The Question of Romanization – To Be or not To Be Roman : An Introductory Study

Yıl 2016, Sayı: 6, 0 - 20, 01.01.2016

Fikret K. Yegül

Öz

The issue of ‘Romanization’ has inspired a long, and occasionally controversial, discourse in classical studies. The straightforward dictionary meaning of the word, “making non-Romans Roman” has positive and negative connotations. In a world where we cherish our “differences” we view the eroding of individual, tribal or racial cultures through military conquest, as an undesirable aspect of imperialism. Conversely, there are many instances where the Roman presence has brought the advantages of peace and prosperity to nations and the created opportunities for the masses. In sum, Romanization is a complex process which is hard to define in simple, unilateral, or polarized views. The process and its results were far different in Roman Britain than in Roman Greece or Asia Minor. Geography, history and local tradition mattered. At best, Roman conquest and annexation resulted in a gradual amalgamation of Roman and native traditions—not in a seamless whole—but, a reasonably harmonious coexistence of the conquered and the conqueror with shared benefits and shared pains.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Romanization, Roman empire, imperialism, native cultures

Romalılaşma Sorunu - Romalı Olmak Ya da Olmamak: Bir Ön Değerlendirme

Öz

Klasik dönemlerle ilgili olarak yapılan çalışmalarda, ‘Romalılaşma’ kavramı üzerine uzun ve kimi zaman tartışmalı açıklamalar yapılmıştır. Basit anlamıyla, “Romalı olmayanların Romalılaştırılmaları” diye tanımlanabilen bu sözcüğe pozitif veya negatif açıdan yaklaşabiliriz. Farklılıklarımızı beslediğimiz, el üstünde tuttuğumuz bir dünyada, bireysel, kabileye ait veya etnik kültürlerin askeri fetihler yoluyla eritilmesi ya da tamamen yok edilmesi, emperyalizmin istenmeyen özelliklerinden birisidir. Buna karşılık, Roma varlığı ve idaresi birçok topluma barış ve refah getirmiş, emekçi kitlelerine yeni bir yaşam için imkân oluşturmuştur. Bu imkân cok defa Roma’nın teknolojik ve idari becerisinin paylaşılmasıyla gerçekleşmiştir. Kısacası, Romalılaşma basit ve kutuplaşmış tanımlamalara sığmayacak kadar çok yönlü ve kompleks bir sosyo-politik yapıdır. Bu gelişim imparatorluğun bütünü içinde, Britanya’da başka, Yunanistan ve Anadolu’da başka türlü olmuştur. Coğrafya ve tarihe dayalı gelenekler fark yaratırlar. En olumlu anlamıyla Romalılaşma, Roma ve yerli kültürlerin sızdırmaz bir bütünleşmesi değil; makul ve gerçekçi bir uyum ve ortaklaşa gelişen fayda ve zarar çerçevesi içinde birleşmesi, beraber yaşayabilmesidir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Romalılaşma, Roma İmparatorluğu, emperyalizm, yerel kültürler

Kaynakça

• Aelius Aristides 1950
• EIΣ ΡΩΜHN. To Rome (Çev. S. Levin), Glencoe, Ill, Free Press, 1950. Beard 2015
• Beard, M. SPQR, A History of Ancient Rome. New York: Norton & Company, 2015. Bowersock 1983
• Bowersock, G.W. Roman Arabia, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983 Calvino 1974
• Calvino, I. Invisible Cities, Çev. W. Weaver. New York: Harcourt Brace and Co., 1974. IGR
• Inscriptiones Graecae ad res Romanas pertinentes. ILS Inscriptiones latinae selectee. MacAdam 1986
• MacAdam, H.I. Studies in the History of the Roman Province of Arabia. The Northern Sector (B.A.R. no 295), 1986. Waelkens 2002
• Waelkens, M. “Romanization in the East. A Case Study: Sagalassos and Pisidia.” IstMitt 52 (2002), 311-368. Woolf 1994
• Woolf, G. “Becoming Roman, Staying Greek: Cultural Identity and the Civilizing Process in the Roman East,” ProcCambPhilSoc 40 (1994), 116- Yadin 1962
• Yadin, Y. “Expedition D—The Cave of Letters,” IEJ 12 (1962), 227-257.
• Yadin 1971 Yadin, Y. “The Life and Trials of Babata,” In Bar-Kokhba
• New York: Random House, 1971, 222-253. Yegül 2000
• Yegül, F.K. “Memory, Metaphor and Meaning in the Cities of Asia Minor,” Romanization and the City. Creation, Transformations and Failures (JRA, Suppl. 38), E. Fentress, ed., 2000, 133-153. Further Readings
• Ando, C. Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000; Alcock, S. Graecia Capta.
• The Landscapes of Roman Greece, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ; Alcock, S. “The Problem of Romanization. The Power of Athens.” The Romanization of Athens: Proceedings of a Conference held at Lincoln, Nebraska (April 1996), M.C. Hoff and S.I. Rotroff, eds. Oxford: Oxbrow Books, , 1-7; Barrett, J.C. “Romanization: A Critical Comment.” Dialogues in
• Roman Imperialism. Power, Discourse and Discrepant Experience in the Roman Empire (JRA, Suppl. 23), D. Mattingly and S.E. Alcock, eds. 1997, 51-64
• Brunt, P.A. “The Romanization of the Local Ruling Classes in the Roman Empire,” Assimilation et résistance à la culture gréco-romaine dans le monde ancient. Travaux du 6. Congrès international d’Etudes Classiques, Madrid 1974
• Bucarest: Editora Academiei, D.M. Pippidi, ed., 1976, 161-173; Freeman
• R.W.M. “Romanization and Roman Material Culture,” JRA 6 (1883), 438-445
• Dench, E. From Barbarians to New Men, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ; Devijver, H. “Local Elite, Equestrians, and Senators: a Social History of Roman Sagalassos,” AncSoc 27 (1996), 105-162; Edlund-Berry, I. “Early
• Rome and the Making of ‘Roman’ Identity through Architecture and City Planning,” A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Republic, J.D. Evans, ed., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 406-426; Gruen, E. “Romans and Others.”.
• A Companion to the Roman Republic, N. Rosenstein ve R. Morsten-Marx, eds., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, 459-477; Habinck, T ve A. Schiesaro, The Roman Cultural Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997
• Hanfnmann, G.M.A. From Croesus to Constantine, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1975, Ch 3, 41-56; Keay, S.J. ve N. Terranato, eds., Italy and the West: Comparative Issues in Romanization, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ; Laurence, R. “Introduction.” Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire, R.
• Laurence and J. Berry, eds., London: Routledge, 1998, 1-9; Laurence, R., S.
• Esmonde Cleary ve G. Sears, eds., The City in the Roman West, c. 250 BC-c. AD , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011; Levick, B. Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967; Lomas, K. “Roman
• Imperialism and the City in Italy,” Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire, R. Laurence ve J. Berry, eds., London: Routledge, 1998, 64-78; MacMullen, R.
• Romanization in the Time of Augustus, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000
• MacMullen, R. “Notes on Romanization,” BASP 21 (1984), 161-177; Mattingly
• D. “Introduction.” Dialogues in Roman Imperialism. Power, Discourse and Discrepant Experience in the Roman Empire (JRA, Suppl. 23), D. Mattingly and S.E. Alcock, eds., 1997, 7-24; Mattingly, D. “Becoming Roman: Expressing
• Identity in a Provincial Setting,” JRA 17 (2004), 5-25; Millar, F. “Introduction,”
• Roman Architecture in the Greek World (London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, X), S. Macready ve F.H. Thompson, eds., 1987, ix-xiv; Millett, M.
• “Romanization: Historical Issues and Archaeological Interpretation,” The Early Roman Empire in the West, T.C. Blagg ve M. Millett, eds., Oxford: Oxbrow Books, 1990, 35-41; Milett, M. The Romanization of Britain: An Essay in
• Archaeological Interpretation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990
• Mitchell, S. “Greek Epigraphy and Social Change. A Study of Romanization of Southwest Asia Minor in the Third Century A.D.,” XI Congresso internazionale di epigrafia Greca e Latina, Roma 18-24 settembre 1997, Atti, Rome: Quasar, , 419-433; Morley, N. “Cities in Context: Urban Sy…? in Roman Italy,”
• Roman Urbanism. Beyond the Consumer City, H.M. Parkins, ed., London: Routledge, 1997. 42-58; Purcell, N. “The Creation of Provincial Landscape
• The Roman Impact on Cisalpine Gaul,” The Early Roman Empire in the West, T. Blagg and M. Millett, eds. Oxford: Oxbrow Books, 1990, 7-29; Revell
• L. “Romanization,” A Companion to Roman Architecture, R.B. Ulrich ve C.K. Quenemoen, eds., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014, 381-398; Revell, L. Roman
• Imperialism and Local Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009
• Webster, J. “Creolizing the Roman Provinces,” AJA 105 (2001), 209-225
• Welles, C.B. et. al., “The Romanization of the Greek East,” BASP 2 (1964), 77; Whittaker, C.R. “Imperialism and Culture: The Roman Initiative, ”
• Dialogues in Roman Imperialism. Power, Discourse and Discrepant Experience in the Roman Empire (JRA, Suppl. 23), D. Mattingly and S.E. Alcock, eds., 1997, 163; Wilson, R.J.A. “Becoming Roman Overseas? Sicily and Sardinia in the Late Roman Republic,” A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman
• Republic, J.D. Evans, ed., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 485-504; Woolf
• G. “Romans as Civilizers. The Ideological Pre-Conditions of Romanization,” Integration in the Early Roman West. The Role of Culture and Ideology, J. Metzler, ed., Luxembourg: Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art, 1995, 9-18; Woolf, G.
• “Urbanization and Its Discontents in Early Roman Gaul,” Romanization and the City. Creation, Transformations and Failures (JRA, Suppl. 38), E. Fentress, ed., , 115-131; Woolf, G. “Beyond Romans and Natives,” World Archaeology 28 (1997), 339-350; Yegül, F.K. “’Roman’ Architecture in the Greek World,” JRA
• (1991), 344-355; Yegül, F.K. and D. Favro, Roman Architecture and Urbanism
• New York: Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming; Zanker, P. “The City as Symbol: Rome and the Creation of an Urban Image,” Romanization and the City. Creation, Transformations and Failures (JRA, Suppl. 38), E. Fentress, ed. , 25-41.