Dedicated followers of fashion: what did the Romans ever do for Athens?

Writing in his Epistles at the end of the 1st century BC, the Roman poet Horace commented that ‘captive Greece took her crude conqueror captive, and brought her arts to rustic Latium’ – by which he meant that Roman society had gone mad for Greek culture. Hellenic ways had long been familiar to the republic, thanks to the coastal communities who settled in southern Italy from the 8th century BC (lands that the Romans called ‘Magna Graecia’), while subsequent contact with – and conquest of – the lands once united under Alexander the Great only strengthened these influences. By the 3rd century BC, aristocratic enthusiasts were proudly declaring themselves ‘philhellenes’ (despite the protests of naysayers like Cato the Elder, who decried Greek customs as morally decadent), and adorning their atria with statues and bronzes. Come the dawn of the Empire, when Horace was writing and the Greek mainland had been under Roman rule for almost 150 years, its art, architecture, literature, religion, philosophy, medicine, and much more were all solidly embedded in the Roman imagination.

ABOVE The Roman era brought many embellishments to Athens. Here we see a theatre known as the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It was funded by a Roman senator of Greek descent. — The Roman era brought many embellishments to Athens. Here we see a theatre known as the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It was funded by a Roman senator of Greek descent. PHOTO: Carly Hilts.

This admiration, however, was founded in a romantic vision of a lost ‘Golden Age’, centred on the Athens of Pericles in the 5th century BC, and its intellectual and artistic achievements. It did not automatically translate into preferential treatment for the contemporary population – as Athens found to its cost in 88 BC, when the city sided with Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, during his revolt against Rome. Revenge was swift and terrible: the general Sulla first besieged and then sacked Athens, indiscriminately slaughtering civilians and burning swathes of the city to the ground.

ABOVE The monumental west gate of Athens’ Roman forum bears inscriptions dedicating it to the city’s patron goddess, and acknowledging donations from Julius Caesar and Augustus that funded its construction. — The monumental west gate of Athens’ Roman forum bears inscriptions dedicating it to the city’s patron goddess, and acknowledging donations from Julius Caesar and Augustus that funded its construction. PHOTO: Simon Jones.

Yet Rome’s idealisation of Athens and its prestigious past ultimately proved the city’s salvation. Most of its monuments and grand public buildings were spared Sulla’s wrath, and under Roman rule the city was granted an unusual degree of autonomy. Gradually, thanks to the attentions of wealthy Roman benefactors and emperors who felt a particular affinity with Greek culture, Athens was able to rebuild. More than that, while many conquered Greek cities were stripped of their treasures for export back to Italy, the famous temples of the Acropolis escaped interference, and the city below gained a wealth of new facilities and infrastructure. So, what traces of this tale of destruction and rebirth can be seen in Athens today?

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