Law and Citizenship in Roman Achaia

This chapter addresses the interrelated topics of law and citizenship in Roman Achaia. The epigraphic evidence for cohabitation of Greek and resident Roman communities since the second century BCE, as well as the consequences of Roman military involvement—namely the creation of citizen colonies, administrative and political restructuring, transfers of land, and displacement of populations—inevitably raise questions of juridical gradation between and within the communities of mainland Greece. The spread of Roman citizenship on the one hand, and the persistence of the importance of local citizenships on the other, are directly relevant to the questions of jurisdiction and legal development in the province. Among the most discernible changes in juridical matters of the region is the decline of interstate arbitration and judicial capacities of territorial leagues. The institution of foreign judges, although still mentioned in epigraphic sources of the mid-second century CE, likely lost its original functionality too. Inter-community disputes fell under the complete jurisdiction of Roman authorities by the early first century CE, and the development of territorial dispute resolution under Rome reveals various points of interaction between Hellenistic arbitral practices and the procedural framework of Roman civil law. That said, the governor’s court, whether operating on an assize system or not, could not have been easily accessible, and private law matters within a polis were often dealt with by local judiciaries.