Sergey Sizov

After the Achaean war and destruction of Corinth consul Lucius Mummius with a commission appointed by the Senate worked out regulations related to the governance of the conquered Peloponnese. An essential part of the new order established by the Romans in the former Achaean League was the reform of the political institutions of the Peloponnesian cities. In particular, Mummius established property requirements for holding office in a polis (Paus. VII. 16. 9). New epigraphic evidence demonstrates that the Roman regulations also led to the replacement of quite common type of city council in the Greek world – the βουλή – with another, much more powerful body termed συνέδριον (a Greek translation of Latin senatus). The information about similar reforms carried out by the Romans in some other Greekspeaking provinces of the Roman republic, namely Sicily and Bithynia-Pontus, as well as certain epigraphic evidence, both direct and indirect, suggests that the συνέδριον was designed on the model of the Roman Senate, with the selection of the councilors on the base of census, the life membership and significant powers. The συνέδριον was introduced to become a stronghold of the wealthy elite that was to rule the Peloponnesian poleis under the Romans.