Roman rule in Greece: from Corinth in 146 BCE to the New Rome

The frame

Both of the Met's pages for ancient Greece, "1000 B.C.-1 A.D." and "1-500 A.D.", carry the same bar: "Roman rule, Greek mainland, 146 B.C.-330 A.D.". Unlike "Archaic" or "Hellenistic", the name describes a political situation, who ruled, rather than a phase of culture, and its geography is narrower than that of the other periods: the mainland, without the islands. The overview of the second page puts it in one sentence: "Rome dominates the Balkans." Sources 1, 2.

Boundaries and overlaps

The start is the entry for 146 B.C.: the Romans sack Corinth and dissolve the Achaean Confederacy, and "From this time onward, Greece is ruled by Rome." Until the end of the Hellenistic period, about 31 B.C., the two periods overlap. The end is shared with the next period: under 330 A.D. the page for 1-500 A.D. records that "Constantinople is founded as the "New Rome."", and its overview adds that "the triumph of Christianity marks the beginning of the Byzantine era in Greece"; the bar that follows is "Byzantine empire, 330-1453 A.D.". Sources 1, 2.

Landmarks in the source

The lists of key events give the period its landmarks: the Roman general Sulla sacks Athens (86 B.C.); the apostle Paul preaches in several cities, including Thessaloniki and Corinth (before 67 A.D.); Hadrian completes the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens (under 117 A.D.); the Goths raid Greece and, "In 267 A.D.", sack Athens, Corinth, Sparta and Argos, in an entry headed 257-263 A.D.; and in 280 A.D. Athens builds a fortification wall, "the first since the time of Perikles". Sources 1, 2.

On this site

The article on Philippi follows a city founded by Philip II in 356 BC that, in UNESCO's words, developed as a "small Rome" in the decades after the Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE. The article on the Olympieion reads the timeline's entry on Hadrian's completion of the temple, an entry that gives no year of completion. The article on the Athenian wall of 280 CE asks what a new wall, "the first since the time of Perikles", tells about Athens in the 3rd century. Sources 3, 2.