Artists of Dionysus
The Artists of Dionysus or Dionysiac Artists (Ancient Greek: οἱ περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον τεχνιταί, romanized: hoi peri ton Dionuson technitai) were an association of actors and other performers who coordinated the organisation of Greek theatrical and musical performances in the Hellenistic Period and under the Roman Empire.
They acted as independent political actors, engaging in collective bargaining with cities, kings, and the Roman Republic, in order to secure a wide range of privileges.
Under the Julio-Claudian emperors, a single "universal" or "ecumenical" association of artists was established, which called itself the sacred thymelic synod of ecumenical artists of Dionysus, sacred victors, crown-wearers, and their fellow competitors (Ancient Greek: ἡ ἱερὰ θυμελικὴ σύνοδος τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκουμένης περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον τεχνειτῶν ἱερονεικῶν στεφανειτῶν καὶ τῶν τούτων συναγωνιστῶν), alongside a similar organisation for athletes.
These artists flourished in the second and third centuries AD, when they had a headquarters in Rome and performed in festivals from southern Gaul to Egypt and Syria.
Already in the fifth century BC, however, plays began to be performed abroad and actors (as opposed to chorus members) became increasingly professionalised.
Performances of "old tragedies" and "old comedies", as opposed to newly composed works, which are first attested in Athens in 386 BC, became an important part of the theatre scene.
[4] After Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt and the Near East, new Panhellenic festivals were established in the conquered territories, as well as in Greece and Asia Minor.
The Dionysiac artists of Athens are mentioned in an inscribed decree passed by the Amphictyony of Delphi between 279 and 277 BC, which confirmed that they enjoyed "inviolability" (asylia), rights to safe travel, freedom from military obligations, and tax exemptions.
[6] The Egyptian artists are mentioned in Callixenus of Rhodes' description of the Grand Procession organised by Ptolemy II at one of the Ptolemaia festivals of the 270s BC.
[30][29] Paola Ceccarelli proposes that the Athenian branch was founded by King Demetrius Poliorcetes, who was venerated at Athens as the "New Dionysus" after 306 BC.
[33] In the second century BC, the Ionian and Hellespontine artists took to organising a Dionysia festival with theatrical performances in their home base of Teos.
They insisted on collecting and keeping the tax revenues arising from the festival and the Teans objected, eventually appealing to the Attalid king, who ruled in their favour.
It is associated with the development of the various Panhellenic festivals into a set "circuit" (periodos), in which all competitors were expected to attend all the top-ranking events.
[49] The athletic association first appears in a letter of Mark Antony from the 30s BC, confirming various privileges granted at an early date (perhaps by the Roman Senate or Julius Caesar).
[52] The earliest surviving decree of the association is probably an inscription from Teos from the second half of the first century AD, which honours the organiser of a Dionysia Caesarea festival at which they had performed.
He prefers the last of these hypotheses,[55] and suggests that the founding moment was in 31 BC, shortly before the Battle of Actium, when Mark Antony gathered the artists of Dionysus on Samos and then gave them a "dwelling place" in Priene.
Lavagne and Le Guen argue that the emperors created it, because performers were a potential source of opposition to their authority and a single universal association was easier for them to monitor.
[60] Most evidence for the artists derives from the second and early third centuries AD, coinciding with the heyday of the Greek festival circuit.
[62] The artists are also attested at festivals outside the circuit in Asia, Bithynia et Pontus, Galatia, Lycia et Pamphylia, Syria, Arabia Petraea, the Aegean islands, Egypt, Thrace, Moesia Inferior, and Gallia Narbonensis.
[68] An inscription probably indicates that the so-called Temple of Diana in the Sanctuaire de la Fontaine in Nîmes was a precinct of the artists.
[72] The artists held assemblies, called synedria ("sitting together") or syllogoi ("speaking together"), at which they made decisions by show of hands.
[78] An official called the "manager" (dioiketes), who appears to have assisted in organising individual festivals at which the artists performed, is attested only in Egypt.
[79] On two occasions around AD 200, the emperors appointed curators (logistai) to take control of the artists' finances, probably to resolve specific cases of financial mismanagement.
"[83] By contrast, Fauconnier emphasises the uniformity of the artists' institutions, officials, and practices across the whole Roman empire and argues for "a fixed organisational structure", in which most of the association's membership, officials, and money were constantly mobile, following the festival circuit and conducting their business in whichever festival they happened to be at at the time.
Emperors wrote to the artists regularly and often interfered in their affairs,[85] setting their membership fees and sometimes appointing curators to oversee their finances.
Papyri show that it was 250 denarii by the late third century AD (roughly equivalent to a year's rent for a good house).
[98] The artists networks of contacts probably allowed them to organise monetary transfers (permutationes) to different parts of the empire.
[101] Between 293 and 305 AD, Diocletian or one of his co-rulers issued a Latin rescript restricted the privileges of the artists to those who had won at least three victories, including at least one in Greece or Rome.
[111] In the 380s, Libanius describes the active theatre scene in Antioch as being run by local troupes of mimes and makes no mention of the artists' association.
[112] The term "ecumenical synod" (Ancient Greek: οἰκουμενικὴ σύνοδος), which had long been used by the artists and their sister association of athletes, was adopted by Christians to describe their own meetings in the 320s or 330s AD.
