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Two Freedman Careers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

P. R. C. Weaver
P. R. C. Weaver*
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania
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Extract

Was there a slave-freedman ‘cursus’ or career structure in the Imperial administration? And if so, on what criteria was advancement within it based? Did promotion depend on seniority or merit or both together? How impersonal and rational was the regulation of the system, i.e. what degree of bureaucratization was reached, or, on the other hand, what was the extent of patronage inside the slave-freedman service? These are all important and difficult, even impossible, questions for the student of the Roman Imperial administration.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 14 , 1980 , pp. 143 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 1980

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References

1 References to inscriptions are to CIL unless otherwise stated. The following special abbreviations are used:

Boulvert, EAI = Boulvert, G., Esclaves et Affranchis impériaux sous le Haut-Empire romain: impériaux politique et administratif (Naples 1970)Google Scholar

Boulvert, DF = Boulvert, G., Domestique et Fonctionnaire sous le Haut-Empire romain: la condition de l’Affranchi et de l’Esclave du Prince (Paris 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Chantraine, FS = Chantraine, H., Freigelassene und Sklaven im Dienst der rômischen Kaiser: Studien zu ihrer Nomenklatur (Wiesbaden 1967)Google Scholar

Hirschfeld, Verwalt.2 = Hirschfeld, O., Die Kaiserlichen Verwaltungsbeamten bis auf Diocletian (2nd ed.) (Berlin 1905, repr. 1963)Google Scholar

Pflaum, Abrégé = Pflaum, H.-G., Abrégé des Procurateurs équestres (Paris 1974)Google Scholar

Pflaum, CP = Pflaum, H.-G., Les Carrières procuratoriennes sous le Haut-Empire romain (3 vols.) (Paris 1960–1)Google Scholar

Weaver, Fam. Caes. = Weaver, P.R.C., Familia Caesaris: a Social Study of the Emperor’s Freedmen and Slaves (Cambridge 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 PCPhS 10 (1964), 74–92, at 74.

3 See the tables in DF 151–4 for details.

4 JRS 67 (1977), 163 f.

5 Verwalt.2 459–60.

6 For a general discussion of this phenomenon, see Weaver, , Fam. Caes. 37–40,Google ScholarChantraine, , FS 101–27.Google Scholar

7 E.g. 8. 25902 .1. 2 = FIRA 1 485, no. 100. 4–5: ‘data a Licinio [Ma]ximo et Feliciore Aug.lib. proc(uratoribus)’, dated to 114/117, where Felicior Aug. lib. is simply the freedman assistant procurator to the equestrian Licinius Maximus, proc. prov. Africae tractus Karthaginiensis (Pflaum, CP 99, 1093). For further examples see the dated lists given in Epig. Stud. 11 (1976), 215-27, esp. nos. 5–8,10–12,14–18, 22–23, 26–33. The nomen is sometimes even omitted while the agnomen in -ianus is given, as in the case of Carpus Aug. lib. Pallantianus, adiutor of Claudius Athenodorus, discussed in Antichthon 13 (1979), 76 ff.

8 See Weaver, , JRS 58 (1968), 110–23;Google ScholarFam. Caes. 39 f. and ‘Misplaced Officials’, Antichthon 13 (1979), 70 ff.

9 Ascending: 11. 3612 = ILS 1567: Ti. Claudius Aug. lib. Bucolas;

AE 1946, 99 (Rome): Ti. Claudius divi Claudi lib. Philius;

3. 348 = ILS 1477: M. Aur(elius) Aug. liber. Marcio;

AE 1930, 96 (Gerasa): M. Aur(elius) Faustus Aug. lib.;

13. 1800 (Lugdunum): M. Aurelius Aug. lib. […].

But descending careers are also common, e.g.

3. 536 = ILS 1575 (Corinth): Theoprepes Aug. lib.;

AE 1933, 273 = Insc. v. Pergamon VIII. 3, no. 44: […] Saturninus […];

6. 8498 = ILS 1738: M. Aurelius Augg. lib. Prosenes;

6. 8450 = ILS 1521: T. Aelius Augg. lib. Saturninus.

10 E.g. AE 1888,130 = ILS 1518 (near Rome): T. Flavius Aug. lib. Delphicus; 6. 8512: Martialis A[ug. lib.].

11 The one and only equestrian procurator rationis castrensis, M. Aurelius Basileus (10. 5336 = ILS 1445), is late and of ducenarian rank. He is explicitly vir ducenarius in his inscription, which is dated to the late third century, between Gallienus and Diocletian (Pflaum, CP 849–51, 1025 no. 327a).

12 DF 129; cf. EAI 166 ff.; Hirschfeld, , Verwalt.2312 ff.Google Scholar

13 Cf. Boulvert, , DF 128, and his detailed study of this inscription in Etudes Macqueron (1971), 153–8.Google Scholar

14 Pflaum, CP no. 37.

15 CP no. 95.

16 For a list, see Pflaum, , CP 1025–6Google Scholar and for discussion see Weaver, , Antichthon 13 (1979), 82 f., 88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 The existence of such ‘unequal colleges’ of equestrian-freedman officials from the late second century can be inferred from the use of the plural in such texts as Dig. 49. 14. 32 (Marcianus): ‘divi fratres procuratoriius hereditatium rescripserunt…’and Cod. Iust. 1. 54. 1: ‘Imp. (Caracalla) Antoninus A(ugustus) procuratoriias hereditatium…’ On the issue of dual procuratorships and on the principle of ‘collégialité inégal’, see especially Boulvert, , EAI 270 ff., 392 ff.;Google ScholarWeaver, , Historia 14 (1965), 460 ff.;Google ScholarFam. Caes. 278 ff. and further below.

18 LBW 2. 1076 = ILS 8849; Pflaum, CP no. 112.

19 CP p. 274.

20 Abrégé 9 ff.; cf. 10 n. 4.

21 On the use of the title ‘praepositus’ in the Imperial household, see Weaver, , Fam. Caes. 228, 262, 265 f.Google Scholar

22 6. 252 = ILS 1824; Corinthus Caesarisn. Mettaianus, pedisecus rationis[vol]uptuariae (dedicated to Trajan, post 102); 6. 8564 = 33734: dedicated to Euphemus Caes. n. vern. ex ration(e) volu(ptuariae) by his mother Ulpia Aphrodite. Hirschfeld, , Verwalt.2295–6 n. 3 unsafely conjectures another (6. 9665) from the time of Claudius.Google Scholar

23 Pflaum’s arguments (CP 273–4) for a Hadrianic date for Macedo are cogent.

24 Cf. AE 1972, 574.

25 See Hirschfeld, , Verwalt.2369 ff.Google Scholar The inscriptions of officials belonging to the fiscus Alexandrinus — all Imperial slaves and freedmen — come from Rome with the exception of one found in Puteoli 6. 5744,8573,/LS 1518 = AE 1888, 130; NS 1901, 20 = AE 1901. 171 (Puteoli); 15. 7974 a, b.

26 In Fam. Caes. 274, I wrongly completed Paean’s ‘proc. Alexandr.’ as ‘proc. (fisci) Alexandr(ini)’

27 EAI 231, 272, following Pflaum, , Proc. Eq. 57,Google ScholarCP 174.

28 2. 4136 = ILS 1399(Tarraco):‘… proc. Divi Titi Alexandriaex2019;. Pflaum, , (CP p. 114)Google Scholar assumes that Paean Aug. lib. belongs to the same period and proceeds to argue that as the freedman post is an auxiliary one and is a‘fonction de début dans ce cursus’, then the equestrian’s salary can only be that of a sexagenarius. Neither the argumentation nor the conclusion may be right.

29 An earlier papyrus, Pap. Fouad I er 1 (1939), no. 21 (II. 8), records a certaindioecetes (apparently equestrian) attending the consilium of the prefect of Egypt in A.D. 63/64; but as he appears lower in the list of officials than the tribuni militum of the two legions in Egypt at the time, his status cannot yet be that of even a sexagenarius. This elevation in status probably occurred under Vespasian (cf. Pflaum, , Proc. Eq. 48).Google Scholar Further progress to centenarian status had occurred by the time of Hadrian; e.g. 3. 431 = 7116 = 13674 = ILS 1449: Valerius Eudaemon, proc… Hadriani .. ad dioecesin Alexandrfeae); cf. 14. 4468 = ILS 9501; Pflaum, , CP 271.Google Scholar The titles ‘proc(urator) Alexandriae’, ‘proc(urator) ad dioecesin Alexandr(eae)’ and ‘dioecetes Alexandriae’ are equivalents. Dioecetes derives from the title of the old Ptolemaic finance minister. The dioecetes Alexandriae exercised the functions of a procurator provinciae throughout the province of Egypt (i.e. he was not confined to Alexandria), till the creation of the superior ducenarian post of dioecetes Aegypti by the time of Antoninus Pius (BGU 1019; cf. Pflaum, , CP p. 720).Google Scholar

30 ‘Misplaced Officials’, Antichthon 13 (1979), 88 ff.

31 Boulvert (DF 128; cf. EAI 170 n. 574) opts for a first-century (or early second-century) date, as he puts Paean’s tenure of the castrensis post shortly after that of Bucolas, which could be Trajanic. (See above.)

32 See Weaver, , Fam. Caes. 289 f.;Google Scholar cf. 282 f. Another Imperial freedman, Hormus, was also raised to equestrian status by Vespasian for services rendered to the Flavian cause, Tac. Hist. 3. 12.

33 As [Pflaum?] demonstrates in AE 1972, p. 175 f.

34 Bilabel, SB 4. 7378 = Arch. f. Pap. Forsch. 6 (1913), 102 ff., cited in AE 1972, p. 175, along with a second papyrus, P. Lond. 3. 125, i. 14–17, dated to 104, which mentions του έπιτρόπου Κλασσικού έπιστολήν.…

35 E.g. CIG 3. 3939 = IGR 4. 856; Forsch. Ephes. 3 (1923), 138. 52, BGU 327 = Mitteis, Chrest. 61; P. Rainer 2. 2 = Wilcken, Chrest. 209; BGU 891 ; IG 9. 1. 61, etc. See further LSJ 9 991 f. s.v.; Preisigke, Wörterbuch s.v.

36 For Aurelius Alexander and the context of his appointment, see Weaver, , Fam. Caes. 265 f. with n. 4.Google Scholar

37 JRS 67 ( 1977), 163. It is true that Burton is duly cautious in the manner of his assertion, and he raises fundamental questions about the freedman career structure which need to be (and can be) answered. But he leaves the clear impression of disbelief in a career structure as such — which is surely an overreaction to the work of Boulvert and Pflaum.

38 The titles a cubiculo and cubicularius are to be differentiated, the cubicularii being subordinates of the a cubiculo. For this distinction in status and function, see Boulvert, , EAI 241 ff.,Google Scholar revising the early work of Michiels, J. in Musée Belge 6 (1902), 364 ff.,Google Scholar and Fairon, E.Musée Belge 4 (1900), 5 ff.Google Scholar

39 As were the other ludi, especially the ludi magni, involving as they did the training and control of gladiators. Imperial freedmen and slaves are found only in clerical and sub-clerical posts in the administration of these activities. See Pflaum, , Proc. Eq. 51;Google ScholarBoulvert, , EAI 248 f.Google Scholar

40 Cf. my discussion of AE 1946, 99, in Antichthon 13(1979),73 ff., with examples, 74 nn. 17–18. For equestrian nomenclature, see Pflaum, , Proc. Eq. 10 ff.Google Scholar and CP Indices, passim.

41 Pflaum, , CP. 530;Google Scholar cf. AE 1972, p. 175.

42 Given the little we know of ages of retirement for Imperial officials, and the likelihood that many may have carried on in office well after our normal age for qualifying for superannuation, one can only speculate as to how the day-to-day routine of administration was carried out efficiently under such circumstances. One thinks again of the father of Claudius Etruscus, who had a ‘curarum socius’ as his assistant when he was still in office as a rationibus over the age of 80 when they both suffered banishment by Domitian (Statius, Silv. 3. 3. 160–1).

43 For a fine study of the operation of patronage in this field, see the recent article of Evans, J.K., ‘The role of suffragium in Imperial Political Decision-Making: A Flavian Example’, Historia 27 (1978), 102–28.Google Scholar