AUTON´OMI
AUTON´OMI (
αὐτόνομοι),
the name given by the Greeks to those states which were governed by their
own laws, and were not subject to any foreign power (
Thuc. 5.18,
27;
Xen.
Hell. 5.1.31). This was the proper meaning of the word; but, in the
days of the Athenian maritime empire, it was applied to those of the
subject-allies who were merely controlled in their foreign policy, and
required to furnish a contingent of ships, but not otherwise interfered
with. At the time of the Sicilian expedition, the Chians and Methymnaeans
seem to have been the only members of the confederacy who retained this
amount of freedom; as
ϝεῶν παροκωχῇ
αὐτόνομοι they are distinguished from the payers of tribute
(
φορά), the badge of the
ὑπήκοοι, and from the really independent allies
(
πάνυ ἐλευθέρως χυμμαχοῦντας,
Thuc. 6.85.2). Before the revolt of 428 B.C.
the Mitylenaeans had enjoyed the same privileges; and the language of Grote
in describing their political state may be taken as a sufficient account of
this form of autonomy: “Lesbos, like Chios, was their ally upon an
equal footing, still remaining under those conditions which had been at
first common to all the members of the confederacy of Delos. Mitylene
paid no tribute to Athens: it retained its walls, its large naval force,
and its extensive landed possessions on the opposite Asiatic continent:
its government was oligarchical, administering all
[p. 1.264]internal affairs without reference to Athens. Its
obligations as an ally were, that in case of war it was held bound to
furnish armed ships; whether in determinate number or not, we do not
know. It would undoubtedly be restrained from making war upon Tenedos,
or any other subject-ally of Athens; and its government or its citizens
would probably be held liable to answer before the Athenian dicasteries,
in case of any complaint of injury from the government or citizens of
Tenedos or of any other ally of Athens; these latter being themselves
also accountable before the same tribunals under like complaints from
Mitylene. That city was thus in practice all but independent ..
.” (
Hist. Gr. ch. l.
init.) It should be added that, while the tributary allies were
compelled to bring their criminal causes to Athens, the autonomousallies
were not. The changed condition of the Mitylenaeans after the suppression of
the revolt is illustrated by the speech of Antiphon
On the Murder of
Herodes, which belongs to the subsequent period; the prisoner
and the prosecutors are alike residents in Mitylene, but the trial takes
place at Athens.
The same two characteristics--the retention of their own
leges and
judicia--mark the
liberae civitates under the Roman dominion,
of whose designation
αὐτόνομοι was the
Greek rendering. Thus Cicero writes of the beneficial effects of his own
humane provincial government:
Omnes, suis legibus et
judiciis usae,
αὐτονομίαν
ad eptae, revixerunt (
ad Att. 6.2).
In another letter, however, he mildly ridicules the fancied independence of
this class of subjects:
Graeci vero exultant quod peregrinis
(i.e.
suis, non Romanis, Ern.)
judicibus utuntur. Nugatoribus quidem, inquies. Quid refert?
tamen se
αὐτονομίαν
ad eptos putant (
ad Att. 6.1.15).
This self-government was regarded as a great privilege and mark of honour;
and the cities which enjoyed it recorded the fact upon their coins, medals,
and inscriptions. We find, for instance, on coins of Antioch
ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΩΝ ΜΗΤΠΟΠΟΛ.
ΑΥΤΟΝΟΜΟΥ, on those of Halicarnassus
ΑΛΙΚΑΠΝΑΞΞΕΩΝ ΑΥΤΟΝΟΜΩΝ,
and so of many other cities. In numismatics, “autonomous”
medals are those which bear no sign of subjection in the head of an emperor
or provincial governor. There are many such belonging to cities which never
were really autonomous, and to Roman colonies. (On this branch of the
subject, see
Essai sur les médailles autonomes romaines de
l‘époque impériale, by the Duc
de Blacas, in the
Revue numism., 1862, pp. 197-234, 387-390;
on Greek autonomy in general, Hermann,
Staatsalterth.
§ 41, 1 ; Schiffer,
Die Autonomie bei den alten
Griechen, a gymnasial programme, Münster, 1862.)
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