JUSTINIAN: "GREEKS FOUNDED THE ROMAN EMPIRE"

In this brief article, an often overlooked yet significant historical element will be examined, which plays a crucial role in understanding the relationship between Hellenism and the Roman state.

This element is a short but revealing passage from the legislative corpus of the renowned Emperor Justinian, known as the "Novels" (Novellae Constitutiones). In this particular Novel, Justinian express his intention to provide a better government for the province of Lycaonia in Asia Minor.

The excerpt reads as follows:

«When We consider what writers and historians have stated concerning the origin of the people of Lycaonia, and call to mind their extraordinary affinity with the Romans, which afforded such a good reason for their reunion, We thought that it was but just to give to this magistracy a rank superior to that which it had hitherto enjoyed. Tradition relates that, in ancient times, Lycao, who was King of Arcadia in Greece, lived on Roman soil, and that after having conquered the Oenotrians, he, so to speak, founded the Roman Empire (We have reference to times much more ancient than those of Aeneas and Romulus), and a colony having been established in these parts, he seized a large portion of Pisidia, and imposed his own name upon it, calling this region Lycaonia after himself; hence it is but just that this province should be subjected to the government of one of the magistrates that the ancient Romans invested with so much honor and distinction, and that the authority of both the magistrates who governed the said province at that time (We allude to the civil Governor, as well as to the one having military jurisdiction) should be combined in a single official designated by the appellation of Praetor» 

Original text (Greek and Latin):

There are many things to be discussed and highlighted here. The famous Roman Emperor firstly mentions "the people of Lycaonia", who have "extraordinary affinity with the Romans". This affinity is explained more in detail right after, where Justinian writes that king Lycao was the one to found the Roman Empire, after conquering the Oenotrians. Afterwards, Justinian connects Anatolian Lycaonia with the same king, writing that Lycao conquered a large part of Pisidia (in Asia Minor) and gave his name to the region (hence the name "Lycaonia"). 

Who is Lycao, the people of Lycaonia and the Oenotrians? According to Justinian, Lycao was king of "Arcadia in Greece" (located in Peloponnesus), in other words, an Arcadian Greek king. This way, Justinian implies the strong presence of Greeks and Greek culture both in Italy and the Micrasiatic region of Lycaonia:

The relations between Arcadian Greeks and the Italian peninsula are also testified by two Roman-era Greek writers: Dionysius of Halicarnassus (60 BC -7 AD) and Pausanias (110 - 180 AD). Both of them also describe the Oenotrians mentioned by Justinian as Greeks from Arcadia. Dionysius writes: «But if what they say is true, the Aborigines can be a colony of no other people but of those who are now called Arcadians; 2 for these were the first of all the Greeks to cross the Ionian Gulf, under the leader­ship of Oenotrus, the son of Lycaon, and to settle in Italy. This Oenotrus was the fifth from Aezeius and Phoroneus, who were the first kings in the Peloponnesus. For Niobê was the daughter of Phoroneus, and Pelasgus was the son of Niobê and Zeus, it is said; Lycaon was the son of Aezeius and Deïanira was the daughter of Lycaon; Deïanira and Pelasgus were the parents of another Lycaon, whose son Oenotrus was born seventeen generations before the Trojan expedition. This, then, was the time when the Greeks sent the colony into Italy. 3 Oenotrus left Greece because he was dissatisfied with his portion of his father's land; for, as Lycaon had twenty-two sons, it was necessary to divide Arcadia into as many shares. For this reason Oenotrus left the Peloponnesus,  p37 prepared a fleet, and crossed the Ionian Gulf with Peucetius, one of his brothers. They were accompanied by many of their own people — for this nation is said to have been very populous in early times — and by as many other Greeks as had less land than was sufficient for them».

The account of Pausanias is similar: «But Oenotrus, the youngest of the sons of Lycaon, asked his brother Nyctimus for money and men and crossed by sea to Italy; the land of Oenotria received its name from Oenotrus who was its king. This was the first expedition despatched from Greece to found a colony, and if a man makes the most careful calculation possible he will discover that no foreigners either emigrated to another land before Oenotrus» (Description of Greece, 8.3.5). Therefore, in Roman Era traditional narratives, these Oenotrians mentioned in the Novel are also considered as Arcadian Greeks and are directly related with king Lycao and the foundation of Rome.

It is evident that Justinian's narrative is influenced by the aforementioned accounts, which support the affinity between Greeks and Romans and seem to have been very popular during Roman era. What is more interesting is that these events are "much more ancient than the times of Aeneas and Romulus" according to Justinian. Thus, Justinian rejects the standard traditional version for the foundation of Rome by Romulus and accepts that Rome was founded by Greeks. Justinian is not the first Roman Emperor to express that view, when Emperor Julian many years before Justinian had clearly stated "Romans belong to the race of the greeks" , "our city is Greek" (see here).