89 BC,
Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, seized the
Roman Province of Asia (in western
Anatolia). Mithridates then sent
Archelaus (his leading military commander) to southern Greece, where he established
Aristion as a tyrant in Athens. The Roman consul
Lucius Cornelius Sulla landed in
Epirus (in western Greece) and marched on Athens. He marched through
Boeotia on his way to Attica. Sulla
besieged Athens and Piraeus in 87-86 BC and then sacked Athens and destroyed Piraeus. He then defeated Archelaus at the
Battle of Chaeronea and the
Battle of Orchomenus, both fought in
Boeotia in 86 BC. Roman rule was preserved. Following the war, Sulla pardoned the Greek cities that had followed Mithridates and restored the legal systems that had been given to them by the Romans previously. As the part of the Roman East closest to Italy, Greece was a central theatre of the civil wars of the
Late Republic.
The war between
Julius Caesar and
Pompey the Great culminated in Caesar's victory at the
Battle of Pharsalus in Thessaly in 48 BC. In 46 BC, southern Greece was separated out from Macedonia as a separate province for the first time by
Julius Caesar, who placed it under a
proconsul, but this was reversed at some point after his assassination in 44 BC. Caesar also ordered the refoundation of Corinth, abandoned since 146 BC, as a
Roman colony. Caesar's assassins, led by
Marcus Junius Brutus and
Gaius Cassius Longinus, based themselves in Greece during the
Liberators' civil war, until their defeat by
Octavian and
Mark Antony of the
Second Triumvirate at the
Battle of Philippi in 42 BC. After the battle, the Second Triumvirate assigned Greece along with the rest of the East to Mark Antony, who remained in control of it until his defeat by Octavian at the
Battle of Actium in 31 BC.
Principate under
Hadrian (), showing the
senatorial province of Achaia (southern Greece) '' of
Hadrian celebrating Achaia province. After the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the
Battle of Actium, the Emperor
Augustus separated Greece, Thessaly, and part of Epirus from Macedonia in 27 BC. The new province was named Achaia and was a senatorial province (Macedonia remained a senatorial province as well). In AD 15, Emperor
Tiberius, responding to complaints of mismanagement by the senatorial proconsul made Achaia and Macedonia Imperial provinces and placed both of them under the control of
Gaius Poppaeus Sabinus, the Imperial
procurator of
Moesia. After Sabinus' death in AD 35, this situation continued under the new procurator,
Publius Memmius Regulus, until AD 44, when Emperor
Claudius separated Macedonia and Achaia once more and restored them to the Senate. The
Roman Emperor Nero visited Greece in AD 66, and performed at the
Ancient Olympic Games, despite the rules against non-Greek participation. He was honoured with a victory in every contest, and in the following year, he proclaimed the freedom of the Greeks at the
Isthmian Games in Corinth, just as
Flamininus had over 200 years previously. This grant of freedom was cancelled by
Vespasian, who is meant to have quipped that "the Greeks had forgotten how to be free."
Hadrian (117–138) was fond of the Greeks, particularly Athens. He saw himself as an heir to
Theseus and
Pericles and had served as an
eponymous archon of Athens before he became emperor. He carried out constitutional reforms at Athens in 126 and instituted a special 'council of the Panhellenes', where representatives of all Greek states met to discuss religious affairs, in Athens and under Athenian leadership. Hadrian was also responsible for large scale construction projects there, such as the completion of the
Temple of Olympian Zeus. The Athenians built the
Arch of Hadrian in his honour nearby. Construction was also carried out by local notables, many of whom became Roman citizens and joined the imperial elite, most notably
Herodes Atticus. During the
Marcomannic Wars, in 170 or 171, the
Costoboci invaded Roman territory, sweeping south through the Balkans to Achaia, where they sacked the sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at
Eleusis. Even though much of the invasion force was spent, the local resistance was insufficient and the procurator
Lucius Julius Vehilius Gratus Julianus was sent to Greece with a small force to clear out the remnants of the invaders.
Administration Many of the cities in the province, including Athens,
Delphi,
Thespis, and
Plataea, were "free cities" and did not fall under the authority of the governor. From some time in the reign of
Trajan a separate official the
corrector was appointed to oversee their affairs. This office was increasingly merged with that of the provincial governor as time went on. Legal cases could be appealed to the governor. He was advised by a "council" (
consilium) and often delegated judicial powers to members of the council or other officials. There were also juries of provincials, composed of both Greeks and Roman citizens resident in the province. Cases regarding borders between provinces, free cities, and Roman colonies were usually decided by the emperor. Cases could only be appealed to these authorities if they involved more than a certain amount of money, involved status, or carried the death penalty.
Culture The
Pax Romana was the longest period of peace in Greek history, and Greece became a major crossroads of maritime trade between Rome and the Greek-speaking eastern half of the empire. The
Greek language served as a
lingua franca in the East and in
Italy, and many Greek intellectuals such as
Galen would perform most of their work in
Rome. Roman culture was highly influenced by the Greeks; as
Horace said,
Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit ("Captive Greece captured her rude conqueror"). The epics of
Homer inspired the
Aeneid of
Virgil, and authors such as
Seneca the Younger wrote using Greek styles. Some Roman nobles regarded the contemporary Greeks as backwards and petty, while still embracing the Greeks'
literature,
philosophy, and heritage. During this time, Greece and much of the rest of the Roman East came under the influence of
early Christianity. The apostle
Paul of
Tarsus preached in
Philippi, Corinth and Athens, and Greece soon became one of the most highly Christianized areas of the Empire. He referred in the opening lines of his
Second Letter to the Corinthians to "all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia".
Later Roman Empire Under
Diocletian, the province of Achaia became a subdivision of the new
diocese of
Moesia. Under Constantine, the diocese was split and Achaia became part of the
Diocese of Macedonia, which was itself assigned to the
Praetorian prefecture of
Italy or
Illyricum at different points in the fourth century AD. In 267, the
Heruli led a naval invasion of the
Aegean, before landing near
Sparta and plundering the
Peloponnese, including not only Sparta, but also
Corinth,
Argos, and the sanctuary of Zeus at
Olympia. They then moved north and
sacked Athens, before being defeated by a local force led by the Athenian
Dexippus, whose writings were a source for later historians. In the aftermath of this invasion, much of the classical and imperial monuments of Athens were
spoliated to build the post-Herulian wall, which enclosed only a small area around the Acropolis. Although a smaller city, Athens remained a centre of Greek culture and especially of
Neo-Platonist pagan philosophy. Greece was again invaded in 395 by the
Visigoths under
Alaric I.
Stilicho, who ruled as a regent for Emperor
Arcadius, evacuated Thessaly, and Arcadius' chief advisor
Eutropius allowed Alaric to enter Greece, where he looted Athens, Corinth and the
Peloponnese. Stilicho eventually drove him out around 397 and Alaric was made
magister militum in Illyricum. Greece remained part of the relatively cohesive and robust eastern half of the Empire, which eventually became the center of the imperial remnant, the
Eastern Roman Empire. Contrary to outdated visions of
late Antiquity, the Greek peninsula was most likely one of the most prosperous regions of the Empire. Older scenarios of poverty, depopulation, barbarian destruction, and civil decay have been revised in light of recent archaeological discoveries. In fact the
polis, as an institution, appears to have remained prosperous until at least the 6th century. Contemporary texts such as Hierokles'
Syndekmos affirm that late antiquity Greece was highly urbanised and contained approximately eighty cities. This view of extreme prosperity is widely accepted today, and it is assumed between the 4th and 7th centuries AD, Greece may have been one of the most economically active regions in the eastern
Mediterranean. ==Economy==