Instituția proxeniei în spațiul pontic. Drepturi și privilegii acordate

Abstract

In the context of a monograph on proxenia in the Black Sea area, the author embarked on  investigating into the awarded privileges. This article provides him with the opportunity to expand on this topic, starting with a brief reference to the historiographical aporia about the contradiction between the understanding of proxenia as a quasicontractual office, involving an obligation on the proxenos to perform particular duties, and the honorific aspect of this status which seemed prominent in the rapidly expanding epigraphic record of proxeny decrees for the Hellenistic
period. Next, the research is structured according to the main stages encountered in the available documents: I. Ateleia (kai proxenia); II. Proxenia kai ateleia; III. Proxenia kai politeia; IV. Awarded privileges in Hellenistic time; V. Proxeny decrees from Chersonesos in Roman time. However, at each stage, the research approach takes into account
the existence of an ‘Ionian Pontic space’, a ‘Dorian Pontic space’, and of the peculiarities of the Bosporan decrees. In the final remarks, the author points out the previous omissions regarding the awarded privileges to proxenoi in the Black Sea area. As an annex to this study two tables, based on an exhaustive catalogue of documents, provide a
synthesis of the diachronic and comparative perspectives.