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The Publication of the Prices Edict: a New Inscription from Aezani*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Michael H. Crawford  and
Joyce Reynolds
Michael H. Crawford
Affiliation:
Christ's College and Newnham College, Cambridge
Joyce Reynolds
Affiliation:
Christ's College and Newnham College, Cambridge
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Extract

At the bottom of the fifth column of what is now the ninth block of the Aezani copy of the Prices Edict of Diocletian there stand fifteen lines of Greek; of these, the end of line nine and lines ten to fifteen are transcribed by R. and F. Naumann, who conjecture that they are the work of the local governor; their conjecture is substantiated by the complete text, though hardly the view that it represents a ‘Greek résumé’ of the Edict. Internal evidence (line 15) shows that this Greek text always stood, as it stands now, at the end of the text of the Prices Edict itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 65 , November 1975 , pp. 160 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Michael H. Crawford and Joyce Reynolds 1975. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Naumann, R. and Naumann, F., Der Rundbau in Aezani (Istanbuler Mitteilungen, Beiheft 10), Tübingen, 1973Google Scholar. Reference to the nine blocks which survive more or less intact is complicated by the fact that the building has been reconstructed with the blocks in an order other than that in which they originally stood and in the publication the blocks are numbered in the order in which they now stand.

2 R. and F. Naumann, pp. 34–5.

3 p. 28.

4 We cite the Prices Edict according to the text of S. Lauffer, Berlin, 1971; Praef., not further defined, means the Preface to the Edict.

5 F. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World, ch. v. 5 (forthcoming).

6 Even the imposition of a maximum price throughout the Empire is, for the Roman government, a radical departure from earlier practice (for evidence see Michael H. Crawford, CR 1975, 276 f., reviewing S. Lauffer); there is perhaps Diocletianic legislation on laesio enormis (gross mis-pricing), see Sperber, D., Israel Law Review 1973, 270Google Scholar (citing Jewish parallels).

The curious view of the Lex Cornelia sumptuaria in Macrobius, Sat. iii, 17, II, that it imposed minora pretia, is no doubt to be ascribed to the climate of opinion fostered by the Tetrarchs.

7 Compare Dunst, G., ‘Verschlepptes und nicht Verschlepptes aus Samos’, Acta of the Fifth International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy 1967 (1971), 101Google Scholar.

8 The Verona list shows Phrygia divided, also Asia and Hellespontus; the signatures of the Council of Nicaea of 325 show Phrygia united, and Asia linked with Hellespontus; the latter union is also attested by the governorship of Paulinus, PLRE no. 14. Note Eusebius, PLRE no. 4, governor of Lycia and Pamphylia in 311; also Marcianus, PLRE no. 22, governor of Lycia and Pamphylia in the late third or early fourth century; Constans, PLRE no. 1, governor of Phrygia and Caria between 324 and 335; Madalianus, governor of Pontus and Bithynia in the 330s; Proculus, PLRE no. 11, governor of Europa and Thracia after the defeat of Licinius in 324.

9 The unknown governor of IGRR iv, 814 and of the inscription published by Anderson, J. G. C., JRS 1932, 24Google Scholar, was governor at the same time of Phrygia and Caria; although cited in PLRE under Constans, no. 1, he is not separately registered. J. G. C. Anderson, interestingly, suggests that this joint governorship of Phrygia and Caria dates from before the separation of the two provinces, perhaps from around 300 (a suggestion endorsed verbally to us by Dr. J. Martindale).

10 Note Aglaus, perhaps proconsul of Crete and the Cyrenaicas between 286 and 293 (so PLRE); Buzes is governor of Crete alone before 305.

11 Jones, A. H. M., JRS 1954, p. 21Google Scholar with addendum on p. 29 = The Roman Economy, 264 and 279.

12 The long-standing Greek predilection for engraving documents on stone must also be remembered.

13 An edict of Constantius and Galerius of 305–6 is known in a Latin copy from Tlos (CIL iii, 12134) and a Greek copy from Athens (IG ii–iii,2 1121); Paulus, PLRE no. 11, governed Achaea between 293 and 305—in 301 and still in 305?

Note that the copies of the Prices Edict from Achaea attest at least two different translations, of the Latin into the Greek, see Bingen, J., BCH 1953, 648–9Google Scholar; this in no way disproves gubernatorial initiative behind the making of the translations.

It should in any case be clear that the publication of the Prices Edict, normally in Latin, provides no evidence for the hypothesis that Diocletian attempted to impose Latin on the Greek East, cf. Giacchero o.c. (p. 160), 4–5.