[174] At the popular festivals, which in Tiberius’s time a rich man gave at Acraephia in Boeotia, he invited the grown–up slaves, and his wife the female slaves, as guests along with the free (C. I. Gr. 1625). In an endowment for the distribution of oil at the fencing–institute (γυμνάσιον) of Gytheion in Laconia it is ordained that on six days in the year the slaves should also partake in it (Lebas–Foucart n. 243a). Similar largesses occur in Argos (C. I. Gr. 1122, 1123).
[175] In answer to one of the numerous complaints, with which the towns of Asia Minor plagued the government on account of their disputes as to titles and rank, Pius tells the Ephesians (Waddington, Aristide, p. 51), that he was glad to hear that the Pergamenes had given to them the new title; that the Smyrnaeans had doubtless merely by accident omitted it, and would certainly in future be ready to do what was correct, if they—the Ephesians—would accord to them their right titles. To a small Lycian town, which applied to the proconsul for the confirmation of a resolution adopted by it, the latter replied (Benndorf, Lykische Reise, i. 71), that excellent ordinances require only praise, not confirmation; the latter is implied in the case. The rhetorical schools of this epoch furnished also the draughtsmen for the imperial chancery; but this alone mattered little. It belonged to the essence of the principate not to accentuate outwardly the subject–relation, and especially not against the Greeks.
[176] A formal alteration of the tax–organisation does not follow of itself from this change, and is not hinted at in Tacitus, Ann. i. 76; if the arrangement was made because the provincials complained of the pressure of taxation (onera deprecantes), better governors might help the provinces by suitable redistribution, and eventually by procuring remission. That the furtherance of the imperial postal service was felt specially in this province as an oppressive burden is shown by the edict of Claudius from Tegea (Ephem. ep. v. p. 69).
[177] The Athenian insurrection under Augustus is certainly attested by the notice derived from Africanus in Eusebius, ad ann. Abr. 2025 (whence Orosius, vi. 22, 2). The riots against the strategoi are often mentioned; Plutarch, Q. sympos. viii. 3, init.; (Lucian), Demonax, 11, 64; Philostratus, Vit. soph. i. 23, ii. 8, 11.
[178] The magistrate even of culture, that is the freethinker, is advised to attach the largesses which he makes to the religious festivals; for the multitude is strengthened in its faith, when it sees that the men of rank in the city lay some stress on the worship of the gods, and can expend something upon it (Plutarch, Praec. ger. reip. 30).
[179] A model sample is the inscription (Lebas–Foucart, ii. p. 142 n., 162 j.) of Μ[ᾶρκορ] Αὐρ[ήλιορ] Ζεύξιππορ ὁ καὶ Κλέανδρορ Φιλομούσω, a contemporary therefore of Pius and Marcus, who was ἱερεὺς Λευκιππίδων καὶ Τινδαριδᾶν, of the Dioscuri and their wives, the daughters of Leukippos, but—in order that with the old the new might not be wanting—also ἀρχιερέος τῶ Σεβαστῶ καὶ τῶν θείων προγόνων ὠτῶ. He had in his youth, moreover, been βουαγὸρ μικκιχιδδομένων, literally herd–leader of the little ones, namely, director of three–year–old boys—the “herds” of boys of Lycurgus began with the seventh year, but his successors had overtaken what was wanting, and embraced in the “herd” and provided with “leaders” all from one year old onward. This same man was victorious (νεικάαρ = νικήσας) κασσηρατοριν, μωαν καὶ λωαν: what this means, may be known perhaps to Lycurgus.
[180] “Inland Attica,” says an inhabitant of it in Philostratus, Vitae Soph. ii. 7, “is a good school for one who would learn to speak; the inhabitants of the city of Athens on the other hand, who hire out lodgings to the young people flocking thither from Thrace and Pontus and other barbarian regions, allow their language to be corrupted by these more than they impart to them good speaking. But in the interior, whose inhabitants are not mixed with barbarians, the pronunciation and language are good.”
[181] Karl Keil (Pauly, Realencycl. 1² p. 2100) points to τινός for ἧς τινός and τὰ χωρία γέγοναν in the inscription of the wife of Herodes (C. I. L. vi. 1342).
[182] Dittenberger, Hermes, i. 414. Here, too, may be adduced what the stupid champion of Apollonius makes his hero write to the Alexandrian professors (Ep. 34), that he has left Argos, Sicyon, Megara, Phocis, Locris, in order that he might not, by staying longer in Hellas, become utterly a barbarian.
[183] Tacitus (on the year 62, Ann. xv. 20) characterises one of these rich and influential provincials, Claudius Timarchides from Crete, who is all powerful in his sphere (ut solent praevalidi provincialium et opibus nimiis ad iniurias minorum elati), and has at his disposal the diet and consequently also the decree of thanks—a due accompaniment very desirable for the departing proconsul in view of possible actions of reckoning (in sua potestate situm an proconsulibus, qui Cretam obtinuissent, grates agerentur). The opposition proposes that this decree of thanks be refused, but does not succeed in bringing the proposal to a vote. From another side Plutarch (Praec. ger. reip. c. 19, 3) depicts these Greeks of rank.