Lykia Bölgesi`nde Roma vatandaşlık hakkı verme politikası (Principatus`un başlangıcından M.S. 212`ye kadar)

Abstract

Komşu Pamphylia Bölgesi ile karşılaştırıldığında az sayıda İtalik yerleşimcinin bulunduğu Lykia'da Roma vatandaş ismi taşıyan kişilerin çoğu Roma vatandaşlık hakkını sonradan elde etmiş yerel Lykialılardır. Roma vatandaş sayısı bakımından Lykia kentleri arasında Patara, Ksanthos ve Kadyanda ilk sırayı almaktadır. Boubon, Balboura ve Oinoanda gibi kentlerden çok fazla epigrafik belge ele geçmediği halde bu kentlerden pek çok Roma vatandaşının tanınması dikkat çekicidir. Rhodiapolis ve Olympos kentlerindeki Roma vatandaşlarının sayısı ise Ksanthos vadisi kentleriyle karşılaştırıldığında oldukça sınırılıdır.Lydia, Karia ve Ionia'da Caius Iulius isimlerini taşıyan Roma vatandaşlarının sınırlı sayıda olması Augustus'un vatandaşlık hakkı verme konusunda tutucu davrandığını göstermektedir. Aynı durum Lykia için de geçerlidir.Lykia'daki Roma vatandaşları arasında Flavius gens ismini taşıyanlar sayısal bakımdan üçüncü grubu oluşturmaktadır. Ancak bunların Flavius adını hangi imparatorla bağlantılı olarak almış olduklarını söylemek her zaman mümkün olmamaktadır. Buna karşın Marcius adını taşıyan pek çok Lykialı'nın vatandaşlık hakkı Flaviuslar Dönemi valisi Sex. Marcius Priscus ile bağlantılı olmalıdır.Hellen Doğusu'ndan Ulpius adını taşıyan çok az sayıda Roma vatandaşı bilindiğinden Traianus'un vatandaşlık hakkı verme konusunda bu coğrafyada tutucu davranmış olduğu söylenebilir. Buna karşın Hadrianus'un gens ismi olan Aelius'u taşıyan Roma vatandaşlarının miktarı imparatorun bu konudaki cömert tutumunu ortaya koymaktadır.Roma gücü ve çıkarlarının eyaletlerdeki temsilcisi olan eyalet ileri gelenleri, Roma'ya karşı göstermiş oldukları sadakat ve bağlılığın karşılığı olarak Roma vatandaşlığı ile ödüllendirilmişlerdir. Bu şekilde eyaletli seçkinlere Roma seçkinleri arasına girmenin ve önemli memuriyetleri üstlenmenin yolu açılmıştır.

The viritane extension of the Roman citizenship in the eastern provinces is not in general a remunerative study, because the process is desultory and for the most part unconnected with any principles of policy. The gift of the citizenship to Greeks is a favour, an honour, or even a bribe, but, except possibly in the mind of Claudius and in a passing thought of Nero, it never formed part of a scheme. Nor is it easy to form from the inscriptions of the Greek Corpus any conception of the attitude of the eastern provincials in general to the citizenship by itself. But Lyciaa province in many ways peculiarforms an exception to the rule. An examination of the Lycian inscriptions seems to lead to some conclusions that are more than merely statistical, and also provides a salutary warning against unduly wide generalizations about the citizenship, and against studying its spread without reference to local conditions. The attitude of men to the citizenship, to Rome, and to the emperors varied from province to province, and should be considered, to a certain extent, regionally, where there is sufficient evidence to make this possible, as in Lycia.Here it is clear that even in the second century the citizenship had not suffered that devaluation that appears in some parts of the Roman world. The greatest men of the province, not content with the tria nomina, add the description `Romanus' to their titles. There is a series of such inscriptions of the type `So-and-so was a Roman and a Xanthian', or `a Roman and a Sidymean' etc., which reach to the middle of the century. Their peculiarity is that the Roman citizenship is named as a type of isopolitythe same in kind as that of any other state. Sometimes a list of isopolities is given, in which the Roman is always named first but still as in the same category as the rest. These men then, the greatest of the provinceLyciarchs and kin of Lyciarchsregard the Roman citizenship as the most honourable of all the honorary civic `freedoms' which it was possible to acquire, but they do not treat it as by itself bringing practical privileges. The situation recalls C. Jullian's remark that under the empire only the senators of Rome present the picture of the complete civis Romanus. As long as this is not taken to imply the heresy of an actual civitas sine suffragio or sine iure honorum, started long ago by A.W. Zumpt, there is some value in this remark, and it can be illustrated by the development of the citizenship in Lycia. For when these Greeks wished to make any practical use of their citizenship they did so by securing advancement to the dignity of equestrian or senatorial status. Only as knights or senators can they take an active part in the service of the Roman state, such as fits their high place in provincial society.Among those families from which the Lyciarchs were commonly drawn, equestrian and senatorial status do not appear as contemporary honours. Though the first `consular' of Lycia belongs to the end of Trajan's reign, up to about A.D. 140 the equestrian career was the highest distinction commonly enjoyed by Lyciarchic families. Then instances of `the first consular' and `father of a son who was a senator', etc., become frequent. It is clear that the nobility of Lycia only worked their way up to the highest distinctions of the Roman state by a slow process. The study of the genealogical tree of Oenoanda demonstrates this. In the first quarter of the second century the great men of the familythe Lyciarchs and municipal flamineswere military tribunes and imperial procurators.2 In the period before this they had been plain cives Romani, but the authors of this document, which was drawn up about the date of the Constitutio Antoniniana, did not consider this worthy of special note. It is among the grandchildren of this generation that the first `consular' appears. After this, honours come thick and fast, the father of this man being introduced with a great flourish as the founder of a senatorial and consular family, and the family ends up by producing, after the date of this inscription, a wife for the ephemeral emperor Regalian in the middle of the third century.The evidence of this `tree' does not stand alone. The history of the great families consists in a progress through the dignities of the Roman state, generation by generation. There is no sign of any opposition between the old Lycian and the new Roman traditions. It is true that the earlier Lyciarchs of the imperial period like to describe themselves as the `descendants of navarchs and generals'the old military offices of the free federation. But Opramoas' own wife has a similar claim made for her, while his father is advertised as `progenitor of senators'.The place that the Roman citizenship held in this province can thus be fairly clearly defined. In the first half of the second century it was still the privilege of a narrow circlea privilege that the great Opramoas himself did not possess. At a date only sixty years before the Constitutio Antoniniana this limitation would be somewhat surprising, if the rapidity with which the highest honours of the citizenship spread within this narrow circle, once the principle had been admitted that Lycians could make useful senators, had not prepared the way for speedy development in this sphere. But it is firmly established that, if the masses of the Lycian population were won over to anything like the respect for the Roman power that the inscriptions of their betters betray, it was by courses that lie entirely outside the narrow categories of properly political relationship.