This work examines a test case for the relationship between the polis and the Hellenistic empire focusing specifically on the interaction between Antiochus III and the cities of Western Asia Minor (226-188 BC). Such a study is possible thanks to a rich epigraphical documentation which has been reproduced extensively and translated in an appendix to this book. Dr Ma approaches this material from a variety of angles: narrative history, structural analyses of imperial power, and analyses of the functions played by language and stereotype in the interaction between rulers and ruled. The result is to further a nuanced appreciation of the relation between the Hellenistic king and the Hellenistic polis by drawing attention to the power of the Hellenistic empires, to the capacity of political language to modify power relations, and to the efforts of the Hellenistic polis to preserve its sense of identity and civic pride, if not its political independence.

"This brilliant monograph is...an absorbing and thought-provoking study, which will be essential reading for all serious students of the Hellenistic Near East."

"In this revised version of his award-winning D. Phil. thesis, John Ma...carries the use of epigraphical evidence to new heights. [He] extracts a great deal of useful information about the Hellenistic empire and the Hellenistic polis from a formulaic language that has often been dismissed as meaningless, and his translations demonstrate a keen appreciation for the nuances of the Greek language."

John Ma, Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics, Princeton University