DISTRIBUTIONS OF MONEY IN THE GREEK CITIES OF ROMAN ASIA MINOR A,avo/l-a(: DISTRIBUTIONS OF MONEY IN THE GREEK

The distribution of money as small handouts is a practice, which is attested in both the Eastern and Western provinces of the Roman Empire. These gifts can, in the East, be seen as a development of Hellenistic euergetism, but they were also influenced by a parallel practice in the West. The groups in the East which received the handouts of money, itlavo/Lai, correspond in general to the groups in the Roman West which received sportulae, divisiones and congiarii. Thus, the distribution of individual gifts of money in the Greek cities of Asia Minor can be studied as a measure of Romanization. However, the manner in which the distributions themselves were conducted also serves as a measurement of Romanization, as there is evidence that iJlavo/Lai were provided on different occasions and to different groups of individuals before the advent of Roman control. Thus, distributions in the East were provided on the same occasions as those in the West, and, what is most important for the study of Romanization, the gifts were given in accordance with social rank: the higher an individual stood in the social hierarchy, the more he generally received. Such a stratification does not appear i