Experiencing Roman power at Greek contests: Romaia in the Greek festival network

This paper explores how the Roman empire was perceived and experienced in the Greek world from c. 200 BCE to the early Principate, with a special focus on the Romaia, a festival with athletic and other contests in honour of the goddess Thea Romē. The Romaia were a driving force that played a crucial and active role in the cultural and political transformations that connected the loosely integrated Greek world to the new global empire. They were collective rituals that captured audience attention through spectacle. At the Romaia the power of Rome was experienced en masse, making them exceptional coordinating mechanisms for the rapid transfer of ideas and information at a local level. Moreover, network theory helps us to understand how festivals contributed to the spread of Roman influence. The Romaia linked Rome to the Panhellenic festival network, which played a major role in the constitution of an imagined community of Greeks.