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Condemnation to Hard Labour in the Roman Empire, from the Julio-Claudians to Constantine*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Fergus Millar
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Condanna ai lavori forzati nell'impero romano dai giulio-claudi a costantino

Questo articolo prende in esame l'evoluzione delle pene per reati che comportano la fustigazione, l'essere messo in ceppi, i lavori forzati e, in alcuni casi, la mutilazione, tra il I secolo d.C. e la prima metá del IV secolo. L'articolo esplora l'applicazione o l'esenzione da tali pene in rapporto allo stato sociale, come le persone appartenenti alle classi piú alte (honestiores), le persone libere delle classi piú basse e gli schiavi. In particolare, l'articolo si chiede se l'applicazione di pene a persone libere delle classi piú basse dipendesse dalla dimunizione del numero di schiavi, e di conseguenza fosse un tentativo di passare a una forma di sfruttamento delle persone libere condannate. Uno studio dei diversi contesti amministrativi ed economici nei quali venivano scontate le diverse forme di condanna ai lavori forzati, ci porta alia conclusione che le funzioni economiche di quel tipo di condanna erano molto limitate. I lavori forzati erano ritenuti soprattutto una forma di violenza corporale, paragonabile alle percosse, all'incatenamento e alla mutilazione e quindi appropriata per i condannati di bassa estrazione sociale, sia schiavi che liberi.

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Research Article
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 52 , November 1984 , pp. 124 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1984

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References

1 Cyprian, , Ep. 77, 3Google Scholar (trans. Wallis, 1868, with corrections); cf. also Cyprian's previous letter to them, 76, 2.

2 See Davies, J. G., ‘Condemnation to the Mines: a Neglected Chapter in the History of the Persecutions’, Univ. Birm. Hist. Journ. VI (1957/1958), 20Google Scholar.

3 See T. D. Barnes, Tertullian: a Historical and Literary Study (1971), esp. ch. 14: ‘The Christian Sophist’; R. D. Sider, Ancient Rhetoric and the Art of Tertullian (1971).

4 E. g. U. Täckholm, Studien über den Bergbau der römischen Kaiserzeit (1937), 132; Mrozek, S., ‘Les esclaves dans les mines d'or romaines en Dacie’, Archeologia XV (1964), 119Google Scholar, in Polish with Russian and French résumés, pp. 126–8.

5 There is no general up-to-date discussion of this important question. Note e.g. O. Hirschfeld, ‘Die Sicherheitspolizei im römischen Kaiserreich’, Kleine Schriften (1913), 576; Lopuszanski, G., ‘La police romaine et les Chrétiens’, Ant. Class. XX (1951), 1Google Scholar; R. MacMullen, Soldier and Civilian in the Later Roman Empire (1963), 55 f.

6 E. g. Mommsen, Strqfrecht, 897 f.; U. Brasiello, La repressione penale in diritto romano (1937), 189 f.; P. D. A. Garnsey, Social Status and Legal Privilege in the Roman Empire (1970); idem, ‘Why Penal Laws become harsher: the Roman case’, Natural Law Forum XIII (1968), 141. Note also Brunt, P. A., ‘Evidence given under Torture in the Principate,’ ZSS CXVII (1980), 256Google Scholar.

7 I had earlier assumed that Constantine was speaking of branding (on the face or elsewhere). But the characteristic expressions used—scribtio, frontes litterati etc.—clearly suggest tattooing, as does a fair volume of comparative evidence, see Barns, J. W. B., Lloyd-Jones, H., ‘Un nuovo frammento papiraceo dell'elegeia ellenistica,’ St. It. Fil. Class. XXXV (1963), 205Google Scholar. I am also grateful to Professor C. P. Jones for letting me see his unpublished paper ‘Stigma’.

8 Met. IX, 12, trans. Graves. See Millar, F., ‘The World of the Golden Ass’, JRS LXXI (1981), 63, on p. 65Google Scholar.

9 Ad Q.f. I, 2, 14 (Shackleton-Bailey 2).

10 See RE and Daremberg-Saglio s.v. ‘Career’; RAC s.v. ‘Gefangenschaft.’

11 H. Musurillo, Acts of the Christian Martyrs, no. 5 (=Eusebius, , HE V, 1, 8Google Scholar; 27) (Lyon); no. 10, 10–17 (Smyrna).

12 Op. cit., nos. 12; 14.

13 Sartre, M., ‘Nouvelles inscriptions grecques et latines de Bosra’, Ann. Arch. Arab. Syr. XXII (1972), 167, on p. 175Google Scholar, no. 8; see BE 1973, no. 501.

14 CTh IX, 3, 1, trans. C. Pharr; some variants in CJ IX, 4, 1.

15 Dig. XLIX, 1, 25 = POxy 2104. See F. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World (1977) (hence forward ERW), 392–3.

16 See for instance MacMullen, R., ‘Roman Imperial Building in the Provinces’, HSCPh LXIV (1959), 207Google Scholar.

17 See Brunt, P. A., ‘Free Labour and Public Works at Rome’, JRS LXX (1980), 81Google Scholar.

18 See Mócsy, A., ‘Ubique res publica’, Act. Ant. Ac. Sc. Hung. X (1962), 367Google Scholar.

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20 Apuleius, , Met. X, 18Google Scholar; Millar, op. cit. (n. 8), 68–9.

21 So ERW, 194–5.

22 Brasiello, op. cit. (n. 6), 360 f., is wrong to associate this penalty with vincula publica.

23 So Coll. XIII, 3, 2; biennio in Dig. XLVII, 21, 2.

24 Eusebius, , VC II, 20, 3Google Scholar; Sozomenus, , HE 1, 7, 3Google Scholar.

25 See T. Pekáry, Untersuchungen zu den römischen Reichsstrassen (1968), 120.

26 Most fully in Coll. XI, 7, 1–2; extract in Dig. XLVII, 14, 1 pr.

27 Dig. XLVIII, 19, 28, 13–14. See Garnsey, op. cit. (n. 6), 103 f.

28 See e.g. Pauli Sent. IV, 8, 22 (24); CJ IX, 49, 4; 51, 2; 4.

29 See C. Saumagne, Saint Cyprien, évêque de Carthage (1975), 152 and n. 3.

30 Eusebius, , MP. 8, 1Google Scholar, cf. 9, 1.

31 See K. Fitzler, Steinbrüche und Bergwerke im ptolemäischen und römischen Ägypten (1910), 94 f.; J. Lesquier, L'armée romaine d'Égypte (1918), 439–44; RE s.v. ‘Porphyrites’; Meredith, D., ‘The Roman Remains in the Eastern Desert of Egypt,’ JEA XXXVIII (1952), 94Google Scholar. Cf. A. Bernand, Pan du Désert (1977), 44 f.

32 ERW, 184–5.

33 Coll. XV, 3, 7. For the date see T. D. Barnes, The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (1982), 55.

34 For the copper-workings at Feinan, see Abel, F. M., Géographie de la Palestine II (1983), 41–2Google Scholar; Kind, H. D., ‘Antike Kupfergewinnung zwischen Rotem und Totem Meer,’ ZDPV LXXXI (1965), 56, esp. 57–64Google Scholar.

35 Passio Sanctorum IV Coronatorum, ed. Wattenbach, W., in Büdinger, M., Untersuchungen zur römischen Kaisergeschichte III (1870), 321Google Scholar. See Täckholm, op. cit. (n. 4), 136–7; RE s.v. ‘Pannonia’, Supp. IX, 674 (A. Mócsy); A. Mócsy, Pannonia and Upper Moesia (1974), 326.

36 See the full study by Noeske, H.-C., ‘Studien zur Verwaltung und Bevölkerung der dakischen Goldbergwerke in römischer Zeit’, Bonn. Jahrb. CLXXVII (1977), 271Google Scholar.

37 See L. Robert, Journal des Savants (1962), 13 f., with refs., and cf. M. Waelkens, Dokimeion: die Werkstatt der repräsentativen kleinasiatischen Sarkophage (1982), esp. 124 f.

38 See e.g. Pflaum, , Carrières III, 1053, 1061, 1063, 1065Google Scholar.

39 See Jones, LRE, 837–9.

40 Dig. XLVIII, 13, 8, 1; 19, 38 pr. = Pauli Sent. V, 21a, 1.

41 See e.g. Dig. XXVIII, 3, 6, 6; XXIX, 2, 25, 2–3; XXXIV, 8, 3 pr.; XLVIII, 19, 12; 17 pr.

42 ERW, 182.

43 ERW, 185–6; compare D. J. Crawford, ‘Imperial Estates’, Studies in Roman Property, ed. M. I. Finley (1976), 35.

44 ERW, 184.

45 See also Plautus, Asinaria 708–9 and L. A. Moritz, Grain-Mills and Flour in Classical Antiquity (1958), 67 f.

46 See e.g. CTh IX, 40, 5–7; 9; XIV, 3, 12; 17, 6. See Waltzing, J.-P., Corporations professionelles II (1896), 333 fGoogle Scholar.

47 See D. van Berchem, Les distributions de blé et d'argent à la plébe romaine (1939), 104 f.; G. Rickman, The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome (1980), 206 f.

48 See Jones, LRE, 836 f., and idem, ‘The Cloth Industry under the Roman Empire,’ The Roman Economy, ed. P. A. Brunt (1974), 350.

49 See N. Charbonnel, ‘La condition des ouvriers dans les atéliers impériaux aux IVe et Ve siécles,’ in F. Burdeau, et al., Aspects de l'Empire Romain (1964), 61, esp. 77 f. Note also, for the fabrica at Sardis, C. Foss, Byzantine and Turkish Sardis (1976), 7–8; 14–15, and idem, ‘The Fabricenses Ducenarii of Sardis,’ ZPE XXXV (1979), 279 (SEC XXIX, 1206). For the Imperial dye-works at Tyre, note too sarcophagus J.-P. Rey-Coquais Inscriptions de la Nécropole (1977), no. 28.

50 So Charbonnel, op. cit., 70–1.

51 For a full discussion see R. Étienne, ‘Recherches sur l'ergastule,’ Actes du Colloque 1972 sur l'esclavage (1974), 249.