Abstract
The article examines the diplomacy of poleis in the 3rd century BC, using Panhellenic festivals to strengthen ties between Greek communities. An example is Magnesia on the Meander, which turned the rite in the Sanctuary of Artemis Leucophryene into the All-Greek festival with “stephanites” competitions, equal to the Pythian Games in Delphi, declaring the asylia (inviolability) of the city and its chora. The large corpus of Magnesia inscriptions allows one tracing the routes of the embassies sent by the Magnesians to all corners of the Hellenistic world, and reconstructing the arguments of the ambassadors who persuaded the poleis and unions of Greek tribes to recognize their festival and the asylia of the city and its chora. An analysis of the inscriptions demonstrates that the embassies were carefully prepared. Routes were thought out, documents and works of poets and historians were studied in order to compose letters with convincing arguments.
An important feature of this activity of Magnesia on the Meander is that it is carried out, at least externally, completely independently of the rulers. The Magnesians direct embassies to “kings, poleis and peoples”, ignoring the boundaries of kingdoms. Similar embassies with invitations to the Festival, and reciprocal embassies, connected the Hellenes with invisible threads, wherever they lived. Such a unique phenomenon, characteristic of the Greek civilization since ancient times, as the preservation of the unity of the Hellenes, despite their geographical scattering and political fragmentation, in the era of Hellenism manifested itself especially clearly during the organization of Panhellenic festivals. Along with athletic and equestrian competitions, the organization of musical and poetic competitions also contributed to the preservation and spreading of the Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean.
Keywords
Hellenism, Magnesia on the Meander, the Sanctuary of Artemis Leucophriena, asylia, Delphi, Panhellenic festivals, theoroi.
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