PROLEGOMENI ALLO STUDIO DELLA PROPRIETÀ IMPERIALE IN ASIA MINORE: LA QUESTIONE DELL'IMPERATORE COME ACQUIRENTE

The first part of this paper takes inspiration from Fergus Millar's judgement about the impossibility of writing a history of the property of the Roman Emperor in order to assess the progresses of research in this important field. Except for the recent monograph of Marco Maiuro, very few studie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studi classici e orientali 2014-01, Vol.60, p.329-348
Main Author: Rosa, Alberto Dalla
Format: Article
Language:Italian
Subjects:
LE PROPRIETÀ DEL PRINCIPE NELL'IMPERO ROMANO: NUOVI STUDI E PROSPETTIVE SULLA PROPRIETÀ IMPERIALE: Atti della giornata di studio (Milano, 22 aprile 2013)
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Summary:The first part of this paper takes inspiration from Fergus Millar's judgement about the impossibility of writing a history of the property of the Roman Emperor in order to assess the progresses of research in this important field. Except for the recent monograph of Marco Maiuro, very few studies of general character have been dedicated to the issue in over a century. Despite that, significant advancements in our knowledge of the ancient economy as well as the growing number of epigraphic and papyrologic sources can now provide the historian of the required means to reverse Millar's pessimism. The second section of the paper tries to verify the hypothesis that the Roman Emperor (i.e. the fiscus) never acted as buyer of landed estates on the free market. As a matter of fact, the present evidence shows that the owners were always compelled to sell and that the purchased goods were used for public purposes (i.e donated to temples, given as gifts to others) and not kept for the ruler's sake. The Emperor acted like any other senator probably only in the acquisition of luxury items.
ISSN:0081-6124
1724-1820