ABSTRACT
Conforming to their larger neglect of the period since Roman domination, writers of Greek history in the Imperial age ceased to interest themselves in events at Sparta after 146 BC, looking instead for stirring historical narrative to the reassurances of the more distant Greek past. Even so, it took the passage of two centuries after 146 BC before we can recognize in Sparta Marrou’s ‘small and peaceful municipality in the unarmed province of Achaia. The period after 146 BC was one of routine contact with Rome, reflected in the construction at Sparta of a special lodging for visiting Roman officials, which must be later than the period of Achaean sympolity, since federal cities were not supposed to conduct independent diplomacy with Rome. As the only city in mainland Greece to have supported Octavian at Actium, Sparta for a while was the cynosure of the newly created province of Achaia; for Strabo the city was ‘especially favoured’ by the Romans.
