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PLINY, TRAJAN AND THE INTRODUCTION OF THE ISELASTICVM FOR VICTORIOUS ATHLETES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2024
Abstract
In two letters, Pliny and Trajan discuss a petition sent to the governor by the guild of athletes concerning their rewards after winning contests (Plin. Ep. 10.118–19). In his request, Pliny refers to a regulation by which Trajan had settled the rights of the victorious athletes in regard to their home cities. In his response, Trajan repeats the case with slight variations. The two letters pose both philological and historical difficulties, which this article aims to solve. The relevant passage in Trajan's letter is corrupt. As scholarship has misunderstood the historical background of the letters, no satisfying solution for the restoration of the text has been found to date. The argumentation of this article is twofold. First, it offers a new reading of the corrupt passage in the emperor's letter which respects both the textual transmission and the historical situation. Second, it is argued that the two letters refer to a Trajanic law which settled the regulations of iselastic contests for the first time, but left some details undecided. In sum, this article proposes a new reading of a damaged passage in Plin. Ep. 10.119 as well as offering a historical commentary on agonistic activities in imperial Asia Minor.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Footnotes
I wish to thank Christian Mann, Melanie Meaker and Marco Tentori Montalto as well as the anonymous referee for their helpful suggestions.
References
1 I refer to the following editions of Pliny's letters only by the editor's name: Bracci = Bracci, F. (ed.), Plinio il Giovane, Epistole, Libro X: Introduzione, traduzione, commento (Pisa, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hardy = Hardy, E.G. (ed.), C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi Epistulae ad Traianum imperatorem cum eiusdem responsis (London, 1889)Google Scholar; Mynors = Mynors, R.A.B. (ed.), C. Plini Caecili Secundi Epistularum libri decem (Oxford, 1963, repr. 1966)Google Scholar; Schäfer = Schäfer, G.H. (ed.), C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi Epistolarum libri decem et Panegyricus (Leipzig, 1805)Google Scholar; Schuster = M. Schuster and R. Hanslik (edd.), C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Epistularum libri novem; Epistularum ad Traianum liber; Panegyricus (Leipzig, 19583); Sherwin-White = A.N. Sherwin-White, The Letters of Pliny: A Historical and Social Commentary (Oxford, 1966; repr. 1985); Stout = S.E. Stout (ed.), Plinius, Epistulae: A Critical Edition (Bloomington, 1962); Williams = W. Williams, Pliny, Correspondence with Trajan from Bithynia: Epistles X (Warminster, 1990). Inscriptions are abbreviated according to the AIEGL list.
2 All dates mentioned throughout this article are a.d., unless otherwise indicated. For Pliny's status and the date of his governorship, cf. W. Eck, ‘Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139’, Chiron 12 (1982), 281–362, at 349–51; G. Alföldy, ‘Die Inschriften des jüngeren Plinius und seine Mission in der Provinz Pontus et Bithynia’, AAntHung 39 (1999), 21–44; Gibson, R.K., Man of High Empire. The Life of Pliny the Younger (New York, 2020), 190–221CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Though an important source for agonistics, Pliny's letters are discussed only occasionally by Newby, Z., Greek Athletics in the Roman World: Victory and Virtue (Oxford, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, König, J., Athletics and Literature in the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 2005)Google Scholar, Graf, F., Roman Festivals in the Greek East: From the Early Empire to the Middle Byzantine Era (Cambridge, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and B. Fauconnier, ‘Ecumenical synods: the associations of athletes in the Roman empire’ (Diss., University of Amsterdam, 2018), 225.
3 For the synods, see now Fauconnier (n. 2).
4 Cf. Sherwin-White 730.
5 For the meaning of εἰσελαστικός, cf. Drew-Bear, T., ‘Some Greek words, part II’, Glotta 50 (1972), 182–228Google Scholar, at 195 and now W. Slater, ‘The victor's return, and the categories of games’, in P. Martzavou and N. Papazarkadas (edd.), Epigraphical Approaches to the Post-classical Polis: Fourth Century bc to Second Century ad (Oxford, 2013), 139–63, at 139–40, 143–51.
6 Remijsen, S., ‘The so-called crown-games: terminology and historical context of the ancient categories for agones’, ZPE 177 (2011), 97–109Google Scholar.
7 SEG 41.1003 C/D (J. Ma, Antiochos III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor [Oxford, 1999], 311–14, no. 18, at 312), lines 46–8 (Teos, c.203 b.c.): ὅσοι δ’ ἂν νικήσαντες | [τοὺ]ς στεφανίτας ἀγῶνας εἰσελαύνωσιν εἰς τὴμ πόλιν, παραγίνεσθα[ι] | [– –]ους ἀπὸ τῆς {ἀπὸ τῆς} πύλης πρῶτον εἰς τὸ βουλευτήριον κτλ. For this phenomenon in the third and second centuries b.c., see now Montalto, M. Tentori, ‘Die Statuen und die Triumphrückkehr der Athleten in die Heimat: neue Überlegungen zum Epigramm des Deinosthenes’, Journal of Epigraphic Studies 5 (2022), 9–27Google Scholar, at 24.
8 Cf. Remijsen (n. 6), 108; Slater (n. 5), 147; this seems even true for the Capitolia at Rome which seem to have received the privilege of eiselasis at a later stage; cf. Caldelli, M.L., L'Agon Capitolinus. Storia e protagonisti dall'istituzione domizianea al IV secolo (Rome, 1993), 107Google Scholar n. 244. She refers to three victors who won this contest when it was already promoted eiselastikos, two of which were clearly competing in the reign of Marcus Aurelius: Caldelli (this note), 142–3, no. 40 (M. Aurelius Demostratos Damas; cf. J.-Y. Strasser, ‘La carrière du pancratiaste Markos Aurèlios Dèmostratos Damas’, BCH 127 [2003], 251–99, at 292 who dates Damas’ career to c.162–82) and 144, no. 43 (M. Aurelios Abas; cf. Moretti, I.agonistiche 76, 6–8 ‘seconda metà di II sec.’); Caldelli's third example—132–3, no. 20 (Moretti, I.agonistiche 69, 2–4: ‘età di Traiano o di Adriano’)—may predate the previous; see also G.E. Bean and T.B. Mitford, Rough Cilicia 1964–68, 44, no. 21b, lines 19–25 (I.Side I TEp 4; I.Westkilikien Rep. 395, Thr.1b), which dates to 243; Şahin, S., ‘Inschriften aus Seleukeia am Kalykadnos (Silifke)’, EA 17 (1991), 145Google Scholar, no. 1a, lines 7–18 (SEG 41.1407A; I.Westkilikien Rep. 376, Sel 147a); this inscription was put up between the time of Antoninus Pius (138/61) and the beginning of Commodus’ reign. An update is needed for the list of eislastikoi agōnes in L. Robert, Études anatoliennes: Recherches sur les inscriptions grecques de l'Asie Mineure (Paris, 1937), 119–20 n. 3.
9 For the textual tradition of Book 10, the best account is still Stout, S.E., ‘The basis of the text in Book X of Pliny's letters’, TAPhA 86 (1955), 233–49Google Scholar. Cf. too Cameron, Alan, ‘The fate of Pliny's letters in the Late Empire’, CQ 15 (1965), 289–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Pliny's letters in the Later Empire: an addendum’, CQ 17 (1967), 421–2.
10 Weiß, P., ‘Textkritisches zur Athleten-Relatio des Plinius (ep. 10, 118)’, ZPE 48 (1982), 125–32Google Scholar. For later studies, see e.g. Watt, W.S., ‘Notes on Pliny Epistulae and Panegyricus’, Phoenix 44 (1990), 84–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 86 (without knowledge of Weiß); Jońca, M., ‘The Emperor Trajan and the petition of the Bithynian athletes, (Plin., ep. 118–119): lex retro non agit…?’, Zeszyty Prawnicze 18 (2018), 161–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Weiß's results are, however, generally accepted by Slater (n. 5), 147 n. 33; although Bracci, in his 2011 edition, mentions Weiß's article (298) and discusses this passage (299–300), he does not draw any conclusions and eventually prints: ego contra † scribo ‘iselastici nomine’: ita ut vehementer † addubitem.
11 For Pliny's preference for Greek terms, see Vidman, L., ‘Einige Bemerkungen zu Trajans Stil’, LF 110 (1987), 107–10Google Scholar.
12 C. Bosch, ‘Die Festspiele von Nikaia’, Jahrbuch für kleinasiatische Forschung 1 (1950/1951), 80–99; S. Şahin, I.Nikaia II.3, pages 66–78 (T 34); Robert, L., ‘La titulature de Nicée et de Nicomédie: la gloire et la haine’, HSPh 81 (1977), 1–39Google Scholar = Opera Minora Selecta VI (Amsterdam, 1989), 211–49 = Choix d’écrits (Paris, 2007), 673–703. The best discussion is that by Marek, Ch., Pontus et Bithynia: Die römischen Provinzen im Norden Kleinasiens (Mainz, 2003), 95–100Google Scholar, who also offers a list of festivals in north-western Asia Minor (103 n. 11).
13 Herrmann, P., ‘Eine Kaiserurkunde aus der Zeit Marc Aurels aus Milet’, Istanbuler Mitteilungen 25 (1975), 149–66Google Scholar, at 150–1 = P. Herrmann, Kleinasien im Spiegel epigraphischer Zeugnisse: Ausgewählte kleine Schriften (Berlin, 2016), 323–41, at 324 (AE 1977, 801), lines 30–1. A second fragment of the emperor's speech reveals, according to Herrmann's restoration, the status of the contest as iselastic: Herrmann, P., ‘Fragment einer Senatsrede Marc Aurels aus Milet’, Istanbuler Mitteilungen 38 (1988), 309–13Google Scholar, at 313 = Kleinasien, 343–8, at 347 (SEG 38.1212), lines 40–1: certamen quod | [– – – – εἰσελαστι]κὸν [f]acimus. For constituere, cf. Herrmann (this note), ‘Kaiserurkunde’, 156 = Kleinasien, 329 n. 22: ‘constituere ist in solchem Zusammenhang offensichtlich terminus technicus’ (with further references among which are Pliny's letters discussed here). For a detailed analysis of Pliny's bureaucratic language (but not of constituere), see Coleman, K.M., ‘Bureaucratic language in the correspondence between Pliny and Trajan’, TAPhA 142 (2012), 189–238Google Scholar.
14 Cf. A. Schäfer, ‘De nonnullis locis Ciceronis Plinii Frontonis’, in C.J. Blochmann (ed.), Philologis Germaniae Congressus Dresdae m. Octobri a. MDCCCXLIV (Dresden, 1844), 8–16, at 12.
15 Already in his 1805 edition, G.H. Schäfer proposed uincerent; in 1844, A. Schäfer (n. 14 above) suggested uincerant; Mynors, however, prefers Hardy's uicerunt which seems the best choice; Bracci now opts for uicerant (cf. his commentary, 301). For a profound discussion of this relative clause, see S.E. Stout, ‘An athlete's reward’, CJ 49 (1954), 361–2, although he does not know of the contributions by A. Schäfer and G.H. Schäfer.
16 Cf. Schäfer (n. 14), 12: ‘Pro lege scripsi esse, quum verbum reponi necessarium, legis autem mentio ab hoc loco aliena est.’
17 Sherwin-White 730, followed by Bracci 301. Nevertheless, M. Schuster, in his Teubner edition, printed quod eorum, quae postea iselastica non lege constitui, quam quierant, accipere desierunt (a phrase Sherwin-White 729 marked as ‘nonsensical’), but also S.E. Stout, the best expert on the textual tradition of Book 10, kept non lege both in his article (n. 15), 362 and in his 1962 edition when he opted for quod eorum quae postea iselastica non lege constitui quam uicerant accipere desierunt.
18 Strangely enough, Sherwin-White 731 also admits later that ‘the phrase lex iselastica for a schedule of rules is not impossible’. For Pliny's use of official documents, especially senatus consulta, in his letters, see now M. Haake, ‘“How to do things with senatus consulta”. Die Autorität des Rechtsdokuments und die Stimme des Autors im Briefcorpus des Jüngeren Plinius’, in P. Buongiorno and G. Traina (edd.), Rappresentazione e uso dei senatus consulta nelle fonti letterarie del principato (Stuttgart, 2019), 117–42.
19 U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, ‘Lesefrüchte 92–116’, Hermes 40 (1905), 116–53, at 139 = Kleine Schriften IV (Berlin, 1962), 169–207, at 193: ‘Das erste Gebot der Philologie ist, dass man nicht von der Vulgata ausgehe, sondern von der Überlieferung.’
20 See n. 9 above.
21 G.H. Schäfer replaces, for no reason, tam eorum for quod eorum; neither is his reconstruction of the closing relative clause acceptable: nec proficere pro desiderio athletarum potest, tam eorum, quae postea iselastica lege constitui quam, quum uincerent, esse desierunt.
22 See n. 29 below.
23 Ael. VH 12.58.
24 Pleket, H.W., ‘Roman emperors and Greek athletes’, Nikephoros 23 (2010), 175–203Google Scholar, especially 190–5 for a survey of ‘what athletes wanted and apparently could expect from emperors’ (190).
25 Petzl, G. and Schwertheim, E., Hadrian und die dionysischen Künstler: Drei in Alexandria Troas neugefundene Briefe des Kaisers an die Künstlervereinigung (Bonn, 2006)Google Scholar (AE 2006.1403a–c; SEG 56.1359). Among the numerous studies concerned with these letters, I refer only to C.P. Jones, ‘Three new letters of the Emperor Hadrian’, ZPE 161 (2007), 145–56; W. Slater, ‘Hadrian's letters to the athletes and Dionysiac artists concerning arrangements for the “circuit” of games’, JRA 21 (2008), 610–20; J.-Y. Strasser, ‘“Qu'on fouette les concurrentes…” À propos des lettres d'Hadrien retrouvées à Alexandrie de Troade’, REG 123 (2010/2012), 585–622 and J.-Y. Strasser, ‘Hadrien et le calendrier des concours (SEG, 56.1359, II)’, Hermes 144 (2016), 352–73.
26 Petzl and Schwertheim (n. 25), 25; in Pap.Agon. 3,4–7 a part of a Hadrianic διάταγμα has survived, granting privileges to members of the synod: cf. Jones (n. 25), 145 n. 3.
27 Slater (n. 25), 615–16; Slater (n. 5), 147, 150; L. and Robert, J., Claros I: Décrets hellénistiques (Paris, 1989), 21Google Scholar already stressed that iselastic contests are a phenomenon of the Imperial era.
28 However, the denomination of agōnes as hieroi did not disappear completely; cf. Markos Aurèlios Dèmostratos Damas who, in his Sardeis list (dated to 211–17), names his numerous victories in ἱεροὺς εἰσελαστικοὺς ἀγῶνας; see Strasser (n. 8), 259–60, 268 (SEG 53.1355; Moretti, I.agonistiche 84; I.Sardis 79; P. Mauritsch, W. Petermandl, H.W. Pleket and I. Weiler, Quellen zum antiken Sport: Griechisch/lateinisch und deutsch [Darmstadt, 2012], 349–50, Q243), lines 10–11 νεικήσας ἀγῶνας … | ὧν ἱεροὺς εἰσελαστικούς.
29 Cf. S. Scharff, ‘Zu den Siegespreisen der Wettkampfstätten und den Prämien der Heimatstädte’, in G. Petzl and E. Schwertheim, Hadrian und die dionysischen Künstler: Drei in Alexandria Troas neugefundene Briefe des Kaisers an die Künstlervereinigung (Bonn, 2006), 95–9, especially 96 n. 300; Pleket (n. 24), 193–4; K. Sänger-Böhm, ‘Die συντάξεις und τέλη τὰ ἐπὶ ταῖς ταφαῖς in der Hadriansinschrift aus Alexandrea Troas: Eine papyrologische Bestandsaufnahme’, ZPE 175 (2010), 167–70; Fauconnier (n. 2), 223–30.
30 Slater (n. 5), 148.
31 Petzl and Schwertheim (n. 25), 12, lines 49–51 (with a commentary at 59): αἱ συντάξεις ἐπὶ ταῖς νείκαις οὐκ ἀφ’ ἧς ἂν εἰσελάσῃ τις ἡμέρας ὀφεί|λονται, ἀλλὰ ἀφ’ ἧς ἂν τὰ περὶ τῆς νείκης γράμματα ἀποδοθῇ ταῖς πατρίσιν αὐτῶν. For this procedure, see Slater (n. 25), 616 n. 9 (with references to such notifications of a victory to home cities) and Slater, W., ‘Victory and bureaucracy: the process of agonistic rewards’, Phoenix 69 (2015), 147–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
32 For the cities’ financial problems and Trajan's measures, for example the appointment of correctores and curatores, see Magie, D., Roman Rule in Asia Minor (Princeton, 1950), 1.596–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Ameling, W., Die Inschriften von Prusias ad Hypium (Bonn, 1985), 22Google Scholar.
33 Correctly observed by Graf (n. 2), 23 who, however, does not discuss this point in detail. For the relationship of the Dionysiac synodos with Trajan, cf. I.Gerasa 192 (105/14). The surviving evidence of Trajan's legislation was collected by Oliver, J.H., Greek Constitutions of Early Roman Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri (Philadelphia, 1989), 132–47Google Scholar, nos. 44–55 and 150, no. 57, with additions by V.I. Anastasiadis and G.A. Souris, An Index to Roman Imperial Constitutions from Greek Inscriptions and Papyri, 27 b.c. to 284 a.d. (Berlin, 2000), 220–1.
34 I.Pergamon II 269 (CIL III Suppl. 7086; IGR IV 336; Oliver [n. 33], 141–3, no. 49 [lines 23–32 only]), lines 9–13: [certamen illud], quod in honorem templi Iouis amicalis et | [Imp. Caes. diui Neruae f. Ner]uae Traiani Augusti Germanici Dacici | [pontificis maximi est const]itutum εἰσελαστικὸν in ciuitate | [Pergamenorum…]. Restored in lines 17–19 certamen in ciuitate | [Pergamenorum ab Iulio Quadrato a]mico clarissimo uiro quinquennale, | [quod dicitur εἰσελαστικόν, c]onstitutum sit … Cf. also lines 21–2 iselas|[tici uictoribus id quod in altero] certamine custoditur dari oportebit | [praemium].
35 Trajan is styled consul for the sixth time (ὕπατος τὸ ϛ´, i.e. after 112), and his titles include ἄριστος (optimus, line 23), which he accepted before 3/4 May 114 (for the date, see D. Kienast, W. Eck, M. Heil, Römische Kaisertabelle: Grundzüge einer römischen Kaiserchronologie [Darmstadt, 20196], 117), but not yet Parthicus (which he accepted on 20/21 February 116, cf. Kienast, Eck, Heil [this note], 117); for the date, see also Burrell, B., Neokoroi: Greek Cities and Roman Emperors (Leiden, 2004), 23CrossRefGoogle Scholar (‘between 114 and February 116’).
36 Remijsen (n. 6), 108 n. 48 likewise regards the Pergamene Traianeia Deiphileia as the first known iselastic contest.
37 Cf. Pleket, H.W., ‘Einige Betrachtungen zum Thema “Geld und Sport”’, Nikephoros 17 (2004), 77–89Google Scholar, at 84; for the pensions, see Slater (n. 31), 150–4.
38 I.Perinthos 35.
39 For the financial burdens connected with festivals, see Camia, F., ‘Spending on the agones: the financing of festivals in the cities of Roman Greece’, Tyche 26 (2011), 41–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 48–9.
40 Cod. Iust. 10.54, Impp. Diocletianus et Maximianus AA. et CC. Hermogeni. Athletis ita demum, si per omnem aetatem certasse, coronis quoque non minus tribus certaminis sacri, in quibus uel semel Romae seu antiquae Graeciae, merito coronati non aemulis corruptis ac redemptis probentur, ciuilium munerura tribui solet uacatio. For the context of this law and the addressee, Hermogenes, see my article ‘Aktia and isaktioi agones: Greek contests and Roman power’, HSPh 113 (2024), 231–60, at 248.
41 This term was rendered by Sherwin-White 731; see n. 18 above.