Free city was a self-governed city during the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 eras. The status was given by the king or emperor, who nevertheless supervised the city's affairs through his epistates

Epistates

An epistates in ancient Greece was any sort of superintendent or overseer. In Hellenistic kingdoms generally, an epistates is always connected with a subject district , where the epistates, a resident representative, exercised control and collected taxes on behalf of the king.-Military use:In...

or curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

(Greek: epimeletes) respectively. Several autonomous cities had also the right to issue civic coinage bearing the name of the city.

Examples of free cities: Amphipolis

Amphipolis

Amphipolis was an ancient Greek city in the region once inhabited by the Edoni people in the present-day region of Central Macedonia. It was built on a raised plateau overlooking the east bank of the river Strymon where it emerged from Lake Cercinitis, about 3 m. from the Aegean Sea. Founded in...

 after 357 BC remained permanently a free and autonomous city inside the Macedonian kingdom ; probably also Cassandreia

Cassandreia

Cassandrea, Cassandreia, or Cassandria was once one of the most important cities in Ancient Macedonia founded by and named after Cassander in 316 BC located on the site of the earlier Ancient Greek city of Potidaea...

 and Philippi

Philippi

Philippi was a city in eastern Macedonia, established by Philip II in 356 BC and abandoned in the 14th century after the Ottoman conquest...

. Under Seleucid

Seleucid Empire

The Seleucid Empire was a Greek-Macedonian state that was created out of the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan.The Seleucid Empire was a major centre...

 rule, numerous cities enjoyed autonomy and issued coins; some of them, like Seleucia

Seleucia

Seleucia was the first capital of the Seleucid Empire, and one of the great cities of antiquity standing in Mesopotamia, on the Tigris River.Seleucia may refer to:...

 and Tarsus

Tarsus, Mersin

Tarsus is a historic city in south-central Turkey, 20 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Turkey with a population of 2.75 million...

 continued to be free cities, even after the conquest by Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

. Nicopolis

Nicopolis

Nicopolis — or Actia Nicopolis — was an ancient city of Epirus, founded 31 BC by Octavian in memory of his victory over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium the previous year. It was later the capital of Epirus Vetus...

 was also constituted a free city by Augustus, its founder. Thessalonica after the battle of Philippi

Battle of Philippi

The Battle of Philippi was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian and the forces of Julius Caesar's assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in 42 BC, at Philippi in Macedonia...

, was made a free city in 42 BC, when it had fortunately sided with the victors
Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, a free city with its own laws, appealed to Hadrian

Hadrian

Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...

 to devise new laws which he modelled on those given by Draco and Solon.

Autonomi or rather Autonomoi was the name given by the Greeks to those states which were governed by their own laws, and were not subject to any foreign power. This name was also given to those cities subject to the Romans, which were permitted to enjoy their own laws, and elect their own magistrates. This permission was regarded as a great privilege, and mark of honour ; and we accordingly find it recorded on coins and medals (e.g. Metropolis of Antiochians autonomous).

See also

• Panhellenion
  Panhellenion
  The Panhellenion or Panhellenium was an institution of cities established in the year 131-132 AD by the Roman Emperor Hadrian while he was touring the Roman provinces of Greece.Hadrian was philhellenic, and idealized the Classical past of Greece...
  
  
• Free imperial city
  Free Imperial City
  In the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which were governed by one of the many princes of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops...
  
  of the German Holy Roman Empire