“Love for the Fatherland” and civil Identity in the discourse of Latin and Greek inscriptions

Abstract

Based on Greek and Latin epigraphy, the article examines the main features of civil ideology associated with the concept of “love of the fatherland” ( philopatria , amor patriae and their derivatives). The corresponding categories, often emotionally colored, were widely used to characterize the virtues and behavioral motives of urban elites who acted as euergetai . The lexical and contextual analysis of the inscriptions shows that the civic patriotism of the Greek cities coexisted quite well with the political loyalty to the Roman authorities and ruling emperors. In both Greek and Latin inscriptions, there is an explicit or implicit imperial context. In the former, it is especially emphasized by title names indicating “love” for emperors and Rome (φιλόκαισαρ, φιλοσέβαστος, φιλορώμαιος). In the western provinces and Italy, there was obviously no particular need for such direct references. It is reasonable to believe that there, in urban communities consisting of Roman citizens, a sense of belonging to two homelands, as Cicero defined them, remained: Rome as communis patria / patria civitatis (iuris) and the fatherland by nature and locality ( patria naturae / loci patria ). In other aspects, however, a comparison of the discourses of Greek and Latin inscriptions reveals direct parallels and coincidences in the basic value orientations, due to the remaining civil-communal (polis) character of the cities of the Roman Empire.