SOCIAL STATUS AND ROMAN RULE: Social Dynamics under Roman Rule. Mobility and Status Change in the Provinces of Achaia and Macedonia. Proceedings of a Conference Held at the French School of Athens, 30–31 May 2014

Italic merchants exhibited paintings of the Lares Compitales, which established their ethnic identity; the interior furnishings answered to concrete needs as well as to demonstrating social status. The examination of the exact location within houses where inscriptions or graffiti were placed and of their impact upon the viewer allows Zarmakoupi to discuss the way in which the inhabitants of these houses connected economic activities to efforts of enhancing their social status. Social mobility at the top was facilitated by a number of strategies for reaching or maintaining elite status, such as Roman citizenship, wealth, distinguished ancestors, matrimonial alliances, real and enhanced social visibility, connections to Roman potentates and to members of other regional and local Greek elites. The Roman colony of Corinth having been founded in order to further the interests of Roman merchants, the freedmen in the initial phase of the colony were connected to powerful and influential Roman families. [...]the unusual occurrence of freedmen in the ordo of a Roman city signifies neither lack of hierarchy nor relaxed rules, but, on the contrary, a strict control over who is allowed access to the elites.