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The economic types of privilegia (exemption from munera and tax benefits) were one of the major aspirations for in-service or discharged service personnel. The emperor Constantine, concerned about veterans being reintegrated into civilian life, was willing to accept requests for beneficia from a few of them who had banded together in principia of civitas Velovocorum (Cth 7, 20, 2 a. 326?). Should institutions be disputed, the people concerned had to produce evidence of acquired privileges, and Constantine (ideally referring to the Brigetio norm ordering the dux to issue each veteran with a certificate of honesta missio at the time of discharge) authorized veterans to make, on whitened wooden tablets, a copy of the edict containing the imperial indulgentia (Cth 7, 20, 1); this authorization, facilitating the military to acquire the documentation, denounces the inefficiency of the offices to acknowledge and implement the imperial measures.
2012, Costantino prima e dopo Costantino
2016, Fra Costantino e i Vandali. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi per Enzo Aiello (1957-2013), Messina, 20-30 ottobre 2014
The comparative analysis of the sources, in particular the correspondence of Augustine, allows to specify some aspects about the life of Bonifatius, personage of African origin, who arrived the top of the military career, thanks to fortunate and prestigious political friendships. He distinguished himself commanding Berber foederati along the limes of Tubunae and became comes Africae perhaps around 419-420 AD, he was later involved in the preparations of the ill-fated expedition of Castinus against the Vandals in Baetica. He remained tied to Galla Placidia and married Pelagia, a woman of her entourage, in 425-426 AD; then he disgraced and squeezed probably an agreement with the Vandals, which inadvertently caused the end of dioecesis Africae. Si trova nel volume Fra Costantino e i Vandali. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi per Enzo Aiello (1957-2013), Messina, 20-30 ottobre 2014, a cura di Letteria De Salvo, Elena Caliri, Marilena Casella, Bari 2016, ISBN 978-88-7228-785-9, pp. 525-543
2018
The comitatus of the period 284-305 AD were moving structures. Diocletian and Maximian Herculius daily dumped heavy checks on dignitaries and palatine officers who followed them in their respective comitatus. The Caesares (293-305 AD) had a reduced comitatus compared to that of the Augusti, without the praetorian prefect and the chefs of the financial departments, but endowed with an officium a memoria and the offices for the correspondence. The ‘bureaucrats’ flanking the Caesares seem to have been nominated by the Augusti. The comitatus of the two Augusti appears similar to that of the Severan age, with the new magistri at the head of the palatine offices (perhaps already called scrinia). Few holders of palatine functions are known in the period 284-305. Only the two Augusti had a complete ‘central government organization chart’: one praetorian prefect each, still at the top of the civil and military administration; a ‘two-headed’ financial section (rationalis summae rei, rationalis rei privatae). At court the ‘bureaucratic’ officia were complete: memoriae, censum, a commentariis, epistularum; in the ‘judicial’ sector: libellorum; studiorum; sacrarum cognitionum. New is the a consiliis sacris. The only cursus honorum of an dignitary, who has played a palatine career during the age of Diocletian and the Tetrarchs, is C. Caelius Saturninus signo Dogmatius (CIL VI, 1704, re-examined). Some important jurists working in Diocletian's palace (Gregorius, author of the major Codex of the time, Aurelius Arcadius Charisius, magister libellorum of Diocletian, Aurelius Hermogenianus, also perhaps magister libellorum, probably praetorian prefect of Diocletian around 297-304 AD). The comitatus of the period 284-305 AD seem to represent the last, extreme facies of the palatium of the High Empire. However, the introduction of the new ritual of the adoratio, or proskýnesis, marks an irreversible change in the relationship with the prince. About the relationship between this new and fortunate ceremonial apparatus and the evolution of the consilium principis in the late consistorium, Diocletian surely has innovated in the ceremonial apparatus, but probably he didn’t create the late consistorium, a structure dated from the reorganization operated by Constantine in the years 326-330 AD.
This paper re-examines the administrative evolution of the province of Tripolitania from its creation under the tetrarchy to the latest evidence relating to Roman rule . The case of Tripolitania is , despite its inevitable specificity, emblematic; its study can be useful in order to explore, more generally, issues such as the way central government dealt with border districts in the later Roman empire, the problems of attribution of civil and military powers , the competition between the holders of such powers, and the possible interferences between the provincial authorities and the authorities operating at an interprovincial level . The author tries to make order in the scattered evidence related to Tripolitania and others north African provinces, which often has not been sufficiently explored or properly interpreted; new data obtained from a re-reading or re-assembling of some inscriptions from Sabratha and Leptis add further elements to the discussion. The evolution of Tripolitania is framed within the political and administrative history of north Africa: in fact , this specific case can not be properly understood without examining in parallel the interrelated evolutions of the other provinces and how they were affected by the reorganization by Diocletian , the establishment of the comitiva Africae, the introduction of frontier duces ... This paper also explores the network of relations between the various authorities in the province - the governor, the local elites , the individual cities and the provincial assembly – and the powers external to the province, from the vicars to the imperial court .
2010, Istituzioni, carismi ed esercizio del potere (IV-VI secolo d.C.)
in M.C. Parello, S. Rizzo (a cura di), Paesaggi urbani tardoantichi. Casi a confronto, Atti delle Giornate Gregoriane, VIII Edizione, Bari 2016, pp. 23-30
Orosius’ providentialistic vision was often criticized because it was considered limited, elementary, ideologized. This paper aims to demonstrate, throught two examples (the murder of Crispus, Constantine’s son, and the attacks of the Barbarians against the empire), that Orosius perfectly knew some fundamental questions posed by history to the Christians and that he showed the ability to understand the historical dynamics: according to Orosius, the prime mover of history is God, but man’s free will, as devil’s intervention, can influence events; moreover, he realized the painful tension between the must be of every Christian and the weakness of the human nature. In conclusion, his work shows attention, not always recognized by the modern scholars, to the escatological aspects of his thought.
2018
The evolution of the role of the silentiarii shows their close connection with the Great Imperial Palace of Constantinople between fifth and sixth centuries A.D. Control of silence and ceremonies around the emperor of the East became at that time an important innovation. The weakness of the silentiarii in the West testifies to a different historical development of political power and its manifestation than the Orient during the late Roman Empire.
This paper surveys the problematic relationship between the monetary economy and the tax organization in Late Antiquity. In this context, the piece shows how tax extraction and distribution functioned according to supply-demand-price mechanisms.
2013, Potere e politica nell'età della famiglia teodosiana
2010, Giorgio Bonamente, Rita Lizzi Testa (a cura di), Istituzioni, carismi ed esercizio del potere (IV-VI secolo)
2017
A well known Constantine’s constitution relating to Africa (CTh. 11, 27, 1) provides gratuitous distributions of money and fiscal food-stuffs to the hungry people during a great famine, in order to avoid the poor selling their sons. The examination of the measures adopted on the occasion of famine, as well as in financial matters, in Late Antiquity points out that the praxis of the gratuitous distributions was not at all usual. As a rule, during situations of alimentary crisis, the imperial authorities had to guarantee the disposability of the supplies, prevalently of the grain, at prices which were certainly moderate, but never leaving out of the consideration of the increasing of the prices on the free market. Moreover, these operations, if they were carried out through the fiscal grain, did not cause a loss of the Treasury; on the contrary, they resulted profitable in that they were carried out at prices which were beyond both the tariff of acquisition of the grain intended for the distribution and that one for the re-establishement of the supplies.
Some considerations on the tax known as gleba senatoria or collatio glebalis.
Bari 2019 Pragmateiai Collana di studi e testi per la storia economica, sociale e amministrativa del mondo antico diretta da Elio Lo Cascio
2010
L’esercito del tardo impero romano. Dalla Tetrarchia a Giustiniano, dans G.Traina (éd.), Storia d’Europa e del Mediterraneo, sez. III. L’ecumene romana, vol. VII, Rome, Salerno, 2010, p. 495-523
2016, Cultura giuridica e diritto vivente
Il lavoro intende affrontare il problema del rapporto tra le difficili relazioni di Costantino con i Persiani e l’invasione dei barbari sul Danubio del 328 d.C., da un lato, e la organica riforma costantiniana della carica del prefetto del pretorio, dall’altro. Si tratta di un tema oscuro, sul quale, eccezion fatta per gli studi storici di Pierfrancesco Porena e Timothy Barnes, non mi risulta che a oggi siano state scritte pagine specifiche. Quanto ai rapporti tra l’imperatore e i Persiani, fondamentale si è rivelata l’analisi di alcune tarde testimonianze dell’XI e XII secolo (Michele il Siro e Giorgio Cedreno), che forniscono rilevanti indizi sulle ragioni dell’istituzione da parte di Costantino di un quinto prefetto del pretorio per l’Oriente intorno al 326 d.C. Il ristretto lasso temporale intercorrente tra l’invasione dei Taifali del 328 d.C. lungo il limes danubiano e la riforma in parola, ma soprattutto l’esame di alcune ulteriori fonti storiografiche bizantine conducono, poi, con le dovute cautele a ritenere che un legame tra i due avvenimenti sia realmente sussistito. Proprio al fine di chiarire la questione, diviene opportuno comprendere in che termini la privazione di ogni funzione militare del prefetto del pretorio, nonché la contestuale creazione di nuovi organi che tali compiti furono dal quel momento in poi chiamati a svolgere, siano state determinate da esigenze del tutto contingenti, quali i problemi che i barbari stavano creando sul confine danubiano e su quello orientale. Fondamentale ai fini dell’indagine sembra l’esplorazione dell’assai poco battuto campo delle fonti non strettamente normative, che in ordine all’argomento in questione sono le uniche in grado di offrirci qualche preziosa indicazione; esse, già a prima vista, pare che consentano di formulare un’ipotesi: la riforma del prefetto del pretorio, seppur originata da esigenze temporanee, rese l’organo, anche in conseguenza della sottrazione delle funzioni militari, la più alta carica civile dotata di giurisdizione oltre che di rilevanti competenze in ambito fiscale.
Mediterraneo Antico, 9, 2006, pp. 267-292
2017
In una lettera redatta da Cassiodoro probabilmente nel 527 il re Atalarico ordinava al comes patrimonii Bergantino di finanziare una ricerca di vene aurifere nella proprietà regale detta Massa Rusticiana nei Bruzzi. Nel testo Cassiodoro esalta l’attività dei minatori, come mai prima nella letteratura greca e latina. Questa prospettiva è sintomatica dell’evoluzione del concetto di ‘lavoro’ nell’ultima società romana, e si può interpretare alla luce della congiuntura storica dei secoli V e VI, che pose l’economia italica di fronte alla contrazione dei rifornimenti di metalli e soprattutto dell’oro (lo segnalano alcune lettere di Cassiodoro, in part. Var. III, 25-26; IV, 18; 34). È difficile dire se per l’Italia, povera di miniere, sia intervenuto un cambiamento nelle condizioni produttive e nell’organizzazione del lavoro estrattivo verso la fine dell’età imperiale romana e in età ostrogota. Il confronto con la testimonianza principale sull’attività estrattiva nel tardo impero romano, tra IV e V secolo, costituita dal titolo De metallis et metallariis del Codice Teodosiano (X, 19), suggerisce che le esigenze dei compilatori di una regolamentazione del prelievo fiscale di minerali e di metalli ancora a livello ecumenico (estesa alle due partes) mirino a circoscrivere l’iniziativa dei tecnici minerari e delle imprese, in un universo estrattivo che si vorrebbe strettamente controllato dall’autorità imperiale entro perimetri amministrativi ancora ampi. Quasi cento anni dopo la compilazione di Teodosio II, Cassiodoro interpreta la volontà dei sovrani ostrogoti all’interno dell’orizzonte recessivo dell’ultima diocesi Italiciana nella direzione di una valorizzazione e di una nuova sensibilità verso conoscenze tecniche e artigianali, a lungo svalutate, diventate allora imprescindibili per la sopravvivenza di un universo economico e culturale, quello dell’ultima Italia romana, ridimensionato da centro di una florida economia-mondo mediterranea a fragile periferia, per certi versi “autarchica”, esposta alla concorrenza dei vicini regni romano-barbarici.
2012, Vetera Christianorum 49 (2012), pp. 117-141
2019, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
Two senators named Syagrius are consuls in 381 and 382 AD. The analysis of all the sources suggest that in 381 AD the first consul was chosen by the Emperor Gratian: (Afranius) Syagrius, who was praetorian prefect in office (June 380-August 382 AD, maybe in the Gauls); the second one was the consul chosen by the Emperor Theodosius Ist: Eucherius, former Comes Sacrarum Largitionum, in 377 AD, and oncle of Theodosius («patruus Theodosii»). Some of Simmachus’ letters point to Syagrius as influential with Gratian, as it seems, both as Magister Officiorum, in 379 AD, and as praetorian prefect. As was the practice from the second half of the 3rd century, the praetorian prefect Syagrius obtained the ordinary consulate during his term of office, an honor which he held on 1 January 381, as «consul prior» in the pars of Gratian, and «posterior» in that of Theodosius. Almost a century later, Sidonius Apollinaris allow us to affirm that Syagrius founded a dynasty of Gallic aristocrats, endowed with great patrimonies in Gaul in the 5th century, and capable of reaching the praetorian prefecture of the Gauls in the succession of generations; (Afranius) Syagrius was undoubtedly the illustrious ancestor (by his mother’s side) of the nobleman Tonantius Ferreolus, prefect of Gauls in 451-453 AD. In 382 AD the first consul was Claudius Antonius, former praetorian prfect, in 376-378 AD, choosen by the Emperor Gratian; the second consul was chosen by Theodosius Ist: he too is named Syagrius, but this senator has been proconsul or vicarius Africae in 379 AD, and, according to the testimony of Themistius, he could be an acquired relative of Theodosius («adfinis Theodosii»), as already Eucherius, paternal uncle of the prince and consul in 381 AD.
2016, Il miliario costantiniano di Pistunina (Me)
Les cités de l’Italie tardo-antique (IVe -Ve siècle), Collection de l’École française de Rome, 369