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ABSTRACT: Ecumenical synods of artists and athletes were an important feature of Greek festival life in the Roman empire. In the previous decades, epigraphical findings and a renewed scholarly interest have revealed new aspects, yet their transregional organisation remains difficult to grasp. This paper shows that they consisted of flexible local representations, between which the mass of competitors travelled. At the same time, they were organised according to central decisions, which ensured their internal coherence. As such, these complex associations illustrate the high degree of political, economic and cultural integration in the Roman Mediterranean.
Keywords: Ecumenical associations - athletes - artists - agones - festival network
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In 2006, scholarly research on Greek athletic and artistic agones received a new impetus due to the publication of three letters, sent by Hadrian to the ecumenical synod of artists around Dionysus.1 The letters contain detailed arrangements about the organisation and financing of agones, as well as a reformed festival calendar of the firstclass competitions in the Greek world. Scholars have elucidated many aspects of this unique inscription, yet one element did not yet receive the attention it deserves: the addressee of the letters, i. e. the so-called thymelic synod.2 The thymelic synod and its sister-association, the xystic synod of athletes, were the only ancient associations which transcended the level of the polis: from the first century AD on, they were active throughout all parts of the Roman empire where Greek agones were organised. Whereas Strasser argued that the Hadrianic letters testify of the "nearly total control" of the emperor on Greek agonistic life3, it should not be forgotten that the two synods played the active role in the organisation and maintenance of the festival network. In this case it was the thymelic synod which had petitioned the emperor and had proposed specific solutions. The role of the emperor was, therefore, mainly reactive: he responded to the requests of the synod and representatives of the cities and provincial assemblies during the celebration of the Sebasta at Naples.4
Unfortunately, it remains difficult to see how the synods operated in the field. One interesting part of Hadrian's first letter lifts a tip of the veil:
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That the musical artists should contribute a hundredth...