Monomachiai and Kynēgesia in Mylasa in the Hellenistic and the Roman Periods1
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D A Université Paris IV-Sorbonne Temporary Teaching and Research Assistant at the Collège de France Chaire d’Épigraphie et histoire des cités grecques Monomachiai and kynēgesia in Mylasa in the Hellenistic and the Roman periods1. 1 Mylasa is situated in the South-West of Asia Minor, in the inland2 part of Caria, which is an area of contacts between the Greek and the Asiatic world. Surrounded by many mikrai poleis3, it is a small, recently hellenized city, with a large plain where Kyberssos/Sarı Çay and Keniôs4 run, and with numerous hills5. 1 I would like to thank very much the organizing committee of this International Student Confer- ence in Antiquity and Byzantine Studies and particularly the Professors of the University Adam Mic- kiewicz of Poznan for inviting me to this historical and beautiful city of Poznan. I am also grateful to Murielle Pasquet for proofreading this article. I have to mention my Doctoral esis that I defended in March 2009 at the University Paris IV-Sorbonne, under the supervision of Professor André Laronde, Membre de l’Institut. e subject was Research on Mylasa and Labraunda at the Hellenistic time 334–31 B. C.. is monograph, based mostly on epigraphic documentation, focuses on the close relationship between a small polis in Caria and one of its outside sanctuaries, linked by a sacred path. Mylasa, an old Carian community, became a city on the Greek pattern by the wish of the Hekatomnids. e members of this dynasty were at the same time satraps of the Megas Basileus and dynasts of Mylasa, which was the capital of Caria until Mausolus transferred, on unknown date, his dynastic seat from Mylasa to Halicarnass. About Mausolus and Halicarnass, see Diodor, XV, 90, 3 (Coll. C. U. F., Cl. Vial) and XVII, 23, 4 (Coll. C. U. F., P. Goukowsky) ; Vitruvius, II, 8, 10–11. (Coll. C. U. F., L. Callerat and P. Gros) 2 Strabo, XIV, 2, 22. (Coll. Loeb) 3 I mean Euromos, Olymos, Chalketor, Hydai, Kindye, Kildara, Hydisos and Kasossos. For exam- ple, see the map by W. Blümel, I. K. 35, 1988, p. 227, or else that by P. Debord, E. Varinlioğlu, Les hautes terres de Carie, Ausonius, Bordeaux 2001, p. 86. 4 J. Tischler, Kleinasiatische Hydronymie. Semantische und morphologische Analyse der griechischen Gewässernamen, Wiesbaden 1977. On a recently published inscription – W. Blümel, 2004, N° 7, lign. 12 –, we read, with diculty, the mention of a third river. 5 F. Rumscheid, Mylasas Verteidigung: Burgen statt Stadtmauer? [in:] E.-L. Schwandner, Kl. Rheidt (ed.), Stadt und Umland. Neue Ergebnisse der archäologischen Bau- und Siedlungsforschung. Baufor- schungskolloquium in Berlin vom 7. bis 10. Mai 1997, Berlin 1999, p. 209. 19 Ś – Z – U e subject of this conference in Poznan, Feast, Play and Celebration in the Ancient World gives me the opportunity to present in this paper some aspects of the civic life, especially about the 9<:<9.D,.6 and the 7B:40*@6., i.e., in Ro- man world, the munera and the venationes. It cannot be denied that gladiatorial combats are appreciated as a very typical expression of Roman culture and it is interesting to study the adoption and the adaptation of these Roman shows to the Greek world, especially to the Greek East. After a paper about the signicance of the Greek verb i_T^OgOSW6, L. Robert, the well-known specialist in Caria and particularly in Mylasa7, published (in 1940) a very important monograph8 with a lot of supplements9 about gladiators in the Greek East and considered the sig- nicance of these Roman shows in a recently hellenized society and their impact on Greek paideia. It is worth mentioning here that, by making use of dierent forms of knowledge transmission, i.e., thanks to literary, archaeological and, es- pecially, epigraphical documents, this monograph has not come out of date and has kept its importance and topicality in view of the great number of surveys that W. Blümel, Professor at the University of Köln, started in Milas in 1985, then F. Rumscheid, Professor at the University of Kiel, continued in 1994, in the name of the German Archaeological Institute from Istanbul. In recent excavations, these two scholars discovered gladiatorial epitaphs from dierent armaturae, which are short, but with a relief representation. ese new inscriptions are exhibited in the small Archaeological Museum in Milas. I would like to start by discussing the place where it was possible for the Mylasians to see these shows. As recent archaeological research shows a great de- velopment, in Asia Minor, of theatres10 and a rarity of elliptic amphitheatres11, identical to these that we can see in the occidental part of the Roman world, it is then probably necessary to consider that in the Greek East performances are represented by monomachiai and kynēgesia in a mixed building, a theatre/ amphitheatre in reality, which is built in such a way that all the spectators can enjoy a good seat. In fact, if the monomachiai in the Occident often take place 6 L. Robert, 1929/II, pp. 24–42 = O. M. S. I, 1969, pp. 691–708. 7 L. Robert, Monnaies grecques. Types, légendes, magistrats monétaires et géographie, Paris 1967, p. 54, note 1, where he referred to himself as a vieux Mylasien; see C. R. A. I. 1953, p. 406 = O. M. S. III, Paris 1969, p. 1528, where he considered the old Carian city as his second native country. 8 L. Robert, 1940. 9 L. Robert, Hellenica III, pp. 112–150; V, pp. 77–99; VII, pp. 126–151; VIII, pp. 39–72. 10 Br. Le Guen, 2003, p. 336. 11 J.-Cl. Golvin, Chr. Landes, 1990, p. 9. 20 M M ... in an amphitheatre, in the Greek East only megalai poleis12 are equiped with one. In Mylasa we do not have any trace of an amphitheatre and archaeologists have found it dicult to locate the theatre. A. et T. Akarca13 claim that the theatre in Mylasa was built against the hillside of Topbaşı, in the north-eastern part of the city. But there are no vestiges of the construction. In accordance with J. and F. Rumscheid14, it is possible to re-open the whole question of localization and to take dierent assumptions into consideration. We have to read again the ancient English travellers’ writings15 which were left out by A. and T. Akarca. We also have to mention the dedication, on an Ionic architrave, to the goddess Nemesis16, discovered at the end of the 19th century by French archaeologists in the yard of a private house, on the West slope of Topbaşı hill. Nemesis, a deied abstraction, is a personication of the gods’ envy and vengeance; she is often 2ñLA2><?, that is, provided with great and powerful wings because she continuously scours the world and runs after misdeeds, particularly immoderation ‚r‹r−L[S\rÄ. Since the goddess rules over the uncertainty of human life, her cult17 is particularly ad- justed to the hazards of gladiature. She is the goddess of gladiatorial shows thus. However that may be, the Greek theatre in Mylasa was probably changed18 and 12 L. Robert, 1940, pp. 33–34. For example, Alexandria, Corinth, Cyzic, Dyrrachium, Gortyn, Pergam are equipped with an amphitheatre. 13 A. et T. Akarca, 1954, p. 87. G.E. Bean, Turkey beyond the Maeander, London 1971, p. 42 and J.-Ch. Moretti, Des masques et des théâtres en Grèce et en Asie Mineure, « REA », vol. 95, 1993, p. 213, share the same opinion. 14 J. and F. Rumscheid, 2001. 15 R. Pococke, A description of the East, and some other countries, London 1743–1745, vol. 2, p. 60; R. Chandler, Voyages dans l’Asie Mineure et en Grèce, faits aux dépens de la société des dilettanti, dans les années 1764, 1765 et 1766, Riom 1806, vol. 2, p. 22; W.J. Bankes who is cited by A. Sartre- -Fauriat and M. Sartre, Le voyage de William John Bankes en Carie (1817) [in:] P. Brun (ed.) Scripta Anatolica. Hommages à Pierre Debord, Bordeaux–Paris 2007, p. 124; Ch. Fellows, An account of dis- coveries in Lycia, being a journal kept during a second excursion in Asia Minor, London 1841, p. 69. 16 Am. Hauvette-Besnault, M. Dubois, 1881, p. 39 = I. K. 34, N° 337. About Nemesis, see A. v. Pre- merstein, 1894, pp. 400–415; P. Perdrizet, 1898, pp. 599–602; 1912, pp. 248–274; 1914, pp. 89– –100; F. Chapouthier, 1924, pp. 287–303; H. Volkmann, 1928, pp. 296–321 and 1934, pp. 57–76; B. Schweitzer, 1931, pp. 175–246; E. Bouley, 1990, pp. 241–251. 17 In Patras, the 8OVO]O5YW was near the theatre, according to Pausanias, VII, 20, 9. (Coll. C. U. F., M. Casevitz, Y. Lafond) About Ar/.9. in the inscription of Mylasa, P. Perdrizet, 1914, p. 99, claims that it is the platform, the scaena of the odeon. 18 In this same way, the theatre in Aphrodisias, which was built between the end of the Roman Republic and the age of Augustus, shows extensions and restructurings in the reign of Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius: the scaena and the orchestra are altered so that munera and venationes are possible. 21 Ś – Z – U adjusted19, at a late time, to the gladiatorial shows introduced from Italy. So in Mylasa there was certainly a dual building. In Rome, the rst20 attested venatio dates from 186 BC. Originally, vena- tio is performed in a circus, as is the rule in Circus Maximus. However, from Augustus’s reign on venatio becomes integrated little by little into the munus, until, during the reign of Tiberius, it leaves the circus for the amphitheatre.