The Border between Ambrakia and Charadros: Negotiating Survival in the Shadow of Rome
This paper is concerned with SEG 35:665, an inscription preserving details of the border of Ambrakia and Charadros some time in the early 160’s. I begin with an epigraphical commentary that deals with such issues as the towns named in the description and the mechanisms for delineating a border. Following suggestions from Vivi Karatzeni, I offer a reconstruction of the Arta plain that explains the basic anomaly of the inscription: why does a linear border between two towns, Ambrakia and Charadros, specify the role of a third town, Horraion, in the border negotiations? In the second half of the paper I pull out from the detailed inscription and instead place the border negotiations within the tumultuous history of the 2nd century, when Roman armies sacked the region and created unsettled conditions. By comparing the Ambrakia-Charadros border settlement with other treaties and border negotiations involving federal states such as the Athamanians, Akarnanians and Molossians, I hope to show that an independent city such as Ambrakia was isolated and therefore highly vulnerable. Accordingly, an agreement that appears to be the result of local negotiations between Charadros and Ambrakia, on either side of the Arachthos River, in fact reflects both the recent decimation of the region by Rome and the new reality of Rome’s presence. Publication of the border was an assertion of the city’s autonomy. The border treaty powerfully attests to the desperation of central Greek states, cities and koina, in a period of tumultuous change.
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Scientific responsibility and organization: Elena Franchi
