Diplomatic activity , portrait in the
Louvre During the
First Mithridatic War (89-85 BC), Pergamon was conquered by
Mithridates VI and became his main base of operations. Following the Roman victory,
Sulla treated Pergamon harshly, removing its free status, executing people linked with Mithridates and confiscating their property, charging the city an indemnity, subjecting it to tribute, and requiring it to host and support the occupying
Roman legions. A financial crisis developed, during which high interest rates charged by Roman moneylenders (
publicani) caused many people to lose their property. The earliest inscription,
IGR IV 292, is a decree praising Diodorus for his actions at this time. He seems to have led an embassy to
Rome to get the
Senate to take action against the publicani. Diodorus' embassy also seems to have complained about depredations carried out by the occupying Roman legions, the financial costs of hosting them, and the tribute that had been levied on Asia after the First Mithridatic War. During the war, Mithridates had arrested a group of Pergamene conspirators and seized their property. Diodorus secured the return of this property somehow (perhaps it had been taken by the Romans along with the rest of Mithridates' property at the end of the war). The decree records that these actions and others were central to maintaining order and harmony in Pergamon at a time of major social unrest. A similar embassy sent at this time by the
League of the Greeks in Asia (to which all the cities in the province of Asia belonged) to complain about the publicani is attested in a decree at
Aphrodisias (
IAph2007 2.503). Several other advocates for the cities of Asia at this time are mentioned in inscriptions and literary sources. In honour of these actions, the Pergamenes honoured Diodorus with a golden crown, a marble statue, a gilded statue, two statues on horseback, a colossal bronze statue showing him being crowned by the people, all of which were to bear the inscription: In addition, he received front-row seats at all festivals and games and the right to burn incense at all political meetings. A new civic tribe was established, named Paspareis in his honour. The day of his return from Rome, 8 Apollonius, became a public holiday. A benefactor cult was established for Diodorus, including a sanctuary (the Diodoreium) in
Philetaerea, and an annual priest. A religious procession was to be held for the inauguration of the shrine. The decree was passed while Pasparus was still in office as gymnasiarch and it orders a marble statue to be erected in his honour in the gymnasium of the young men (the base of this survives as
MDAI(A) 32, p. 313 no. 36) and a bronze cult statue in an uncertain location. Sacrifices are to be offered to Diodorus next to the cult statue, both statues are to be given a headband and a crown whenever other statues receive those honours, and Diodorus is to receive a crown each year at the Hermaea festival, which marked the end of the gymnasiarch's year of office. The surviving text of
IGR IV 294 does not contain Diodorus' name, but it was almost certainly passed in his honour at the end of his tenure as gymnasiarch. It praises him for his actions in that role, recounted in chronological order, probably on the basis of the report that Diodorus submitted at the end of his term. He had provided olive oil in the gymnasium for boys and men; He also erected statues and held sacrifices in honour of all the
Attalid kings, In honour of his achievements, an
exedra was to be built for him in the gymnasium of the youths containing a cult statue of him. Decree e is mostly lost, but it seems to mention that Diodorus had carried out sacrifices and games previously decreed for his father, Heroides.
MDAI(A) 35, p. 409, no. 3 also honours Diodorus for his service as gymnasiarch and includes a chronological account of his activities in the role. It may be a second copy of
IGR IV 294 or a decree passed in Diodorus' honour at the end of a second, otherwise unattested, tenure as gymnasiarch.
Further diplomacy Decree c on
IGR IV 293 honours Diodorus for further diplomatic activities and other unspecified good deeds, noting his "influence with the (Roman) magistrates."
Coinage A set of Pergamene bronze coins. These coins bear the names of their mint magistrates,
Mithradates and Diodorus. Mithradates was a friend of
Julius Caesar, a witness for the prosecution of Lucius Valerius Flaccus (praetor 63 BC; son of
Lucius Valerius Flaccus, consul 86 BCE) at Rome in 59 BC (subject of
Cicero's
Pro Flacco), and was eventually appointed king of Bosporus. The other magistrate is probably Diodorus Pasparus. C. P. Jones suggests that Mithradates succeeded Diodorus as Pergamon's leading citizen. ==List of inscriptions ==