Historians have voiced quite different opinions about the influence that the royal courts of the Hellenistic east had on the development of the Roman imperial court. This chapter considers this question, emphasizing the methodological challenges involved in identifying when one court has influenced another. After an outline of the major characteristics of the Hellenistic empires and the courts at their hearts, the focus is on the similarity of the problems faced by Hellenistic and Roman imperial leaders in the eastern Mediterranean, and on the two functions of the court that developed in response to this diversity: the court as a centre for the production of imperial, ‘cosmopolitan’ culture and as an instrument of elite integration. The chapter argues that Hellenistic influence on Roman court culture should be seen primarily in the Roman adoption of Hellenistic forms of court ritual and ideology.

Chapter One: Counting Change presents the theoretical models and methodologies used in preparing coin finds for this kind of examination. This chapter should be read in conjunction with Appendix 1, which provides a more technical description and examples of how the dataset was collected and examined digitally.

This chapter introduces readers to the study of ancient Antioch. It not only surveys the long-standing interest in the city but also critiques traditional characterizations of Antioch as a prominent, yet static, capital for the Seleucid and Roman empires. This is understandable considering the perceived limitations of both the textual and archaeological evidence. However, full examination of the coin evidence for Antioch helps challenge monolithic descriptions by revealing the different civic, provincial, and imperial authorities making use of the city. More specifically, this chapter introduces the approach of applied numismatics, digital mapping, and Exploratory Data Analysis to study the iconography, distribution, and likely circulation of the coins minted at Antioch. More than a coin study, however, the primary goal of this book is to encourage a better integration of material often left to specialists into a deep and comprehensive history of the people at and in relationship with the ancient city.

As examined in Chapter Four: Provincial Negotiations (31 BCE-192 CE), the rise of the principate ushered in a series of significant restructurings of the Middle East, which elevated the place of Antioch into a new provincial role and forged new ties to the city. Although these Roman activities are often portrayed as eclipsing the municipal structures, operations, and identities of the Antiochians, far more complex exchanges both divided and drew together the established civic population and the Roman administration.

Chapter Two: Imperial Beginnings (300–129 BCE) traces Antioch’s gradual promotion to Seleucid capital and the degree to which this role and the policies of the kings shaped life within the city and its status and connections in the wider region. The civic population developed alongside in both its agency and identity, but only emerged from the shadow of the Seleucids intermittently.

In the Hellenistic period, cities were the cornerstones of imperial rule. Cities were the loci for the acquisition of capital and manpower, and imperial agents (philoi) were recruited for a large part among Greek civic elites. This chapter departs from the dual premise that premodern empires are negotiated enterprises and that they are often networks of interaction rather than territorial states. The relentless competition between three rival superpowers in the Hellenistic Aegean – the Seleukid, Ptolemaic and Antigonid Empires – gave cities a good bargaining position vis-à-vis these empires. The fact that the imperial courts were dominated by philoi from the Aegean poleis moreover meant that these cities held a central and privileged place in Hellenistic imperialism, and benefited greatly from it. Royal benefactions structured imperial-local interactions. They were instrumental in a complex of reciprocal gift-exchange between empires and cities. Empires most of all needed capital, loyalty and military support. As kings were usually short of funds, the gifts by which they hoped to win the support of cities against their rivals often came in the form of immaterial benefactions like the granting of privileges and the protection of civic autonomy.

This chapter focuses on the Book of Jubilees, considering its representation of angels, demons, and the history of Jewish writing in relation to earlier Aramaic Jewish literature. It makes the case that Jubilees lays the groundwork for the broader diffusion of the angelology and demonology of Aramaic Jewish scribal pedagogy.