With 1341 numbers, unevenly distributed between 202/1 BC and the end of the 1st century AD, the delphic manumissions constitute the best represented epigraphical series of the Pythian sanctuary. It is the basis for most of the chronology of Delphi and Central Greece for the period under consideration. The thousands of people mentioned, from Delphi or neighbouring cities, and the many clauses of the contracts between the master and his former slave offer opportunities to write the socio-economic history of Greece that are not found anywhere else. A completely new edition of this vast documentary collection is proposed, accompanied for a number of texts by a full or partial translation and, if necessary, a more or less detailed commentary. This volume contains the first 722 issues, which correspond to priests I to IX of G. Daux's Chronologie delphique, i.e. the period from 202/201 to ca 125 BC. Fondée en terre thrace par le roi Philippe II de Macédoine. la cité grecque de Philippes fut. au cours de l’automne 42 av. J.-C.. le théâtre de l’affrontement décisif entre l’armée des républicains Brutus et Cassius et celle des héritiers de César. Antoine et Octave. À l’issue de la bataille. Antoine décida de tirer profit du vaste territoire environnant pour y établir les vétérans des légions qui avaient combattu et pour fonder une colonie romaine. S’appuyant sur une riche documentation épigraphique. ce livre reconstitue la structure et le fonctionnement des institutions de l’entité politique qui fut substituée à la cité grecque à cette occasion. ainsi que la formation des élites dirigeantes de la colonie et les dynamiques démographiques. sociales et culturelles qui animèrent ce groupe durant plus de trois siècles. de la fondation de la colonie à la fin du IIIe s. apr. J.-C. Par le biais de comparaisons avec les autres colonies fondées par Rome dans les provinces orientales de l’Empire. avec les cités grecques et avec les municipes et colonies d’Occident. l’étude s’efforce de replacer Philippes dans le cadre général des communautés locales de l’Empire romain. aussi bien que dans son contexte régional immédiat. À travers l’exemple de Philippes. ce livre montre que. bien loin d’avoir été des images statiques de Rome comme le prétend la formule célèbre d’Aulu-Gelle. les colonies. quoique dotées d’institutions calquées sur un archétype élaboré à Rome. en étaient plutôt des ramifications vivantes et autonomes. sensibles à leur environnement provincial et disposant chacune d’une coloration particulière. Founded on Thracian soil by Macedonian king Philip II. Philippi witnessed the final battle between the Republican army of Brutus and Cassius and the army of Antony and Octavian. the heirs to Caesar. In the aftermath of the battle. which took place in the fall of 42 BCE. Antony decided to take advantage of the large surrounding territory. settling the veterans of the legions who had fought there and founding a Roman colony. Relying on extensive epigraphic evidence. this book explores how the political community that was founded in place of that Greek city was structured and how it functioned. as well as traces the rise of the colony’s ruling elite and the demographic. social. and cultural dynamics of this group over the course of more than three centuries. from the establishment of the colony until the end of the third century CE. Through the systematic comparison of this colony with others that were settled by Rome in the Eastern provinces of the Empire. along with other Greek cities and the Western municipia and colonies. this book places Philippi within the general framework of both the local communities of the Roman Empire and its regional context. Through the example of Philippi. this book argues that. though colonies were provided with set institutions patterned after the Roman model. far from being static copies of Rome as assumed by Gellius. they were living and autonomous offshoots influenced in turn by their provincial environment. and ultimately each colony developed its own specific and unique identity.