Talia Prussin (University of California, Berkeley)
Under the Seleucid kings, royal land grants created a reciprocal relationship parallel to Ma (2000)’s conception of the relationship between Antiochus III and the cities of Asia Minor based in euergetism. Traditionally, the grant is understood as repayment by the king for services rendered, such as military or diplomatic work, by the recipient. I argue that this relationship did not end with the grant but rather was constituted by it. After the grant was made, there were further expectations of good behavior from the recipient of land. Royal land grants sought to tie the grantees to the king in perpetuity in the same way that benefactions in the form of remittance of taxes or gifts of wheat did. If the grantee continued to work on the king’s behalf, it would prompt further benefactions.
To explicate how royal land grants functioned in parallel to civic euergetism, I focus on the Aristodicides inscription (I.Ilion 33) as a case study. This stele contains four separate documents detailing a royal land grant to one Aristodicides of Assus by Antiochus I. In the first three documents on the stele, sent by Antiochus to the satrap arranging the land grant, the language of the administrative letters draws on the language of euergetism with references to eunoia and prothymia. In the final document, the satrap addressed Ilion as the city to which Aristodicides chose to attach his granted land, entreating them to grant Aristodicides whatever honors he demanded. Because Antiochus chose to give Aristodicides the privilege to attach his land grant to a city, Antiochus engineered this second transaction in which Aristodicides acted as benefactor of Ilion. Albeit at a slight remove, Antiochus’ land grant to Aristodicides was explicitly embedded in royal euergetism toward cities, demonstrating how easily a land grant could dovetail into a formal act of euergetism.
The creation of this relationship between king and grantee explains why royal land grants were held in perpetuity, rather than until the original grantee’s death. Inheritable gifts granted to an individual by the king continued to cultivate good will toward the king from the grantee’s heirs, even once the particular king who granted the land had died. Because a royal land grant outlived the original grantee and grantor, it created permanent affective ties between grantees—typically elites—and the king. Given that the Seleucid kings were in danger of other elites striking out on their own as rival dynasts, maintaining these relationships with elites was vital to the integrity of the kingdom. Royal land grants formed a means for kings to ingratiate themselves to their rivals to power while also rewarding them for their ongoing loyalty.