Note 243 — Chapter VIII

However little the original diversity of the presidency of the diet and the provincial chief–priesthood for the cultus of the emperor can be called in question, yet not merely in the case of the former does the magisterial character of the president, still clearly recognisable in Hellas, whence the organisation of the κοινά generally proceeds, fall completely into the shade in Asia Minor, but here in fact, where the κοινόν has several ritual centres, the Ἀσιάρχης and the ἀρχιερεὺς τῆς Ἀσίας seem to have amalgamated. The president of the κοινόν never bears in Asia Minor the title of στρατηγός, which sharply emphasises the civil office, and ἄρξας τοῦ κοινοῦ (p. 344, note) or τοῦ ἔθνους (C. I. Gr. 4380ᵏ⁴, p. 1168) is rare; the compounds Ἀσιάρχης, Λυκιάρχης, analogous to the Ἑλλαδάρχης of Achaia, are already in Strabo’s time the usual designation. That in the minor provinces, like Galatia and Lycia, the Archon and the Archiereus of the province remained separate, is certain. But in Asia the existence of Asiarchs for Ephesus and Smyrna is established by inscriptions (Marquardt, Staatsverw. i. 514), while yet according to the nature of the institution there could only be one Asiarch for the whole province. Here, too, the Agonothesia of the Archiereus is attested (Galen on Hippocrates de part. 18, 2, p. 567, Kühn: παρ’ ἡμῖν ἐν Περγάμῳ τῶν ἀρχιερέων τὰς καλουμένας μονομαχίας ἐπιτελούντων), while it is the very essence of the Asiarchate. To all appearance the rivalries of the towns have here led to the result, that, after there were several temples of the emperor dedicated by the province in different towns, the Agonothesia was taken from the real president of the diet, and, instead, the titular Asiarchate and the Agonothesia were committed to the chief priest of each temple. In that case the Ἀσιάρχης καὶ ἀρχιερεὺς ιγʹ πόλεων is explained on the coins of the thirteen Ionic towns (Mionnet, iii. 61, 1), and on Ephesian inscriptions the same Ti. Julius Reginus may be named sometimes Ἀσιάρχης βʹ ναῶν τῶν ἐν Ἐφέσῳ (Wood, Inscr. from the great theatre, p. 18), sometimes ἀρχιερεὺς βʹ ναῶν τῶν ἐν Ἐφέσῳ (ib. n. 8. 14, similarly 9).—Only in this way, too, are the institutions of the fourth century to be comprehended. Here a chief priest appears in every province, in Asia with the title of Asiarch, in Syria with that of Syriarch, and so forth. If the amalgamation of the Archon and the Archiereus had already begun earlier in the province of Asia, nothing was more natural than now, on the diminution of the provinces, to combine them everywhere in this way.