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The Municipal Patrons of Roman North Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

B. H. Warmington
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Extract

The epigraphy of Roman North Africa is well known to be richer than that of any other Western province. Not only is the total number of inscriptions large, but their wide distribution makes possible a detailed study of some municipal institutions withoutmuch danger of arguing from evidence from one city to a generalisation covering many. The structure of municipal life in the more populous parts of North Africa was characterised by the large number of communities which, though small, developed genuine civic institutions, as compared with the semi-tribal agglomerations with a few very large cities that we find elsewhere in the Western Empire. Further, many of the sites have been desolate since the end of Roman rule, and no events during that rule brought destruction widespread enough to cause significant gaps in the epigraphy taken as a whole.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 22 , November 1954 , pp. 39 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1954

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References

1 E.g., an article on the curatores rei publicae of Roman North Africa by Lucas, C., JRS xxx (1940), 56 ffGoogle Scholar.

2 The basilica Ulpia, which may contain these inscriptions, is as yet unexcavated. I must express my gratitude to Miss Joyce Reynolds not only for giving me this information, together with details of many inscriptions from Tripolitania that were then unpublished, but also for comments on this article as a whole. For the conclusions set out, however, I remain responsible.

3 See references in the short article in Daremberg and Saglio, s.v. patronus.

4 See R. Syme, The Roman Revolution, 73 ff.

5 The following abbreviations, other than the standard ones, are used:

ILA: R. Cagnat, Inscriptions latines de l'Afrique, 1923.

ILAlg: S. Gsell, Inscriptions latines d'Algérie, 1922.

ILT: A. Merlin, Inscriptions latines de la Tunisie, 1944.

IRT: Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania, 1952.

C: CIL VIII (Africa).

TRSB: T. R. S. Broughton, The Romanization of Africa Proconsularis, 1929.

6 Including those from Byzacena, separated from Africa Proconsularis by Diocletian; Tripolitanian inscriptions are given separately owing to their large number.

7 Presumably a native of Curubis and relative of L. Pomponius Malcio (CIL I2, 788), freedman, duumvir, who repaired the walls of the town in 45 B.C. after Caesar's victory in Africa.The town probably became a colonia lulia at this date or in 44. See TRSB 54, 55.

8 Perhaps a freedman of M. Licinius Crassus Frugi, procos. Afr., 8 B. C.

9 Of the tribe Arnensis, that of Carthage. Similar to nos. 11, 12, and 15.

10 See notes 79–81 and text.

11 See notes 79–81 and text.

12 See notes 79–81 and text. Other Caecilii from Thibiuca and Thuburbo Minus (the towns are only five miles apart) are nos. 35, 45, 46 in the list.

13 See notes 79–81 and text; accepted as African by Lambrechts, La Composition du Sénat Romain (193–284), 40, note 1.

14 See notes 79–81 and text. His tribe, Quirina, was that of Simitthu.

15 See notes 79–81 and text.

16 It was very unusual in Africa at this date for a man to be curator rei publicae of his own city. See Lucas, art. cit., 62.

17 PIR 2 I, 214–16.

18 C 11933 is a dedicationto his son (no. 71), called patroni filius. Paulinus is known as a procos. Afr. and was almost certainly made patron then.

19 PIR 2 II, 28 for the date.

20 Mother of a vir consularis, curator rei p. of Thuburbo Minus.

21 See notes 79–81 and text.

22 See notes 79–81 and text.

23 See notes 79–81 and text. Probably cos. ord. 232.

24 PIR 2 I, 197.

25 See note 69.

26 See note 69.

27 ILAlg 4011 is certainly contemporaneous with ILAlg 4012, but there can be little doubt that Ceionius Iulianus became patron of Madauros when proconsul.

28 A lacuna in the inscription makes it possible that she was not a patron.

29 Decimius Hesperius was procos. Afr. in 376, but the occasion of his being patron in Tripolitania was the same as that involving nos. 153, 155, 156, namely, the restoration of the province after invasion and misgovernment; see also note 49 and text.

30 Most of the patroni recorded at Cirta were styled patronus quattuor coloniarum, i.e. of the Confederation of Cirta.

31 The full style of the Numidian legate was usually legatus Augusti pro praetore exercitus Africae.

32 PIR 2 III, 164.

33 PIR 2 I, 212.

34 Patron of the res publica Cirtensium–that is, probably of Cirta only.

35 See C 18907 and Lambrechts, op. cit. 29.

36 An inscription from Sigus, in the territory of the Confederation.

37 Patron of the res publica Cirtensium, see note 34.

38 See Birley, E., JRS xl (1950), 60 ff. for dateGoogle Scholar.

39 Father of L. Titinius Clodianus, legate of Numidia.

40 See note 69.

41 The three Mauretanias—Caesariensis, Tingitana, and Sitifensis—are listed together, as so few relevant inscriptions have been found.

42 These index numbers are used in the remainder of the article for convenience and brevity to refer to the details of the patroni given in the list.

43 This is a variation of the usual formula in the tesserae—‘ille illos in clientelam suam recepit’.

44 Ad amicos II. ii. The letter is unfortunately much mutilated, but the sense seems clear. Fronto excused him self, ‘(quod) malim patriae nostrae tutelam auctam quam meam gratiam’. His diffidence seems to be explained by his age—it was seventeen years since his consulship—for he goes on to affirm that the city had been most helped by lawyers in the prime of life.

45 ‘qui nunc fori principem locum occupant’.

46 Similar dedications, nos. 77, 64, 80.

47 Lucas, art. cit. (note 1) 61, 62.

48 Similar honorific dedications to curatores who were not patroni: C 11332 (Sufetula), ILA 210 (Saradi), ILA 44 (Thysdrus).

49 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxviii, 6, 1–29.

50 Similar honorific dedications to governors, nos. 109, 110, 111, 149, 150, 152, 160, 161, 209.

51 See CIL VI 1554, a dedication to him at Rome by the city of Lepcis.

52 CIL IX 338. Needless to say, Canusium was a much more important place than Thamugadi.

53 C 2403, usually called the Album of Thamugadi.

54 PW I A 1, 1187; his sister had been the first wife of Iulius Constantius, Julian's father.

55 Only one dedication to an Emperor between 337 and 361 is known from Numidia (AE 1909, 229); nine have so far been found honouring Julian in his two years' reign—AE 1893, 87 (‘restitutor sacrorum’), C 18529 (‘restitutor libertatis et Romanae religionis’), AE 1937, 145, AE 1916, 20, AE 1909, 232, AE 1916, 11, C 4771, C 2387, AE 1949, 134. Doubtless the Donatists, to whom Julian restored freedom of worship, and whose chief strength was in Numidia, were prepared to join in this enthusiasm.

56 e.g. CIL I2 755 (Senatus populusque Curubitanus), CIL V 4922 (Senatus populusque Siagitanus). This was merely a way of indicating that the town as a whole was concerned; on other tesserae referring to Africa we have simply the name of the town (civitas Apisa Maius, CIL VI 4921, civitas Themetra, CIL VI, 4919) or, if a colony, a formula as coloni coloniae Aeliae Hadrianae Aug. Zamae Reg. (CIL VI, 1686).

57 e.g. ILA 210, IRT 103, 475, 558.

58 TRSB 126–9.

59 ibid., 136, 203.

60 ibid., 202.

61 ibid., 120, 129, 203–4.

62 Sherwin-White,The Roman Citizenship, 197 and 200;a generalisation applying to all the settled parts of the Empire, particularly true in Africa.

63 C 69.

64 TRSB 58–61, 213 ff.; Dessau, C p. 2615.

65 In the second century, a magistrate of Carthage and patron of a similarly constituted pagus at Uchi Maius, was honoured for his abstinentia (no. 51); this praise of a patron's virtue looks forward to the honorifics of the third and fourth centuries. See above p. 46.

66 ‘ob insignem erga cives benevolentiam et iustitiam’.

67 See above p. 46.

68 Nos. 99–104; see PIR 2 I, 197. His son (or brother) held three appointments in Africa. (de Lessert, Pallu, Fastes des Provinces Africanes, ii, 42Google Scholar.)

69 SHA, vita Albini 4. 1–2 connects them with Clodius Albinus, said to be from Hadrumetum, see N. H. Baynes, 217 Historia Augusta, 45–8; certainly fictitious. Albinus' origin from Hadrumetum is now doubtful (PIR 2 II, 281) but it was presumably believed in the circles which produced the Augustan History; therefore nothing incongruous was felt in giving the fourth-century Ceionii an African background. See also AE1911, 217, a building at Mascula dedicated by Publilius Ceionius Caecina Albinus, consularis Numidia 364–7, ‘ad splendorem tam patriae quam provinciae’. Their estates were at Bir Tersas (C 25990, dated c. 365). Ceionius Apronianus, c.v., patron and almost certainly a native of Cillium in 312, was perhaps of the family.

70 e.g. Numidia; C 2388, 20156, 19852, 18701, AE 1911, 217 (364–7, the same governor in five different towns), C20157–8 (367–75), C 18328 (379–83); Africa Proconsularis; ILAlg 2101 (364), C 1782 (366–7), ILAlg 472 (374), C 14398 (376), C 1296 (379–83), C 23968 (383–8), ILAlg 2107 (399–400), etc.

71 See Seeck, , Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt ii, 174 ffGoogle Scholar.

72 Cod. Theod. i, 29, 1 and 4.

73 Amm. Marc, xxviii, 6, 1–29.

74 Cod. Theod. xii, i, 76. See also F. de Zulueta, Patronage in the Later Empire, 17 ff.

75 Amm. Marc, xxviii, 6, 28.

76 Sherwin-White, op. cit. 197.

77 C 7058 and CIL VI 2059.

78 C 26415.

79 See references for nos. 17, 41, 54, 61, 65, 66, 68.

80 Nos. 171, 172, 25, 192, 195. See also PIR 2I, 3, for the African origin of nos. 35, 45, 46.

81 e.g. nos. 31, 32, 40, 43, 55, 57, 86, 87, 88.

82 "Amm.Marc, xxvii, 6,14; xxviii, 1, 25(Eupraxius, , quaestor) xxi, 10, 5Google Scholar (Sex. Aurelius Victor, the historian).

83 Lucas, art. cit. 72 f.

84 Nos. 75, 79, 80, 144, 214.

85 See the list in Lucas art. cit. 58.

86 ibid. 71 ff.

87 op. cit. ii, 174–175.

88 ILA 568.

89 ILT 1513; no. 23.

90 e.g. nos. 84, 85, 110, 114, 116, 117.

91 e.g. Augustus (CIL X, 3826, Italy; CIL XII, 136, 145, Gallia Narbonensis); Agrippa (CIL IX, 4677, Italy; CIL II, 1527, Spain); Tiberius, before his adoption (CIL II, 1113, 1529, Spain).

92 R. Syme, The Roman Revolution, 421–2.