Herodes Atticus and the sanctuaries of Achaea: Reinterpreting the Roman present via the Greek past

This chapter examines how Herodes Atticus shaped his and his family’s role in Roman Achaea through dedications and benefactions to its many important sanctuaries. I argue that Herodes’ monumental vision not only signals inheritance of the Greek past but also the continuing vibrancy of Greek culture, as well as the dependency of Roman power on Greek elites. Herodes’ dedications focus both on religious sites of panhellenic significance, such as Olympia, Delphi, and Isthmia, and on local Attic sanctuaries with rich religious and cultural traditions, such as Eleusis, Brauron, and Rhamnous. At panhellenic sites, his large-scale benefactions are dynastic in intent and use the Greek past to cast his family as mediators and even arbiters of imperial power in the province. Herodes’ monumental self-fashioning in Attica, in contrast, powerfully stakes personal claims to the legacy of the Marathonomachoi and to the identity of a new Theseus. This paper demonstrates how Herodes’ employment of both these paradigms uses the past to subvert expressions of Roman imperial power in different ways.