Greece in the Roman era describes the Roman conquest of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. It covers the periods when Greece was dominated first by the Roman Republic and then by the Roman Empire. In the history of Greece, the Roman era began with the Corinthian defeat in the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC. However, before the Achaean War, the Roman Republic had been steadily gaining control of mainland Greece by defeating the Kingdom of Macedon in a series of conflicts known as the Macedonian Wars. The Fourth Macedonian War ended at the Battle of Pydna in 148 BC with the defeat of the Macedonian royal pretender Andriscus.

The definitive Roman occupation of the Greek world was established after the Battle of Actium (31 BC), in which Augustus defeated Cleopatra VII, the Greek Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, and the Roman general Mark Antony, and afterwards conquered Alexandria (30 BC), the last great city of Hellenistic Egypt. The Roman era of Greek history continued with Emperor Constantine the Great's adoption of Byzantium as Nova Roma, the capital city of the Roman Empire; in 330 AD, the city was renamed Constantinople. Afterwards, the Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, including Greek and Roman culture.

Roman Republic

The Greek peninsula fell to the Roman Republic during the Battle of Corinth (146 BC), when Macedonia became a Roman province. Meanwhile, southern Greece also came under Roman hegemony, but some key Greek poleis remained partly autonomous and avoided direct Roman taxation.

In 88 BC, Athens and other Greek city-states revolted against Rome and were suppressed by General Lucius Cornelius Sulla. During the Roman civil wars, Greece was physically and economically devastated until Augustus organised the peninsula as the province of Achaea, in 27 BC. Initially, Rome's conquest of Greece damaged the economy, but it readily recovered under Roman administration in the postwar period. Moreover, the Greek cities in Asia Minor recovered from the Roman conquest more rapidly than the cities of peninsular Greece, which had been much damaged in the war with Sulla.

As an empire, Rome invested resources and rebuilt the cities of Roman Greece, and established Corinth as the capital city of the province of Achaea, and Athens prospered as a cultural hub of philosophy, education and learned knowledge.

Early Roman Empire

Life in Greece continued under the Roman Empire much the same as it had previously. Roman culture was highly influenced by the Greeks; as Horace said, Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit ("Captive Greece captured her rude conqueror"). The epics of Homer inspired the Aeneid of Virgil, and authors such as Seneca the Younger wrote using Greek styles. Some Roman nobles regarded the Greeks as backwards and petty, but many others embraced Greek literature and philosophy. The Greek language became a favorite of the educated and elite in Rome, such as Scipio Africanus, who tended to study philosophy and regarded Greek culture and science as an example to be followed.

The Roman Emperor Nero visited Greece in 66 AD, and performed at the Ancient Olympic Games, despite the rules against non-Greek participation. He was honoured with a victory in every contest, and in the following year, he proclaimed the freedom of the Greeks at the Isthmian Games in Corinth, just as Flamininus had over 200 years previously.

Many temples and public buildings were built in Greece by emperors and wealthy Roman nobility, especially in Athens. Julius Caesar began construction of the Roman agora in Athens, which was finished by Augustus. The main gate, the Gate of Athena Archegetis, was dedicated to the patron goddess of Athens, Athena. The Agrippeia was built in the centre of the Ancient Agora of Athens by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Emperor Hadrian was a philhellene who before he became emperor had served as eponymous archon of Athens. He saw himself as an heir to Pericles and made many contributions to Athens. He built the Library of Hadrian in the city and completed the construction of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, some 638 years after its construction had been started by Athenian tyrants but ended because of the belief that building on such a scale would cause hubris. The Athenians built the Arch of Hadrian to honor Emperor Hadrian. The side of the arch facing the Athenian agora and the Acropolis had an inscription stating, "This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus." The side facing the Temple of Zeus and the 'new city' (this was still part of the ancient city; e.g. the Panathenaic Stadium has always been on that side) had an inscription stating, "This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus". Adrianou (Hadrian Street) exists to this day, leading from the arch to the Ancient Agora.

The Pax Romana was the longest period of peace in Greek history, and Greece became a major crossroads of maritime trade between Rome and the Greek speaking eastern half of the empire. The Greek language served as a lingua franca in the eastern provinces and in Italy, and many Greek intellectuals such as Galen would perform most of their work in Rome.

During this time, Greece and much of the rest of the Roman east came under the influence of Early Christianity. The apostle Paul of Tarsus preached in Philippi, Corinth and Athens, and Greece soon became one of the most highly Christianized areas of the empire.

Later Roman Empire

During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Greece was divided into provinces including Achaea, Macedonia, Epirus and Thrace. During the reign of Diocletian in the late 3rd century, Moesia was organized as a diocese, and was ruled by Galerius. Under Constantine (who professed Christianity) Greece was part of the prefectures of Macedonia and Thrace. Theodosius divided the prefecture of Macedonia into the provinces of Creta, Achaea, Thessalia, Epirus Vetus, Epirus Nova, and Macedonia. The Aegean islands formed the province of Insulae in the Diocese of Asia.

Greece faced invasions from the Heruli, Goths, and Vandals during the reign of Romulus Augustulus. Stilicho, who pretended he was a regent for Arcadius, evacuated Thessaly when the Visigoths invaded in the late 4th century. Arcadius' chief advisor Eutropius allowed Alaric to enter Greece, and he looted Athens, Corinth and the Peloponnese. Stilicho eventually drove him out around 397 AD and Alaric was made magister militum in Illyricum. Eventually, Alaric and the Goths migrated to Italy, sacked Rome in 410, and built the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia, which lasted until 711 with the advent of the Arabs.

Greece remained part of and became the center of the remaining relatively cohesive and robust eastern half of the Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire (now historiographically referred to as the Byzantine Empire), for nearly a thousand more years after the Fall of Rome, the city which once conquered it. 

Contrary to outdated visions of Late Antiquity, the Greek peninsula was most likely one of the most prosperous regions of the Roman Empire. Older scenarios of poverty, depopulation, barbarian destruction, and civil decay have been revised in light of recent archaeological discoveries. In fact, the polis, as an institution, appears to have remained prosperous until at least the 6th century. Contemporary texts such as Hierocles' Syndekmos affirm that late antiquity Greece was highly urbanised and contained approximately eighty cities. This view of extreme prosperity is widely accepted today, and it is assumed between the 4th and 7th centuries AD, Greece may have been one of the most economically active regions in the eastern Mediterranean. 

The Roman emperor Heraclius in the early 7th century changed the empire’s official language from Latin to Greek. As the eastern half of the Mediterranean has always been predominantly Greek, the eastern half of the Roman Empire gradually became Hellenized following the fall of the Latin western half. Over the course of the following centuries, mainland Greece was mainly contested between the Roman and Bulgarian Empires, and suffered from invasions by Slavic tribes and Normans. Crete and Cyprus were contested between the Romans and Arabs and were later taken by the Crusaders who, following the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, established the Latin Empire in Thrace and Greece. The Romans retook Constantinople and re-established control in most of the Greek peninsula, although Epirus would remain an independent splinter state until the early 14th century when Roman control was re-established. As a civil war raged within the empire, the Serbian Empire took the opportunity to conquer most of mainland Greece, while a resurgent Bulgarian Empire invaded from the north. In the century that followed, the Ottoman Empire would establish its dominance in the region, annexing all three empires and finishing its conquest of Greece with the fall of the Morea in 1460.

References

Sources
 
Boardman, John The Oxford History of Greece & the Hellenistic World 2nd Edition Oxford University Press, 1988. 
Rothaus, Richard M. Corinth: The First City of Greece. Brill, 2000. 
Francis, Jane E. and Anna Kouremenos Roman Crete: New Perspectives. Oxford: Oxbow, 2016. 
 Kouremenos, Anna The Province of Achaea in the 2nd Century CE: The Past Present. London and New York: Routledge, 2022.

External links 

 Roman Greece paying full attention to the archaeological evidence
로마 시대의 그리스는 그리스(다른 헬레니즘 세계를 포함하지 않는, 그리스 본토) 시대에서 기원전 146년 코린토스 전투에서 로마가 승리한 이래 기원후 330년 콘스탄티누스 대제가 비잔티움을 새 로마 제국의 수도로 삼을 때까지 시대를 이른다.

기원전 146년 마케도니아가 로마 속주로 편입되면서 그리스 반도는 로마의 지배를 받게 되는데, 그리스 남부는 마케도니아 행정관의 감독을 받았다. 그러나 몇몇 그리스 도시들은 부분적인 독립이라도 유지하고, 조세를 피하고자 했다. 에게해 제도는 기원전 133년에 로마령에 편입된다. 기원전 88년 아테네와 여타 그리스 도시가 반란을 일으켰는데, 로마 장군 술라는 그리스 반도를 쑥대밭으로 만들었다. 로마의 내전으로 그리스는 더욱 황폐해졌으며 기원전 27년 아우구스투스는 이 반도를 아카이아 속주로 지정한다.

로마 문화가 그리스의 영향을 크게 받으면서 이 지역은 제국의 중요한 동부 속주였다. 그리스어는 동방과 이탈리아의 링구아 프랑카였으며, 갈레노스 등 여러 그리스 지식인들이 로마에서 활동했다.

몇몇 황제들은 그리스 도시에 새 건물을 건설하기도 했다. 아테네의 아고라에는 마르쿠스 빕사니우스 아그리파의 아그리페이아(Agrippeia), 티투스 플라비우스 판타이누스 도서관, 바람의 탑 등이 있다. 로마 지배하에서 그리스의 생활은 전과 다를 바 없었다. 그리스 문화는 로마 문화에 큰 영향을 주었는데, 가령 호라티우스는 "정복된 그리스가 자신의 정복자(로마)를 정복했다"(Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit)고 말한 바 있다. 호메로스 서사시는 베르길리우스가 아이네이스를 쓰는 데 영감을 주었으며, 소 세네카같은 작가들은 그리스풍으로 글을 썼다. 스키피오 아프리카누스같은 로마의 전쟁 영웅들은 철학을 공부하고 그리스 문화와 과학을 높이 샀던데 반해, 이들의 정적이었던 로마의 귀족들은 그리스인을 경멸하기도 했다. 대부분의 로마 황제들은 그리스 문화를 좋아했다. 네로 황제는 기원후 66년에 그리스에 방문하여 非그리스인 출전 금지 규정을 무시하고 올림피아 경기에 참가했다. 당연히 그는 (황제이므로) 나가는 경기마다 승리를 받았고, 200여 년 전에 로마 장군 플라미니누스가 했던 것처럼 코린토스의 이스트모스 경기에서 그리스인의 자유를 선언했다. 하드리아누스도 그리스 문화를 좋아했는데, 즉위하기 전에 그는 아테네에서 에포니모스 아르콘을 지내기도 했다. 그는 아테네에 자신의 이름을 새긴 문을 세우기도 했으며, 안티누스라는 그리스인 애인도 있었다.

당시 그리스와 로마의 동부 지역은 기독교의 영향을 받게 된다. 사도 파울로스는 코린토스와 아테네에서 설교를 한 바 있다. 이후 그리스는 상당히 기독교화된다.

로마 시대 후기 

기원후 2, 3세기에 그리스는 아카이아 속주와 마케도니아 속주, 에피루스 속주, 트라키아 속주, 모이시아 속주로 분리된다. 3세기 말 디오클레티아누스 시대에 모이시아에는 관구(diocese)가 설치되며, 갈레리우스가 지배했다. 콘스탄티누스 시대에 그리스는 마케도니아와 트라키아 관구의 일부였다. 테오도시우스는 마케도니아 관구를 크레타, 아카이아, 테살리아, 에피루스 베투스, 에피루스 노바, 마케도니아 속주로 분리한다. 에게해 제도는 아시아나 관구의 인술라이(Insulae) 속주가 되었다.

테오도시우스 시대에 그리스는 헤룰리(Heruli), 고트족, 반달족의 침략을 받았다. 4세기 말 서고트족이 침략하자 아르카디우스의 섭정 스틸리코는 테살리아를 피난시켰다. 아르카디우스의 신하 에투트로피우스는 알라리쿠스가 그리스에 진입하게 내버려둬서 그는 아테네, 코린토스, 펠로폰네소스를 약탈했다. 397년 결국 스틸리코는 그를 물리쳤고, 알라리쿠스는 일리리쿰의 군 사령관(magister militum)으로 임명했다. 그러나 410년 알라리쿠스와 고트족은 이탈리아로 넘어가 로마를 약탈했으며, 이베리아와 프랑스 남부에 서고트 제국을 세워서 711년 아랍인이 진출할 때까지 존속했다.

그리스는 비교적 통합 상태를 유지한 동부 제국의 일부로 남았으며, 이후 비잔티움 제국의 심장부가 되었다. 고대사 후기에 대한 낡은 시각과는 달리 그리스 반도는 로마 제국에서 매우 번영하는 지역이었다. 최근의 고고학적 발견을 통해 이 시기 그리스가 빈곤, 인구 감소, 이민족 침입으로 인한 파괴, 사회 부패와 같은 예전의 가설을 바꾸게 되었다. 사실 그리스의 폴리스는 일개 사회 체제로서 최소 6세기까지도 번영하는 지역이었던 것 같다. 히에로클레스의 '신데크모스'(Syndekmos) 등 당대의 기록은 고대 시대 후기의 그리스가 매우 도시화되었으며, 80여개의 도시가 있었음을 보여준다. 오늘날 이 시기 그리스가 매우 번영했다는 견해가 널리 받아들여지고 있으며, 기원후 4세기에서 7세기까지 그리스는 동부 지중해에서 경제활동이 매우 활발하게 이루어지는 지역이었던 것으로 보인다.

각주

출처 
 Rothaus, Richard M. Corinth: The First City of Greece. Brill, 2000. 

 
그리스의 역사
로마 제국