But what a revealing kind of trick it is! First of all, Philip V, despite having gone to war with Romans, apparently has no interest in showing accurate knowledge of Roman society to the Larisaeans. Presumably he could do this because the Larisaeans weren’t going to call him out about this inaccurate knowledge.
But while this comment isn’t very accurate, it is suggestive of how fearful the Greeks were of the Romans. It’s very easy to see that Philip V sees the Romans as having a particular advantage over the Greeks with their liberal distribution of citizenship. What is interesting is that Philip V believes that the Greeks could also gain this advantage: in other words, the Greeks should become more like the Romans.
It’s also clear that the Philip V was fighting an uphill battle. The letter 215 BCE in which Philip V uses this Roman reference is actually a follow up letter that he sent in 217 BCE. In 217 BCE, Philip had also encouraged the Larisaeans to be more liberal with their citizenship. The Larisaeans refused, even going so far as to obliterate a list of names that Philip V had demanded receive citizenship. The Larisaeans clearly wanted to keep their citizenship exclusive. When Philip V uses this example from Rome, he is, in part, trying to frighten the Larisaeans into following his orders.
Hmm... I’ve drifted from manumission today. I’ll try to tie all these things back to manumission next time.