Lndliche Siedlungen und Gemeinden im hellenistischen und rmischen Kleinasien by Ch. Schuler Review by: A. J.

Zuiderhoek Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, Vol. 55, Fasc. 5 (2002), pp. 633-636 Published by: BRILL Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4433373 . Accessed: 30/09/2012 03:12
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Ch. Sch?ler, L?ndliche Siedlungen und Gemeinden im hellenistischen und r?mischen Kleinasien (Vestigia, Beitr?ge zur Alten Geschichte, 1998. 326 p. 50). M?nchen, CH. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Pr. DM 144,-. The study of the agriculture and the rural areas of the ancient GrecoRoman world has undergone significant developments in recent decades. Not only have sophisticated of known sources led to new analyses of ancient rural society, but archaeological insights in the functioning before surveys have also UteraUy opened up the ancient countryside our eyes. It is therefore rather surprising, as S. righdy stresses in his introduction of (p. 2), that one of the most proUfic human landscapes Classical Antiquity has so far escaped serious analysis of its rural areas. HeUenistic and Roman Asia Minor is chiefly known for the enormous number of epigraphic texts that Uluminate Ufe in its many cities. Rural areas have, however, also produced interesting texts of their own, and shed some Ught on conditions in the chora. many urban inscriptions For survey archaeologists, Asia Minor is stiU largely virgin territory. S. produced the thesis on which this book is based under supervision of F. Kolb, who has directed a pioneering survey project in the vicinity of the ancient city of Kyaneai in central Lycia, organised by the The general lack of sufficiendy deta?ed archaeUniversity of T?bingen. on rural setdement in Asia Minor nevertheless preological information sents a problem for S., which he tries to overcome by concentrating evidence. He sets himself the task (p. 4) mainly on the rich epigraphic of establishing an interpretative framework, on the basis of the inscripresearch into the rural setdement structions, for further archaeological tures of Asia Minor. The first half of the book therefore consists of a deta?ed synchronie overview of the various types of v?lages, hamlets, farms and landholdings that could be found in ancient Asia estates, with particular emphasis on the terminology used in the epiMinor, sources. The second half of the book then concentrates on the graphic of rural setdement in Asia Minor from chronological development Achaemenid times through the HeUenistic period right into the Roman Empire. S.'s starting point, and overaU theme, is diversity. Diversity of landand the social, poUtical and legal scapes, forms and types of setdement of Ufe on the land. In the first part of the book, he devotes a aspects considerable amount of space to carefully mapping out the Greek terfor forms of rural setdement, which he encounters in the minology inscriptions. He notes that the Greek-speaking populations of Asia Minor had recourse to a whole range of terms when it came to denoting a v?lage, hamlet or farm. S. tries to account for this variety by claiming ? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2002 Also available online - www.brill.nl Mnemosyne,Vol. LV, Fase. 5

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criteria. that the distinctions were based on legal and constitutional With regard to v?lages, for instance, he argues plausibly that the Greek term hme refers to the viUage as an administrative unit, a closed setof inhabitants wh?e the term katoikia denotes the community dement, of the v?lage and its territory. A whole array of terms (for (katoikountes) and uncultivated estates, farms, types of cultivated villages, hamlets, in this way, in short sections (one are analysed and interpreted land) S.'s interthe first part of the book. Sometimes per term) throughout are original, but often he can, due to the lack of interprepretations for the terms he analyses, do no tative context in many inscriptions some vague guesses. One may wonder whether more than produce such a narrow ph?ological reaUy helps S. achieve his goal perspective in Asia Minor. Did the of elucidating the diversity of rural setdement Greeks of Asia Minor reaUy think, speak or write about rural setdement according to such a deta?ed terminological framework, in which as S. seems to each term had its own precisely determined definition, Or were many terms simply synonyms, reflecting normal Unsuggest? guistic variety? If we caU to mind the weU-known vagueness of Greek the latter possibUity should certainly be taken into political terminology, account. matters alone. S. does not limit his study to ph?ological Fortunately, used for different types of farm In his discussion of Greek terminology of farms in setdement in the debate on dispersed sites he engages He righdy states that the old view of Greek farmers living Antiquity. to their plot of land every day, has in central 'agro towns', commuting been widely disproved by the results of archaeological surveys, so much so that for the central periods of Greco-Roman Antiquity dispersed can now be regarded as the of farmers in the countryside setdement A deta?ed discussion of the Uterary, norm rather than the exception. evidence for single farmsteads (Einzelgehqfie) and archaeological epigraphic that they conclusion in Asia Minor follows, leading to the expected were quite common. During the HeUenistic and Roman periods, royal and imperial demands for taxes and rent must have led to a rise in When farmers Uve close to their land, it total agricultural production. for them to intensify cultivation and increase total production. is easier Hence single farmsteads were common. develIn the second part of the book, in which the chronological HeUenistic the Achaemenid, of the Asian landscapes through opment works and Roman approach periods is traced, S.'s rather empirical in the better than in the first part. The chapter on developments HeUenistic period, which I consider the best part of the book, contains rural Asia detailed discussion of two much debated issues concerning Minor in Seleucid times, namely the question of the King's land (chora

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basilike) and the status of the laoi. Arguing against both RostovtzefFs idea that aU land outside poUs territory ultimately belonged to the King and the Marxist thesis of a sharp contrast between the 'slave mode of in the territories of poleis and the 'Asiatic mode of proproduction' in the countryside outside these, S. shows how both these duction' base to serve as generaUsed models have too narrow an empirical in Hellenistic Asia Minor. Through of rural conditions descriptions he shows that chora basilike deta?ed discussion of a series of documents was only one legal category of land among many others (e.g. the chora of poleis, estate lands etc.), and private ownership of land by individuals other than the King was 'weder eine Ausnahme noch ein Problem' and distributing of (p. 175). This need not imply that the awarding tool for the HeUenistic for forging land was not an important Kings with aristorelations based on mutual trust, loyalty and dependence crats, soldiers and cities, as S. is at pains to point out. The laoi are treated in a sim?ar fashion. S. argues that they were not slaves, since the famous Unes in the Laodike dossier (/. Didyrna 492 Unes 17-29) should not be taken to mean that the laoi were transferred together with their land like slaves. What changed hands were certain of their labour and appropriation of their prorights of exploitation show that laoi had the legal right to state a duce. Other documents case against other laoi before agents of the King (SEG 41, 1574 Unes a Syrian document), of laoi and that communities 11-6, admittedly could make decisions in the fashion of (and with the help of the official political discourse of) Greek poleis (/. Didyma 492, Une 40 f.). AU of of other groups of dependent this hardly looks servile. S.'s discussion farmers (the Mariandynoi of Herakleia Pontike, the Pedieis of Priene) is in sim?ar vein: they should be studied against their own social and and not be generaUsed about too easily. political background In the chapter on rural communities during the Roman Imperial their place in a hierarchy period S. sets himself the goal of determining of setdement to such factors as the amount of institutional according differentiation and the presence of pubUc bu?dings. The outcome of this enquiry is somewhat as the author himself admits disappointing, (p. 263), since the sources are scattered and often difficult to interpret on these matters, but he makes some pertinent observations: the inscriptions reveal an enormous variety of tides for pubUc offices in the towns and v?lages of Asia Minor, thereby whetting the appetite of the social historian for a reconstruction of the underlying social and poUtical realrichness. Concerning ity of this terminological pubUc bu?dings S. concludes that religious and bathhouses are most buildings (temples) wh?e there is a curious lack of reported commuattested, frequendy nal poUtical structures, such as assembly houses or theatres. The often

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must mosdy have met in the open air. It is attested village assemb?es invested great amounts of their also quite clear that v?lage communities time and resources in communal festivals, mosdy of a reUgious nature, financed through foundations by rich members of the comcommonly As S. righdy and perceptively points out (p. 272), the public munity. the sense of communal and strengthen festivals served to emphasise is an in the towns and v?lages, and their relative frequency identity indicator for the measure in which the v?lage communities important from the poleis to whose as sociaUy independent regarded themselves territories they might belong. with a chapter on the relations between rural The book concludes and cities in Roman Asia Minor, in which S. discusses communities various documents that reveal fascinating instances of interaction between members of civic and even the imperial elite and v?lage communities, This presents a and euergetism. mosdy along the lines of patronage that the Greco-Roman held assumption to the commonly chaUenge urban elite cared only about the yearly rents produced by their estates in the countryside and had no interest whatsoever beyond this single memand euergetism foundations issue. Through acts of patronage, some of the taxes and to redistribute bers of the civic elite managed to the rural communities, rents they had drawn from the countryside of the stiU widely a fact which could serve as an interesting qualification model' of the ancient city. held 'consumer This book presents the reader with discussion of an enormous amount rural Asia Minor in the three most important of evidence concerning of its ancient history, from which I could only pick and choose periods a bit too descriptive the focus is sometimes for this review. Although for my taste, it is clear that S. has done future historians of HeUenistic and Roman Asia Minor a great service in gathering, discussing and ava?able aU this material. making AS Groningen, NL-9700 O. Kijk in 't Jatstraat 26, of Groningen, University of History Department AJ. Zuiderhoek