1. Concordia (Homonoia) during the Classical and Hellenistic periods

Concord in the sense of political harmony is attested in literary texts already by the 5th cent. BC and was connected with the proper functioning of the democratic polity in Athens.

Concordia-Homonoia as a personified deity is found since the late 4th cent. BC in several places of the Greek world, in Magna Graecia and Asia Minor. Originally her cult, which reflects the desire to smooth social conflict and achieve peace, was connected with the differences between the political camps of the same city, the oligarchs and the democrats, as well as with the comradeship needed to fend off external threats.¹ During the Hellenistic period, her cult spread and incorporated other aspects of private and public life and became connected with the solving of all kinds of differences: political, social, religious, territorial and economic.²

The adoration of the personified Concordia in the region of Asia Minor dates to the 3rd and 2nd cent. BC. The deity in mentioned in the religious calendar of Erythrae (2nd cent. BC), while statues of her existed in Cyzicus, altars in Pergamum and temples at Tralleis. Priests of Concordia are mentioned at Priene, Ephesus and Dorylaeum of Phrygia.³

2. Concordia during the Roman period. Literary evidence

During the Roman period the differences between cities acquire a new dimension, as there is competition between them over the acquisition of official honorific titles, like that of the neokoros, i.e. the city responsible for the imperial cult on a provincial level, as well as over the titles of metropolis, the first (city) of Asia Minor, and for the status of free, autonomous or holy city.⁴

The feuds between them can be clearly seen in the speech by Dio Chrysostom, an orator of the 2nd cent. AD, entitled ‘To the Nicomedians, on the concord towards the Nicaeans’. As suggested by its title, the oration refers to the differences between the cities of Nicomedia and Nicaea concerning which city will receive the title of first city of Bithynia, a title awarded by Rome. Such disputes, which characterized and greatly affected political and social life in the cities of Asia Minor, are the subject of an oration ‘On the Concord among cities’ by Aelius Aristides, given by the orator in the bouleuterion of Pergamum between 161 and 167 AD.⁵

3. Coinage in the Concordia type

Throughout the Imperial period, thousands of coins were minted in cities of Asia Minor (especially in Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamum) bearing the inscription ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ on their reverse.⁶ Their obverse usually features the head of the emperor or of some other imperial family member, and in some cases the personification of the demos or of the local boule. On the reverse they depict the cities personified, standing in a dexioses stance over an altar, often Concordia herself alone or accompanied by Demeter or, furthermore, symbols of reconciliation, like two shacking hands or two temples in which statues of deities have been set up or two garlands awarded in athletic contests (these denote the sacred games in honour of Concordia). Around the depiction we have the inscribed names of the reconciled cities and the word ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ. More than 100 different coins from cities of Asia Minor are known and pertain to various confrontations between them, antagonisms over honorific titles and privileges, the solving of territorial and economical differences, the smoothing over of political and religious relations. Furthermore, they indicate the political or economical dependence of a city on another one -which is usually its metropolis- or attribute honours to important cities of mainland Greece (Athens, Sparta, Delphi).⁷

4. Honours to Concordia

The statues of the personified deity set up in many cities of Asia Minor (Antioch, Anazarbus, Ephesus, Cyzicus, cities of Phrygia) usually depict Concordia as a wreathed female figure attired in a chiton and himation and holding a phiale and the Horn of Amalthea. These are the honorific statues set up by neighbouring cities to commemorate the peaceful solving of differences between them or of disagreements between citizens; their character is not adorational. In the cases where Concordia was worshipped we have temples erected in her honour, as in the cases of Tralleis, Miletus, Iassos of Caria and in Aphrodisias.⁸

The available sources preserve references to honorific or adorational celebrations in honour of the deity, but the causes, the nature or the way in which the differences were resolved are rarely mentioned. Her continuous invocation suggests that attempts at reconciliation usually did not bear long-lasting results; it is also equally possible that the cities renewed their good relations through minting coins and devotional celebrations in honour of Concordia, usually through the offer of sacrifices. In this case, the deity is called up as a guarantor of continuous friendship and peace between the cities.⁹

5. Concordia (Homonoia) and Concordia Augusta

By the 2nd cent. BC due to Rome’s constant interference in the Greek political scene, Concordia became connected with Rome. During the Imperial period, it became an integral part of the imperial cult and took on the name Concordia Augusta. The members of its priesthood belonged to the local aristocracy and had ties with the Roman authorities.¹⁰

In Ephesus, a silver statue of Augusta Homonoia Chrysophoros was paraded during a procession together with thirty statues of emperors and members of the imperial family, other deities, personified ideals and important political figures and benefactors of the city from the Temple of Artemis to the city’s theatre. Apparently this procession did not bear a specific religious character, its significance, however, rests on its ideological content as a ritual in the context of the imperial cult and as a way of expressing Roman presence in the city.¹¹

Coins bearing depictions of Concordia and the relevant inscription appear during the reign of Nero (54-68) at Smyrna. After the end of the civil wars that ensued the emperor's death, Concordia’s presence on coinage is only to be expected; during Domitian’s reign (81-96) she acquires the title Augusta (on the coinage of Smyrna and of the Koinon of Bithynia). During the period of the Antonines, Concordia is more systematically identified with empresses, especially with Hadrian’s wife Sabina. The co-reign of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus (161-169) resulted in new numismatic series, on which the emperors are depicted in a dexioses scene, accompanied by the inscription ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ or ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΩΝ or ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΩΝ. In these cases Concordia is presented as the sole guarantor of harmonious coexistence between members of the imperial family, and therefore of peace within the Roman Empire.¹²