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Empire and City, Augustus to Julian: Obligations, Excuses and Status

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Fergus Millar
Fergus Millar
Affiliation:
University College London
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Extract

The early Roman Empire rested on a network of cities, which were capable both of conspicuous expenditure locally, in the form of public buildings, shows and festivals, and of carrying many of the functions of government; but by the fourth century their capacity to perform these roles had drastically declined. Both the capacity and the decline depended in part on the availability or inavailability of the richer classes to undertake expenditures associated with public offices or with liturgies. These remarks are of course mere commonplaces. They have become so, in the first place, because precisely these changes were noted, and the issues relating to them consciously formulated, in the fourth century itself. So Libanius writes in his Funeral Oration for Julian:

He showed the same care also in relation to the councils in the cities, which formerly flourished in both numbers and wealth, but by that time had come to nothing, since their members, except for a very few, had switched course, some into military service, some into the Senate … The remainder were all but sunk, and for the majority of them undertaking public services (to leitourgein) ended in beggary. Yet who does not know that the vitality of its council is the soul of a city ? But Constantius, while in theory aiding the councils, in practice was their enemy, by moving elsewhere men who sought to evade them, and granting illegal exemptions (ateleiai).

Three points should be noted here: Libanius assumes an evolution which was, if not universal, at any rate general throughout the Empire; the crisis is regarded as having been caused by the availability of roles or statuses which offered an alternative to the obligations of city councillors ; and this availability itself is seen as a product of imperial actions, which (as Libanius goes on to say) Julian had taken steps to reverse.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 73 , November 1983 , pp. 76 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Fergus Millar 1983. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Libanius, Or. XVIII, 146–7. For the general issue also Or. XLVIII, 17 ff.

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34 Eusebius, HE x, 7, to the proconsul of Africa, Anullinus, in 313. See most recently Elliott, T. G., ‘The Tax Exemptions granted to Clerics by Constantine and Constantius II’, Phoenix XXXII (1978), 326CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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48 CTh VII, 22, 2–5; XII, 1, 13; 18; 32; 35 (A.D. 343).

49 CTh VII, 22, 1–6; XII, 1, 10–11; 13; 22; 32; 37; 40; 43; 45.

50 CTh XII, 1, 56 (the date is 21 December 362— 12 days before the kalends of January in the consulship of the Emperor and Fl. Sallustius—363).

51 The principle is specifically related to exemptions in a few relatively marginal cases, see e.g. Hermogenianus in Dig. XXVII, 1, 41, pr.—2. Cf. Frag. Vat. 131: a libertus seeing to the affairs of a senator, excused from tutela, but not from munera sordida, and CJ v, 62, 13.

52 See e.g. Pflaum, Carrières, nos. I; 3; 5; 7; 11; 13 bis; 16; 24611; 25; 37; bis; 59; 63, etc. From the third century note esp. Pflaum, no. 319, L. Caecilius Athenaeus, flamen perpetuus at Sufetula, whose duovirate there, involving shows (voluptates), is commemorated on his inscription (CIL VIII, 11340) and clearly followed his equestrian career.

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56 On this problem see D. Nörr, opp. citt. (n. 18); A. Chastagnol, ‘Le problème du domicile légal des sénateurs remains à l'époque impériale’, Mél. L. S. Senghor (1977), 43 (non vidi).

57 See Quass, op. cit. (n. 54), 188–98, and esp. W. Eck, ‘Die Präsenz senatorischer Familien in den Städten des Imperium Romanum bis zum späten 3. Jahrhundert’, Studien zur antiken Sozialgeschichte: Festschrift F. Vittinghoff (1980), 283.

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61 On these points see e.g. Jones, A. H. M., ‘The Elections under Augustus’, JRS XLV (1955), 9Google Scholar = Studies in Roman Government and Law (1960), 27; Brunt, P. A., ‘The Lex Valeria Cornelia’, JRS LI (1961), 71Google Scholar; Nicolet, C., ‘Le cens sénatorial sous la République et sous Auguste’, JRS LXVI (1976), 20Google Scholar.

62 M. Malavolta, ‘A proposito del nuovo «S.C.» da Larino’, Sesta Miscellanea greca e romana (1978), 347; AE 1978, 145; see now also B. Levick in this volume, pp. 97 ff.

63 For surveys of the evolution of these appellations see Hirschfeld, O., ‘Die Rangtiteln der römischen Kaiserzeit’, Kleine Schriften (1913), 646Google Scholar; Stein, A., Der römische Ritterstand (1922), 47 fGoogle Scholar.; Pflaum, H.-G., ‘Titulature et rang social durant le Haut-Empire’, in Nicolet, C. (ed.), Recherches sur les structures sociales dans l'Antiquité (1970), 159Google Scholar.

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66 See the list in Pflaum, op. cit. (n. 63), 178–9.

67 IRT 467 (Lepcis Magna) of 324–6, see Barnes, T. D., The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (1982), 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar: ‘curante Cl. Aurel. Generoso v.e., cur. r.p.’ I owe the reference to Löhken, H., Ordines Dignitatum: Untersuchungen zur formalen Konstituierung der spätantiken Führungsschicht (1982), 131, and n. 102Google Scholar.

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69 CTh XII, 1, 74, 5 (371); CJ XII, 1, 11, 1 (377).

70 P. Oxy. 1204; partially quoted by Jones, A. H. M., The Later Roman Empire (1964), 70Google Scholar; cf. ERW, 289. There is nothing to support the suggestion of J.-M. Carrié, ZPE XXXV (1979), 221–3, that Aurelius Plutarchus had the rank of primipilaris.

71 Dr. J. Rea has kindly re-read the papyrus for me from a photograph and assures me that only minor amendments of the published text are required: (1) Ζηναγένει for Ζηνογένει in line 2, see P. Oxy. 3246; (2) in l. 25 (not translated here) see Berichtigungsliste I, p. 313, and P. Oxy. XLV, p. xviii under 3105, ll. 3–4.

72 See Bowman, A. K., The Town Councils of Roman Egypt (1972)Google Scholar.

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74 ILS 8843, re-edited by L. Moretti, Ins. Gr. Urb. Rom. I, no. 60.

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76 CTh VIII, 4, 3 + X, 7, 1 + X, 20, 1 (= CJ XI, 8, 1) + XII, 1, 5, all with the same dating: ‘dat. XII Kal. Aug. Gallicano et Basso conss.’.

77 e.g. CTh VI, 38, 1 = CJ XII, 32, 1 (Constantine); CTh XII, 1, 15 (Constantine, 327); CTh XII, 1, 41 (Constantius, 358).

78 e.g. ‘ex protectoribus’; CIL III, 7440; VI, 32945; ILS 5695 (A.D. 280). Examples of the Greek form (which seem to be more common) in H. J. Mason, Greek Terms for Roman Institutions (1074), s.v. ἀπό. Note Bryonianus Lollianus of Side, δουκηνάριος, ἀπὸ ἐπιτρόπων, etc. (AE 1966, 471); see C. Foss, ZPE XXVI (1977), 161; J.-M. Carrié, ZPE XXXV (1979), 213. Note also AE 1965, 195, ‘ex p(rimi) p(ili)’; AE 1966, 429, ἀπὸ ἐπιτρόπων; 446, ἀπὸ δουκηναρίας; AE 1972, 579, ἀπὸ ἐπιτροπῆν δουκηναρίας.

79 CTh VII, 21, 1 (either Constantine or Constantius).

80 See ERW, 109.

81 e.g. CTh XII, 1, 4 (praesidatus, 317); XII, 1, 20 (procurationes and curae civitatium, 331); XII, 1, 14 (honores, 326 or 353).

82 See e.g. Athanassiadi-Fowden, P., Julian and Hellenism: an Intellectual Biography (1981), 98 ffGoogle Scholar.

83 CTh XII, 1, 50 = XIII, 1, 4; Sozomenus, HE v, 5, 2; Philostorgius, HE VII, 4. See Bidez-Cumont, Ep. 54.

84 CTh XII, 3, 4; Ep. 25b Hertlein = 75b Bidez-Cumont = 31 Loeb. See V. Nutton, ‘Archiatri and the Medical Profession in Antiquity’, PBSR XLV (1977), 191.

85 CTh VI, 27, 2. On agentes in rebus see now Giardina, A., Aspetti delta burocrazia nel Basso Impero (1977)Google Scholar.

86 Libanius, Or. XVIII, 148, Loeb trans.

87 AE 1979, 506.