Grands-prêtres et helladarques d'Achaïe

Abstract

Some eminent Peloponnesians, through the IInd century, served as helladarchs in the Achaean koinon and provincial high priests in the imperial cult. The first man who held both offices was Cornelius Pulcher whose career was a model of harmonious balance between adhesion to Roman order and loyalty to Greek values. Just like the provincial priesthood, the Achaean Helladarchy was held for life. As a prosopographical study makes clear, two types of Helladarch existed simultaneously, for the koinon and for the Amphictiony. The Achaean Helladarchy and the provincial priesthood were distinct offices and ceased to be closely connected from the last quarter of the Und century : the first one then became a temporary office. Pulcher's career and an inscription from Ancyra suggest that the Helladarchy had been instituted between 128 and 132. The Corinthian archiereus Licinius Priscus must have performed his priesthood in the reign of Trajan, so that the Isthmian sanctuary was restored and the temple of Palaimon achieved, under his control, before about 110 A.D. From Julius Spartiaticus to Cornelius Pulcher, the provincial high priests were Corinthians, who had close dealings with the Isthmian sanctuary where the provincial cult had grown out of the celebration of «imperial contests». From the creation of the Helladarchy onwards, the archiereus were chosen in other Peloponnesian cities and the Isthmian sanctuary lost its outstanding position in the koinon and the imperial cult.