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Wealth and Power: the Economics of Euergetism in the cities of Hellenistic Greece
| The phenomenon of euergetism seems to be a well-known subject for Hellenistic Greece, after P. Veyne’s (1976) and Ph. Gauthier’s (1985) monographs, dedicated to what appears to be a “fait social total”. Both studies have greatly enlightened its sociological and political aspects, but the economic impact of individual benefactions has not yet been thoroughly, nor systematically, analyzed, apart from the role played by kings and princes (see e.g. Kl. Bringmann’s works). As L. Migeotte states, in an article entitled “L’évergétisme des citoyens aux périodes classique et hellénistique”, Xe Congrès international d’épigraphie grecque et latine, 1992 [1997], « un bilan d’ensemble est ici presque impossible à présenter, car cette question n’a fait l’objet jusqu’à maintenant d’aucune étude relativement systématique, ni même à ma connaissance, d’aucune recherche précise qui aurait, par exemple dans telle cité à tel moment, tenté d’évaluer le rôle financier des évergésies en relation avec d’autres ressources publiques ». Despite this situation, the theme appears to be a crucial one, through which one can offer a close scrutiny of the relationship between wealth and power and its potential evolution throughout the whole Hellenistic period. It allows hopefully to answer such questions as who possesses economic power in the cities, the state or a few wealthy individuals, and what role civic institutions play in the process, the idea being that the control exercised by institutions (as shown by Gauthier) doesn’t necessarily imply that the polis still maintain a real economic power. Therefore, this paper will aim at evaluating, based on a few well-documented case-studies and a quantitative approach, the role played through benefaction by individual (local and foreign) wealth in civic expenses.
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