ABSTRACT
In 191 BCE, the polis of Messene was forcibly incorporated into the koinon of the Achaeans (i.e., the Achaean League). Within a decade, the polis revolted. During the course of the revolt, the Achaean general Philopoemen was taken captive, held in a treasury building, and poisoned. At least so the story goes in later retellings by Livy, Plutarch, and Pausanias. By the 2nd century CE, however, Messene was a rising Achaean city. Men from Messene held top positions in the koinon, and epigraphic evidence even refers to Messene as an Achaean metropolis. How could the well-known past antagonism between the polis and koinon be reconciled with Messene’s new prominence within the Achaean community? This chapter explores ways in which local groups could have remembered and refashioned Messene’s revolt and Philopoemen’s death within a 2nd century CE context. First, the chapter establishes how Messene’s relationship with the koinon of the Achaeans evolved between the early 2nd century BCE and late 2nd century CE. Next, it turns to the accounts of Philopoemen’s death by Livy, Plutarch, and Pausanias in order to ascertain how the events lived on more broadly in social memory across the Greek mainland and broader Mediterranean world. The chapter then focuses on Messene itself. Can we discern any memorialization of Philopoemen and his death at Messene? Two case studies offer opportunities for analysis: the use of the name Philopoemen within imperial Messene, and the site of the treasury building where he supposedly died. Through these case studies, this chapter seeks to complicate reception of Philopoemen under Roman power. Doing so ultimately leads to reflections on the possible politicization of historical figures like Philopoemen within Greek poleis of the Roman Empire.
