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Contextualizing Colonatus: The Origo of the Late Roman Empire*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2010

Cam Grey
Cam Grey
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, cgrey@sas.upenn.edu
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Extract

Building on recent scholarship concerning the ‘colonate of the late Roman Empire’, and focusing in particular upon the vocabulary used in the legal sources, this paper offers three propositions. First, the colonatus of the legislation was not a legal shorthand for the ‘colonate’ of modern historiographical debate. Second, the coloni of the legislation were not a discrete group of individuals subjected to a definable, articulated set of restrictions. Finally, it is not colonatus but rather the origo and the link it created between individuals and the land which is the key to the tax system of the late Roman Empire.

Keywords

COLONATUSORIGOROMAN TAXATIONLATE ROMAN EMPIREROMAN LAW
Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 97 , November 2007 , pp. 155 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © Cam Grey 2007. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

*

This paper has benefited from the comments and critiques of friends and colleagues, although none of them should be held responsible for the views expressed here. In particular, Peter Garnsey and Ed Watts read earlier drafts, and offered valuable observations. Preliminary versions were read in Cambridge and Reading, and I am grateful for feedback received during those sessions. I wish also to thank the Editor and the anonymous readers for JRS, whose responses greatly improved the manuscript.

References

* This paper has benefited from the comments and critiques of friends and colleagues, although none of them should be held responsible for the views expressed here. In particular, Peter Garnsey and Ed Watts read earlier drafts, and offered valuable observations. Preliminary versions were read in Cambridge and Reading, and I am grateful for feedback received during those sessions. I wish also to thank the Editor and the anonymous readers for JRS, whose responses greatly improved the manuscript.