Greek Cities under Hellenistic and Roman Rulers

Many principles and features of city administration in Asia Minor survived intact from the coming of Alexander till the arrival of the Romans. The same words with broad meaning continued to be used, and no administrative terminology in the strict sense was created. Depending on the perspective adopted in a document, offices were classified in more than one way, and officials with various kinds of responsibilities could he placed in the same or different categories. The Greeks continued to conceptualize city administration not by technical notions or fields and levels of administration defined a priori but by grouping city offices according to each case. Common people still had access to many offices because their expenditures were reimbursed. No permanent relations of subordination were ever established among numerous city officials because all the important matters continued to be decided by the people’s assemblies. The latter displayed its power hy assuming legislative initiative and electing temporary commissions that dealt with specific problems and were directly responsible to the assembly. The number of city officials who could bring forward legislative proposals before the people’s assembly remained strictly limited throughout the Hellenistic period.

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