Artists of Dionysus

Background

Ancient Greek theatre developed during the Classical Period, especially in the city of Athens, where competitive performances of tragedy and comedy took place in the Theatre of Dionysus at the Dionysia and Lenaia festivals. Initially, the performers were amateurs, drawn from the citizen body. Already in the fifth century BC, however, plays began to be performed abroad and actors (as opposed to chorus members) became increasingly professionalised. In the fourth century BC, these processes accelerated. Performances of "old tragedies" and "old comedies", as opposed to newly composed works, which are first attested in Athens in 386 BC, became an important part of the theatre scene. Theatrical and musical performances became part of the competition at many Panhellenic games festivals, notably the Pythian and Isthmian games, and mobile theatrical troupes would travel the circuit, performing at these festivals. After Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt and the Near East, new Panhellenic festivals were established in the conquered territories, as well as in Greece and Asia Minor.

Another institution which developed in the fifth century BC and grew increasingly common over the fourth century was the association or club, a collective group, usually centred around worship of a deity and shared meals. These associations usually had officers and common meetings, modelled on the magistrates and assemblies of Greek cities. The members of these associations might share a common place of origin and/or a common activity (e.g. merchants, organising festivals for their patron deity). There were several terms for these associations, including koinon ("shared thing") and synodos ("synod" or "meeting").

Formation

The transition from a system of several independent regional associations to a single "ecumenical" or "universal" association covering the whole Roman Empire took place in the late first century BC and early first century AD. It is associated with the development of the various Panhellenic festivals into a set "circuit" (periodos), in which all competitors were expected to attend all the top-ranking events. This, in turn, was part of the development of the Mediterranean into a unified network under Roman authority in the first century BC.

The athletic association first appears in a letter of Mark Antony from the 30s BC, confirming various privileges granted at an early date (perhaps by the Roman Senate or Julius Caesar). The first clear attestation of the universal association of the artists is a papyrus from 43 AD in which the Emperor Claudius (r. 41-54 AD) promises to retain various privileges that the artists had received from Augustus (r. 31 BC-14 AD). It seems that he hired them to perform at the celebrations of the conquest of Britannia in Rome in 44 AD. He reaffirmed their privileges in response to another appeal in 48 AD. The earliest surviving decree of the association is probably an inscription from Teos from the second half of the first century AD, which honours the organiser of a Dionysia Caesarea festival at which they had performed.

It is unclear how or when the universal association of the artists developed. Fauconnier proposes three possibilities: (1) the Hellenistic associations of artists merged together; (2) the Ionian-Hellespontine association claimed universal jurisdiction after the other Hellenistic associations died out; (3) the Imperial-period association was a totally new phenomenon. He prefers the last of these hypotheses, and suggests that the founding moment was in 31 BC, shortly before the Battle of Actium, when Mark Antony gathered the artists of Dionysus on Samos and then gave them a "dwelling place" in Priene. However, Le Guen interprets this as a late attestation of the Ionian-Hellespontine association.

The role of the emperors and Roman authorities in the establishment of the universal association is also disputed. Lavagne and Le Guen argue that the emperors created it, because performers were a potential source of opposition to their authority and a single universal association was easier for them to monitor. Fauconnier finds "no evidence that the imperial authorities ever took concerted action to create and develop an agonistic association." He sees the artists as the prime movers, with the emperors, particularly Claudius, playing a supportive role.