ABSTRACT

Diplomatic traffic, not only trade, flowed and developed from east to west and vice versa throughout the ancient Mediterranean.1 Greek and Roman historians preserved accounts of contacts between Rome and the Hellenistic powers beginning in the fourth century bce with Alexander the Great. The work of Maurice Holleaux, who maintained that there was no evidence for Roman diplomatic engagement with the Greek East in the period between Pyrrhus and the First Illyrian War, has been challenged by more recent scholarship. Although his legacy remains influential over studies of this period, the tide is turning against such rejectionism.2