Faces of the crowd: Popular society and politics of Roman Alexandria, 30 BC-AD 215.

Abstract

Traditionally, scholars have viewed Alexandria in the Roman period as a violent, unstable, and rebellious city. The term most frequently applied to Alexandria and its history is "turbulent". This view of the city derives mainly from the judgments of the primary sources and from scattered references in those sources to riots and demonstrations against authority. This dissertation attempts to modify the conventional view by examining a wider variety of popular behaviour, including both behaviour of the crowd at the theater and hippodrome and its behaviour before authority. It tries to demonstrate that Alexandria was a stable city, only occasionally disrupted by outbreaks of violence. The turbulence itself is seen as aberrational and as the consequence of unusual strains (e.g., regional violence) on the social and political system of the city. Evidence of crowds deferring to authority and sometimes revering the Roman emperor as a god demonstrate the capacity of the Alexandrians to respect the constituted authorities of the city. The deference of the crowd and the stability of the city is partially explained by an examination of the image of the Roman emperor in the city, where it is argued the emperor was symbolically depicted as a continuator and not the annihilator of Ptolemaic rule.