This paper explores the socio-political evolution of Amastris, a city in northern Anatolia founded by the Achaemenid princess Amastris in the early 3rd century BCE, with a particular focus on its territorial scope—the Amastriane—during Roman and Hellenistic times. Based on Christian Marek’s reconstruction, the Roman Amastriane stretched far beyond its coastal nucleus, reaching deep into the Paphlagonian interior. This paper investigates whether this expansive territory was a Roman creation or if it echoed earlier Hellenistic configurations, possibly dating back to Amastris or the Mithridatid kings. Section one reviews Marek’s methodological framework, emphasizing the diverse, geographically challenging territory governed by Amastris in Roman times, which required transcending typical coastal-urban dynamics. In section two, epigraphic and archaeological evidence from the Eflani-Pınarbaşı region sheds light on the integration of rural inland communities, highlighting a deep continuity of Macedonian, Achaemenid, and local traditions into the Roman period. Finally, the paper explores whether Amastris’ Hellenistic chora could have reached similar extents, potentially through dowry lands or political marriages rather than military conquest, as suggested by Memnon-in-Photios. The long-lasting cultural ties between coastal and inland Paphlagonia, preserved in cult practices and social structures, point toward a cohesive region predating Roman intervention, raising critical questions about the nature of territorial governance in both Hellenistic and Roman Amastris.

This paper explores why Sinope may have shifted from its initial commemorative epoch of 45 BCE, suggesting that the city’s adoption of a new era might have been a modification rather than a complete overhaul, influenced by traditions or challenges related to Achaemenid-Seleucid periods. The analysis extends to the impact of regional externalities on Sinope’s decision-making processes, particularly whether the Lucullan era was adopted for better regional integration with northern Paphlagonia. This regional alignment, evident in cities like Amastris and Abonuteichos and facilitated through the “Koinon of the Cities in Pontus,” implies Amastris’s significant influence due to its long-standing use of the Lucullan era and its political stature. The paper attempts to advance two arguments. First, Sinope's era system alignment could be voluntary, aimed at regional conformity. Second, the intent to conform to regional norms may have been due to broader regional dynamics and potential gubernatorial pressures, and hence a decision informed by both local and global factors.

A few colonies in the Latin West (Augusta Emerita, Johnston 2017: 56-57 fn. 202-203; Abascal 2002: 284) and the Greek East (e.g. Philippi AE 1932, 21; briefly Samos IG XII,6 1:187 l. 8-11) used the annus coloniae, the year when the colony was founded, as their standard time-reckoning formula on inscriptions and perhaps other media as well. The list may include the Roman colony of Sinope, which coin issues carried legends such as C(olonia) F(elix) I(ulia) an(no) followed by (and later on simply with) Latin numerals (e.g. RPC I 2110, II 715). Curiously, since the 17th century, numismatists have observed two epochs on Sinope’s Roman period issues (e.g. Hardouin 1689: 140). There was the epoch of 45 BCE, likely the annus coloniae (e.g. RPC III 1229), as it coincided with reports of a Caesarian colony (Strab. 12.3.11). Then there was the epoch of 70 BCE (e.g. RPC VI 6501), seemingly replacing the earlier epoch, but only from the early third century onwards (Kubitschek 1908: 68-71; Magie 1950: 342 no. 42).  Changing epochs was not a rare phenomenon in Anatolia, but known examples changed an earlier epoch for a later one, apparently to adapt to new circumstances, such as an imperial victory or visit (Leschhorn 1993: 439-541), and count years from a new beginning. Sinope, however, changed the epoch that was supposedly linked to the year of its colonial foundation to an earlier epoch that coincided with Lucullus’ “liberation” of Sinope from Mithridatid control. This suggests that Sinope was adapting to new circumstances that required the adaptation of an historical epoch. It is not the beginning per se, but a recaliberation of municipal history. While historical developments of Roman Sinope is not well documented in extant literary sources, and epigraphic evidence is scarce, this paper wishes to take two approaches to assess the problem of Sinope’s changing epochs. The first approach is to consider Sinope’s time-reckoning tradition. The era system that was prevalent in northern Anatolia and elsewhere during the first three centuries CE had a strong Hellenistic tradition. In this view, there may be more nuance – 45 BCE can be the annus coloniae, but it was reflecting a recent change in the city’s history, not an overhaul of the city’s established time-reckoning system, perhaps based on the Seleucid era (found on ceramic stamps, Saprykin & Fedoseev 1999: 135-143). This approach removes the Roman symbolism attached to the 45 BCE, and opens up additional possibilities for interpretation. The second approach considers the epoch of 70 BCE regionally. This epoch was primarily used at Amastris, but also attested at Abonuteichos. Both cities were described by Roman authors as prosperous in their own ways (e.g. Luc. Alex. 9, 25; Plin. Ep. 10.98). Both cities also began to issue 3 to 4 units of local bronze coinage from the reign of Trajan onwards, including the 6-assaria, associated with economic prosperity (Zajac 2023: 30-32, Tab. 1a). Epigraphic and numismatic evidence further suggest that Amastrians were mobile across the Black Sea and the Aegean, some even serving as koinon officials of Bithynian and other regional koina (Marek 2003: 63-67). There is the possibility that Sinope changed its epoch to adhere to regional time-reckoning norms set by more dominant peers. Since the 17th century, numismatists have observed two epochs on Sinope’s Roman period coin issues (e.g. Hardouin 1689: 140). There was the epoch of 45 BCE, perhaps the annus coloniae (e.g. RPC III 1229; cf. Augusta Emerita, Johnston 2017: 56-57 fn. 202-203; Abascal 2002: 284; Philippi AE 1932, 21; briefly Samos IG XII,6 1:187 l. 8-11), as it coincided with reports of a Caesarian colony (Strab. 12.3.11). Then there was the epoch of 70 BCE (e.g. RPC VI 6501), seemingly replacing the earlier epoch, but only from the early third century onwards (Kubitschek 1908: 68-71; Magie 1950: 342 no. 42). Neither changing epochs or the use of many epochs were rare phenomena. That said, known examples show cities replacing old epochs with those that commemorate new events and circumstances (Leschhorn 1993: 439-541). It is then odd for Sinope to abandon the epoch commemorating its colonial foundation in favor of an epoch 25 years earlier. Why? Leschhorn gave two potential scenarios: perhaps 70 BCE was the outcome a pro-Severan party defeating the old guard, or there was a “Gräzisierung" movement under which Sinope opted for a symbolically more acceptable epoch (Leschhorn 1993: 162), but these suggestions are limited by lack of evidence. This paper reassesses Sinope’s changing epochs with two approaches. First is a reframing of the Leschhorn’s assumed constitutional symbolism attached to the epoch of 45 BCE that leads to factionalism, and the “Roman” nature of Sinope’s so-called Kolonieära in Leschhorn’s alternative “Gräzisierung” thesis. The question asked here is whether Sinope had an established era system in place as part of its Hellenistic past. Sinope likely used the Pontic era while under Mithridatid control (Leschhorn 1993: 150). Recent discussions of stamped amphorae further indicates that the Seleucid era system was likely present if not also used at Sinope (Saprykin & Fedoseev 1999: 135-143). Further, we now have ceramic tiles time-stamped with a formula such as "s(aeculo) S(inopensis) (colonia) i(nducta) an(no) IV" (Fedoseev 2019: 16-17). If Fedoseev’s reading of the time-stamp is correct, we may consider the possibility that the saeculum Sinopensis was a system that could have accommodated multiple epochs, and the phenomenon in question was a symptom of an entrenched but adaptative time-reckoning mechanism at work. The second approach considers the epoch of 70 BCE regionally. This epoch was primarily used at Amastris, but also attested at Abonuteichos. Both cities were described by Roman authors as prosperous in their own ways (e.g. Luc. Alex. 9, 25; Plin. Ep. 10.98). Both cities also began to issue 3 to 4 units of local bronze coinage from the reign of Trajan onwards, including the 6-assaria, associated with economic prosperity (Zajac 2023: 30-32, Tab. 1a). Epigraphic and numismatic evidence further suggest that Amastrians were mobile across the Black Sea and the Aegean, some even serving as koinon officials of Bithynian and other regional koina (Marek 2003: 63-67). There is the possibility that Sinope changed its epoch to adhere to regional time-reckoning norms set by more dominant peers.

This study examines the socio-political landscape of the ancient city of Amastris (modern Amasra) through the lens of its road infrastructure, with a particular focus on the construction and significance of Aquila’s roads. Situated in the challenging terrain of northern Anatolia’s Küre Mountains, Amastris served as a vital maritime hub, linking diverse inland and coastal communities within Paphlagonia. Employing a multidisciplinary approach that integrates ancient literary analysis, archaeological evidence, and geospatial modeling, this paper reconstructs the network of primary and secondary Roman roads emanating from Amastris. The research highlights the dual role of these roads in fostering territorial coherence and enhancing regional connectivity, supporting both local autonomy and imperial governance. Key findings demonstrate that Aquila’s roads were not merely infrastructural projects but strategic undertakings that blended private investment with public utility. These projects reflect the intricate interplay between individual agency and state interests in Roman provincial administration. Furthermore, the study explores the broader cultural and economic impacts of road construction on Amastris, illustrating how connectivity shaped civic identity, social integration, and territorial integrity. The paper concludes that Aquila’s road-building initiatives were instrumental in sustaining Amastris’s strategic significance and functionality within the Roman Empire. By examining the dynamic relationship between local and imperial priorities, this study offers insights into how infrastructure functioned as a nexus of governance, economic development, and regional integration in ancient Anatolia.

As recent trends in comparing the Han and Roman empires from primarily the point of view of literary evidence has brought forth new frameworks and opportunities of research, one asks how these developments could contribute to the comparison of governance behaviors, such as the administration of the iron industry. The paper first surveys the Han and the Roman literary sources regarding the iron industry governance, with which to establish parameters of the modus operandi in the respective imperial domains, and, when possible, identifies problems articulated by ancient authors. An interesting contrast is how Han sources showed particular concern for the impact of the iron industry on agricultural performance, while the primary concerns of Roman administrators were performances in leasing and taxation. Among the items known are mines, nails, and recycled iron. Both imperial administrations took a spatially oriented approach, establishing offices and bureaus across their respective domains to address their different concerns. Mapping iron production and administration sites in the Han and the Roman empires spatially further illustrate the governance behaviors identified above. Focused discussions on new excavations in the Martys (80km NW of Narbo) and Taicheng (90km W of Chang'an) further provide local frames of reference to interrogate the priorities and challenges highlighted. The preliminary results suggest that while concerns may differ between the two imperial governments, there are similarities in governance behaviors that are not technologically related, as some scholars suggest. Both imperial governments seemed to have been capitalizing on existing iron industry communities through managerial posts, at times bureaucratizing them. While the Han empire, in particular, attempted to bureaucratize iron production and distribution wholesale, the eventual scaling back of such mobilization marks the shared limitations of imperial control on the traditional culture of production and distribution of this basic commodity.

This paper discusses the so-called Bakers’ Strike Edict from Ephesus  (Ephesos 231 = IK 12.215 p. 27) in light of recent studies on  the Roman imperial toolkit to build empire-wide communities. Clifford Ando and Myles Lavan argued that Roman emperors in the first two centuries CE were consciously blurring distinctions between Roman and non-Roman populations, so that there could be a shared sense of an empire-wide community among people in the provinces.  This paper argues that, in addition to Lavan’s observations, gubernatorial edicts also show concerns and measures that sought to communicate a sense of the communal at the local level. While the focus of discussion is on the edict responding to a bakers’ strike at Ephesus, several other examples from a corpus of gubernatorial edicts are also used in connection with this example. This paper hopes to contribute to Ando’s and Lavan’s arguments by pointing to a lower register of community building visible in gubernatorial edicts. The governors’ concerns for and efforts to creating communal cohesion and their need to balance parallel and at times competing “common goods” not only adds another nuance to the grander community building project at the imperial level, but demonstrates further complications on how praesidial governors – and in particular proconsuls – can and would react to difficult issues at the local level.

This paper considers the connectedness of the two ports-of-call of Amastris and Heraclea Pontica in the eparcheia of Pontus during the Roman principate. Stanford's ORBIS platform offers a heuristic model of connectedness. We find the two ports-of-call the most popular segments along the south for maritime traffic coming from eastern Pontus and the Bosporus.Where the two is most different concerns their connections with the interior. Heraclea Pontica connected Ancyra to the Pontic coast, while Amastris had none. ORBIS is understandably non- granular in the sense that it "restrict[s] coverage to the more important elements of the Roman communication system," but if this is the case, it means that Heraclea Pontica and Amastris were connected in other ways as well, and the Amastrian mountainous interior, which couldbe described as the "previously unconjoined, or at least the previously less well-connected" segment of Anatolia (Horden 2020: 204), could have also been connected with the wider ancient Mediterranean world. Low visibility of settlements beyond known the one known urbanized area in modern Amasra makes discussions of broader connectedness difficult, but at least from recent field survey results suggest that the number and vibrancy of settlements likely increased in the Roman period (Bes 2015: 288-289; Çam et al. 2019; Çam 2021). The question then is whether recent studies contribute to a new assessment of Amastrian connectedness, and how it compares with existing impressions of both Amastris and its peer poleis, with Heraclea Pontica serving as the primary example.Building upon Alexandru Avram's assumption that the aggregate of attestations of persons who have spent time in a city other than their homeland can serve as proxy for gauging their mobility (Avram 2013: 7-8), this paper uses the Prosopographia Ponti Euxini externa to test whether Amastrian connectedness reached currently unknown areas, particularly theinterior. Comparison between Amastrian data (n=136) and Heracleote specimens (n=1101)  may seem disproportionate, but this paper focuses on persons from the first to the third centuries CE and privileges locations instead of volumes so to visualize connectedness in the Roman world. The same concept is applied to persons of locales beyond the two subjects in question – foreigners who left records in Heracleote (n=5) and Amastrian territory (n=11) – and visualized together. In addition, though coins are a poor proxy as they may be transmitted in a variety of ways that do not reflect direct connections between Amastris and the cities that issued them, this paper considers coins from the Amasra Museum as published by Stanley Ireland and Soner Atesogullari (1996) to complement Amastris relatively poor prosopographical record and increase the potential to capture connections. The overall impression gleaned from this exercise is that Amastris could have played a comparable (though potentially less pronounced) role as that of Heraclea Pontica in terms of a hub-like node that connected interior land routes with maritime traffic, particularly for Hadrianopolis and Pompeiopolis (Corsten 2007; Ruscu 2017), but also potentially for centers such as Caesarea in Cappadocia.Bibliography:Avram, A. 2013. Prosopographia Ponti Euxini externa. Leuven.Bes, P. 2015. "The Cide-Şenpazar Region in the Roman Period," in Kinetic Landscapes. The Cide Archaeological Project: Surveying the Turkish Western Black Sea Region, Bleda Düring and Claudia Glatz, eds., Warsaw/Berlin, pp. 260-293.Çam, F. et al. 2019. "New Archaeological Expeditions in the Ancient City of Amastris,"Settlements and Necropoleis of the Black Sea and its Hinterland in Antiquity, Select Papers from the Third International Conference 'The Black Sea in Antiquity and Tekkeköy: An Ancient Settlement on the Southern Black Sea Coast', 27-29 October 2017, Tekkeköy, Samsun, Gocha Tsetskhladze and Sümer Atasoy, eds., Oxford, pp. 190-207.Çam, F. 2022. "Ancient Settlements in Bartin Province: 2017-2019 Research Results," in Bartın İli ve İlçeleri Yüzey Araştırması (Biya) İlk Tespitler ve Belgeler - Paphlagonia'dan Parthenios'a - I, Fatima Çam, ed., Istanbul, pp. 13-112.Corsten, T. 2007. "Prosoporaphische und Onomastische Notizen III," Gephyra 4, pp. 133-144. Horden, P. 2020. "Knitting Together the Unconjoined," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 145.2 (2020)197-218.Irland, S. and Soner Atesogul. 1996. "The Ancient Coins in the Amasra Museum," in Studies in Ancient Coinage from Turkey, Richard Ashton, ed., London, pp. 115-137.Ruscu, L. 2017. "Über Sex. Vibius Gallus aus Amastris," Journal of Historical Researches 28, pp. 52-68.

This study reassesses an inscribed victory catalogue from Sinope (IK Sinope 105) that is often discussed in scholarship concerning agonistic culture in the Roman world. One particularly curious element of this inscription is the empty nature of the penultimate line, which bears only the numerals rho-nu. In the existing scholarship, this is usually interpreted as the sum of all the athlete’s victories. This paper challenges the orthodox interpretation, using a combination of David French’s squeezes housed at the British Institute at Ankara, supported by autopsy and recent photographs of the stone itself. It goes on to reconsider the practice of summing athletic victories in honorific inscriptions more generally, examining a specially compiled dossier of 207 inscriptions of comparable date to IK Sinope 105, and concluding that the practice was relatively rare. Finally, this paper considers other possible interpretations of the rho-nu in IK Sinope 105, among which is the suggestion that rho-nu could be a chronographic feature. While the interpretation of the rho-nu in IK Sinope 105 remains open, the combination of a close analysis of the stone with a wider contextual consideration of the genre demonstrates how much more remains to be said about even a well-known and often cited inscription. Özet Bu çalışma, Roma dünyasındaki agonistik kültürle ilgili araştırmalarda sıklıkla tartışılan, Sinop’dan ele geçen bir zafer kataloğu yazıtını (IK Sinope 105) yeniden değerlendirmektedir. Bu yazıtın özellikle merak uyandıran unsurlarından biri, sadece rho-nu rakamlarını taşıyan, sondan bir önceki satırın boş olmasıdır. Mevcut akademik çalışmalarda bu rakamlar genellikle atletin tüm zaferlerinin toplam sayısı olarak yorumlanmaktadır. Bu makale, taşın yakından incelenmesi ile son zamanda çekilmiş fotoğraflarıyla desteklenen, British Institute at Ankara’da bulunan French’in yazıt mülajlarını birlikte değerlendirerek bu geleneksel yorumu sorgulamaktadır. Daha genel olarak, onurlandırma yazıtlarında atletik zafer sayılarının toplanması uygulamasını yeniden gözden geçirerek, IK Sinope 105 ile karşılaştırılabilir tarihe sahip 207 yazıttan oluşan özel olarak derlenmiş bir dosyayı incelemekte ve uygulamanın nispeten nadir olduğu sonucuna varmaktadır. Son olarak, bu makale IK Sinope 105’teki rho-nu hakkındaki diğer olası yorumları da ele almaktadır; bunların arasında rho-nu’nun kronografik bir özellik olabileceği önerisi de bulunmaktadır. IK Sinope 105’teki rho-nu’nun yorumu açık kalmaya devam ederken, taşın yakından bir analizi ile bu çeşit yazıtların daha geniş bir bağlamsal değer- lendirmesinin birleşimi, iyi bilinen ve sıklıkla atıfta bulunulan bir yazıt hakkında bile söylenecek daha ne kadar çok şey olduğunu göstermektedir.

During the 1960 campaign of the Corinth Excavations, a Tang Dynasty coin was found in an ash and charcoal layer with deposits from the mid- to late 13th century ce and earlier. Considering similar coin finds from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, and the Chui Region, Kyrgyzstan, this article argues that the Corinth Tang coin is likely an Anxi Protectorate issue, though a Chui valley origin cannot be ruled out. This article discusses the origins, survival, and mobility of this minimal-value cash coin in a web of Eurasian connections, with particular focus on the connectivity of the Church of the East and the Jewish merchant network from the 8th to the 13th century ce.

2015年夏于劳迪凯亚（Laodikeia） 古城区中心出土了公元114/115年行省总督斯卡普拉政令铭刻，此政令为研究罗马元首制时期行省治理提供了新资料。在该政令中，总督制定了标准和惩罚措施，以确保水质及水利设施，并要求地方行政系统设立新职位，调整现有的水资源分配、保护和使用的职权和责任。市政自治是罗马元首制的一个主要机制。总督这种介入地方事务的行为，对地方政府而言是一次重大的干预。总督虽然有理论上不受限的权力，但总督任期长度、总督幕僚和附随人员规模、历任元首和总督的治理先例以及地方上掌有政治社会权力或影响力的人士和群体等动态因素，都会影响总督行使权力的方式。劳迪凯亚《政令》为今人提供了衡量罗马帝国中央与地方关系的尺度，揭示了包括中央与地方当局之间的权力平衡、权力动态和共识建设等方面的宝贵信息。 In the summer of 2015, an inscription dating to AD 114/115 was found during the excavation of the ancient city of L aodikeia. This paper discusses how the inscription, which was likely issued by the provincial governor Marcus (Osto rius?) Scapula, can be useful in the study on the provincial governance during the Roman Principate. The governor established standards and punitive measures to ensure water quality and hydraulic facilities, created new municipal of fices, and adjusted existing duties and responsibilities for the allocation, protection, and use of water resources. Municipal autonomy was one of the major mechanisms of the Roman Principate. The governor's intervention in local affairs was expected in local governance, but much depended upon local elites and institutions to materialise his intervention. Although the governor had unrestricted power theoretically, other factors, such as the length of the governor's term, the size of the governor's staff and entourage, the precedents set by former emperors and governors, and local individuals and groups with political and social power or influence, created dynamic pretexts that required careful navigation when exercising power. The Laodikeia edict offered an opportunity to assess how power balance, power dynamics, and consensus-building between the central and local authorities may have been like from the lens of the provincial governor.

The era was a form of "uninterrupted, irreversible, paratactic, cumulative, endless, and directional" time-reckoning concept (Kosmin 2018: 22) widely adopted in the Roman Greek East: there were provincial eras counting from the foundation of a province, as well as more customised epochs such as the 'Freiheitsära' of Amisos (Leschhorn 1993: 463-465), and the 'Kolonieära' of Sinope (Leschhorn 1993: 150-154). Curiously, Roman Sinope began with the colonial epoch of 45 BCE, but turned to a Lucullan epoch of 70 BCE in the Severan period (Kubitschek 1908: 67-72; Grant 1946: 12, 251; Leschhorn 1993: 151-162). Leschhorn suggested reasons for the switch, including internal rivalry and 'Gräzisierung' (Leschhorn 1993: 162). This paper explores the Graecisation hypothesis by first asking: why the Lucullan era? What was there to gain from the switch? Viewed from historical context, the Lucullan era happened to have been the time-reckoning method of Amastris, a well-developed regional hub in the second to third centuries CE (Marek 1993: 97-100; Brenier 2007), including contributions to several koina in Asia Minor. This paper suggests that Amastrian development may have influenced Sinopean institutions. Syncing time may be one way to maintain relations with a maritime hub with deep historical associations.  A second question this paper asks is how "Graecising" was the adoption of the Lucullan era. The Hellenistic amphora handles produced at Sinope stamped with the Seleucid era suggest that the use of this chronographic method predated the second century BCE (Saprykin & Fedoseev 1999: 135-143; Fedoseev 2019: 16-17). Instead of Caesarian colonists adopting a Hellenising time-reckoning, it may be that the Sinopean establishment modified (or revived) its epoch to mark both the new 'colonial' form of the Sinopean polity and the continuity of pre-colonial institutions (Magie 1950: 1267 n. 33; cf. Strab. 12.3.11 C54). In short, Sinope's changing eras may be viewed from an adaptive point of view.

In literary sources we find Amastris a thriving second-century civitas with a much frequented port and an intellectual community (cf. Plin. Ep. 10.98; Luc. Alex. 26ff; Luc. Tox. 57ff), but what of the land that supported it? The Amastriane, as Strabo calls it (Ἀμαστρίανη", Strab. 12.3.10), had a lot of good boxwood, but beyond this much is unclear. This paper takes an epigraphic perspective to discuss observable dynamics in the Amastriane, in two steps.The first step attempts to visualize Christian Marek's hypothetical Amastrian territorium – an administratively defined Amastriane – with Google Earth Pro, using epigraphic findspot information and geographical features Marek identified for the representation. GPS coordinates of field surveys collated by Peri Johnson are added to identify potential settlement locations active in the first to third centuries CE within Marek's proposed territorium. Through the cross-referencing attempt one can observe a cluster of twelve "Amastrian" inscriptions and two settlement mounds (Ören Höyük & Çengelli) in the Eflani Plateau south of the Küre Mountains. This correlation between two sets of data seems to have gone previously unnoticed in relevant scholarship. This paper assumes that inquiry into this cluster of inscriptions and settlement mounds may lead to further insights on the dynamics of an extensive and rugged territory under the control of a civitas during the Principate.The second step interrogates this group of evidence: what can we learn from the assemblage regarding communal diversity, social relations, institutional participation, and connectivity on the periphery of the Amastriane? Of importance is an inscription that specifically refers to an Amastrian archon who was also a genearch of what appears to be a local clan, found at Meyre (approx. 70 km southeast of Amastris; Marek Kat. Amastris no. 95). Scholars have focused more on the cult that the genearch's family worshipped and naos they built, and less if any on the genos' involvement with Amastrian civic institutions. The second key inscription is for a nomikos Demetrios son of Kyrenios (Marek Kat. Amastris no. 97). He was perhaps related to a Chrestes son of Kyrenios and a self-designated Amastrian of the tribe Halicarnassus, who set up a funerary monument at Deresameail (Marek Kat. Hadrianopolis no. 29; 10 km northeast of Hadrianopolis) for his brother-in-law Sextus Vibius Epaphroditus, perhaps related to the Trajanic primipilarius Sextus Vibius Gallus from Amastrian Kytoros. While Corsten and Ruscu have suggested and commented on these relationships, there remains considerable potential to discuss how such relationships formed despite geography, territorial boundaries, institutional divisions, and other inhibiting factors.This paper wishes to suggest that Marek' expansive Amastrian territorium would have initially been a highly fragmented social and political space, but familial recruitment, manumission, intermarriage, and mobility between significant urban centers gradually created common ground for integration. Also, the clan at Meyre may have benefited from intensifying interaction between Amastris, Hadrianopolis and Pompeiopolis, leading to its increased importance and greater participation in Amastrian institutions and norms.

As curator of laws and morals (curator legum et morum), a charge bestowed by the Senate and the Roman people on three separate occasions (19 BCE, 18 BCE, 11 BCE, cf. RGDA 6, Dio Cass. 54.30.1, Suet. Aug. 27), Augustus legislated marriage, using the mos maiorum as guidance for a new Roman society that was his to fashion (RGDA 8; Eck 2022). The Lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus (LIMO) of 18 BCE became a centerpiece legislation with socio-politically comprehensive and enduring impact, leading to subsequent legislative interventions on the Roman institution of marriage from the Augustan period down to the Age of Constantine (Treggiari 1991, 13-36; Grubbs 1993). In some interpretations, the legislative interventions of marriage effectively "collapsed" Roman private life (Raditsa 1980), merging it with a new Roman state apparatus that "officially made proper family behavior part of a citizen's duty," including the obligation "to marry and procreate in a chaste and respectable manner" (Severy 2003, 55). Legislating marriage was effectively a social engineering project (Dolganov 2022), and not without risks to the legislators. Direct evidence of opposition can be found in historial and biographical accounts, and the equestrian order was particularly vocal (Suet. Aug. 34; Dio Cass. 56.4-10). Recently, Warner Eck's study on the commentarius of 5 CE integrated into the Lex Troesmensium provided convincing evidence that significant socio-political resistance against legislative intervention forced Augustus to retract a commentarius of 5 CE which the Lex Papia Poppaea of 9 CE was based upon (ex quo lex P(apia) P(oppaea) lata est), though with noticeable differences in the numbering of chapters (Eck 2022, 2019, 2016). Eck also made the interesting observation that known resistance efforts were not necessarily direct public agitation, but rather could be described as "ingenious attempts" (ingeniöse Versuche) to frustruate the utility of the legislation (Eck 2022, 73). The observation highlights the potentially simplistic approach in describing the range of reactions and counter-reactions associated with Augustan marriage laws as resistance and counter-resistance. The difficulty in taking this approach to study complexities in the range of responses towards the legislating of marriage lies in the availability of sources and the quality of those available. Shades of commentary and other complex reflections on Augustan marriage legislations – for example Horace's Carmina of 23 BCE (C. 3.6, 3.24) and 13 BCE (C. 4.15), Propertius's elegies of 28 BCE (2.7) and 18 BCE (4.11), and Ovid's Ars Amatoria of 2 CE, the latter of which has recently received particular treatment (Hutchinson 2017) – can be elicited from Augustan literary evidence, but hardly straightforward firsthand reports. Historical and biographical accounts may be vivid, as those from Cassius Dio's (54.16; 56.1-10) and to a lesser extent Suetonius (Suet. Aug. 34) and Tacitus (Ann. 3.25-28), but much more removed from immediate context. To extend the scope of discovery, this paper asks what other Augustan inscriptions can inform us on the shades of reactions in the Augustan period. Inscribed texts were more than verbatim transcriptions of documents produced in response to and within the context of social movements. The act of inscribing and setting up were performative aspects of immediate socio-political importance, acting as the legislator/reformer's attempt to impress and opress on the one hand, and responses from those who can afford to engage in a public and formal dialogue regarding an issue.  This paper argues that the performative acts seen on inscribed texts in the Augustan period that specifically respond to marriage legislation or the institution of marriage ought to be understood as persuasive acts. Two inscriptions are discussed in this paper: the SC de ludis saecularibus of 17 BCE and the so-called Laudatio Turiae of 8 CE. Hugh Lindsay (2009) and Josaiah Osgood (2014) focused on aspects of social response regarding the latter, and Warner Eck (2019) has highlighted social resistance regarding the former. This paper seeks to combine the two strands of study on two inscriptions that seem to speak to Roman audiences with deeply entrenched positions on the question of legislating marriage, and read them as attempts of persuasion, both to convey the concerns of their respective parties and impressing upon their respective oppositions on the importance of their approaches toward social order under the curator legum et morum.

奥古斯都三度受元老院与人民任命，出任法律道德监管（curator legum et morum, 19 BCE, 18 BCE, 11 BCE, cf. RGDA 6, Dio Cass. 54.30.1, Suet. Aug. 27），推动婚姻立法，塑造新罗马社会，但多有面对社会面不满的压力（RGDA 8; Eck 2022）。本文先考虑奥古斯都时期婚姻立法过程中，持不同立场的人士所使用的说服手段，以诗人贺拉斯和普罗佩提乌斯为代表。再来，本文看迪奥卡西乌斯笔下的奥古斯都面对骑士序列人士的两段演说（Dio Cass. 56.1-10），虽然较贺拉斯和普罗佩提乌斯而言，成文的时间距奥古斯都时期较远，但应有一定的参考价值。最后，本文也考虑一般学界不列入考虑的铭刻材料。公元前17年的《世纪竞赛元老院决议文》（Senatus Consultum de ludibus saecularibus）以及公元8年前后的《涂丽雅悼词》（Laudatio Turiae）等铭文石刻，或有助于我们理解不同层次的反应与反制。铭文勒石不只是一种昭示性质的行为，也是一种表演性质的行为。这两方在婚姻立法过程中立起的石刻，与婚姻、生育、单身、无子等议题相关，应该要与婚姻立法问题更为紧密地考虑。本文主张，这两方石刻可以理解为支持与反对婚姻立法人士要试图说明自己立场、并说服不同立场者的公开尝试，反应的是奥古斯都为道德监管的大环境下，罗马公民仍然留存的共识文化。

The newly discovered gubernatorial edict from Laodicea, in which the proconsul of Asia (likely Marcus Ostorius? Scapula) issued a series of orders, contains references to precedents from his predecessors, including edicts from the proconsul Cornelius Tacitus and his deputy Saenius Sabinus, and a letter from the proconsul Vicirius Martialis. Why did Martialis issue a letter instead of an edict? What was the function of Martialis' correspondence, and what did it achieve? In Oliver, Greek Constitutions, pp. 20-21, Augustus and later principates continued to use written proclamations in edict form as a way of communicating with provincials, a tradition practiced by Roman magistrates in the Republic. We also learn that edicts were essentially "open letters to whom it might concern," and were not unlike epistles in terms of preparation, at times not carefully distinguished by the secretaries that prepared them. If there were edict and epistolary forms, it is not immediately clear how they differed in function and perception, both from the perspective of the senders and their intended recipients. Gubernatorial communications have received treatment by Meyer-Zweiffelhoffer (2002), Kokkinia (2003, 2004) Lavan (2013). Kokkinia states that there are approximately 90 examples, and they point to the pattern in which most governors were acting upon local requests to interevene (Kokkinia 2004: 49). If the purpose was to intervene, at what point will an epistle be no longer enough, but an edict will? This paper will first use Paulus Fabius Maximus' letter-edict to discuss a classical case in which an attempt to write a letter took a sinister turn towards an edict. We will then examine a range of cases including those from the Opramoas dossier to consider the various epistolary approaches that the Roman governors took in responding to local situations. The paper will use this assembled corpus to interpret the Vicirius Martialis' letter from both its immediate communicative context and also the general tradition in official correspondence. This paper also touches on the broader question of why governors need to write letters, when they could have just issued edicts, and what letters can do that edicts could not.

近年来，西方学界好于比较汉代中国与罗马时期地中海，研究方法主要是梳理并重组已知文字材料，寻找新的研究框架和比较视角,有效推进学界对于古代国家在如官僚系统、税收、管理等具"现代化"特征的研究工作。本文要比较的是这两个古代国家的治理行为，选择的研究对象是两者都有的、也都有强大需求的铁产业。近期中外的古代冶铁研究文献开始关注铁制半成品在铁业各环节之中的重要性。笔者还注意到，半成品生产与世代传承的私家铁业经营者之间存在关联性。笔者结合考古发掘成果与古代文献，讨论秦汉和罗马等古代国家管理者如何参与、适应既有的铁业传统与生态；如何介入、监管、甚至接管铁矿开采和冶炼业务；如何管理或动员铁业从业人力，确保古代国家治理者有可类比为"現代化"的动员能力，获取铁类的必要物资。

This paper looks at how the Ephesian gubernatorial edict (Ephesos 231 = IK 12.215 p. 27) found near Magnesia ad Maenandrum can be an adequate response to a state of public disorder (ταραχή) and madness (ἀπονοία) caused by bakers refusing to supply the city with the necessary production of bread. The goal of the gubernatorial edict was to restore sense to the demos by edict (διατάγματι σωφρονίζειν) without having to arrest, try, and punish offenders. Specific measures include forbidding bakers to gather according to association (μήτε συνέρχεσθαι κατ᾽ ἑταίρα), and forbidding those who stood as bakers' representatives from behaving rashly (μήτε προεστηκότας θρασύνεσθαι), along with the specific demand that leaders are to obey authority (πειθαρχεῖν) and produce bread. The reference to an agreement, and the subsequent result clause, may suggest that one party to the agreement defaulted and led to widespread discontent, though the fragmentary nature of the inscription makes it difficult to speculate further. But the edict only resorted to banning gatherings, with no comment on the root causes of dissent. Additional assistance provided by the boule would have been necessary and likely given, though the part of the stone has been lost. Recent discussions on how governors dealt with issues pertaining to public order (Fuhrmann 2012) and the eirenarchate (Rife 2002) can be of some guidance. In addition, this paper explores mechanisms and tools accessible to praesidial governors based on the corpus of known gubernatorial edicts collected as part of a larger project to consider possible scenarios.