Iasian networks from the late 4th to the mid 3rd century BC

Networks of relations between Greek cities – and in particular relations that can be identified through the granting of honours to foreigners – are the result of complex and stratified interactions of geographical, cultural, historical and political factors, and can only be defined with the help of in-depth case studies: this paper deals with the case of Iasos. Until the beginning of the second century BC, the system of relations that links Iasos to other poleis can be mainly inferred from the ethnics attested in the honorary decrees of the city, and occasionally from other epigraphic documents. Here, the emphasis will be on the first half of the third century BC, a period sufficiently well-documented. In this period, the networks of Iasos’ relations mainly involve places not far from the city itself: Caria, southern Ionia, nearby islands, as far as Delos and Crete; but we also find northern Greece and other more out-of-the-way places (such as Cyzicus, Arados, Cyrene, Sycion). The investigation shows an extremely varied relational picture. Some honours were paid to individuals, but without the intent to prioritize relations with their homeland. Others can be explained within enduring bilateral relations (Samos), while others still reveal more complex relations (with Miletus and its colonies), in which Iasos constituted a peripheral node in a system that was above all extra-regional. A certain number of decrees point at relationships induced by the Ptolemies. In short, the networks of Iasos’ relations are to be explained – where discernable – taking into consideration many elements: the geographical location of the town, its intrinsic general weakness, ancient relationships, which remained alive, syggeneia relations. But in the historical period under examination, an important regional factor was clearly the strong Ptolemaic presence, whose initiatives both interacted with the aforesaid factors, and created new connections.