Signs of Weakness and Crisis in the Western Cities of the Roman Empire C. Ii-iii Ad (Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beitrage, 68) 9783515124065, 9783515124089, 3515124063

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Signs of weakness and crisis in the Western cities of the Roman Empire (c. II–III AD) Edited by Javier Andreu and Aitor Blanco-Pérez

Alte Geschichte Franz Steiner Verlag

Potsdamer Altertums wissenschaftliche Beiträge

68

POTSDAMER ALTERTUMSWISSENSCHAFTLICHE BEITRÄGE ( PAwB ) Herausgegeben von Pedro Barceló (Potsdam), Peter Riemer (Saarbrücken), Jörg Rüpke (Erfurt) und John Scheid (Paris) Band 68

Signs of weakness and crisis in the Western cities of the Roman Empire (c. II–III AD)

Edited by Javier Andreu and Aitor Blanco-Pérez

Franz Steiner Verlag

This work forms part of the R&D&I project HAR2016-74854-P “De municipia latina a oppida labentia. Sobre la sostenibilidad económica e institucional del expediente municipal latino en la Hispania Romana (siglo I–III d. C.)”, financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad / Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and led by the University of Navarra (Pamplona). The work is also part of the researching activities developed in the Roman cities of Los Bañales de Uncastillo (www.losbanales.es) and Santa Criz de Eslava (www.santacrizdeeslava.com).

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek: Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über abrufbar. Dieses Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist unzulässig und strafbar. © Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2019 Layout und Herstellung durch den Verlag Satz: DTP + Text Eva Burri, Stuttgart Druck: Hubert & Co., Göttingen Gedruckt auf säurefreiem, alterungsbeständigem Papier. Printed in Germany. ISBN 978-3-515-12406-5 (Print) ISBN 978-3-515-12408-9 (E-Book)

Index/Índice Javier Andreu / Aitor Blanco-Pérez Editor’s Note / Nota editorial

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General issues / Cuestiones generales Nicholas Purcell Unstable cities: some questions about Roman urbanism

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Javier Andreu Challenges and threats faced by municipal administration in the Roman West during the High Empire: the Hispanic case

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Aitor Blanco-PÉREZ Imperial responses to urban crisis in the Roman Empire: a conceptual approach

37

Lourdes Martínez de Morentin The vectigalia income in western Roman cities A particular assumption

47

Javier Martínez Tantam pecuniam male perdiderunt: Aqueducts and municipal investment in Hispania

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David Espinosa From municipia Latina to oppida labentia Bases for a model of the ideological and institutional causes behind the crisis of the Latin municipal system in Hispania

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Case Studies / Estudios de casos Mar Zarzalejos / Carmen Fernández-Ochoa / Patricia Hevia / Germán Esteban / Rosa Pina The urban decline of Sisapo-La Bienvenida (Ciudad Real, Spain): signs and archaeological evidence

83

6

Index/Índice

Alejandro Quevedo Carthago Nova between the 2nd and 3rd Centuries AD: the decline and urban crisis of a Roman city in South-Eastern Hispania

101

Pilar Diarte-Blasco Modelling the Late Antique urban crisis: the Ebro Valley explored

117

Juan Francisco Palencia Rupturas del modelo urbano en los siglos II–III d C en las ciudades hispanorromanas de la Meseta Sur

131

Antonio Guilabert / Manuel H Olcina / Eva Tendero Lucentum: nacimiento, vida y extinción de un municipio de la provincia Tarraconensis

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Rosario Cebrián Las últimas decisiones del ordo decurionum de Segobriga Evidencias arqueológicas del funcionamiento de la vida pública municipal a partir del siglo II d C

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Cèsar Carreras / Jordi Guardia / Josep Guitart The Late Iulia Lybica in the context of the Peninsular Pyrenees

179

Laurent Brassous Changes in the city network in Roman Hispania

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André Carneiro The cities that never were (?) Connectivity between urban settlements and the rural landscape in Lusitania during Late Antiquity

207

Conclusion/Conclusión Andrew Wallace-Hadrill Salvian of Marseilles and the end of the ancient city

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Editor’s Note Javier Andreu / Aitor Blanco-Pérez (University of Navarra)

From Chaeroneia it is twenty stades to Panopeus, a city of the Phocians, if one can give the name of city to those who possess no government offices, no gymnasium, no theatre, no market-place, no water descending to a fountain, but live in bare shelters just like mountain cabins, right on a ravine (Pausanias, Description of Greece 10, 4, 1) Ipse in largitionibus pecuniae publicae parcissimus fuit, quod laudi potius datur quam reprehensioni, sed tamen et bonis viris pecunias dedit et oppidis labentibus auxilium tulit et tributa vel vectigalia, ubi necessitas cogebat, remisit (HA, Marcus Aurelius 23, 2)

Cities in the Roman world, in general, and in Roman Spain, in particular, are historical realities whose particularities pose challenges of interpretation and study Despite the many – and largely illustrative – legal and epigraphic sources available to us, our understanding of a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon such as civic life under Rome’s rule is far from complete The diversity of formulas, both demographic and material as well as institutional and juridical, constituted the urban reality of the Roman West, as shown by the institutionalisation of the concept of municipium and the spread of this model of urbanisation in the provinces A municipium was, essentially, a juridical formula which, through the incorporation of pre-existing Latin institutions and the regulation of a framework of rights and duties, recognised lawful ways of life founded on the traditions of conquered territories In the case of Hispania, these consuetudinary forms were adapted to a model of municipal regulations particularly defined by the Flavian municipal law This adaptation required a high degree of generosity and engagement by the elite, civic pride, a desire of emulation; in sum, the acceptance that the Roman way of life was, first, attractive and, then, profitable and adequate for communities that constituted the administrative backbone of Rome in western provinces of the empire such as those on the Iberian peninsula

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Once this model of civic life was institutionalised in Roman Spain, the subsequent archaeological materials show generous efforts of monumentalisation that can be quantified and contribute to better understanding the magnitude of the process Likewise, the same evidence would indicate that, at the beginning of the High imperial period, the material reality of the city (urbs) did not always match the civic maturity (civitas) of the urban settlement From the end of the 2nd century AD, the decline of this monumentality seems to signal the transformation or re-dimension of urban life from an institutional perspective Phenomena such as the local political decadence known from later legal compilations could have originated in the progressive appraisal of civic duties as something burdensome, nonessential and only apt for those times of economic bonanza and imperial strength Between the end of the Antonine and Severan dynasties (c 180–230), a series of negative circumstances – e g court and ideological tensions, plagues, climate change – could have undermined the structural problems of a developed municipal model that required the maintenance of infrastructures, magistracies and other obligations which put local finances under stress as evidenced in many documents of this period Even if this process of deterioration cannot be considered universal – either in the provinces of Hispania or, even, in the Tarraconensis – archaeological evidence together with some epigraphic and legal notices after the mid-2nd century show a general transformation of the urban layout of many municipal communities, particularly those of modest size, suffering from shrinkage, if not crisis and complete abandonment Many public buildings seem to have lost their decus – for example, the fora celebrating the grandeur of Rome– there was a progressive privatization of public spaces, programmes of monumentalisation declined sharply, the custodia viarum inside the urban centres was largely given up and there was an overall phenomenon of spoliation caused by the challenge to maintain facilities quintessential to Roman urbanism such as sewage and hydraulic systems Likewise, the ruin or reuse of official sculptural and architectural elements and the regression – sometimes halt – of the epigraphic habit are signs inherent to the phenomenon of ‘cities in crisis’ or oppida labentia that is recorded in diverse ancient testimonies (see supra), naturally subject to the rhetorical particularities of each genre From the fact that this phenomenon cannot be regarded as universal and, even, general, it becomes necessary to avoid simple explanations and single causes Instead, everything indicates that such issues originated from the combination of the aforementioned structural problems of the Roman municipal system in Hispania and a series of intervening factors which, since 2011, have been studied by our research group As a result of these investigations, it is possible to state that there was not just one type of communities that resulted more fragile and subject to deeper transformations of their urban layout In principle, it would appear that those cities with a lower degree of interconnectivity could be more exposed to such changes However, there are communities whose civic territories were still fundamental for the Roman administration

Editor’s Note

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throughout the 3rd and 4th centuries as shown by the many milestones surviving on the roads Conversely, the urban splendour of many of these communities could be in ruins with the local elite preferring a more autarchic (although still luxurious) way of life in villae and fundi Cities that were financially dependent on a single resource appear to have reacted more acutely to the global transformation of economic trends as recently demonstrated by commercial and annona transactions, mining exploitation registers and numismatic studies Probably, the elite of some communities – already promoted during the Augustan and, particularly, the Flavian periods – began to depart from their smaller patriae at a later stage and enrolled in more prestigious imperial careers which could potentially affect local munificence Finally, some urban centres could not survive the concurrence of other communities that were more able to maintain the public works and level of urbanism reached at the beginning of the imperial period and, in this way, overcome the infirmitas and tenuitas decried by the epigraphic sources This volume is conceived as a continuation of the Spanish book Oppida labentia: transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad (Uncastillo, 2017) It focuses on the signs of urban transformation appearing in the archaeological record of Roman Spain and, particularly, the eastern Tarraconensis province with paradigmatic cases such as Iulia Lybica, Sisapo, Lucentum or Los Bañales de Uncastillo that are analysed in the following pages Other case studies such as those from Lusitania and Baetica – where the urban crisis appears to be less marked – seek to improve the interpretation of this complex and heterogeneous phenomenon, as previously emphasised The volume also presents papers on Roman Law, Epigraphy and Ancient History by scholars participating in the research project “De municipia Latina a oppida labentia: sobre la sostenibilidad económica e institucional del expediente municipal latino en Hispania (siglos I–III d C )” funded by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad / Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades Obviously, our work does not aim to bring this discussion to an end but, rather, to enhance indicators of crisis, continuity and change that had largely been overlooked in recent bibliography As a result of this work and with the assistance of other members of the international scholarly community – as exemplified in the present volume – we intend to explore in the future not only urban deterioration and the amortization of public spaces, but also to improve our understanding of the circumstances that made small and medium-size communities in Roman Spain to engage in such programmes of monumentalisation in the first place

General issues / Cuestiones generales

Unstable cities: some questions about Roman urbanism Nicholas Purcell (University of Oxford)

‘Roman towns’: what are we looking at and what do we see? My aim in these pages is to try to ask some questions which go deeper than the familiar, orthodox questions and answers about Roman urban history, and which perhaps might undercut them, or at least prompt new and productive thought 1 The Roman city is central to how we conceive of the Roman world, and that familiarity inevitably raises problems Here are three groups into which we might divide some searching questions 1) What do we see when we see a city? The features of the city are so well known that they are easy to take for granted: the fabric – streets, houses, temples, public-buildings, shops, city-walls; social categories – memory, identity, hierarchy, continuity, division of labour, social order; institutions – magistrates, laws, assemblies, cults, spectacles All of these need to be interrogated again, looked at with a new surprise at their distinctive aspects 2) No city is an island The city has such a distinctive physical form, and such characteristic social and cultural features within its walls or built-up area, that it is tempting to take it in isolation A moment’s reflection proposes the ensemble of town plus territory as a necessary corrective But towns are not isolated from each other either, and we need to think about the whole set of towns of which each is a constituent part, whether a set of peers or a hierarchy What unites the numerous members of the complete set of ‘Roman cities’ in a region, province, or across the empire?

1

It was a pleasure to be able to share some of these thoughts with an attentive audience at the University of Navarra, and I thank Prof Andreu Pintado and Dr Blanco Pérez very warmly for the invitation and for their hospitality

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3) What are cities for? The functions of cities are likewise easy to take for granted In whose interests are cities which have the characteristics explored in my first two sections founded and maintained? Above all, what purposes are served by the theories and ideologies of a world composed of cities? How is this reflected in the statuses – and even the names – of Roman cities? 4) You cannot step twice into the same city Finally, if we aspire to the pursuit of history, we need to ponder how all of this changes over time The argument of these few pages aims to emphasize the likelihood that permanence, stability and continuity are ideas which we especially associate with cities, and to such an extent that they can have unintended – and uninterrogated – consequences for our agendas and our results as historians My aim is to suggest some ways in which we might rather look for instabilities in the ancient city in particular – not to advocate abandoning all notions of the enduring qualities of Roman urbanism, but to counterpoint these claims to help us present the orthodox view in a more nuanced and persuasive manner 2 What do we mean by ‘continuity’ in the history of towns? Here again there is a major danger that we are convinced without real questioning by the claims of those who are interested in establishing the antiquity of their own entitlements I should like to reinstate narratives of change, drawing inspiration from the fluidities we see in the cities of our own times *** 1) What do we see when we see a city? 1 1 The physical, material, tangible urban matrix itself is perhaps stranger and less familiar than we might suppose All its major categories, the domestic, the monumental, the economic, communications, open space and built environment, need investigation The balance between them varies over time Take, for instance, the significance of the House Even its constituent materials should not be taken for granted Roof-tiles had a place of origin – the city of Corinth in the archaic period – and came to stand for the house, as in the charter of the Spanish colonia Urso Bricks and houses had inventors – Euryalus and Hyperbius at Athens, who thus brought to an end the habit of cave-dwelling (Pliny, Hist Nat 7 194) Then 2

I have developed some of these arguments at greater length in N Purcell, Statics and dynamics: ancient Mediterranean urbanism, in: B Cunliffe / Osborne, R (eds ), Mediterranean Urbanization 800–600 B C , London 2005: 249–272

Unstable cities: some questions about Roman urbanism

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we should reflect on the theory by which the house with its hearth was seen as component and microcosm of the city, which also had its hearth What weight should we give this deeply entrenched mode of thinking at different moments in Antiquity? And roughly equipollent citizen-houses of course speak of ideas of rough parity between the entitled cadre of city-dwellers, a large or small proportion of the population according to the context All these things are hardly features of all human urban form They need an explanation, and their changes need to be charted and analysed too The main elements of the monumental architecture which also served as a symbol or metonymy for the Roman city were equally peculiar to this culture and worthy of scrutiny Why temples? Why the monuments of the public life of the political community, or the buildings which accommodated its rewards, the bath-houses, porticoes, or spectacle architecture? How should we explain the genesis and history of the dichotomy between public and private domains?3 The buildings of the economy, for craft-production, storage, or retail, all equally betokened very specific social relations and distributions of wealth, as well as reflecting practices of labour and consumption which were historically distinctive too Even the streets of Roman cities are not obvious in their design and functioning, as has been shown by a surge in scholarly interest over the last few years 4 1 2 The inhabited city An ancient commonplace insisted that instead of the physical materiality of the city, it was the people who made it The maxim manifested itself in various forms, from the end of the 7th century BC to late Antiquity, when Isidore of Seville (15 2 1) wrote civitas autem non saxa sed habitatores vocantur … hominum multitudo societatis vinculo adunata Formulations variously emphasized the fortifications or the monumental public domain, contrasting them with various formulations for the ‘people’ – ‘adult (citizen) men’ in the early Greek cases, ‘human beings’ later, as in Isidore To begin with, and paradoxically, the idea matters precisely because it displays the appeal, in Antiquity as to us today, of seeing the city as first and foremost its architecture and built environment 5 The social relations of the ancient city, the ‘chains of community’, should indeed be recognised as a real alternative to the architectural carapace, when we seek the reality

3 4

5

cf A Zaccaria Ruggiu, Spazio privato e spazio pubblico nella città romana, Rome 1995 See J Hartnett, The Roman Street: urban life and society in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome, New York 2017; P Ballet / Dieudonné-Glad, N / Saliou, C , La rue dans l’antiquité: définition, aménagement et devenir de l’orient méditerranéen à la Gaule, Rennes 2008; B Gruet, La rue à Rome, miroir de la ville, Paris 2006 The most famous example is Thuc 7 77 7, but the idea first appears at Alcaeus F 22

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of the city Towns are processes, patterns of social and economic interaction, which may be located in, but are not co-extensive with, the densely built-up physical place which often forms their core A necessary question which we ask too rarely, about ancient as about modern urban fabrics, is ‘Who owns it?’ Who is entitled in what way to make what kinds of decision about urban space and what happens there? What mobilisations does such entitlement make possible? This means mobilisation in the sense both of making mobile, causing to move, of people, but also the movements of all the other things and goods which make urban systems viable The structures of permanence are not only different from the human realities of cities, but may even be at odds with them, since they are, like all human transactions, essentially vulnerable and ephemeral In particular, movement and communications exacerbate all the mutabilities of life-cycle and family formation 6 The social city is a snapshot, a movie still, of the whirling universe of human displacement and journeying This can be illustrated with two eloquent passages from the early Roman imperial period 1 3 Strabo and Seneca The Augustan geographer Strabo writes (Geography 4 1 12): Now the metropolis of the Arecomisci is Nemausus [Nîmes] Although it falls well short of Narbo [the colonia of Narbonne] in its crowded population of outsiders and of merchants, Nemausus surpasses Narbo in the number of citizens It has attributed to it twenty-four villages, which are exceptional in their abundance of men who form part of the citizen body of Nemausus, and assessed with it for purposes of taxation

Here we see two complementary vignettes of Roman provincial cities In the case of Nemausus, the city is indeed people, not walls, a people which goes far beyond a single city and its own territory, because it has been founded as the centre for mobilising the resources of a large number of dependent settlements, whose free-born inhabitants are citizens of the capital of the whole, Nemausus Strabo clearly sees how different this stable but populous case is from the port-city Narbo, where the density of the population of the urban core is to be attributed to visitors pursuing economic or political purposes in a city which is a regional centre, as the capital of the Roman province of Narbonensis Two generations later, Nero’s advisor, the philosopher Seneca, picks up the theme of the outsider population of cities in the empire of his time (Consolatio ad Helviam 6 2–5): Consider the abundance of population which the buildings of this gigantic City can scarcely contain – the greater part of this crowd has no fatherland … Some have come to put their beauty on sale, some their eloquence There is no people that does not rush to 6

See R Laurence / Newsome, D J , Rome, Ostia, Pompeii: movement and space, Oxford 2011

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Rome, which pays high prices for virtues and vices alike Get all these folk to a roll-call, and at each name ask ‘where’s your home?’ You’ll find that the majority have abandoned their home and come to a city which, though very large and very lovely, is not theirs Now leave this community which can, after all, be seen as common to all, go round all the cities – there is not one in which a great part of the population is not foreign Move on from those whose convenient location or advantageous hinterland attracts large scale immigration, to remote places and the roughest islands … what could be found as barren as this rock, what so precipitous all round, what more meagre in subsistence, what less hospitable to human life, what more appalling to look at, what less equable in climate? And yet here too the community is composed more of outsiders than native citizens So slight a problem is the changing of places that even this spot has enticed some people away from their fatherland

For Seneca, Rome the imperial cosmopolis is the ultimate example of the processes which Strabo saw at work at Narbo But he could maintain – without risking incredulity in his readers – that a significant level of mobility lay behind the populations of every city, however inaccessible and undistinguished The Roman city, then, is a paroxysm in a geography and sociology of movement Looking at the city entails seeing not just a population which belongs there, but assessing the origins and destinations of all those who are on the move through it That means in turn that we should never seek to examine cities in isolation, which brings me to section 2

2) No city is an island 2 1 The first respect in which the urban nucleus demands a wider setting is, of course, its territory 7 It is not so much that the populace of the city controls or rules a separable countryside, as that the people of the city belong as much in the wider landscape as in the built environment, and the country is as much the stage of their activities as the urban core The separation is in a sense arbitrary, schematic and provisional 8 Ancient observers took nucleation of an urban core for granted, but were capable of recognising that a dispersed settlement pattern was not essentially different in kind Thus Tacitus distinguishes Roman and German settlement patterns (Germ 16 2): ‘they do not establish settlements in our manner, with buildings joined together and continuous 7 8

See J Dubouloz, Territoire et patrimoine urbains des cités romaines d’Occident (Ier siècle avant J -C – IIIe siècle après J -C ) Essai de configuration juridique, MEFRA 115 (2003), 921–957 This was argued forcefully long ago by P Abrams ‘Introduction’, in: P Abrams / Wrigley, E A (eds ), Towns in Societies: Essays in Economic History and Historical Sociology, Cambridge 1978: 2–3; casting doubt on the historical usefulness of the ‘autonomous urban reality’ Peregrine Horden and I adopted this viewpoint in The corrupting sea: a study of Mediterranean history, Oxford 2000: 96–105, 115–122

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– each individual surrounds his dwelling-house with open space, either as a protection against fire, or because their architectural knowledge is wanting’ 2 2 Each town’s economic and social hinterland is therefore integral to it (and the relationship of this hinterland to the actual boundaries of its territory, where those are precisely defined, is always an interesting question) These hinterlands may be very extensive, and include routes and catchments which extend the horizons of an urban nucleus very widely, whether through the movements of those who travel to and from the city as in Strabo’s ‘Nemausus model’, or through the area which is engaged with the markets of the central place They may sometimes defy apparent geographical logic An extreme case comes once again in Strabo, who asserts that the emporion or trading centre for the mobile populations of the Maghreb and beyond, where their outlet to the Mediterranean and its seaways is to be found, is not even on the African litoral, but across the Alboran Sea, in the city of Málaga (3 4 2)! Unlike political and institutional territories, such hinterlands overlap and interact, and within them hierarchies of economic and social preference emerge and disappear 2 3 Even easier than the nature of the town as an urban phenomenon to leave uninterrogated is the way in which large numbers of towns formed collectivities, sets, or clusters, how they were differentiated from or assimilated to each other, compared, ranked – or, perhaps more usually in Antiquity, made to seem equal What were the resonances of multiplicity: mirrorings, imitations (or their converse, individuality and distinctiveness)? What shaped pattern and uniformity across large sets of comparable urban settlements? In Antiquity, the parameters of individuality seem to have been quite tightly limited, at least in practice The advantages of displaying a unique history, or cults which were your own in a special way, seem to have been outweighed by the practical gains from being seen to be a member of a large set of cities, poleis or Roman chartered towns At least this is always a worthwhile enquiry when engaging in urban history or archaeology In such research, it should be recognised that proclaiming equipollence between cities is an ideology 2 4 In the history of towns, the iteration or replication of the urban image is always one of the first things that needs to be explained There is safety, or pride, in numbers Creating the impression of peer-groups of settlements – sometimes enormous ones – gives an impressive framework for even small settlements which otherwise have mainly local reach Very large numbers of cities had potent rhetorical implications 9 Meanwhile, under the surface of apparent equality, primate cities, and local and larger 9

For Menander, Epitrepontes 875, by a rough estimate, there were 1000 cities in the world, an interesting confirmation that the total for poleis of Hansen, 1069, was a familiar way of thinking in the 4th century BC See M H Hansen / Nielsen, T H , An inventory of archaic and classical poleis

Unstable cities: some questions about Roman urbanism

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hierarchies, could develop and shift In the case of the Roman world, while the notional equivalence of coloniae or municipia was a significant image, and one which appears to have been particularly marked in the Spanish provinces of the imperial period, there was no hesitation about articulating the whole urban system as a hierarchy with provincial capitals as higher-status centres, and with Rome itself giving meaning and authority to the whole collectivity 10 Membership of impressively large sets of cities could be suggested by replication, patterning, and uniformity of institutions, and especially of the urban fabric and its components The urban norm which was generated in this way was itself subject to change, and took different forms in the middle or late Republic, and in the long-lasting order of the imperial period As an example, we might take one phenomenon of the 2nd century BC, the transformation or co-evolution of the Roman and not-yet-Roman cities of Italy in accordance with the latest trends of the Hellenic world In the small and relatively unimportant town Aletrium, a benefactor of the later 2nd century gave an eloquent list of the latest amenities and status-symbols (CIL I2 1529): Lucius Betilienus Vaarus son of Lucius, on the authority of the Senate [of Aletrium], saw to the making of the things set out in writing below: he made all the ways of the town, the colonnade by which the Citadel is approached, the ground where they play, the sundial, the market-building, the pavement of the basilica, the public seating, the cistern for the baths, the water-supply of the city elevated for 340 paces and its arches, and the pipeline ?encased in concrete In return for these items, they made him Censor twice [at Aletrium] and the Senate ordered to be exempted his son from military service, while the People gave him a statue – as ‘Censorinus’

Here the benefactor transforms the urban environment to set his city in two overlapping sets of cities, both of which he deliberately evokes – the cities of the Greek world with their gymnasium-culture and technological display, and the increasingly self-conscious cities of the Roman domain in Italy, looking over their shoulders at the institutions of the capital We might want to draw a parallel in the transformation and co-evolution of the Greco-Roman and indigenous cities of Spain in a similar period Indeed, the influence on Italy of new sorts of urban form and practice by no means has to derive only from the east Influential change and new configurations of urban system were happening west

10

An investigation conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation, Oxford 2004 On centrality as an organising principle in Roman urbanism see N Purcell, Urban spaces and central places: the Roman world, in: S Alcock / Osborne, R (eds ), Classical Archaeology, Oxford 2007: 182–202

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of Italy too The resonances and parallelisms of the municipia of early imperial Spain are a further example of a similar practice 3) What are cities for? My third question is deliberately naive Even if the emperor might be seen as pater urbium (Horace, Odes 3 24 27–8), no-one planned the Roman urban phenomenon as a whole, or pondered the reasons for maintaining it; if some (as will shortly be seen) benefited from it more than others, it would still be absurd to suggest that the system was in any sense deliberately maintained in their interests No functionalist account of the Roman town is plausible 3 1 There is, however, no doubt that cities served a crucial role in mediating the decisions and agency of those whose power operated on a province-wide or empire-wide scale It was through these concentrations of symbolic authority and of the activities of the wealthy that ancient states ruled The theoretical order which cities bought into, through the processes of replication and the pursuit of uniformity, conduced to their status, but it also helped perpetuate the systems of concentration and mobilisation of resources, in kind, in money, in human service, on which state organisation depended 11 Cities under the Roman empire, then, continued to suffer from the ambiguous and circumscribed independence which had also characterised the polis As the organs through which most state power was delivered, their autonomy was always precarious: they were, in addition, the most obvious recipients of the policy of discrimination through which Rome had always ruled, the constant re-calibration of rewards for virtue and penalties for falling short Like their Greek predecessors, likewise, Roman cities were poised between welcoming and resisting connectivity Outsiders, and goods and materials from outside, might be necessary to the routine functioning of cities: but they were frequently at odds with the claims to good order and stable culture which cities liked to propagate 3 2 The illusion of fixity It was an effective strategy of Greek and Roman societies to display and harness memory through the evocation of continuity with an ancient past That served to justify many aspects of political, social and cultural order No instrument was more effective

11

See e g F Costabile / Licandro, O Tessera Paemeiobrigensis Un nuovo editto di Augusto alla Transduriana provincia e l’imperium proconsulare del princeps, Rome 2000

Unstable cities: some questions about Roman urbanism

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in this respect than the ancient city Many, perhaps all, of the ingredients which we discussed in my first section, above, can be linked with the claim to longevity and the persistence of custom and the fabric of the city itself from a constitutive moment of foundation, or simply from time immemorial Walls, urban layout, the configuration of the territory, houses, rural estates and cemeteries, the monuments which spoke of their donors, and (above all) the cult-places of the city, all spoke eloquently of tradition, diuturnity, and a downright fixity of the urban phenomenon in the face of all the challenges of nature and human action 12 This seems to me to be a central feature of ancient urban theory: and one which is both important to recognise, and to keep to one side when we are attempting our own historical explanation I support this observation about the persuasive purposes of the town by observing the extraordinary comparability of the ancient city across 1500 years 13 In the most diverse environments, from the Oxus plains to the Galician mountains, in Egypt or the Carpathians, Yorkshire and the Caucasus, urban behaviours can effectively be studied side by side The social and economic systems in which these centres were located were as diverse as the environments: it was the indispensable rhetoric of permanence and system which gave towns a comparable function in all of them The permanence of cities was, nonetheless, something of a deception They are spectacular instances of the old logical paradox, the sorites The parts – not least the inhabitants themselves – come and go, and only the collectivity survives the multiple replacement of all its parts When did the city become new again? No-one could say – whence the plausibility of the claim of immemorial past and (at least sometimes) eternal destiny Even the buildings and streets are less tenacious than they seem Isidore of Seville tellingly calls the main thoroughfares of the cities he knew, the plateae, ‘perpetuae ac latiores civitatium viae’ (15 2 23), i e the more spacious streets of the cities, which are permanent – many were only too obviously not Still more spectacularly, towns retained name and identity, but were prone to relocation and recreation within a landscape, as the long history of Ephesos illustrates well As well as being unchanging like the hills themselves – praeruptis oppida saxis – the town could be temporary, intermittent, relocatable A third reason for change was, paradoxically, that the programme of celebration of fixity and stability required constant intervention The city was a work of constant elaboration, ritual, historical, cognitive, institutional, administrative, social, fiscal, economic, architectural From Kaulonia in south Italy in the early 5th century BC comes

12 13

See Y Thomas, Les ornements, la cité, le patrimoine, in: C Auvray-Assayas (ed ), Images romaines, Paris 2001: 263–283; S Mitchell, Festivals, games and civic life in Roman Asia Minor, JRS 80 (1990): 183–193 For this theme, cf N Purcell, Roman urbanism, in: A Barchiesi / Scheidel, W (eds ), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Studies, Oxford 2010: 579–592

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a new inscription which illustrates this well It describes the building of a new temple as ‘a wonder for visiting strangers, and beautiful good order for the citizens (thauma xenois, kosmos politais) 14 The double optic is vital: all cities in antiquity looked in and out at the same time, and appraisal by the comparative eye of the sojourner played as big a part in making cities what they were as the pursuit of self-esteem by those who belonged 3 3 Towns are not always good for you Cities formed – and have always formed – part of the rhetoric of the common good, often enough serving the protestations of the powerful that what conduces to their authority also benefits the ordinary citizen One of the consequences has been the long-lasting conceptual link between cities and civilisation Such a connection fits well with the urban persuasive strategies, and may deserve a similar caution We might, in other words, include in our approaches to ancient cities the possibility that accept that being a world of cities might have had negative consequences too Finally, an issue for the historian’s own psychology, then: the underlying value-judgement in urban history, too rarely brought out into the open Do we in some senses consider the Roman city to be ‘good’? Why do we think that? It needs to be established that the urban environment conduced to the wellbeing of the urban population For larger ancient cities there is a good deal of doubt about that point, given that comparative work and palaeopathology combine to suggest that the ancient cities which enticed people to them in the manner described by Seneca were usually lethal for them, simply because of the concentrated disease-pools which they represented; though there are currently signs that the pessimistic orthodoxy of recent years is being stigmatised as ‘miserabilist’, and a revisionist position sought Apart from physical wellbeing, the effects of internal hierarchy and also social control need evaluation And then there is the question of the effect of having entitled cities on those who were less closely connected with urban life

14

See C Ampolo, Zeus a Kaulonia: la Tabula Cauloniensis, un elmo con dedica e il loro significato storico’, in: M T Ianelli / Sabbione, C (eds ), Le spose e gli eroi, Vibone 2014, 123–124

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23

4) Urbes intermortuae: you cannot step twice into the same city 4 1 The vulnerable city Finally, if we aspire to history, we need to ponder how the interplay of the factors which I have been describing changes over time The Romans were very well aware of the vulnerability of their cities, as scarcely needs emphasis in the land of oppida labentia 15 My final example is from late Antiquity, from AD 331 It concerns the bid for city-status made by a large village or group of villages in Anatolia The emperor Constantine writes with a favourable response: Orcistus can be upgraded The ruler comments that the benefit which was sought appeared ‘extremely acceptable to rulers who are eager to found new cities – to repair long-lived cities – or to restore ones which have almost expired’ (CIL III 352; MAMA 7, 305; ILS 6091) This text has an important summary of the claims to imperial favour which Orcistus could mount, and which succeeded in convincing the rulers The size and quality of the population and the ease of communications by road show that analysis after the manner of Strabo and Seneca was still relevant In addition, the place’s long and distinguished history is adduced; together with its hydraulic advantages (and specifically its watermills) and the fact that the population is substantially Christian Finally, it is striking that the promotion to city status is a key step in protecting the people of Orcistus against the depredations of their neighbours Here, then, is a realistic picture of urban vicissitudes, and of how towns could be promoted and demoted, assembled and dissolved, reorganised and relocated For me, the most fascinating aspect of this document is the necessary engagement of the emperor with a capacious vision of city-history, from foundation through troubles or disasters, lasting over long swathes of time 4 2 The nature of ancient city-history Orcistus illustrates something else which we should remember as we interrogate ancient cities We need to be alert to the difference between ‘coming to be urban’ and ‘being made to be urban’ Some social phenomena emerge – naturally, organically, spontaneously; on the other hand, others are planned, appointed, ordained, imposed Of course Roman cities were shaped by both kinds of process But we need to be clear which aspects of the ancient city to attribute to which category Words like ‘urbaniza15

J Andreu, Oppida labentia Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017 cf M A Magallón Botaya / Sillières, P , Labitolosa: (La Puebla de Castro, province de Huesca, Espagne): une cité romaine de l’Hispanie citérieure, Bordeaux 2013

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tion’, at least in English, fudge this issue And it matters: thinking social change somehow automatic, is implicitly to accept, or even to justify it, and to render it essentially inevitable ‘This was just what happened – it was no-one’s doing’ That inevitably distracts attention from and conceals the advantages and goals of those who may have tried, with various levels of success, to create or modify the changes in question My point is that there is a great deal of top-down intervention in ancient urban history, the toolkit which Constantine evokes in his favourable response to these Anatolian petitioners The dilemma of city-history in the ancient world was, indeed, how to control the tension between the forces Movement and the constant change and innovation which it brought were essential to the city;16 but they were, conceptually and practically, antagonistic to the claims of fixity, permanence and stability on which cities depended ideologically, and as parts of larger cultural systems The rulers of the city needed to draw on co-ordinates of control and comparison and parallelism which helped to guarantee and protect city form and city institutions in general against the fluxes on which they paradoxically depended 4 3 In conclusion It is, it emerges, scarcely surprising that we have such a positive view of ancient cities in general, and Roman ones in particular Their speciality, their most potent function, was to propagate and make convincing claims about their own success! Those claims were couched as statements about the merits of their history and their expected future, their advantages, their patrons, and, crucially, their participation in a large matrix of similar centres which all drew on each other to reinforce their sense of achievement The more familiar ideas of the sophistication of cities as economic or cultural centres are to be related to this persuasive agenda Who benefited most? While urban populations no doubt did gain something from the cities which they kept alive by making them their destinations, it was above all the wealthy who stood to gain from making claims about city-life, and from the implications of those claims The wealthy, and behind them, the overarching authority systems of kingdoms or empires, which drew on urban success as a justification of their rule, and, even more important, relied on the urban phenomenon for the broadcasting of their own messages and the gathering of the resources which they needed to extract As such purposes waned, the urban system could only falter

16

See I Östenberg / S Malmberg / Bjørnebye, J , The Moving City Processions, passages and promenades in ancient Rome, London 2015

Challenges and threats faced by municipal administration in the Roman West during the High Empire: the Hispanic case* Javier Andreu

(University of Navarra)

El auge del desarrollo de la vida municipal suele colocarse en el siglo II y, concretamente, para España, en la época de Adriano, ya desde Trajano Pero no deja de ser verdad que tal apogeo era más bien una apariencia de bienestar general, explotado por pequeños grupos caciquiles, y que, pese a las apariencias, la organización de las ciudades carecía de las reservas de vital autonomía necesarias para superar la decadencia en que inmediatamente incurrieron La ruina del Imperio fue precedida de una ruina de las ciudades

This is how Á d’Ors,1 one of the most knowledgeable scholars of the legal and legislative framework of Roman provincial administration, described in the mid-1950s the fragility of the Roman administrative system which, furthermore, had developed at such a dizzying pace in the provinces during the reign of Augustus and had come into its own during the two short decades of the Flavian dynasty2 with Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian It now seems that at the time all the former ciuitates stipendiariae pursued municipal status3 thus contributing to its spread and converting it into the most gen*

1 2

3

This work forms part of the R&D&I project HAR2016–74854-P “De municipia latina a oppida labentia Sobre la sostenibilidad económica e institucional del expediente municipal latino en la Hispania Romana (siglo I–III d C )”, financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad / Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades Á D’Ors, Epigrafía jurídica de la España Romana, Madrid 1953: 142 On this process, with chronologically circumscribed studies, see J M Roldán (ed ), Aspectos de la colonización y municipalización de Hispania, Mérida 1986; or J Santos / E Ortiz de Urbina (eds ), Teoría y práctica del ordenamiento municipal en Hispania, Vitoria 1996 A full recent account of the expansion of Roman law as the driving force behind those transformations can be found in D Espinosa, Plinio y los oppida de antiguo Lacio: el proceso de difusión del Latium en Hispania Citerior, Oxford 2014 With all the bibliography at least in J Andreu, Edictum, municipium y lex: Hispania en época flavia (69–96 d C ), Oxford 2004; and E Mª Morales, La municipalización flavia de la Bética, Granada 2004

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eral form of local administration for Hispanic communities that already had older ties with Rome, at least of the cultural kind As a matter of fact, the profound reflections of this illustrious Romanist stem from an analysis of the letter that Vespasian wrote to the quattuoruiri et decuriones Saborensium (CIL II, 1423) in 78 AD, in which the emperor granted some of the petitions pertaining to the multae difficultates and the infirmitas affecting this community located in Cañete la Real (Malaga) immediately after its promotion to municipal status under the Flavian ius Latii As D’Ors himself indicated in that same commentary,4 and which subsequent research has endorsed on numerous occasions,5 this epistula, together with the letter that Titus wrote to the local authorities of Munigua (AE 1961, 147) the following year to intervene in a matter of tenuitas publica and the terrible indebtedness of the Muniguenses – which as is well known involved a contractor of one of the multiple public services farmed out by the municipality to third parties6 and which must have been habitual bargaining chips in many municipal communities – and the final provision, also in the form of a letter, with which Domitian signed the extant bronze copy of the lex Irnitana (AE 1984, 454) in 91 AD, on the grounds that the indulgentia Principis was now totally consumata concerning different civil issues, have all clearly highlighted the extent to which Hispanic communities accepted with assurances the expansion of Latin right of which Pliny the Elder had spoken 7 These documents have also revealed, as Á D’Ors himself suggested, that Hispanic-Roman cities had a penchant for using impressive public building programmes (many of which had been initiated during the reign of Augustus) to mirror Rome and also to conceal their own problems It is precisely these difficulties, together with Pliny the Younger’s8 contemporary description of economic upheavals, extravagant public works, and the embezzlement of public funds (albeit in the case of Bithynia et Pontus), which have ultimately been invoked as evidence of the precarious sustainability of 4

5

6 7 8

Á D’Ors, op Cit (n 1): 62–63 This passage has also been commented on, according to these premises, by F Martín, Las constituciones imperiales de Hispania, in: Roma y las provincias: realidad administrativa e ideología imperial, Sevilla 1994: 169–188 This issue, stressing the structural problems of the municipalities emerging under the aegis of Latin rights, has been analysed in J Andreu, J Mata & L Romero, El municipio de derecho Latino hispanorromano: ¿un expediente constitucional sostenible?, in: Soares, C / Brandão, J L / Carvalho, P (eds ), História Antiga: Relações Interdisciplinares Paisagens urbanas, rurais & sociais, Coimbra 2018: 139–154 F Beltrán Lloris, Inscripciones sobre bronce, ¿un rasgo característico de la cultura epigráfica de las ciudades hispanas?, in: Actas XI Congreso Internazionale di Epigrafia Greca e Latina (Roma, 1997), Rome 1999: 21–37, esp 29; and A Caballos, Latinidad y municipalización de Hispania bajo los Flavios: estatuto y normativa, Mainake 32 (2001): 101–119, esp 116; although the issue was already implicit in: W D Lebek, La Lex Latii di Domiziano (Lex Irnitana): le strutture giuridiche dei Capitoli 84 e 86, ZPE 97 (1993): 158–178, esp 164 As revenue sources in P Le Roux, Vectigalia et revenus des cités en Hispanie au Haut-Empire, in: Il capitolo delle entrate nelle finanze municipali in Occidente ed in Oriente, Rome 1999: 155–173 Plin Nat 3, 30 Plin Ep 10, 17, 3; 10, 18, 3 and 10, 24, for example

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27

the Roman municipal model9 and as the basis for portraying its challenges and weaknesses All of which should be borne in mind in the framework of the circumstantial processes of change experienced by many Hispanic and Western cities as of the 2nd century AD As has already been explained at length, with a number of noteworthy contributions from Spanish research,10 the very essence of the Roman concept of municipium lay in the legal recognition of the local iura and instituta inherent to foreign communities and extraneous to Roman law Available archaeological data on a number of privileged communities (and in particular on those that were promoted to municipal status during the Flavian period), or better said the scant material importance of some of this information,11 highlight the fact that in all likelihood, as has been claimed quite recently, most of the Hispanic cities, even those that enjoyed the privilege of Latin right, were never major urban centres,12 however much the maintenance of the commoditas, decus, ornatus and facies ciuitatis was a basic commitment of the municipal authorities13 and the phenomenon of constructing vast buildings and monuments was usually a consequence of the reception of municipal status To be a municipality – as the classical definitions of Varro, Festus, and Gellius14 recall – merely implied the existence of a series of munera and a body of ciues capable of managing and undertaking the former: quod publica munia accipiant, as Isidore remarked15 It is true that, as can be gleaned from the arguments presented by the Orcistani to the Emperor Constantine to regain their old municipal status between 326 and 330 AD, the possession of water supply infrastructure, public and private baths, forums and public spaces festooned with imperial statuary, large populations, and sources of wealth and development (CIL III, 352)16 might have been elements that were taken into consideration in the legal promotion of a city to that municipal status Fundamental to this, nonetheless, was an adequate distribution of tasks and responsibilities and, above all, that the munera17 were properly man-

9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

J Andreu, Rationes publicae uexatae y oppida labentia The urban crisis of the 2nd and 3rd century AD in the light of the particular case of Los Bañales (Uncastillo, Saragossa, Spain) in: Vaquerizo, D / Garriguet, J A / León, A (eds ), Ciudad y territorio: transformaciones materiales e ideológicas entre la época clásica y el Alto Medioevo, Córdoba 2014: 251–264 Above all in E García Fernández, El municipio latino: origen y desarrollo constitucional, Madrid 2001: 125–180 F Fernández Gómez / M Del Amo, La lex Irnitana y su contexto arqueológico, Sevilla 1990 J Arce, La inscripción de Orcistus y las preocupaciones del emperador, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident Romain entre le IIe et le IVe siècle, Madrid 2015: 311–324, esp 314 Cod Iust 8, 12, 6 Varro, LL 5, 179; Fest 117L and 262L, and Gell NA 16, 13 Isid Orig 9, 4, 21 and 15, 2, 10 or 9, 4, 21, commented – all these mentions – in J F Rodríguez Neila, A propósito de la noción de municipio en el mundo romano, Hispania Antiqua 6 (1976): 147–168 See A Chastagnol, L’inscription constantinienne d’Orcistus, MEFRA 93–1 (1981): 381–416 G Pereira, Munera ciuitatum La vida de la ciudad romana ideal, Sevilla 2011

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aged, a job that logically fell to the legislative apparatus or a consilium18 about which the legal documents of the Flavian period coming from the Hispanic provinces provide information of an absolutely pragmatic nature 19 It is believed that with the universalization of municipal status based on Latin right in Hispania as of the Flavian period, the process was more akin to recognition than to supervision, irrespective of whether or not this might have mediated in the process’ juridical iter at one point or another 20 In Rome, the municipality was then an institution halfway between private – since it regulated relations between ciues and incolae – and public law, inasmuch as its real purpose was to articulate relations between those ciues and incolae and the state itself In this connection, and when analysing what might have been to our mind symptoms of the vulnerability – beyond simple financial tenuitas – of Roman municipalities, those of the High Empire, and especially their Hispanic counterparts, there are three factors that we believe are fundamental for explaining the difficulties that can be deduced from the aforementioned Hispanic evidence and which also justify the raison d’être of the more or less irregular character of city planning attested to in ongoing excavations from at least the last decades of the 2nd century during a period when these factors clearly exacerbated a structural problem perhaps for circumstantial reasons We are referring first and foremost to the voluntary nature of public offices – relating in any case to the problems of finding suitable candidates (an issue to which we will return later)–; secondly, to the necessary involvement of the members of a community, municipes or incolae in the undertaking of a series of tasks essential to the model’s adequate – and even sustainable – working; and lastly, to the agricultural economic base indispensable – even when not exclusively so – for the running of the majority of these communities Indeed, and due to the obsession for the res communis municipum, which is mentioned profusely in the extant legal text fragments,21 there are plenty of allusions to civic collaboration, obligatory in those cases in which there was a shortfall in the minimum number of decurions required for the proper functioning of the municipal regime by means of the adlectio ad numerum22 procedure, without forgetting the character of honos intrinsically linked to political practice in Rome and, in particular, at a local level 23 Moreover, one of the chapters of the lex Irnitana, dealing with munitiones,

18 19 20 21 22 23

Cic Rep 1, 41 See at least R Mentxaka, El senado municipal de la Bética hispana a la luz de la Lex Irnitana, Vitoria 1993 A U Stylow, Entre edictum y lex A propósito de una nueva ley municipal flavia del término de Écija, in: J González (ed ), Ciudades privilegiadas en el Occidente romano, Sevilla 1999: 229–237 See, for example, Irn 26 Irn 31 and Mal 51 F Jacques, Le privilège de liberté: politique impériale et autonomie municipale dans les cités de l’Occident romain (161–244), Rome 1984; or J E Lendon, Empire of honour: the art of government in the Roman world, Oxford 1997

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provides a detailed list of the contributions in kind – i e public works – which were expected of those who were municipes or residents of the municipality, and even of those who did not reside in it or within its bounds but had properties there 24 Besides, the suspension or deferral of public affairs (res prolatae) at harvest time underscores the extent to which the landed property of members of the elite was their lifeblood and conditioned their voluntary provision of services to the community, while also allowing for their generosity, through euergetism, when financing municipal services,25 in this case either off their own initiative or forced by law For example, the stress that has been recently placed on the effects that the drier climate experienced during the reign of Marcus Aurelius might have had on municipalities that had hitherto flourished,26 in addition to the profuse legislation relating to decuriones exhausti or adfugati contained in late legal compilations,27 shows the extent to which the voluntary nature of public office and the economic foundations of municipalities could condition the very survival of their constitutional model Thus ruining their own viability which, moreover, was left in the hands of neophyte politicians, as many of those who had responsibilities in municipia recently established under the ius Latii must have been Apart from that and taking into account the descriptive character which, sensu contrario, any legal ruling – especially the Roman kind28– has and its importance in understanding the concerns of the society which it regulates, in our view there are other passages of the municipal legislation that underline a number of obsessions that, given their protectionist nature, allow us to put the accent on the precarious viability of many communities granted municipal status, which might have been especially dire at times Those obsessions make it clear that the basic concern of the lawmakers, besides civic coexistence, was the viability of the model from a strictly financial point of view The first of these obsessions, which has been the object of much study,29 was the concern that leges municipales showed for the pecunia communis, the municipal finances, 24 25 26

27

28 29

Irn 83 E Melchor, El mecenazgo cívico en la Bética La contribución de los evergetas a la vida municipal, Córdoba 1994: 139–147 With references and empirical data in W Jongman, Gibbon was right: the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, in: Crises and the Roman Empire, Leiden 2007: 183–200; although the subject has also been studied by C P Elliott, The Antonine plague, climate change and local violence in Roman Egypt, Past & Present 231–1 (2016): 3–31; and by A M Rosen, Civilizing Climate: social responses to Climate Change in the Ancient Near East, Lanham 2007: 153–154, both with ample bibliographies Cod Theod 12, 18, 1 and 2 and 12, 18, 2 On this issue, although based on a proposal that rejects the value of these legal provisions, see E Melchor, François Jacques tenía razón: sobre el no declinar de las élites locales y de la vida municipal durante el siglo II y el primer tercio del siglo III d C , in J Andreu (ed ), Oppida labentia: transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 217–244 G Mousourakis, The historical and institutional context of Roman law, Nueva York 2016 For a good assessment, see J F Rodríguez Neila, Políticos municipales y gestión pública en la Hispania Romana, Polis 15 (2003): 161–197, 169–174; and in J F Rodríguez Neila, Pecunia com-

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practically as great as the attention paid, as mentioned above, to the res communis, the common treasury of the members of a municipal community To safeguard the pecunia communis was the main commitment of candidates for the decurionate and magistracies 30 Furthermore, before the elections, these candidates had to submit the appropriate cautiones which guaranteed their suitability for the post,31 an act that had no other purpose than to prove that they would each be capable of coming to the financial rescue of the city, if and when required With the challenge of managing, spending, safeguarding, and administrating that kind of common pot, the figure of the quaestores32 was created, although the responsibility to protect the pecunia communis – as has already been noted – was assumed by all magistrates The ordo decurionum could also establish extraordinary contributions and taxes through a procedure of pignus capiendi,33 as well as funding which the municipal budget might have required at any time But all the same, at least in Irni, municipal taxes were limited to 50,000 sestertii, unless the provincial authorities took matters into their own hands34 by implementing procedures of erogatio which could only be approved by a quorum equivalent to three quarters of the decurionate,35 doubtless a good measure of their strategic importance Additionally, the pecunia communis could increase its revenues through extraordinary fines imposed on the municipes which could be as high as 10,000 sestertii in the event that they committed some or other offence against the common good, i e against the aforementioned res communis 36 Besides its intrinsic coercive value, the multae dictio, which was the responsibility of the aediles and inherent to the iuris dictio of the duumviri, might conceivably have served at some time or other to alleviate cash-flow problems which, judging by this legislation, must have been a constant headache for municipal communities 37 The very legal term employed – pecunia communis municipum – possibly underscores the collective and untouchable character of this budgetary fund sustaining local finances Even when determining how much should be spent on functions such as the ludi and religious celebrations – so closely linked to building social cohesion in the community and to such a unifying phenomenon as the imperial cult38 – a spending

30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38

munis municipum Decuriones, magistrados y gestión de las finanzas municipales en Hispania, in: Rodríguez Neila, J F / Castillo, C , y Navarro, J (eds ), Sociedad y economía en el Occidente Romano, Pamplona 2003: 111–198 Irn 60 Mal 60 Irn 20 Mal 67 dedicates a full section to the pecunia communis and its adequate management, an issue which is taken up again in Mal 69 Irn 19 Irn 80 Irn 79 Irn 26 and Mal 65 Irn 19 and esp 26 J Edmonson, Public spectacles and Roman social relations, in: Ludi Romani: espectáculos en la Hispania Romana, Mérida 2002: 41–63

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ceiling had to be established and supervised by the decurional council 39 In short, all this complex legal paraphernalia apparently reveals how frequent municipal budgetary imbalances were and a phenomenon described as the rationes rerum publicarum uexatae by Pliny the Younger in his correspondence with Trajan,40 must have been From the economic recession and collapse of those enterprises that gave meaning to the exploitation of the territoria of these cities – and therefore to the latter themselves – it can be logically deduced that the taxation procedures that filled the municipal coffers and which ensured the viability of community services must have been behind both the aforementioned scarcity of candidates willing to stand for public office and the crisis and ruin of at least those communities with a more fragile economy or which were more dependent on a sole source of wealth As a matter of fact, this book includes a number of examples of which the case of Segobriga is perhaps the most eloquent Just as the lapis specularis had guaranteed the emergence of Segobrigensis society since the times of Augustus, so too the appearance of competition in the shape of blown glass led to a profound urban crisis that would ultimately undermine municipal structures and encourage the exodus of the former local elites,41 thus resulting in the breakdown of the old civic centre as envisaged by law So, on the subject of the early urban crisis, it is essential to perform a historical analysis of all the communities involved, analysis that always have to take into account the same variables, amongst which sources of wealth and connectivity should take pride of place Another field in which municipal legislation constantly intervened in civic life was directly related to the maintenance of the urban decus, the upkeep of public works and services in the face of different realities – known on the basis of documentary accounts – which worked against their preservation and yet again attempted to curb the primacy of the private domain over the public sphere This threatened the very essence of the Roman municipality as far as collective rights and mutual obligations regarding the common wealth were concerned Thus, as had already been noted, the quaestores were responsible for safeguarding and administrating the pecunia communis, while supplies – annona – sacred buildings and sites – aedes sacrae and loca religiosa – the urban centre – oppidum – its baths and markets – balinea and macellum – and infrastructures – uiae, uici, cloacae – belonging both to the urban centre and to the surrounding territory were managed by the aediles 42 The tabula Heracleensis (CIL I, 206) already listed some of the most frequent offences pertaining in this case to the loca publica of the Vrbs, viz the raising of structures within its bounds, blocking access to it, or its free use, unless expressly authorized by

39 40 41 42

Irn 77 Plin Ep 10, 18 J M Abascal, Elites y sociedad romana de la Meseta Sur, in: Epigrafía y sociedad en Hispania durante el Alto Imperio: estructuras y relaciones sociales, Madrid 2003: 141–162, esp 150–155 Irn 19 and 82

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the Senate For their part, the laws of Irni and Malaca – which drew on those general legal precedents43 – apparently went a step further by not only protecting public buildings, but also restricting public initiatives with regard to their destruction because of the bad image that, if there was really no intention of restoring them, ruins must have caused in the official image of former splendid cities 44 Archaeological evidence – quite remarkable in the case of the Hispanic provinces45 – and most especially the emphasis of late legislation on the protection of the physical appearance of the urban centre itself46 clearly underscore how recurrent these offenses must have been, offenses which in a way were regarded as an infringement of the res communis municipum Thus, for example, the installation of stationes or ergasteriae, even when they were made of perishable materials, in the vicinity of the basilica was prosecuted;47 orders were issued to demolish constructions, usually private buildings annexed to or superimposed on public ones,48 which infringed the values inherent to the facies ciuitatis, mentioned above as an urban ideal enshrined in the privileged municipal legal status;49 and, in a nutshell, punishment was also meted out to anyone who invaded public throughways with any kind of construction,50 always with a clear allusion to the exceptionality mentioned above in connection with the tabula Heracleensis, i e those cases with the official sanction of the Senate Although it is indeed assumed that some of the processes of appropriation by individuals and the changes in the use of public buildings attested to in the archaeological record of many Hispanic cities as of the 2nd century AD51 might have had the blessing of the decurionate, this legal corpus as a whole only serves to highlight how complicated it must have been at times to reconcile urban splendour with the financial straits of the civic body and, especially, in periods of clear regression concerning the euergetic role of the local elites who had been so

43

44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

A Caballos / J M Colubi, Referentes genéticos de los estatutos municipales hispanorromanos: la lex municipii Tarentini y la tabula Heracleensis, in: Melchor, E / Rodríguez Neila, J F (eds ): Poder central y autonomía municipal: la proyección pública de las élites romanas de Occidente, Córdoba 2006: 17–54 Irn 19 and 82, and in monographic form, Mal 62 P Diarte-Blasco, La configuración urbana de la Hispania tardoantigua: transformaciones y pervivencias de los espacios públicos romanos, ss III–VI d C , Oxford 2012 Y Janvier, La législation du Bas-Empire sur les édifices publics, Aix-en-Provence 1969 Cod Iust 8, 13, 21 Cod Theod 15, 1, 46 Cod Iust 8, 12, 6 Dig 43, 10, 2 In addition to P Diarte-Blasco, op Cit (n 45), for an ample catalogue of cases, see Ramallo, S / Quevedo, A (ed ), Las ciudades de la Tarraconense oriental entre los siglos II–IV d C Evolución urbanística y contextos materiales, Murcia 2014, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), op Cit (n 12), and in J Andreu (ed ), op Cit (n 27), as well as in the cases that are analysed in this same volume An initial methodological approach to the issue can be found in J Andreu, From simulacra Romae to deiectae ruinae Cities in the Late antique Hispaniae: just a change of model? in: The loss of the Hispaniae: ideology, power and conflict, Amsterdam in press

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heavily involved in the maintenance of amenities and public services 52 Admittedly, even when transformations were approved by the ordo – something that is difficult to swallow since it would have contravened the basic ideals defended by the lex municipio itself – the resulting city model was now totally different On the strength of the above considerations, therefore, it is evident that thanks to the imbalances and difficulties to which the municipal legislation and imperial correspondence alluded – certainly only a small part of what must have been generated, although doubtless representative of the documents issued by the imperial chancellery – the municipal administrative model rested on foundations that were shaky at the very least Although politics was considered a totally honourable occupation of service, it was monopolized by absolute beginners Nonetheless, they placed part of their wealth at the service of the community, thus socializing it in the tangible distribution of their assets through euergetism, which was fundamental to alleviating such a large number of municipal services which the local budget was incapable of funding However, the majority of the inhabitants of these communities were burdened with taxes that were occasionally intolerable and even though they might have been perceived originally as beneficial to the municipal services which they helped to sustain, this perception might have changed at moments of deep economic recession and when not even the local institutions could guarantee their viability Nor does it seem that the land-based wealth of many of these centres and, above all, of those individuals who formed part of their governing class was sufficiently solid In short, the amenities which in the shape of public buildings must have been perceived initially as glimmers of the greatness of Rome, manifestations of civic pride, and symbols of a new age would ultimately become too much of a strain, particularly when that aemulatio ceased to be seen as such and also due perhaps to the lack of external stimuli 53 Logically, the written sources – so accustomed to accounts of extraordinary events – do not cast much light on how that imbalance came about, despite the allusions to the financial troubles of some cities in Pliny the Younger and also in some passages of the Augustan History But the archaeological record, which is quite a bit more clear in this respect, does indeed reveal how many communities underwent a transformation as of the reign of Marcus Aurelius Even if it did not culminate in their depopulation, it did at least lead to the loss of their true legal function as ciuitates and their conversion into mere population clusters: urbes 54 52 53

54

SHA, Marc 23, 4 or Ant 8, 4 For a superb and exemplary diagnosis in this regard, see G Alföldy, Hispania bajo los Flavios y los Antoninos: consideraciones históricas sobre una época, in: De les estructures indígenes a l’organització provincial romana de la Hispània citerior, Gerona 1998: 11–32, esp 25–26, with a repertory of sources alluding to some Hispani exhausti (SHA, Marc 11, 7) C Ando, Citizen, citizenship and the work of Empire, in: Rapp, C / Drake, H A (eds ), The City in the Classical and Post-Classical World Changing Contexts of Power and Identity, Cambridge 2014: 240–256, esp 252

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The neglect of water supply networks and hydraulic systems, the collapse of former public buildings, the abandonment of architectural complexes and their epigraphic and statuary programmes, the appropriation of public spaces for private uses, illegal financial activities and funerary rites, architecture based on the reuse of building materials and, in brief, the city’s loss of value as a stage for the self-representation of the local elites with the subsequent relapse of the Roman epigraphic habit are only a few of the phenomena that, without being a rule of thumb, portray that transformation 55 In sum, there is apparently some truth in the assertion that Cassius Dio made at the time about the march of Roman history from a golden age to one of iron and rust,56 a metaphor that seems to offer an accurate, though not general, description of the urban transformations under study here Obviously, we could make an effort to search for specific causes that might have accelerated or compounded those transformations which would plausibly have manifested themselves differently in each region of the Iberian Peninsula and even in each urban centre Nonetheless, the very foundations of municipal life, the very potential of Latin right that caused the legal promotion of former stipendiary communities and, in short, those concerns that have been remarked upon as real obsessions of municipal legislation paint a picture that allows us to point the finger at structural problems that would have made the balanced management of quite a few Latin municipalities barely feasible as from the last quarter of the 2nd century AD In all likelihood, the ius Latii intended to sanction the functioning of many Hispanic communities in accordance with the law, extending municipal life to spaces where it was less deeply rooted and enabling the appropriate involvement of the local elites in the maintenance of previous building programmes and the development of new ones However, as the deeply missed G Alföldy57 aptly portrayed in the mid-1990s, with whose words we will conclude this work, the longevity of the communities resulting from that privilege in the Flavian period, to which the expression labentem statum ciuitatium of the oratio of Italica (CIL II, 6278) could apply, does not seem to have been one of their most notable characteristics Es más que probable que varias ciudades no fueran verdaderamente viables para una larga duración (…) Sin embargo, fueron evidentemente sobre todo los municipios pequeños, establecidos por la concesión general del derecho latino que permitió también a comunidades de poca importancia convertirse en municipios, los cuales tenían muchas veces

55

56 57

For a study of the Hispanic cases ascribable to these processes, see the now long list of miscellaneous works in this respect cited in Note 50, in addition to the contributions appearing in this book A good overview of the factors, based on a single case, can be found in J M Noguera, J M Abascal & Mª J Madrid, Un titulus pictus con titulatura imperial de Carthago Noua y puntualizaciones a la dinámica urbana de la ciudad a inicios del siglo III d C , Zephyrus 79 (2017): 149–172, esp 161–168 Cass Dio 72, 36, 4 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 53): 26–27

Challenges and threats faced by municipal administration in the Roman West

una estructura demasiado débil para mantener una organización urbana ¿Qué base económica y social para la vida municipal tenía efectivamente, por ejemplo, Irni, ciudad en la sombra de la colonia de Urso, ciudad tan insignificante que su nombre no aparece, aparte de la famosa lex Irnitana, en ninguna fuente, ciudad para la que ya la lex Irnitana contó con la posibilidad de que no se pudiesen encontrar sesenta y tres personas capaces de desempeñar el decurionado, ciudad donde, según la misma ley, un ciudadano con una fortuna de cinco mil sestercios ya era considerado como “rico” Ante todo, tenemos que contar con la posibilidad de que una comunidad de este tipo, por la construcción de los edificios públicos obligatorios con el entusiasmo de la primera generación después de la concesión de la autonomía urbana, se arruinara financieramente (…) Se puede suponer que, con construcciones de este tipo, muchas ciudades abusaron de sus fuerzas económicas ya poco después de su fundación (…) El despoblamiento de ciudades se explica (…) por la emigración en masa de la población descontenta con su vida

35

Imperial responses to urban crisis in the Roman Empire: a conceptual approach* AITOR BLANCO-PÉREZ (University of Navarra)

In 77 and 79 AD the communities of Sabora and Munigua received imperial letters from Vespasian and Titus, respectively 1 The two settlements in southern Spain had experienced difficulties and decided to petition the Roman emperors for effective solutions beyond the jurisdiction of the provincial governor These documents have been extensively studied as signs of urban crisis in the Roman West 2 Archaeology, indeed, needs such testimonies of failure to contextualise the abundant materials showing transformations from the end of the Republic to the beginning of Late Antiquity Unfortunately, surviving inscriptions referring to urban decline are not very numerous and should always be understood in relation to the particular circumstances in which they were produced For this reason, the main aim of this paper is not to link the texts of Sabora and Munigua to archaeological patterns of occupation which are already well-studied in Roman Spain Instead, I seek to open a discussion about how the genesis of both written sources can help us determine the way in which emperors conceptualised their responses to local crises As indicated at the beginning of both inscriptions, both Vespasian and Titus addressed their letters to the quattuorviri and decurions of Sabora and Munigua These local magistrates and members of the council should refer to the institutions that

*

1 2

This work forms part of the R&D&I project HAR2016–74854-P “De municipia latina a oppida labentia Sobre la sostenibilidad económica e institucional del expediente municipal latino en la Hispania Romana (siglo I–III d C )”, financed by Spain’s Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad / Ministerio de Innovación, Ciencia y Universidades Sabora: CIL II2/5, 871; CIL II, 1423; ILS 6092 Munigua: CILA II, 1052; AE 1962, 147, 288; AE 1972, 257 See, for example, B Levick, The Government of the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook, Routledge 1985: 94–95, no 84; J Andreu / J Mata / L Romero, El municipio de derecho Latino hispanorromano: ¿un expediente constitucional sostenible?, in: Soares, C / Brandão, J L / Carvalho, P (eds ), História Antiga: Relações Interdisciplinares Paisagens urbanas, rurais & sociais, Coimbra 2018: 139–154 and, in this volume, the contribution of D Espinosa

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were established after Vespasian granted the ius Latii to Hispania in the early 70s AD 3 This imperial decision did not only promote urbanisation, but also impacted the civic organisation of the Spanish settlements By virtue of several well-preserved Flavian charters it is possible to observe that the political life of the municipia became highly institutionalised and consisted in various elements The selection and appointment of ambassadors (or legati) was one of such aspects These members of the civic community had the duty to represent the interests of the city and played a fundamental role in communicating local concerns to the representatives of the imperial administration4 Obviously, diplomacy between Hispania and Rome was not the result of Empire 5 And yet, the Flavian municipal laws contributed to the consolidation of a procedure which facilitated the transmission of information from communities in the periphery such as Sabora and Munigua to the imperial centres According to the Lex Irnitana the issue of sending ambassadors had to be raised by the local magistrates and endorsed by the decurions 6 The number of legati was not fixed and only those over 60 years old, ill or recently bestowed with municipal obligations could be exempted The nomination of substitutes was allowed in some cases, but the fine for those who did not fulfil this obligation (munus) was hefty The head magistrates (or duumviri) also needed to specify the travel allowance (viaticum) that the ambassadors were allowed to claim Only missions approved by a decurial resolution would be considered official, since these were required to speak in favour of the instructions given by the legal institutions of the city The inscription of Sabora would illustrate that this set of procedures was already functioning in Hispania soon after Vespasian’s grant of municipal status The emperor notes at the end of his communication that an unspecified number of ambassadors had been discharged (dimisi) by him on the 29th of July 77 AD These legati had previously been in charge of delivering the local decree (decretum) on which the imperial decision was based Titus, on the other hand, does not mention specifically in his response the presence of ambassadors from Munigua However, a similar mission needs to be inferred from the fact that the emperor is addressing the allegations directly presented by the local community (praetexitis/dicitis) Both Spanish embassies were therefore 3

4 5 6

Plin Nat 3, 30 See L Curchin, The local magistrates of Roman Spain, Toronto 1990: 33–34, for the interpretation that these quattuorviri would designate the union of the two IIviri and the aediles On other possibilities attested on the Iberian peninsula see A D Pérez Zurita, Reflexiones en torno al cuatorvirato en la Hispania romana, Polis: Revista de ideas y formas políticas de la Antigüedad Clásica 16 (2004): 133–167 See F Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World: 31 B C -A D 337, London 1992: 375–420; W Eck, Diplomacy as part of the administrative process in the Roman Empire, in: Eilers, C (ed ), Diplomats and Diplomacy in the Roman World, Leiden 2009: 193–208 See J F Rodríguez Neila, Las legationes de las ciudades y su regulación en los estatutos municipales de Hispania, Gerión 28 1 (2010): 223–273 The Lex Irnitana deals with the appointment, mission, rights and obligations of embassies in chapters F to I The following quotations are based on the translation provided by J González / M H Crawford, The Lex Irnitana: A New Copy of the Flavian Municipal Law, JRS 76 (1986): 147–243

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not spontaneous reactions, but rather integral parts of a system of diplomacy which influenced the reception of local concerns by the Roman authorities In this paper, I will argue that the imperial conceptualisation of urban crisis present in both texts was partly determined by these procedures The survival of local petitions and imperial responses from the western part of the Roman Empire is very limited This issue becomes obvious when one looks for epigraphic parallels of the Latin greeting formula salutem dicit which appears at the beginning of the texts from both Sabora and Munigua 7 The expression is only attested in four other responses from Corsica,8 Picenum,9 Gallia Narbonensis10 and Obulcula11 attributed to Vespasian, Domitian and Antoninus Pius This paucity contrasts with the hundreds of texts available from the eastern part of the Empire in which the Greek verb χαίρειν (‘to greet’) was used by the Roman rulers to greet local institutions 12 This formula was in fact used by Vespasian when he responded to a petition of the oecumenical guild of athletes 13 Domitian likewise followed these patterns of salutation in his letter to the Delphians 14 As in the municipia of southern Spain, the Flavian emperor first addressed his response to the magistrates (ἄρχοντες) of the civic community Greek poleis therefore participated in the same system of diplomacy which sought assistance from the Roman emperors 15 Communities in the eastern Mediterranean were indeed used to defending their rights through letters against imperial powers who ruled their lands prior to Roman domination Xenophon in his Cyropedia, for example, records that epistolary exchange was already common among the Persians,16 and he even provides us with the first attestation of the χαίρειν formula when Cyrus contacted the king of Media, Cyaxares 17 Later, when the Hellenistic kings took over the Near East after Alexander the Great’s conquests, they inherited these ruling structures as demonstrated by the letter that Antigonus sent to the council and people of Eresos as soon as 306

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

The formula salutem dicit already appears in Plautus (Pers 50, Bacch 734, and Curc 431), with frequent attestations also in Cicero’s letters (e g Att 2, 7) CIL X, 8038; AE 1993, 855 CIL IX, 5420 (p 687); CIL XI, 95–1; AE 1994, 574 AE 2012, 950 AE 1984, 511; HEp 4, 1994, 685; HEp 5, 1995, 707 See V I Anastasiades / G A Souris, An Index to Roman Imperial Constitutions from Greek Inscriptions and Papyri: 27 BC to 284 AD, Berlin 2000: 182–183 P Lond 3 1178; Pap agon 6 Syll 3 821C; J H Oliver / K Clinton, Greek Constitutions of Early Roman Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, 178 Philadelphia 1989: 130, no 42 See, most recently, R Gordillo Hervás, Talking with The Emperor: Diplomacy and Language between Greece and Rome, Greece & Rome 64 2 (2017): 168–181 Xen Cyr 2, 2, 9 Xen Cyr 4, 5, 27–33 See D Gera, Letters in Xenophon, in: Hodkinson, O / Rosenmeyer, P A / Bracke, E , Epistolary Narratives in Ancient Greek Literature, Leiden 2013: 85–103

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BC 18 Rome also began to participate in the traditional forms of Greek diplomacy as a result of its expansion in the East Soon after the defeat of the Macedonian king Philip V in the Battle of Cynoscephalae (197 BC), T Quintus Flamininus sent a letter to the Chyretians of Thessaly and, again, the formula χαίρειν was addressed to the magistrates and civic community of the city 19 These traditional forms of communication clearly influenced the way in which Rome formulated its foreign policy during the last stages of the Republic when contacts with the Greek world multiplied and the control over previously Hellenistic populations was significantly tightened In 27 BC, when Octavian was named Augustus and promised the restitution of sacred property in the provinces, the proconsul of Asia L Vinicius informed the people of Kyme that their temple of Liber/Dionysus could be recovered The city inscribed the letter both in the original Latin and the Greek translation which rendered the sequence s(alutem) d(icit) mag(istratibus) Cumas as χαίρειν λέγει ἄρχουσι Κυμαίων 20 In other words, the expression salutem dicit – opening the texts from Sabora and Munigua – was an equivalent of the traditional Greek greeting formula for the Roman authorities 21 The existence of such equivalences of diplomacy between the Latin West and the Greek East in the eyes of the imperial administration should consequently allow us to draw analogies complementing the lack of certain sources For example, there is no Latin author describing the process of becoming ambassador of a city and defending a cause before the Roman emperor And yet, we can overcome this limitation by looking at the account produced by Philo of Alexandria when he personally defended the Jews before Caligula in 39/40 AD 22 The ambassador recounts that he set sail before the end of the navigation period, collected written evidence, even how a feeling of anxiety arose at the moment of meeting and addressing the Roman emperor 23 Later in the 2nd century, the hypochondriac writer Aelius Aristides complained about the harsh conditions of his journey from Asia to Rome to defend a case before Antoninus Pius 24 Beyond other anecdotal points, the information provided by the Greek sources is fundamental for understanding another key element in the diplomatic relations between Rome and the local entities under its rule Oratory skills played a decisive role in the presentation of pleas, their success and the subsequent responses provided by 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

IG XII, 2 526 (l 30–32): βασιλεὺς Ἀντίγονος Ἐρεσίων τῆι βουλῆι καὶ τῶι δήμωι χαίρειν cf C Bradford Welles, Royal correspondence in the Hellenistic period A study in Greek epigraphy, Roma 1966, 384–385; A Ellis-Evans, The Tyrants Dossier from Eresos, Chiron 42 (2012): 183–212 IG IX,2 338; RDGS 33: Τίτος Κοΐνκτιος στρατηγὸς ὕπατος Ῥωμαίων Κυρετιέων τοῖς ταγοῖς καὶ τῆι πόλει χαίρειν I Kyme 17 (l 12, 23) This equivalence appears to be clear to ancient Roman authors such as Claudius Quadrigarius (Gell NA 3, 8: Consules Romani salutem dicunt Pyrro regi), and Varro (Gell NA 12, 4: Rex Alexander Iovis Hammonis fílius Olympiadi matri salutem dicit) See now M R Niehoff, Philo of Alexandria: An Intellectual Biography, New Haven 2018: 25–46 Particularly, Philo, Leg 42 Arist Or 48, 60–62

Imperial responses to urban crisis in the Roman Empire:a conceptual approach

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the emperors This point is perfectly illustrated by the instructions given by the Greek rhetor Menander concerning the delivery of the so-called ‘Ambassador’s speech’ (or Πρεσβευτικός) His 3rd century AD treatise recommended diplomats to mention the city they were representing and to elaborate their misfortune by amplifying literally “how the city has fallen to the ground” 25 Finally, these envoys needed to ask the Roman emperor to receive the decree (ψήφισμα) they were carrying This last point is specifically mentioned by Vespasian in his letter to Sabora, despite the time and space differences between the Flavian text from Hispania and Menander the Rhetor from Laodicea The Roman emperor highlights that his decision had been taken extremely diligently, within just four days However, nothing is said about the process and efforts that first brought the municipal decree to his attention From the testimonies provided by Philo and Menander, it should now be clear that the acceptance of the embassy from Munigua was not a happy coincidence, but rather the result of persuading the imperial ruler For this purpose the recent Flavian municipium appears to have taken advantage of all the resources at its disposal From Vespasian’s response it is possible to infer that the people of Munigua decided to circumvent the administration of the provincial governor; most likely because it was not positive for their interests 26 The emperor warns that the proconsul of Baetica would need to be approached in the future if the city wanted to add something new According to the standard procedure, local communities – regardless of the Roman province – had to address their request to the closest representatives of the imperial administration firstly This is confirmed by Pliny the Younger when he was governor of Bithynia and Pontus in Anatolia and, for example, contacted Trajan to seek approval (indulgere) on behalf of the people of Prusa who desired to build new baths 27 Local requests, nevertheless, were not always so well received This was the case for Nicaea, one of the principal cities of the region, which wanted to complete both a new theatre and the restoration of the gymnasium 28 Pliny expressed his doubts about the latter project and, subsequently, the emperor determined:

25

26

27 28

D A Russell / N G Wilson, Menander Rhetor, Oxford 1981: 180–181; cf M Heath, Menander: A Rhetor in Context, Oxford 2004: 284–288 For the attestation of rhetors acting as ambassadors see F Quass, Die Honoratiorenschicht in den Städten des griechischen Ostens: Untersuchungen zur politischen und sozialen Entwicklung in hellenistischer und römischer Zeit, Stuttgart 1993: 152–156; C Habicht, Zum Gesandtschaftsverkehr griechischer Gemeinden mit römischen Instanzen während der Kaiserzeit, ΑΡΧΑΙΟΓΝΟΣΙΑ 11 (2002): 11–28 Eloquentia was likewise one the virtues praised by the decurions of Tergeste when they honoured a senator who defended their interests before Antoninus Pius (CIL V, 532; ILS 6680) Compare, for example, with the case of Takina later in the Severan period (SEG 57, 1429, l 19–29), where a provincial governor reacts to an imperial response issued concerning his jurisdiction See T Hauken, Petition and Response: An Epigraphic Study of Petitions to Roman Emperors, Bergen 1998: 214–238, 181–249 Plin Ep 10, 23 Plin Ep 10, 39

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These little Greeks love their gymnasia, so it may be that they were too ambitious in their plans at Nicaea They will have to be content with one which suits their real needs 29

Given the arbitrary support evidenced by Pliny while he was governor of the province, it is easier to understand that the city of Byzantium – also under his supervision – still decided to send an ambassador annually to Rome offering salutations and carrying a decree 30 Governors, and particularly those with a proconsular rank, were momentary; whereas Roman emperors in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD could be expected to remain longer in power 31 Furthermore, imperial decisions created powerful precedents on which the local population could base their future claims The fact that Titus himself removed a debt of 50 000 sesterces from Munigua proves the power of such extraordinary indulgences (indulgentiae) Imperial favour was therefore decisive and communities both in the east and west of the Mediterranean tried to reach it through diplomacy, although not always very successfully For instance, the island of Samos did not achieve the status of civitas libera requested to Augustus 32 We only preserve the record of this failure because the Roman ruler praised in his response the free city of Aphrodisias and the Anatolian community decided to commemorate these privileges with many inscriptions 33 It is logically not coincidental that Vespasian’s letter specifically refers to the vectigalia that the people of Sabora had been granted by Augustus This precedent was not accidently discovered by the Flavian emperor or his administrative entourage; instead, it had previously been communicated by the local ambassadors (dicitis) Correspondingly, the rights of a community could depend on the degree of attention attracted through diplomatic activity In the aforementioned case of Byzantium, this polis strove to send missions every year Vespasian seems to have limited the number of ambassadors of each delegation because of the unbearable volume of such missions upon his accession 34 In more modest Flavian municipia, embassies were probably not annual but rather decided on case-by-case basis with the consensus of magistrates and decurions according to the aforementioned charters Despite these differences in frequency or size, a new point in common between eastern and western provinces should be made: imperial responses to local missions were largely reactive

29 30 31 32 33

34

Plin Ep 10, 40 Plin Ep 10, 43: legatum ad te salutandum annis omnibus cum psephismate mitti See F Hurlet, Le proconsul et le prince d’Auguste à Dioclétien, Bordeaux 2006 I Aphr 2007 8, 32 See J Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome: Documents from the excavation of the theatre at Aphrodisias conducted by Professor Kenan T Erim, together with some related texts, London 1982; C Kokkinia, The design of the ‘archive wall’ at Aphrodisias, Τεκμήρια 13 (2015): 9–55 On the diplomatic procedure see J L Ferrary, After the Embassy to Rome: Publication and Implementation, in: Eilers, C (ed ), Diplomats and Diplomacy in the Roman World, Leiden 2009: 127–142 Dig 50, 7, 5, 6

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If the emperor’s sentences were accordingly influenced by the messages of the petitioners, this aspect should remain fundamental for our interpretation of the available texts Unfortunately, there are no inscriptions either from the Latin West or the Greek East preserving both the original text of the embassy and the corresponding reply of the emperor 35 What we do have after the Flavian period is the crystallisation of a system of local petitions and imperial responses which confirms the reactive nature of Greek and Roman diplomacy I am referring to the model of rescript/subscription by which the emperor with the formula ‘I have answered (rescripsi) and I have examined (recognovi)’ mostly endorsed written requests handed in by envoys 36 Attestations of these petitions are more abundant from the end of the 2nd century AD onwards, and still employ a high degree of rhetorical strategies For example, the tenants of an imperial estate in Africa implored Commodus in the following terms: We, in our humble condition (mediocritas), had come in such a serious (gravi) situation and, [suffering] evident [injustice], had used an [unrestrained] letter to beseech your majesty You can, Caesar, judge the flagrant injustice (iniuria) towards us 37

Analogous texts are likewise present in the Greek East A rural community in Lydia wrote: Most divines emperors ever, we become suppliants (ἱκέται) of your divine and unsurpassed (ἀνυπέρβλητος) kingship We are prevented from attending the toil (κάματοι) of tilling the soil when the kollêtiônes and those confronting us also present deadly threats to us who remain 38

From these sample texts it becomes evident that petitions were normally embedded in a dramatic and elevated language that sought to move the emperors, the entourage and their final decisions Words such as the mediocritas, ἱκέται, ἀνυπέρβλητος or κάματοι are not abundant in the epigraphic records available to us They belong to a different register normally escaping public inscribed commemoration but not literary genres such as poetry and speeches in which linguistic effects are pursued and necessary The same observations should remain valid to better interpret the fact that infirmitas (‘weak35

36 37 38

The closest evidence available is provided by the responses of the emperors attached to petitions (or libelli) which is preserved, for example, in the aforementioned dossier of Takina In the case of Skaptopara, we also preserve the speech that the envoy of the petitioners addressed to the provincial governor (SEG 44, 610, l 108–122) Likewise, both the emotive letter of a village and the edict of the proconsul of Asia were recorded in the inscription commemorating the grant of market days to the Mandragoreis, near Magnesia (SEG 32, 1149) See, most recently, S Connolly, Lives behind the Laws: the World of the Codex Hermogenianus, Bloomington 2010 On role of the emperor, the praetorian prefect and the office a libellis see also F Millar, op Cit (n 4): 537–549 and T Honoré, Emperors and Lawyers, Oxford 1994 CIL VIII, 10570; CIL VIII, 14464 (l 16–22, Saltus Burunitanus) Translation taken from T Hauken, op Cit (n 26): 21 TAM V, 3, 1418 (l 21–27) Translation taken from T Hauken, op Cit (n 26): 51

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ness’) and tenuitas (‘feebleness’), two key terms in the texts of Sabora and Munigua, are epigraphically attested only in these imperial responses The same words, by contrast, have multiple occurrences in oratory environments such as those of Cicero and Quintilian 39 In his letter, Vespasian specifically mentions that the infirmitas, the weak condition pressing Sabora, had been communicated by the petitioners themselves (indicetis) This pattern also emerges in Munigua where the tenuitas publica had previously been adduced (praetexitis) to Titus I argue that the use of these expressions by the emperors was deeply influenced by the diplomatic missions preceding such responses This extra-layer of interpretation should consequently prevent modern scholars from taking these expressions of crisis at face value This degree of cautiousness appears necessary in obvious cases of epigraphic exaggeration such as the speech prepared by a senator when Marcus Aurelius and Commodus reformed the prices of gladiatorial contests This famous text discovered in Italica refers to a “pestilence so great that could not be cured by any medicine” The eloquent speaker also distinguished between communities with a rather weak commonwealth (res publica tenuior) and stronger cities (fortiores civitates); a differentiation analogous to the arguments presented by the people of Sabora and the corresponding imperial response Finally, the senatorial sententia included a hyperbolic expression of gratitude to the emperors in which the issue of civic crisis is raised: I think, therefore, that first thanks should be offered to their Majesties the Emperors, who with healthful remedies subordinating the interests of the Fiscus have stopped the decline of the states and the headlong rush of the leading men into ruin (labentem civitatium statum et praecipitantes iam in ruinas principalium virorum) 40

Even if the provision of gladiators in the cities of the Latin West posed significant challenges financially,41 this problem could only play a modest role in the allegedly ruinous condition of local notables at the end of the 2nd century AD Likewise, it is hard to imagine how a single decision of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus regarding this issue could have instantly stopped the decline of political communities Both ruina and labens status therefore serve as an intensifiers justifying the exaggerated thanks given to the Roman emperors by the senator As in the texts from Sabora and Munigua, the combination of such an effective linguistic construction is unattested in other epigraphic records However, analogous sequences appear in Juvenal’s Satires and one of the Latin Major Declamations:

39 40 41

E g Cic Brut 202, 4; Or 86, 2, Att 5, 18; Quint Inst 10, 2, 19; 12, 2, 13 CIL II, 6278 (p 1056); ILS 5163; EAOR VII 33 (l 23–24) The translation is taken from J H Oliver / R E A Palmer, Minutes of an Act of the Roman Senate, Hesperia 24 (1955): 341 See M Carter, Gladiatorial ranking and the “SC de pretiis gladiatorum minuendis” (CIL II, 6278 = ILS 5163), Phoenix 57 (2003): 83–114; G Chamberland, The production of shows in the cities of the Roman Empire: A study of the Latin epigraphic evidence, Hamilton 2001

Imperial responses to urban crisis in the Roman Empire:a conceptual approach

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I ignore for how long will the pain of the fleeing soul scattered the hand, where the drawn sword will fall upon the entrails, to whom the ruin of the falling body will rush (in quem se collabentis corporis ruina praecipitet) 42 We inhabit a city (Rome) supported for the most part by slender sticks; for this is how the housekeeper of declining (labentibus) buildings, when he had patched up the gap of a crack, tell the tenants to sleep safe despite the impending ruin (pendente ruina) 43

Strictly on the basis of the text, the content of the Aes Italicense could be put in direct connection with the famous notice of oppida labentia appearing in the Historia Augusta 44 Indeed, both testimonies refer to the reign of Marcus Aurelius and describe urban decline A more precautious approach, however, becomes necessary when one can identify the highly rhetorical and exaggerated tone employed by the declaiming senator in other parts of his speech Likewise, the Historia Augusta belongs to a problematic historiographical tradition in which facts, half-truths and fantasies were intertwined 45 This paper, nevertheless, does not seek to deny the value of written testimonies in our modern interpretation of civic crises during the Roman Empire It only advocates for a more vigilant use of texts that should not only be put in relation to archaeological contexts but also framed in their linguistic milieu For this purpose, I have tried to show that the inscriptions of Sabora and Munigua contain imperial letters that were necessarily influenced by the diplomatic traditions determining the communication between Rome and the population under its rule These practices, as evidenced in both the western and eastern parts of the Empire, required ambassadors who delivered effectively messages for the common good of their political communities Indeed, imperial attention and favour was decisive in complex processes for which blatant praise and necessary exaggeration was recommended in rhetorical treatises As a result, when Vespasian and Titus responded to the missions sent by two recent municipia of southern Hispania, they were reacting to concepts of decline and crisis which do not necessarily reflect the material reality desired by modern Archaeology

42 43 44 45

Declamationes Maiores 4, 23 Iuv Sat 3, 193–197 SHA Marc 27 On the issues of this key ancient source see, recently, J Fündling Kommentar zur Vita Hadriani der Historia Augusta, Bonn 2006, as well as the Historiae Augustae Colloquia

The vectigalia income in western Roman cities A particular assumption Lourdes Martínez de Morentin (University of Zaragoza)

1. Introduction An inscription discovered in 2016 in the Roman city of Los Bañales, near the village of Uncastillo, located on the north of the legal district of Caesar Augusta (Zaragoza) in the Hispania Citerior, was recently published by J Andreu1 in the journal Epigraphica It has served as the basis for the reflections that are presented below in relation to the perception of economic income by the cities The inscription (Fig 1) is as follows: LXXIII

Fig. 01 Roman inscription with numeral from Los Bañales (Photo: J Andreu)

1

The piece can be seen at https://skfb ly/QW9n on the Virtual Museum of Los Bañales, J Andreu, Una nueva inscripción romana con numeral procedente de la Tarraconense (Los Bañales de Uncastillo, Zaragoza), Epigraphica 80 (2018): 201–208

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A first consideration would invite us to think that it was the distance that should separate urban farms, called ambitus, as compiled in the XII Tables,2 being two-and-ahalf feet wide (74 cm) and of equal length of the building,3 a measurement similar to the one that is on this inscription Without discarding this idea, or the one pointed out by the epigraphers “to be a sign of a building”4, the hypothesis that we propose relates the finding to the numbering of the forum premises in order to facilitate its hiring by individuals, whereby the city would receive the corresponding amounts (vectigalia) in return Such a hypothesis will serve as a pretext for the study of the “right of superficies” Thus, after explaining what vectigalia are as well as highlighting the legal sources in which they are described, we will move on to the analysis and evolution of this element Finally, the discovery of two decurional decrees from Pozzuoli will allow us to know some details about their concession and the way the ordo decurionum carried out these issues 2. Vectigalia Although vectigal has no univocal value and assumes a wide range of meanings according to the context, in a technical sense it could be defined by all forms of public income, both those of the Roman treasury and those belonging to the municipality and the colonies, provided that they will be considered neither tribute nor capitation, which would be direct taxes Among these regular revenues, there would be those derived from the leasing of public goods (mines, fishing, lands, buildings and premises) or from the hiring of tax recovery (customs and manumission of slaves)5 The necessity of an imperial permission for governors or decurions to establish or modify vectigalia in provinces appears in the Digest6 and is confirmed in several imperial constitutions 7 Vespasian in his epistula to the Saborenses of the year 77,8 responding to the requests of the city about the maintenance and creation of new vectigalia without passing judgment, referred to an earlier sentence of the governor On the other hand, 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Tab VII, 1: Maecianus, assis distributio, 46 This is argued from the Law of the XII Tables in which two and a half feet are called sestertius pes Cfr Varr LL 1, 1, 5, 22 and Festus ambitus It is the hypothesis of J Andreu, op Cit (n 1) The author has assessed the interpretative possibilities of the text and examined the numeral background in this type of Roman inscriptions D Nonnis / C Ricci, Vectigalia municipali ed epigrafia: Un caso dall’Hirpina, in: Il capitolo delle entrate nelle finanze municipali in Occidente ed in Oriente Actes de la Xe Rencontre franco-italienne sur l’epigraphie du monde romain, Roma 1999: 56–59 Dig 39, 4, 10 Cod Iust 4, 62, 1–3 L Martínez de Morentin, Bases pecuniarias y económicas del municipio flavio, in: Andreu, J (ed ), Oppida labentia Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 177–216, esp 206

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Titus, in his epistula to the quattuorviri and decurions of Munigua9 resolved a dispute between the city and a private lender who had hired the vectigalia collection The Lex Ursonensis10 also deals with vectigales, taking into account that the product of the fines – whoever was responsible for their collection – should be envisaged for the benefit of the community They are also named in the lex Malacitana11 when it points out that the duunvir iure dicundo leases them in the name of the municipes of that municipality In all the aforementioned texts, vectigalia always appear with a plural meaning, and refer to the income in public cash for a Latin municipality by way of a right of property, to the rents on a category of goods, or to the totality of the sums received from the treasury The link between vectigalia (income) and fines (defined territory of the city)12 is revealed in the lex Irnitana13 by the necessity to go all over the municipal land “whoever might be competent” so that it would be granted to individuals for their use The obligatory travel around the municipal lands for its concession would probably refer to both rustic and urban estates; within the latter, there would be the places earmarked in the forum for their exploitation as tabernae, stores as well as for construction In all cases, the land would remain municipal property and an income would accrue from its use 3. The income received from the exploitation of public soil in Justinian sources Public contracting achieved great development in Rome, being the most usual type of contract, the ‘hire’ (locatio), through which it was adjudged the use of public goods, tax collection, certain services and supplies, and the construction, renovation and repair of public works Public contracting was also the mechanism used in the municipalities to carry out the activities and works indicated above, so the term vectigal can also be used in that context, meaning the fee or tax that the tenant would pay to the municipality Although the possibility of building on leased public land was not positively regarded, the income from that leasing was considered vectigalia: Dig 50, 10, 5, 1 (Ulp lib sing de Off curat reipub ): The boundaries of public lands must not be retained by private individuals Therefore, the Governor of the province shall see that public lands are separated from those belonging to private persons, and endeavor to increase the public revenues (vectigalia) If he finds that

9 10 11 12 13

L Martínez de Morentin, op Cit (n 8): 201–205 A d’Ors, Epigrafía Jurídica de la España Romana, Madrid 1953; Urs 65 Mal 63 Mª J Castillo, Opuscula agrimensorum veterum, Logroño 2011: 152 Irn 76

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any public places or buildings are occupied by private persons, he must estimate whether they should be demanded for the benefit of the public, or whether it would be better to lease them for a sufficient rent; and he must always pursue the course which he thinks will be of the greatest advantage to the State

The term solarium, as an income from the leasing of public land to build upon, only appears in: Dig 43, 8, 2, 17 (Ulp lib 68, Com ad Edic ) If anyone constructs a house in a public place without anyone preventing it, he cannot be compelled to remove it, for fear that the city may be marred by its demolition; and because the interdict is prohibitory and not restitutory If, however, the said building interferes with public use, it should be demolished on the application of the officer in charge of public works; but if it does not interfere with anything, a land tax (solarium) can be imposed upon it, for the tax receives this name because it is paid on account of the ground

The term pensio appears in the sense of solarium in Dig 6, 1, 74 (Paul , lib 21 ad Edic ): That is to say, one who has a right to occupy the surface of ground belonging to another, on the condition of paying a certain rent (pensio) for it With regard to the action of claiming the thing given in pledge: Dig 13, 7, 17 (Marcian lib sing ad formul hipothec ) The Divine Severus and Antoninus, however, stated in a Rescript that the pledge will be binding without affecting the rent (pensio) of the land

As seen in the sources, the jurists adopted different names to indicate the payable fee for the use of land, public or private: solarium, pensio, vectigal, merces soli, apparently referring to vectigal indistinctly However, although the term solarium can be included in the vectigalia, it would rather refer to the income from the hire of public soil on which a private individual has built upon14

14

S Solazzi, Usus proprius, in: Scritti di Diritto Romano IV, Napoli 1963: 217–221 and Vectigales aedes, in: Scritti di Diritto romano V, Napoli 1972: 173–179 The author considers that the term solarium was not the most appropriate to indicate the canon owed to the State by the individual who would have used a public land; the only passage in which solarium appears, or adopts this sense, is the already mentioned Dig 43, 8, 2, 17, which could have been interpolated

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4. The right of superficies According to Roman law researchers, surface was a real right, alienable and transmissible to the heirs, so as to have the full and exclusive availability of a building standing on the property of a stranger Conceived as such in the late post-classic law together with the emphyteusis, possibly both rights were previously present, as it is evidenced in the inscription found in Mount Citorio, in 1877 (FIRA, III, 110)15, in which a freedman named Adrastus, responsible for the inspection of a monument to Marcus Aurelius in 193 AD, was authorized to have a hut on the public land by paying a ground-rent Such concessions seem to have been made by the magistrates in relation to public land Due to the quintessential principle of Roman property, which necessarily attracts everything that is incorporated or attached to the object, any building falls to the owner of the land, even if it had been built by third parties This principle is found in a fragment of Gaius, gathered in the Digest (Dig 41, 1, 7, 10), phrased as superficies solo cedit Where one person sets up a building on his own ground out of materials belonging to another, he is understood to be the owner of the building, because everything is accessory to the soil which is built upon (omne quod inaedificatur solo cedit) and it would be based not only on the in the civil law but also on the natural law, as Gaius remarks (Dig 43, 18, 2) We say that houses form part of the surface of land where they have been erected under the terms of a lease; and the ownership of them, in accordance with both civil and natural law, is vested to the proprietor of the soil If the owner of a land granted to others the power to erect a building and have its enjoyment and availability, it could not be conceived, even in the Justinian law, that the ownership of the land would continue to correspond to the grantor of the property and the building was held by the concessionaire In other words, a divided domain could not be given; but the owner of the land was also considered the owner of the building The difficulty of incardinating these situations in existing juridical figures, already occurred in the Classic law with regard to concessions made by magistrates to private individuals who could build on public land, in exchange for a fee In Rome and in other cities, those concessions were especially given to set small businesses (tabernae) on streets or squares16 The smallest occupation of the municipal soil had to be expressly authorized by the ordo decurionum, as can be seen in the correspondence between Pliny and the Emperor Trajan (Ep 10, 8, 2) The soil was still public and the building erected by the individual was also public He, however, paid for its repair whenever necessary and could proceed to its demolition The city, on the other hand, was enlarged or embellished with the construction of the buildings, without expenses on its 15 16

FIRA III: Fontes Iuris Romani Anteiustiniani, Pars Tertia, Negotia, ed V Arangio-Ruiz, Florentiae, 1943 E Volterra, Istituzioni di Diritto Privato Romano, Roma 1986: 437

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part There was a discussion, however, about the classification of the right granted to the individual to have the taberna available, to transmit and to assign such right to others inter vivos or mortis causa acts When the concessionaire was a municipality and the soils, consequently, municipal, it could never invoke the contract of sale, because the soil and municipal sites, also provincial, belonged to Rome; therefore, the exploitation would be carried out through leases17 Nevertheless, in spite of its relation with public law, the jurists closely linked superficies with locatio; thus it appears in Gaius’ fragment (Dig 43, 18, 2) and in the fragment by Paulus (Dig 39, 2, 18, 4) The owner of the ground is not compelled to furnish security against any injury that may be caused by the condition of the ground to a man who has erected a house on the said land, after having leased it; and, on the other hand, the latter is not obliged to give security to the owner, because each of them is entitled to actions under the lease, and in these proceedings nothing but negligence is considered More is included in reference to a threatened injury, because, in this case, the bad repair of the property is allegedly involved This happened despite the fact that several elements of the concession could not fit into the schemes of such contracts, in particular the right of the concessionaire to keep the benefit and availability of the building independently of the person owning the land (and therefore also in case of assignment and transfer of ownership thereof), as well as the right to transmit or assign to others the benefit and availability of the building itself To bring to practical effect the sought result by the subjects involved in this relationship, other legal links of a mandatory nature that were protected by personal actions should arise Thus, in the case of disputes with third parties, the superficiarius requested that the actions of the owner (in case of a purchase-sale), or of the previous surface owner (in the case of a lease) should be transferred to him18 Progressively, by perpetuating the benefit and availability of the building by the concessionaire and its successors, the existence of a direct relationship between the concessionaire and the thing, which could be opposed to third parties, was conceived The praetor granted the superficiarius a special interdict of superficiebus (similar to the interdict uti possidetis), to protect him in the exercise of his right against possible disturbances or plunders by third parties (Dig 43, 18 1 pr ) From that moment on, the superficiarius protection developed rapidly; after the mentioned interdict de superficiebus, he was granted the restitutory (unde vi), the useful petition action (utilis petitio rei), the recognition of servitudes (actio utilis confessoria), the claiming of the immovable freedom (actio negatoria) With Justinian a further 17 18

The prohibition for the colony to sell public lands through a magistrate and the renting for more than three years are recorded in Urs 82 E Volterra, op Cit (n 16): 437–438

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progress was carried out; the benefit and availability of the building by the superficiarius were not configured as dependent of a mandatory relationship with the owner of the soil, but as a real right over the building, so it was granted to the superficiarius an actio in rem against anyone who could violate his right, even before the land owner Taking this into account and following the Roman principle surperficies solo cedit, the building was a property of the owner of the land on which it was built on, the right of surperficiarius could not be cataloged beyond ius in re aliena 5. Two decrees of decurions from Pozzuoli Once the disputed legal nature of this figure has been set out, the following questions arise: who would grant the right of superficies, whose enjoyment entailed the payment of a pension called solarium in the cities? And to whom would it be granted? Mal 63 offers an answer by establishing that the duunvir will be in charge of this task in the name of the municipes, which reveals that this concession would follow the proposal of the ordo decurionum Two epigraphic documents from the Neronian (and later Flavian) colony of Pozzuoli, almost from the same period and referring to the same public area in a process of monumentalization19, provide us with information about these issues Both decrees confirm that a prior authorization of the ordo decurionum was necessary to build on public land The first one is a decurional decree20 in which a right of superficies was granted to the Augustales of the city to erect a building in a place considered public between the amphitheater and its access The Augustales, after the concession of the public place, made the registration of the decurional decree on a cippo or milestone, which they put on the ground, on the strata publica to delimit the area that had been granted to them Although we do not know the year in which the decree would date, due to the lack of the consuls’ names, it has been possible to conclude that it would date to c 110 or 139 AD, on the basis of another decurional decree in which the very same L Annius Modestus appears21

19 20

21

Located on the upper terrace of the city, between the main amphitheater and the forum, it is similar to the place where Los Bañales’ inscription was found Pozzuoli is an Italian municipality located in the metropolitan city of Naples, Campania region G Camodeca, Un nuovo decreto decurionale puteolano con concessione di superficies agli augustali e le entrate cittadine da solarium, in: Il capitolo delle entrate nelle finanze municipali in Occidente ed in Oriente Actes de la Xe Rencontre franco-italienne sur l’épigraphie du monde romain, Roma 1999: 1–23 The author made it known in this meeting, but I do not know whether it has already been collected in CIL G Camodeca, op Cit (n 20): 3

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The relatio, the object of the decree (begins in line 6), is about the concession of a public place to the Augustales who requested it (petentibus Augustalibus) On this public place, the Augustales from Pozzuoli had erected a new building (line 11, locum … novo aedificio extructum) This collegium had great social and economic status in the city (line 12, splendidissimo corpori) The concession was granted on the condition not to transfer the ownership (line 14, ea condicione ne ab eo transferatur dominium), referring to the right recognized to the concessionaire to sell its own legal share on the superficiarius building Such a right of sale would be attested in a passage from Ulpian (Dig 18, 1, 32)22, applicable to all types of superficiariae concessions, not only in the aforementioned tabernae argentariae, and it would only be the transmission of a right already acquired and not of the original constitution The term dominium here is inaccurate, and is probably used in a non-technical way; in the same manner that Pliny23 gives the name of dominus to the concessionaire of an ager vectigalis of the colony of Como, using the word in a vulgar sense We know from the jurisprudence of that time that the dominium of the building erected on public land by the Augustales belonged to the dominus soli, that is to the res publica Puteolanorum as it can be seen from the mentioned sources (Dig 41, 1, 7, 10; Dig 43, 18, 2); only in fragment Dig 6, 2, 12, 3, almost certainly interpolated24, the superficialiarius appears as dominus of the insula superficiaria However, if the principle (superficies solo cedit) was undisputed at the level of legal development, in the praxis, sometimes the right of the concessionaire had characteristics and prerogatives that could be similar to those that arose from a real property right Similar words are found in the superficiaria concession of 193 to Adrastus, freedman of emperor Septimius Severus (FIRA III, 110) mentioned at the beginning of this section The document speaks of aedificium suum for the building erected by him, that is, at his expense, on public land (a solo iuris sui pecunia sua, praestaturus solarium sicut caeteri) To understand the concession made to the Augustales of the city, we can refer to another decree from Pozzuoli (FIRA III, 111), in a somewhat later period but with similar content A freedman of the decurion M Laelius Placidus had constructed a building on public land, in a place of passage between the forum and the city; the freedman requested the remission of the solarium, the annual fee that he had to pay, offering in exchange the cession of his inheritance rights to the colony over the building, renouncing to transmit it hereditarily Atimetus, the freedman, describes his right to the surface with the term usus et fructus potestasque

22

23 24

S Solazzi, op Cit , (n 14): 216, considers applicable the term solarium only for the relations between private individuals, leaving the word vectigal for the construction on public soil by individuals On its applicability see R Orestano, Solarium, NNDI 17, (1970): 829 and bibliography therein cited Plin Ep 7, 18 G Camodeca, op Cit , (n 20): 10

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G Camodeca25 considers that the freedman already had a right on the surface over the building and had begun to pay for the solarium, as it is shown in the request: uti solarium aedificii … remitteretur sibi The relationship between the building erected by Atimeto and Pozzuoli’s colony’s soil would have had, at first, the content and characteristics of the superficies, having been transformed after the remission of the solarium and the temporal limitation to his life, in a kind of usufruct In this decree the concessionaire’s resignation to the hereditary transferability was placed as a condition for the remission of the solarium In the previous example, the ordo decurionum put as a condition to grant the concession, the resignation of right of alienation by the Augustales, which also entailed the prohibition to modify the public use of the building The caution of the ordo decurionum was justified because the concession had been made to the corpus of the Augustales, everlasting by definition, so it was indefinite and virtually perpetual26 We do not know if the Augustales were exempt from the payment of the solarium for the construction of the building If so, it would have been established in another decree In any case, it refers to an aedificium and not to a templum or any other sacred construction that would have been exempt from payment27 The possibility that the Augustales from Pozzuoli would exercise their power to sell28 the surperficies right in the future was probably great Since the right consisted in a uti-frui on the building, the superficiarius would seem to have an anomalous kind of possession, currently defined as a quasi corporis possessio29 Every precaution in the relations between entities, a colony and a collegium, was never excessive in the opinion of the decurions That is why they would expressly underline on stone the property of the res publica on the locus and on the building constructed by the Augustales, as well as the recipients of the use and benefit of the building, which they could not be other than the present and future members of the collegium, an expression referred to in quod ab tam multis possidetur

25 26 27 28

29

G Camodeca, op Cit , (n 20): 10 On collegia, B Albanese, Le persone nel diritto privato romano, Palermo 1979: 551–575; F M de Robertis, La capacità giuridica dei collegi romani e la sua progressiva contrazione, in: Sodalitas Scritti A Guarino, 3, Napoli 1984: 1259 ss Plin Ep 10, 8, 2 It refers to the request of the decuriones of the municipium of Tifernum Tiberinum of public soil for the construction at its expense of a temple to place the statues of the deified emperors; being a sacred building, the concession of public soil would not be subject to solarium With regard to the problem resulting from the sale of the superficies right, see F Pastori, La superficie nel diritto romano, Milano 1962: 48 ss On the other hand, it is known that the collegia, through their representatives (curatores, magistri) could sell, buy, receive donations A Biscardi, Rappresentanza sostanziale e processuale del collegia in diritto romano, Iura 31, (1980), 11 s G Camodeca, op Cit (n 21): 9, includes various stipulationes dei curatores of the collegium and the assumption of obligations by the Augustales See quasi corporis possessio, F Pastori, op Cit (n 28): 242 ss Only the postclassic jurists began to speak of possessio of surperficies P Bonfante, Istituzioni di diritto romano, Milano 1987: 288–300

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The authorization of the ordo decurionum to build on public land and the corresponding payment of the solarium were required at all times, as it is indicated by Julian (Dig 43, 8, 7) and Ulpian (Dig 43, 8, 2, 17), with the possibility to demolish the buildings in case they could obstruct the public passing The same authors also specify that constructions on public land should not be demolished so as not to fill the city with ruins In 184 BC, the censors (Cato and V Flaccus) ordered the buildings erected by private individuals on public soil to be demolished in 30 days In 383 AD, the emperors Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius ordered the demolition of all those constructions carried out in public places against the “adornment and comfort and decorous aspect of the city” (Cod Iust 8, 11, 6) It was not always clear, with the cadastral documents available, to specify the demarcation of public and private property, which gave rise to many controversies, so much so that Augustus30, in his work of urban reorganization, decided in favor of individuals in case of doubt On the other hand, Ulpian (Dig 43, 8, 2, 15 (Labeus) expressively distinguishes between the one who builds on public soil, with prior authorization, and the one who does it illegally To the economic interests of the res publica the decurions had to pay special attention when deciding to grant municipal soil Indeed, in the decree from Pozzuoli the advanced age of the applicant was taken into consideration as justification for the remission of the solarium in favor of Atimetus For love towards his fatherland (ex pietate), Atimetus expressly renounced the hereditary transmissibility of his surperficies right and, to his death, the benefit of free disposal of the building and the capacity of being rented to receive the corresponding vectigal; or given another convenient public use The deep economic and financial crisis of the cities in the second half of the 3rd century AD, and the administrative reform carried out by Constantine and his successors contributed to a change of the citizens’ patrimony management, beginning with the conservation of the public buildings themselves Monuments and ruined public buildings were not restored, and likewise, they were used as quarry for construction materials or adapted as private dwellings Julian tried to reverse this process of degradation by giving three constitutions on soils and abusive occupation of urban land Apparently, it was the time of the collapse of the system, so these were useless 6. Final conclusions In relation to the inscription that has originated this study – and without discarding other hypotheses – it has been set out the possibility that it could be considered a number related to the places where commercial premises would be built in the fo-

30

Suet Aug 32

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rum on a permanent basis and, therefore, of the places on which people would set up buildings that enjoy the ius superficiorum To this regard there are several inscriptions collected by Arangio Ruiz It could also consist in the signaling of soils to be rented (FIRA III, 109, 111, 112), or the area of a specific public work (FIRA III, 152: opera publica in via Caecilia locantur; 153: Lex parieti faciundo Puteolana) The decrees referred to in this work have allowed us to know, more closely, the way in which the urban real estate heritage was managed by the ordo decurionum of a city, in the period prior to the introduction of the figure of the curator rei publicae In all the aforementioned cases, the collection of the fee for these renting would constitute a large item of income for the cities, whether they were considered vectigalia or solarium If not charged, there could be a severe impoverishment of the cities, which might have contributed to their fall, ruin or decline

Tantam pecuniam male perdiderunt: Aqueducts and municipal investment in Hispania* Javier Martínez

(University of Cambridge)

One of the most-discussed passages of Pliny’s letters is that in which he describes the failed attempts at building an aqueduct by the Nicomedenses In this letter, Pliny writes: In aquae ductum, domine, Nicomedenses impenderunt HS |X—X—X—| C—C—C—X—V—I—I—I— qui imperfectus adhuc omissus, destructus etiam est; rursus in alium ductum erogata sunt C—C— Hoc quoque relicto novo impendio est opus, ut aquam habeant, qui tantam pecuniam male perdiderunt 1

The episode reveals the gross technical incompetence of the contractors (which Pliny seems to understand, for later in his letter he asks Trajan for a skilled builder: Sed in primis necessarium est mitti a te vel aquilegem vel architectum, ne rursus eveniat quod accidit) It could also hint at shady municipal business where contractors were making a juicy benefit The bottom line is, nevertheless, that the city wanted desperately to build an aqueduct, no matter what the cost This obsession with aqueducts (and this disregard for the expenditure of public money) is something which, in my opinion, can be seen also in the towns and cities of the Iberian Peninsula In this paper, I want to put forward two ideas: first that aqueduct construction happened independently from municipalisation and second, that their role as prestigious constructions was as important as their functional purpose The

*

1

This paper has been written within the “Impact of the Ancient City Project” led by Prof Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge) This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement n° 693418) I want to thank Alessandro Launaro and Jo Quinn for reading through the text and their very useful comments Plin Ep 10, 37: “The citizens of Nicomedia, sir, have spent 3,318,000 sesterces on an aqueduct which they abandoned before it was finished and finally demolished Then they made a grant of 200,000 [sesterces] towards another one, but this too was abandoned, so that even after squandering such enormous sums of money they must spend more if they are to have a water supply” (Loeb transl )

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overall conclusion will be that aqueducts were very desirable as constructions to have in a city even if they were too expensive to build or (especially) maintain 1. The chronology of Roman aqueducts The history of Roman-style aqueducts (long-distance, covered and levelled conduits built with Roman concrete), leaving aside their Etruscan precedents,2 begins in Rome in the 4th c BC with the construction of the Aqua Appia 3 From there, they slowly spread across Italy However, the real expansion of hydraulic architecture (aqueducts, cisterns, baths) in Italy and the provinces was facilitated by the development of pozzolanic Roman concrete from the 1st c BC onwards 4 In Spain, aqueducts appear first in the main cities, and are always linked to private investment The first was that of Cartagena, built by Pompey the Great after the Sertorian Wars,5 followed by those of Tarragona, Córdoba, Mérida, Cádiz and Conimbriga The first three were built with imperial patronage as part of the (re)foundational efforts 6 According to the most recent archaeological data, during the first half of the 1st c AD there were eight functioning aqueducts in the Iberian Peninsula, with a possible ninth During the second half, the overall number had multiplied manifold, so a total of 31 can be securely dated to have been in use in this period, with another possible 25, in an overall total of 46 different cities This is between four and seven times the number of Augustan and late Republican aqueducts (Fig 1) The number of aqueducts would continue to slightly increase during the first decades of the 2nd c , after which the trend would slowly turn This geometrical increase in the number of aqueducts roughly coincides chronologically with the extension of Latin rights to the towns and cities of Hispania through the Edict of Vespasian With this gesture, the Flavian emperors integrated large numbers of urban Hispanic elites into the Imperial social and political system, which has been linked to a general process of investment in large buildings like fora, basilicae, and spectacula 7 Aqueducts are part of this process, and there are various examples (e g , Almuñécar, Segobriga, Mellaria, and Valencia) where the chronological corre-

2 3 4 5 6 7

T Hodge, Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply, London 1992: 45 Front Aq 1, 4–5; cf T Ashby, The Aqueducts of Ancient Rome, Oxford 1935 L Hobbs / R Siddall, Cementitious materials of the Ancient World, in: Building Roma Aeterna: Current Research on Roman Mortar and Concrete, Helsinki 2010: 35–59, esp 53–4; G R H Wright, Ancient Building Technology Volume 2: Materials, Leiden 2005: 183–184 E Sánchez López / J Martínez Jiménez, Los acueductos de Hispania: construcción y abandono, Madrid 2016: 110 E Sánchez López / J Martínez Jiménez, op Cit (n 5): 164, 184, 204, 235, 244, 246 Cf P Le Roux, Le Haut-Empire romain en Occident d’Auguste aux Sévères, París 1997; E Melchor, Construcciones cívicas y evergetismo en Hispania romana, ETF(2) 6 (1993): 443–466

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Fig. 01 Functioning aqueducts in Hispania during the Roman Empire

lation between access to municipal status and a more general monumental development is clearly shown in inscriptions or archaeology However, this chronological correlation may not imply a direct causal relation between change in status and aqueduct building In Baelo Claudia, Conimbriga, and Ilipla (and maybe Cartagena) the construction of the aqueduct appears to predate the change of status, but corresponds to larger phases of city-wide construction 8 Aqueducts were very desirable buildings for many reasons, and the fact that they were almost always built in cities which had existed before they were built underlines the fact that they were not essentially an urban necessity but a luxurious commodity Other sources of water like wells, springs, and cisterns never really disappear, even in urban contexts where aqueducts were later built 9 Similarly, it should not be assumed that they were used as ways of celebrating achieving municipal status; they were built whenever the technical, social, and economic circumstances were favourable, which can coincide with status promotion but does not necessarily do so

8 9

E Sánchez López / J Martínez Jiménez, op Cit (n 5): 69–71 M M Castro García, Modelos de abastecimiento urbano de aguas en la Bética romana: las cisternas, ETF(2) 30 (2017): 97–124

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2. Why aqueducts? Whereas aqueducts are part of what it is publicly perceived to be the ‘Roman city monument pack’, they are not the only ones Fora and basilicae are perhaps the most important, because they are the buildings that represent the Italic-style curial government: an open space to vote and assemble for the citizens, and to display the statues and inscriptions dedicated to and by prominent citizens Other types of monuments imported as part of the ‘set’ were temples, which could be dedicated to local and syncretic deities, or to properly Roman cults, like genii coloniae, the Capitoline triad, or the figure of the emperor 10 Spectacula also fall within this category In this regard, circuses, theatres and amphitheatres are all structures that could be found in many Roman cities and linked to private patronage However, these are fewer in number, and more widely spread In the Iberian Peninsula, for instance, we know only of seventeen amphitheatres and 23 theatres 11 This sharply contrasts with the total number of Roman aqueducts, which add up to 70,12 and there are many reasons why aqueducts could have been more popular than spectacle buildings Aqueducts are, by definition, water supply systems, and in many cases the distance to an adequate source could be quite considerable 13 This is not necessarily to say that they were built solely for drinking water, as has been suggested,14 because water was needed for many other uses Water was used for drinking and cooking, true but that is only a minimal proportion of the water which is daily consumed in a city Washing and cleaning, gardening, flushing latrines and sewers, bathing, ornamental fountains, industries and workshops; all of these were activities which consumed large quantities of water which did not have to be good drinking water and all these were activities which took place inside cities In cases where there were several aqueducts, some might have brought good drinking water, whereas others would have brought water of inferior quality, as we know happened in Rome 15 From the ethnographic record16 we know 10 11

12 13 14

15 16

Cf J C Quinn / A Wilson, Capitolia, Journal of Roman Studies 103 (2013): 117–73 A Ceballos Hornero / D Ceballos Hornero, Los espectáculos del anfiteatro en Hispania, Iberia 6 (2003), 57–70; J L Jiménez, Teatro y desarrollo monumental urbano en Hispania, Cuadernos de Arquitectura Romana 2 (1993): 225–38; J A Jiménez Sánchez, La desaparición de los espectáculos de gladiadores en Hispania, HAnt 33–34 (2009–2010): 273–94 Only counting urban ones: E Sánchez López / J Martínez Jiménez, op Cit (n 5), plus those identified in the years since that study was published Ideal characteristics for an aqueduct source were a constant annual flow, good quality water, and enough altitude difference to ensure a gravity flow into the city S Feijoo, Las presas y los acueductos de agua potable Una asociación incompatible en la antigüedad El abastecimiento a Augusta Emerita, in: Augusta Emerita Territorios, espacios, imágenes y gentes en Lusitania Romana, Mérida 2005: 171–205; S Feijoo, Las presas y el agua potable en época romana: dudas y certezas, in: Nuevos elementos de ingeniería romana, Madrid 2006, 145–60 Front Aq M Garde Garde, Estudio etnográfico del abastecimiento tradicional de agua y hielo en la villa de Mélida (Navarra), Revista del Centro de Estudios Merindad de Tudela 18 (2010): 15–31; M C

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that in communities in rural Spain locals know which springs or fountains are good for drinking and which are not, something which could also be true of the Roman period Overall, the main advantage of an aqueduct supply is that it provides water in quantity, and with quality when possible The advantages of having an abundance of water in an urban space are many: for one, it enables a much denser settlement pattern Of the list of uses of water given in the previous paragraph bathing is paramount The fact that aqueducts appear in public and private contexts underlines their desirability They were perhaps the most important Roman structure, especially if we take into consideration that they remained popular in Late Antiquity when other monuments had been abandoned 17 Italic-style bathing became a deeply-rooted social construct in the Roman world, not only in Hispania18, and whereas it is possible to have baths without aqueducts (as we know from early periods, e g in Pompeii) once Roman concrete and aqueduct technologies are fully developed, aqueducts and baths became directly connected In some cases, as in Segovia, Andelos, and Los Bañales, the aqueducts seem to have been built explicitly to supply baths Aqueducts were, from all perspectives, desirable for a city to have, especially if baths were to be built From Pliny’s letter above we know that they must have been very expensive to build, and this seems to be a fair comparison with other aqueduct construction costs, like Verona (HS 600,000) or Aspendos (HS 8mill), as preserved in inscriptions and written sources 19 From Janet DeLaine’s calculations, the costs of aqueduct building seem to be lower than those of large projects like imperial thermae This is to be expected, not only in rough terms of the simple volume of building material (see appendix), but also because aqueducts do not get decorated with expensive materials (marbles) or techniques which require skilled workmen (mosaics) They required precise engineering calculations,20 but so did other vaulted structures (baths, theatres, etc ) with complex elliptical or semicircular spaces In a political context where private munificence was the way to hold an office, such an expense of private capital on an aqueduct made a strong statement, and there are various inscriptions which attest to this, as in Ebusus, Cartagena, Ilugo, Castulo, Barcelona, Cabra, or Jaén 21

17 18 19 20 21

Naranjo Santana, El agua y las construcciones de la necesidad en las Medianías y Cumbres de Gran Canaria (España), in: Arquitectura vernácula en el mundo ibérico, Sevilla 2007: 420–428 M Mango, Building and Architecture, in: The Cambridge Ancient History, vol XIV, Cambridge 2000: 918–71, esp p 934 Y Fikret, Baths and Bathing in Classical Antiquity, Cambridge, Mass 1991 J DeLaine, The Baths of Caracalla, Portsmouth 1997: 219 T Hodge, op Cit (n 2); cf J Martínez Jiménez / P González Gutiérrez, Knowledge and Specialised Trades in the Late Antique West: Medicine vs Engineering, Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture 11 (2017): 38–58 CIL II, 1614, 3240, 3280, 3421, 3663, 4509; CIL II2/5,30

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Whereas theatres and amphitheatres might have been monumental, large and prestigious buildings, perhaps they were not as pragmatic and useful as aqueducts 22 They were not structures to be used for occasional events, like games, or which represent solely civic power and the administrative needs of the curial-based magistrate system, like fora and basilicae They actually made a difference in the daily life of citizens by feeding baths and fountains This is the impression we get from ancient sources, where aqueducts are seen as worthy of admiration as early as Strabo and as late as Cassiodorus including, of course, by Frontinus himself 23 Visually, aqueducts had a very striking impact on the visitor, especially when they approached the city in lofty arches Aqueducts can be also used to provide a very strong sensation of integrating the territory with the city and an even stronger statement of power of people over nature by controlling and diverting the natural flow of water Having an aqueduct was also a way of claiming territory for a city and demonstrating the reach of the city’s power, the further the better In this last sense of territorial control, aqueducts had a very important symbolic significance With aqueducts being also (relatively) more affordable than circuses or theatres, and eminently functional, it is perhaps not surprising that they were so widespread If we look back at the period of expansion of aqueducts, during the 1st c AD, we could see that whether because of recent statutory promotion or because of improving local economic circumstances, local councils became very keen on investing in architecture In these contexts, where various urban centres start nearly simultaneously to develop their own local monumentalities within a Roman architectural language, the archaeological concept of peer polity interaction may prove useful 24 The wide range of urban donors attested in inscriptions (male, female, locals, foreigners, holding office, or not, etc ) who were involved in urban munificence would certainly confirm that there was competition within the cities amongst the local elites 25 Competitive construction and building between cities is more evident in the East, where there is a longer and richer epigraphic and textual tradition, but it should not be ruled out (considering the limited evidence) that it happened similarly in the West In modern-day Spain a similar wave of conspicuous consumption of architecture and large investment in public infrastructures has also been taking place: international airports have become a nation-wide phenomenon 26 Whereas in 1977 there were 32 22 23 24 25 26

Furthermore, on Pliny’s letter above aqueducts seem to balance the Vitruvian principles for public buildings of venustas, firmitas, and utilitas (Vitr Arch , 1, 3, 2) Cassiod Var 7, 6, 2; Front Aq 1, 16; Str 6, 8 C Renfrew / J Cherry, Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-political Change, Cambridge 1986; cf J Ma, Peer Polity Interaction in the Hellenistic Age, P&P 180 (2003): 9–39 N Mackie, Urban munificence and the growth of urban consciousness in Roman Spain, in: The Early Roman Empire in the West, Oxford 1990: 179–92 High-speed trains, additional motorways, or de-centralised local archaeological museums could have also been good current Spanish examples

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civil airports (all except for Madrid and Valladolid located on the coast or the islands), in 2017 there were 50, with almost all of the new ones built in inland cities which wanted to promote their status as regional centres This correlation between city status and access to an international airport is even explicitly stated in political manifestos, demanding airports for all urban areas over 250,000 inhabitants 27 While airports serve a specific functional purpose and improve the connectivity and international accessibility of the city, we see also that they have a very important symbolic role, and nearby cities (Castellón-Valencia, Bilbao-San Sebastián, Pamplona-Logroño) insist in having an airport each Some even (Murcia) have two 3. Aqueducts: blessing or curse? Despite their inherent usefulness and symbolic importance, aqueducts (and to an extent, airports) as opposed to theatres or amphitheatres come with a concerning negative side: a constant need for maintenance Building an aqueduct for a city out of private money seems like a large individual investment, but the long-term costs of maintenance were not included in the original donation The cost of running baths (which consumed large quantities of fuel and required a number of employees) has been studied more carefully, and it is clear that endowments of forests to supply firewood were common 28 Aqueducts do not seem to have been endowed in such a way, so all maintenance had to rely on municipal resources like public slaves and engineers (the hydrophilakai, aquarii or curatores aquarum) who kept watch on trees damaging the fabric, clearing the silts (sordes) and sinter (calcium crust) deposits from the conduit, fixed leaks, etc 29 During Late Antiquity, and with the changes imposed in local administration (esp from the 4th c onwards), it seems as if fewer municipal resources were available to spend on public maintenance of these aqueducts 30 Imperial legislation suggests that maintenance responsibility was handed over to private individuals whose lands were 27 28 29

30

Partido Castellano, Programa Marco electoral, Mayo 2015, http://prueba partidocastellano org/ wp-content/uploads/2013/05/programa-marco-PCAS-2015 pdf, accessed 14/3/18, p 62 P Blyth, The consumption and cost of fuel in hypocaust baths, in: Roman Baths and Bathing, Newport 1999: 87–93 Front Aq ; Cf Cassiod Var 3, 3, 1; 5, 38; 7, 6 C Brunn, Water legislation in the ancient world (c 2200 BC–c AD 500), in: Handbook of Ancient Water Technology, Leiden 2000: 539–606; C Brunn, Roman emperors and legislation on public water in the Roman Empire: clarifications and problems, Water History 4 1 (2012): 11–34 For a particular example, see E Deniaux, L’aqueduc de Dyrrachium, construction et restauration, in: Le réseaux d’eau courante dans l’antiquité, Rennes 2011: 27–34 M Kulikowski, The interdependence of town and country in late antique Spain, in: Urban Centres and Rural Contexts in Late Antiquity, Ann Harbor 2001: 147–62, esp p 149; W Liebeschuetz, The end of the ancient city, in: The City in Late Antiquity, London 1992, 1–50

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crossed by an aqueduct, in exchange for tax remissions,31 although in late provincial contexts, such as late 5th c Vienne, we still hear of an aqueduct artifex 32 The general trend is, however, for the number of aqueducts to decrease from the 4th c onwards (Fig 1, above) It has to be assumed that there was an interest in preserving the aqueduct supply, for the reasons (practical and symbolic) outlined above The evidence for aqueduct repairs in main cities through the 4th and 5th c (Narbonne, Rome, Arles, Mérida, Ravenna, Nîmes, etc ) speaks for itself And the continuity of water supply in the main administrative and economic cities of the Iberian Peninsula (like Tarragona, Córdoba, Valencia, Mérida, or Lisbon) into the 5th century should be linked to regular maintenance and care 33 However, these sites were privileged because they were connected to the central and imperial administration, and its related networks of power and patronage Those aqueducts which fall into disuse during the early period are largely to be found in secondary nuclei These smaller sites do not seem to have been investing in regular aqueduct maintenance, the main cause of eventual aqueduct abandonment As an extreme example we have the broken aqueduct of Baelo Claudia, damaged by a 3rd or 4th c earthquake (Fig 2), that was never repaired,34 even if it was at that time technically possible to do so 35 Places like Ibiza, Calahorra, Los Bañales, Castulo, Vergilia, Cella, Sasamón, Iliberris, Ucubi, Uxama, Toledo, Jaén, Celti, Ammaia, etc , not only lose their aqueduct supply,36 but also enter a period of constructive inactivity This stagnation, together with the end of aqueduct maintenance has to be directly linked to the administrative reforms of Diocletian and Constantine The two main forms of urban funding, taxes and ex officio payments, had become drastically reduced On the one hand this was a result of the new centralised administration, and on the other the lack of political incentive to invest in civic munificence Aqueducts were not essential to urban living, even if they made it more comfortable, so it may be that aqueduct maintenance dropped down in the list of municipal priorities The economic burden of aqueduct maintenance on its own cannot explain the changes of the small secondary towns (in the same way that aqueduct building was potentially bankruptcy), but it was a sign of the changing tide

31 32 33 34 35 36

Cod Theod 15, 2 = Cod Iust 1, 43, 1, 1 Greg Turon Hist 2, 3: artifex ille, cui de aquaeducto cura manebat J Martínez Jiménez, Aqueducts and Water Supply in the Towns of Post-Roman Spain (AD 400– 1000), DPhil thesis, Oxford 2014 E Sánchez López / J Martínez Jiménez, op Cit (n 5): 199–201 J Martínez Jiménez / P González Gutiérrez, op Cit (n 20) Although in various cases the lack of urban activity is used to date the end of the aqueduct, there are some others when the end of the aqueduct is dated independently, E Sánchez López / J Martínez Jiménez, op Cit (n 5)

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Fig. 02 Aqueduct of Baelo Claudia, damaged for a 3rd/4th century earthquake

If we again compare aqueducts with airports (Fig 3), the latter were usually built during times of economic bonanza, and suddenly became an unbearable expense for many cities or authorities, especially when they did not receive as many flights as expected (like Huesca, Albacete or Ciudad Real) or never even opened (Castellón, Murcia) Fourteen Spanish airports in the late 2010s are grossly underperforming or even closed, they roughly coincide with those built in the post-1977 period, and are largely linked to smaller provincial capitals These airports might have been built with promises of prosperity and obviously linked to (potentially) symbolic and economic benefits, but after the economic crisis they ceased to be a priority They preserve still that feeling of having been a huge waste of money 37 37

Cf European Court of Accounts, Informe especial Infraestructuras aeroportuarias financiadas por la UE: escasa rentabilidad, Luxembourg 2014 https://www eca europa eu/Lists/ECADocuments/ SR14_21/QJAB14020ESN pdf

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Fig. 03 General panorama of the airports built in Spain from the 90s

4. Conclusions One way of reading the evolution of aqueducts is as a cautionary tale, with a moral much in the line of the current Zeitgeist (i e , both the dangers of cuts in public spending and the lack of foresight in the investment of large quantities in infrastructure), but this would be a very short-sighted analysis The construction of aqueducts was a very expensive enterprise, but town councils and private individuals could afford such sums during the early Empire It was part of the civic duty to invest into the town, and despite personal, ulterior political motivations, the overall benefits for the civic community were many There is no doubt: aqueducts improved the quality of life, enabled the spread of Italic-style bathing, and allowed for a denser and populous urban setting And while the early imperial administrative system continued to function as originally established, aqueducts continued to function The exponential growth of aqueducts during the 1st c AD has to be explained by taking into account various factors, out of which municipalisation and change of status is only one Towns did not wait to change status to invest into large hydraulic infrastructure In fact, acquiring an aqueduct before status change would have been a great way to promote a stipendiary city that aimed to obtain municipal rights Aqueducts were a symbol of political and civic status, and inherently useful and beneficial After the first ones were built in the large, new, imperially-funded capitals it was only a matter of technical and economic circumstances to be right for individual cities to embark in such constructions

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The decline in the number of aqueducts, especially considering the difference between main cities and secondary nuclei, highlights how essential municipal investment in maintenance was It could also be used as an indicator of how successful the municipal system was in some areas as opposed to others, a transition clearly visible in late Antiquity 38 Overall, the symbolic desirability of aqueducts and their inherent usefulness made them too attractive a monument to be left unbuilt, and it cannot be said that building them was money badly spent (tantae pecuniae male perditae) as they were in use for several generations before they became too onerous to maintain 5. Appendix: Calculations Building materials formed a large part of the building budgets,39 so a rough comparative approximation between a theatre and an aqueduct could be highly illustrative Theatre: Volume of half the cylinder, as defined by the radius of the theatre (rt) from the centre of the scaena to the outer wall and the height of said wall (h), minus half the volume of the truncated cone given by the radius of the theatre (rt), the height of the outer wall (h), and the radius of the scaena (rs) r ⋅ π ⋅h −

(r

t

2

+ rt ⋅rs + rs2 ) ⋅ π ⋅h

V=

3 2

Aqueduct: Cross-section of the aqueduct substructio (wss x hss) minus cross-section of the specus (wsp x hsp) multiplied by its length, plus the volume of the vault, as given by half the volume of the hollow cylinder defined by the length of the conduit, the width of the specus and of the substructio as internal and external diametres

V = ( w ss ⋅h ss − w sp ⋅h sp ) ⋅ L +

⎡⎛ w ⎞ 2 ⎛ w ⎞ 2 ⎤ sp ⎢⎜ ss ⎟ − ⎜ ⎟ ⎥⋅ π ⋅ L ⎢⎣⎝ 2 ⎠ ⎝ 2 ⎠ ⎥⎦ 2

These are rough approximations, which do not account for vomitoria or the proscaenium wall and peristyle (in theatres) or for occasional arcuationes (in aqueducts) They only serve as a guide to the order of magnitude of the amount of building materials (lime, stone, water, timber) which would have been necessary Both measurements are most certainly understatements when compared to the real final amount of material

38 39

Cf J Martínez Jiménez / C Tejerizo García, Central places in the post-Roman Mediterranean: Regional models for the Iberian Peninsula, Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 28 1 (2015): 81–103 J DeLaine, op Cit (n 19)

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Using Sagunto as an example of an average size theatre (rt = 39 5, h = 16 9, rs = 8), the volume resulting is 24,250 m3 Lisbon, with a median length aqueduct (L = 10k, wss = 1 1, hss = 0 8, wsp = 0 4, hsp = 0 3), gives us a volume of 11,723 m3

From municipia Latina to oppida labentia Bases for a model of the ideological and institutional causes behind the crisis of the Latin municipal system in Hispania David Espinosa

(University of Santiago de Compostela)*

1. Research approach: the ideological shift Two decades ago, G Alföldy published a work in which he claimed that an ideological shift among the municipal elites was responsible for the early (and in some cases fulminating) crisis in which the Roman towns of the Iberian Peninsula were plunged during the Age of the Antonines 1 In Alföldy’s view, that crisis came on the heels of the municipal vibrancy and economic prosperity experienced in Hispania at the end of the 1st century BC, resulting from the Latinisation policy implemented by Vespasian 2 Although Alföldy analysed some of its manifestations, such as the fewer opportunities for individual economic advancement as from the time of Hadrian, the most distinguished elites’ dwindling interest in politics, the local oligarchies’ thriftiness in comparison with their former munificence (at least with respect to the donation of public buildings), the collapse of the sculptural programmes in public spaces around the mid 2nd century AD and the central power’s intervention in certain municipal spheres *

1

2

This paper has been written in the framework of the research projects ‘Nuevas bases documentales para el estudio histórico de la Hispania romana de época republicana: onomástica y latinidad (III–I a C )’ (HAR2015/66463-P) and ‘De municipia Latina a oppida labentia: sobre la sostenibilidad económica e institucional el expediente municipal latino en Hispania (siglos I–III d C )’ (HAR2016/74854-P), as well as the research groups ‘Ciudades Romanas’ (UCM/930692/HIST) and ‘Síncrisis Investigación en Formas Culturais’ (GI-1919) G Alföldy, Hispania bajos los Flavios y los Antoninos: consideraciones históricas sobre una época, in: Mayer, M / Nolla, J M / Pardo, J (eds ), De les estructures indígenes a l’organització provincial romana de la Hispània citerior: homenatge a Josep Estrada i Garriga, Granollers 1998: 11–32, esp 24–25 and 31–32 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1), 16–20 On the granting of Latium universae Hispaniae by Vespasian, see Plin HN 3, 30; J Andreu, Edictum, Municipium y Lex Hispania en época Flavia (69–96 d C ), Oxford 2004

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of competence, this scholar did not dive into its possible causes in depth, suggesting some changes in the economy and in the mentality of the well-to-do 3 Thus, according to him, following Trajan’s reign the municipal elites in Hispania would have gradually lost interest in flaunting their social status, ‘taking an increasingly more neutral stance towards everything that had formerly given content and meaning to public life’ 4 As regards economic change, in addition to the impact of well-documented, wide-ranging problems, whose negative effects were felt in broad areas of the Empire, Alföldy proposed (for the case of Hispania) the financial exhaustion of the Flavian municipalities To his mind, ‘we have to consider the possibility that a community of this type would have been bankrupt by the obligatory public buildings enthusiastically constructed by the first generation after the grant of urban autonomy’, insofar as the structure of the smaller municipia would have been too fragile to sustain an urban management system 5 This proposal has recently been endorsed by J Mata, J Andreu and I Delage, who hold that towns of this type were unsustainable Thus, while Mata has noted that the municipal crisis had a varied impact, more evident and perceptible in the Flavian municipia whose monumentalisation would have been meteoric and barely sustainable, Andreu and Delage hold that the Latin municipal system’s internal weaknesses would not have taken long to surface, before concluding that the transformation of Hispano-Roman towns into Flavian municipalities would have sometimes been met with failure 6 With respect to the ideological shift, there have been no suggestions hitherto as to any possible causes or reasons that allow us to gain a better understanding of its origins Only Mata (as with Melchor to explain the decline of munificence in the West) has stressed the importance that this change might have had To his mind, this would explain ‘why work on the circus of Segobriga was interrupted in the last half of the 2nd century and why the inscriptions in the forum of Carthago Nova were no longer dedicated by the magistrates but by the conventus itself ’7 For Melchor, in contrast, ‘the 3

4 5 6

7

G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 21–25 Enrique Melchor also puts forward economic and, above all, ideological reasons to explain the evolution of euergetism in the communities of Hispania: E Melchor, Consideraciones acerca del origen, motivación y evolución de las conductas evergéticas en Hispania romana, SHHA 12 (1994): 61–82, esp 78–79 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 25 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 27 J Mata, Crisis ciudadana a partir del siglo II en Hispania: un modelo teórico de causas y dinámicas aplicado al conventus Carthaginensis, CAUN 22 (2014): 219–251, esp 225 and 243; Andreu, J / I Delage, Diuturna atque aeterna ciuitas?: sobre la sostenibilidad de los municipia Latina hispanorromanos a partir de un caso paradigmático: Los Bañales de Uncastillo, in: J Andreu (ed ), Oppida labentia: transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanorromanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 345–374, esp 346–348 Early evidence of this lack of sustainability can be found in the epistula Vespasiani ad Saborenses in AD 77 (CIL II2/5, 871), the epistula Titi ad Muniguenses in AD 79 (CILA II, 1052) and the epistula Domitiani after the lex Irnitana in AD 91 (HEp 15, 2006, 330) J Mata, op Cit (n 6): 223

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trigger factors of urban decline, which was already obvious in some cities as from the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century AD, should be sought, rather than in a widespread economic crisis or in a premature change in mentality among the local aristocracies […], in the strategies implemented by the provincial elites to scale the socio-political ladder during the High Empire period’ 8 This state of affairs, as will be seen further on, is precisely one of the possible reasons behind that ideological shift In light of the above considerations, there is a need to search for and identify causes and reasons that contribute to explain how that ideological shift, as the root of the crisis of the Latin municipal system, came about This crisis, which we could call structural, was accompanied by a new pattern of civic behaviour whose effects are mentioned in the sources, but whose (deep-seated) causes are still a mystery Thus, the material and institutional ruin of Latin municipalities, whose demise is dated to 212–213 AD on the occasion of the promulgation of the Constitutio Antoniniana by Caracalla, would have resulted from the combination of a series of endogenous and exogenous factors which can be glimpsed, to a greater or lesser extent, in the sources Thus, this paper intends to serve as a necessary departure point for exploring the issue by undertaking the complex task of identifying the possible causes behind that change in values and mentality among the elites of the Flavian municipia As already noted, the crisis of the Latin municipal system has been addressed by scholars such as Alföldy, Mata, Andreu and Delage from the perspective of the legal-administrative dimension of the urban decline which seems to have affected Hispania during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD 9 For Melchor, taking the opposite stance, the material crisis of towns in Hispania would not have led to the breakdown of municipal order 10 Without pretending to claim that both processes are inherent or intrinsic, the evident connection between both realities is indisputable, as least as regards Hispania In this respect, economic crisis, material decline and institutional collapse have been pinpointed in the most recent research as the three main factors behind the crumbling of the Roman city model in the Empire’s western provinces 11 This historical process,

8 9 10

11

E Melchor, Las élites municipales y los inicios de la crisis del urbanismo monumental en el Occidente romano: algunas consideraciones, con especial referencia a Hispania, Latomus 77 (2018): 416–440, esp 427 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1); J Mata: op Cit (n 6); J Andreu / I Delage, op Cit (n 6) E Melchor, François Jacques tenía razón: sobre el no declinar de las élites y de la vida municipal durante el siglo II y el primer tercio del siglo III d C , in: Andreu, J (ed ), Oppida labentia: transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanorromanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 217–244, esp 240 O Hekster / G Kleijn / D Slootjes (eds ), Crisis and the Roman Empire, Leiden 2007; S Ramallo / A Quevedo (eds ), Las ciudades de la Tarraconense oriental entre los siglos II–IV d C Evolución urbanística y contextos materiales, Murcia 2014; D Vaquerizo / J A Garriguet / A León (eds ), Ciudad y territorio: transformaciones materiales e ideológicas entre la época clásica y el Altomedioevo, Córdoba 2014; L Brassous / A Quevedo (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre le IIe et le IVe siècle, Madrid

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with marked spatial and chronological differences (an aspect that has to be necessarily considered so as to avoid acritical generalisations and sweeping statements), has an undeniable material expression that, thanks to archaeology (especially noteworthy in sites such as Los Bañales de Uncastillo and Torreparedones),12 is currently providing us with abundant information that allows us to propose, with a high degree of certainty, a model of the structural endogenous causes that undermined the political and administrative sustainability of the Latin municipal system 13 Among them, an ideological shift figures predominantly 2. Signs and symptoms of the ideological shift The first step to discovering the causes and reasons behind the ideological shift, which was apparently central to the crisis of the Latin municipal system in Hispania, involves analysing the effects that such a change had on the citizens of those communities This set of tendencies, behaviours and historical phenomena enables us to visualise certain aspects of that change 14 By ‘signs and symptoms of the ideological shift’, we are referring to the following six factors: (1) the devaluation of euergetism and acts of self-representation among the members of the traditional municipal oligarchies, with the subsequent decline in honorific epigraphy; (2) the local elites’ evasion of or passivity towards their civic responsibilities as regards administrative and religious matters; (3) the political intervention of imperial power in financial affairs through the curatores rei publicae uel ciuitatis and the provincial governors; (4) the economic intervention of imperial power in the financial bailout of the pecunia communis; (5) the admission of

12

13

14

2015; J Andreu (ed ), Oppida labentia Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017 J Andreu / I Delage, op Cit (n 6); A Ventura: Torreparedones (colonia Virtus Iulia Ituci) entre Severo y Constantino: ¿oppidum labens uel damnatum et adtributum?, in: Andreu, J (ed ), Oppida labentia: transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanorromanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 443–487 The deterioration of material living conditions reflected in the archaeological record has its correlation in a series of accounts in the literary and epigraphic sources which tell us about the financial woes and administrative problems of Roman towns in some regions of the Empire For an overview, see J Mata, op Cit (n 6) Notwithstanding this irrefutable reality, supported by material evidence, there is an historiographical stance that challenges the decline of Roman towns and their functioning in accordance with the law by playing down the value of the documentary evidence: K Strobel, Das Imperium Romanum 180–284/285 n Chr – Kontinuitäten, langfristiger Wandel und historische Brüche, in: Erdmann, E / Uffelmann, U (eds ), Das Altertum Vom Alten Orient zur Spätantike, Idstein 2001, 239–278; Chr Witschel, Hispania en el siglo III, in: Andreu, J / Cabrero, J / Rodà, I (eds ), Hispaniae: las provincias hispanas en el mundo romano, Tarragona 2009: 473–503; E Melchor, op Cit (n 10) Although some of them do respond to a sole ideological cause, in certain cases they could also be indications of economic difficulties

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alieni, residents who were under the required legal age and/or individuals from humble origins to the decurionate and civic magistracies; and (6) the preponderance of curial heredity in admission to the decurionate and of nomination in the appointment of civic magistrates 15 These six factors, resulting from the analysis of the abundant literary and epigraphic evidence that has come down to us, seem to be evident symptoms of the traditional municipal elites’ lack of interest in public service and the social promotion of their merita 16 In some cases, such as the political and economic intervention of imperial power in municipal financial affairs, they reveal the more than likely negligent and/or not always lawful management of the res publica by magistrates and decurions, which we know was the case in the Empire’s eastern ciuitates 17 As Alföldy has upheld, after the reign of Trajan the ruling families in Hispania would have been increasingly less inclined to publicise their social status through official statuary programmes or by defraying the cost of public building and/or monumentalisation projects According to this scholar, the local oligarchies, feeling the pinch of an economic downturn, would have taken a neutral stance on municipal matters, above all when taking into account that the reason for such expenditures (to gain access to municipal positions of responsibility) would have ceased to be a priority for them on many occasions 18 Both circumstances can be glimpsed in two epigraphic testimonies The first, the Oratio de pretiis gladiatorum minuendis, offers a detailed account of how satisfied (provincial and municipal) imperial cult priests were with the measures adopted by Marcus Aurelius and Commodus in AD 177–178, with an eye to cutting the cost of the munera gladiatoria that they were supposed to defray out of their own pockets 19 Pockets that, in view of the measures implemented by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to improve the lot of the Hispani exhausti, were not that full at the time 20 The second is an inscription from Barcino, dated to between 161 and 169 AD, which describes certain gifts that L Caecilius Optatus left in legacy to the town 21 Accordingly, a boxing bout 15

16 17 18 19 20 21

These aspects have been studied by scholars such as P Garnsey, Aspects of the decline of the urban aristocracy in the Empire, ANRW II 1 (1974): 229–252; F Jacques, Le privilège de liberté Politique impériale et autonomie municipale dans les cités de l’Occident romain (161–244), Rome 1984; G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1); Chr Witschel, op Cit (n 13); E Melchor, Entre el deseo de perpetuidad y la necesidad de renovación: sobre el reclutamiento de decuriones y la estabilidad de las aristocracias locales en los siglos II y III d C , AntCl 82 (2013): 217–238; E Melchor, op Cit (n 10); E Melchor, op Cit (n 8); J Mata, op Cit (n 6); J Andreu / I Delage, op Cit (n 6) E Melchor, op Cit (n 3): 79 and 81; G Alföldy, op Cit (n 2): 22–23 and 25 By way of example, the correspondence of Pliny the Younger (Ep 10, 37) tells us about the great expense to which the authorities of Nicomedia had gone to build an aqueduct G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 24–25; J Mata, op Cit (n 6): 223; J Andreu / I Delage, op Cit (n 6): 368 CILA II, 339: ll 16–18 SHA, Marc 11, 7; G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 26 CIL II, 4514 A different interpretation has been put forward by E Melchor, op Cit (n 10): 228– 229

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was to be staged annually, together with the distribution of oil at the public baths, provided that his freedmen and his freedmen’ freedmen, if elected to the seviratus, be excused from all munera of the office So, as established in the cautio legatorum, if any one of them were ever required to sponsor them, the legacy would be passed on to the city of Tarraco 3. Causes of the ideological shift It is not as easy to determine the causes and reasons that might have been behind that change in mentality among the members of the municipal elites, insofar as no source offers us explicit information in this respect So, in order to identify them, it is necessary to resort to the prior signs and symptoms and to historical reflection in the context of the social, legal and economic conditions in the towns at the time The result is a model with four possible causes for the ideological shift which, subject to validation in future studies, should help to explain the crisis of the Latin municipal system in Hispania: (1) the acquisition of Roman citizenship per honorem by the local aristocracies through the extension of Latium; (2) the new forms of social and economic promotion of the Romanised Latin oligarchies; (3) the municipal elites’ dwindling spirit of collective civic munificence; and (4) the growing wariness of living in towns due to the deterioration in urban living conditions As regards the first cause, the swift legal Romanisation of the ruling families might have favoured, once the status of ciuis optimo iure had been attained, the lack of interest of some of them in public service and euergetism As demonstrated by the epigraphic evidence from Flavian municipia such as Igabrum and Cisimbrium,22 the ius Latii granted by Vespasian to Hispania included the ius adipiscendae ciuitatis Romanae per magistratum, a privilege that was enjoyed (according to Chapter 21 of the municipal laws of Salpensa and Irni) by the parents, wife, children and grandchildren of former Latin magistrates, the maximum number of beneficiaries being restricted to six families (one for each ordinary magistrate) 23 However, as A N Sherwin-White suggested, we should not rule out the possibility that, a few years after the introduction of this prerogative, the number of families was reduced to four, two or none whatsoever, mainly because the local cursus honorum was already being pursued by Romanised citizens 24

22 23

24

CIL II2/5, 308; CIL II2/5, 292 On the ius Latii, see Asc In Pis 3 Cl; Str 4, 1, 12; Gai Inst 1, 96; Irn 21 (HEp 15, 2006, 330); Salp 21 (CIL II, 1963); F Lamberti, Tabulae Irnitanae Municipalità e ius Romanorum, Naples 1993; E García Fernández, El municipio latino Origen y desarrollo constitucional, Madrid 2001; J Andreu, op Cit (n 2) A N Sherwin-White, The Roman Citizenship, Oxford 1973: 343, n 3

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The scope of this right, known as Latium minus, would have been broadened as a consequence of the last reform of the Latin municipal system’s ins and outs This reform, promoted by the Emperor Hadrian, and known by the jurist Gaius as Latium maius, involved, according to this author, the granting of ciuitas Romana to all Latin municipes who had gained admission to the ordo decurionum or, as already envisaged in the Latium minus, had held a local civic magistracy 25 According to the sources, that measure did not seem to have been applied across the board or automatically to Latin municipia in Hispania, but, as implied in the extant testimonies from Africa (specifically from the cities of Thisiduo, Gigthis, Lambaesis and Gemellae),26 would have been introduced individually in peregrine, and surely Latin, communities at their own request 27 In this respect, we are not completely sure whether the Flavian municipalities benefitted from it Although it seems fairly plausible that this might have been the case, for there is an inscription from the municipium of Ilugo in which – in R Wiegels’ opinion – Hadrian is presented as conditor or restitutor municipii 28 Naturally, this would have led to the swift Romanisation of the municipal elites (some of whom, such as those of Ilugo, would have adopted the nomen Aelius),29 thus possibly contributing to an increase in the number of dignitaries with little or no interest in performing the duties of local government once they had attained their new status With respect to the second cause, acquiring Roman citizenship and possessing a high net worth, which satisfied the required census qualification, would have allowed the municipal elites to gain admission, in the framework of the emperor’s potestas censoria, to the ordo equester or the ordo senatorius 30 The case of M Fidius [Macer], a native of the Flavian municipium of Capera, is an excellent example of what must have been the usual pace of promotion of municipal dignitaries in ciuitas Romana and then ordines superiores 31 Purportedly a peregrine in origin, he must have formed part of the local elite before the extension of Latium, when he would have served as one of the duumviri on several occasions and, after personally defraying the cost of the construction 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

Concerning the ius Latii maius, see SHA, Hadr 21, 7; Gai, Inst 1, 96; A N Sherwin-White, op Cit (n 24): 255; M Zahrnt, Latium maius und Munizipalstatus in Gigthis und Thisiduo in der Africa Proconsularis, ZPE 79 (1989): 177–180; J Andreu, op Cit (n 2), 11; M ª J Bravo, Latium maius versus Latium minus en la Hispania flavia, Anuario da Facultade de Dereito da Universidade da Coruña 13 (2009): 39–56 A N Sherwin-White, op Cit (n 24), 254–255 and 361; M Zahrnt, op Cit (n 25); F Jacques, Les cités de l’Occident romain Du Ier siècle avant J -C au VIe siècle après J -C , Paris 1990: 39–41 G Luraschi, Foedus, ius Latii, civitas Aspetti costituzionali della romanizzazione in Transpadana, Padua 1979, 322; F Jacques, op Cit (n 26): 39–41 CIL II, 3239; M Zahrnt, Ein hadrianisches Municipium in der Hispania Tarraconensis?, ZPE 79 (1989): 173–176; M ª P González-Conde, Dedicaciones públicas a Adriano en las ciudades de Hispania, Habis 46 (2015): 215–237, esp 226–229 HEp 7, 1997, 362 A Caballos: Los senadores hispanorromanos y la romanización de Hispania (siglos I al III a C ), Écija 1990; G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 17–18 and 22 AE 2002, 705

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of a monumental building, would have gained admission to the ordo equester, a status that required a fortune of more than 400,000 sestertii Thus, municipal administration and belonging to the ordo decurionum might have been relegated to second place on the local elites’ list of personal and social priorities In relation to the third cause, and (in part) as a result of the second, the members of the municipal aristocracies belonging to the ordo equester or the ordo senatorius would have been excused from local munera and honores due to the privilege of inmunitas 32 This would have dealt a major blow to the cohesion of the ruling classes, for the existence of a system of exemptions would have given rise to an unequal distribution of duties among the local elites, with the rest of the (less well-off) families having to shoulder the burden of running the municipal system without the participation of the wealthiest citizens The civic solidarity of this collective would have suffered as a result, since its members might have been increasingly more reluctant to meet their municipal obligations in both the economic and administrative spheres Furthermore, as noted by Alföldy, the admission of Spanish dignitaries to the ordines superiores might have been behind a change that would have disastrous consequences for the economic and social life of their hometowns Besides diminishing the estates of those individuals without direct heirs (as was the case with Cornelius Nigrinus and Licinius Sura),33 since the time of Trajan senators from the provinces were supposed to have one third of their own landed property in Rome and Italy,34 which subsequently led to the impoverishment of their hometowns and to the palpable financial instability of their elites Occasionally, this situation might have been exacerbated by the emigration of the remaining elites to more dynamic towns 35 With respect to the fourth and final possible cause, the concatenation and, in some cases, coincidence of adverse natural phenomena (including earthquakes, floods, fires, droughts and epidemics),36 recurrent episodes of violence owing to the incursions of 32 33 34 35 36

E Melchor, op Cit (n 15): 235–236; E Melchor, op Cit (n 10): 224–228 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 28–29 Plin Ep 6, 19, 4 This requirement was relaxed by Marcus Aurelius: SHA, Marc 11, 8; G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 29–30 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 27–29 For a general overview of these phenomena, see SHA, Marc 13, 3–6; Eutr 8, 12, 2; SHA, Verus 8, 1–2; Amm Marc 23, 6, 23–24; R Duncan-Jones, The impact of the Antonine plague, JRA 9 (1996): 108–136; A Monterroso, La secuencia estratigráfica Evolución histórica del teatro de Colonia Patricia, in: Ventura, A / Márquez, C / Monterroso, A / Carmona, M A (eds ), El teatro romano de Córdoba, Córdoba 2002: 133–146; J R Fears, The plague under Marcus Aurelius and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Infect Dis Clin N Am 18 (2004): 65–77; J Nicols, Mapping the crisis of the 3rd century, in: Hekster, O / Kleijn, G / Slootjes, D (eds ), Crisis and the Roman Empire, Leiden 2007, 431–437; E Gozalbes / I García, La primera peste de los Antoninos (165–170) Una epidemia en la Roma imperial, Asclepio 59/1 (2007): 7–22; B Rossignol, ‘Il avertissait les cités de se méfier des pestes, des incendies, des tremblements de terre’: Crises militaire, frumentaire et sanitaire: les cités de l’Occident au temps de la peste antonine, in: L Lamoine / C Berrendonner / M Cébeillac-Gervasoni (eds ), Gérer les territoires, les patrimoines et les crises Le

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foreign tribes (such as the Mauri between 171–177 AD and the Franci or Germani between 260–272 AD),37 in addition to military uprisings and political conflicts (like the contest between Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus in AD 196–197),38 would have triggered a demographic crisis and a swift deterioration of urban living conditions and, in all likelihood, gradually led to the desire to abandon the towns in order to seek refuge in the surrounding countryside, particularly when bearing in mind that economic sectors such as industry, trade and mining might have been in the doldrums as from the mid- or end of the 2nd century AD 39 4. Conclusions The ideological shift and change in mentality among the local elites of the Flavian municipia of Hispania, extensible (in some cases) to other types of Roman towns and provinces, would have led them to feel that it was unnecessary to continue to flaunt their amor civicus, their amor patriae,40 through public displays of munificence and their involvement in municipal administration, most probably, as Andreu has noted, because the existimatio to be gained through these activities would not now have offered them any political advantage 41 As P Brown has indicated, the emperor’s affec-

37 38 39

40 41

Quotidien municipal II, Clermont-Ferrand 2012: 451–470; A Quevedo / S Ramallo, La dinámica evolutiva de Carthago Nova entre los siglos II y III, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre le IIe et le IVe siècle, Madrid 2015: 161–177; C Arteaga / J Blánquez / L Roldán, Consideraciones paleogeográficas en la bahía de Algeciras Acerca de un posible tsunami en la Carteia romana (San Roque, Cádiz), Cuaternario y Geomorfología 29/1–2 (2015): 137–156; P G Silva / J L Giner / K Reicherter / M A Rodríguez / C Grützner / I García / P Carrasco / T Bardají / G Santos / E Roquero / J Röth / M A Perucha / R Pérez / B Fernández / A Martínez / J L Goy / C Zazo, Los terremotos antiguos del conjunto arqueológico romano de Baelo Claudia (Cádiz, Sur de España): Quince años de investigación arqueosismológica, Estudios Geológicos 72/1 (2016): 1–24; M D Ruiz-Bueno, Actividad sísmica en el mediodía ibérico durante el siglo III d C La incidencia arqueológica en Corduba (Córdoba), Pyrenae 48/2 (2017): 29–51; J Andreu / I Delage, op Cit (n 6): 365–366 On these raids, see SHA, Marc 21, 1; SHA, Seu 2, 2–3; Aur Vict Caes 33, 3; Eutr 9, 8, 2; Oros 7, 22, 7–8 and 7, 41, 2; G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 21 and 26; Chr Witschel, op Cit (n 13): 477–478 and 480–481; J Mata, op Cit (n 6): 239 For a general perspective of the repression of Septimius Severus, see SHA, Seu 12, 1 and 5; SHA, Seu 13, 7; RIT 130; Chr Witschel, op Cit (n 13): 479; J Mata, op Cit (n 6): 224 and 237; A Ventura, op Cit (n 12): 473–478; J Andreu / I Delage, op Cit (n 6): 365 Concerning this matter, see G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 25; G Chic, Marco Aurelio y Cómodo El hundimiento de un sistema económico, in: Hernández, L (ed ), La Hispania de los Antoninos (98–180): Actas del II Congreso Internacional de Historia Antigua (Valladolid, 10, 11 and 12 November 2004), Valladolid 2005: 567–586; J Andreu / I Delage, op Cit (n 6): 365–366 P Brown, Por el ojo de una aguja La riqueza, la caída de Roma y la construcción del cristianismo en Occidente (350–550 d C ), Barcelona 2016: 140 and 162 J Andreu / I Delage, op Cit (n 6): 368

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tion, won at a distant “court”, would have meant much more to the well-heeled urban elites than the praise of their fellow citizens 42 These dignitaries would have been increasingly more reluctant to use their wealth to obtain the voluntas popularis, when it was the emperor who had actually granted them honores Honour and prestige that had hitherto been earned by serving the civitas were now attained by serving the Empire 43 The rest of the community, exhausted by the economic hardships and (in some cases) overwhelmed by the need to make a greater contribution to the decus and municipal dignitas, would have started to lose interest in managing public affairs, thus paving the way for the crisis of the Latin municipal system that had worked so well for Rome in the decentralised government of provinces such as Hispania 44 Who was going to say to Rome that the city model that had set the stage for the pacification, integration and government of Rome’s western provinces, fundamentally grounded in honores and munera, contained the seeds of its own destruction and, with it, that of the very Empire, when the environmental, political and economic circumstances were unfavourable? This work is an initial step to formulating a model of ideological and institutional causes as endogenous factors that contributed to the crisis of the Latin municipal system in Hispania, an institution that, subject to enormous pressure and without the necessary economic and political foundations, was apparently very fragile and, therefore, unsustainable As scholars of classical antiquity, it is our job to engage in historical reflection that allows for the creation and testing of new proposals and explicative models Only under the umbrella of novel theoretical and conceptual frameworks that guide the analysis of the available sources will we be able to broaden historical reality and gain a better understanding of complex phenomena – such as the issue at hand – which are difficult to fathom

42 43 44

P Brown, op Cit (n 40): 165 E Melchor, op Cit (n 3): 80–81 P Garnsey, op Cit (n 15); E Melchor, op Cit (n 3): 81; G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 22–23 and 25

Case Studies / Estudios de casos

The urban decline of Sisapo-La Bienvenida (Ciudad Real, Spain): signs and archaeological evidence Mar Zarzalejos (UNED) / Carmen Fernández-Ochoa (Autonomous University of Madrid) / Patricia Hevia (UNED) / Germán Esteban / Rosa Pina (Sisapo Project / Calendas Archaeology and Cultural Heritage) / 1. Introduction Even though the results of our research on the ancient city of Sisapo, carried out for nearly 40 years, might be well known to the reader, it is compulsory to begin this paper with a brief introduction to the site of La Bienvenida (Almodóvar del Campo, Ciudad Real) in order to provide some context to the archaeological phenomena identified in the settlement, between the end of the 2nd century AD and the beginning of the 6th century AD We believe that these episodes transcend the interest derived from their identification in a small urban settlement in the southwestern end of the Spanish Meseta In fact, they can be illustrative of the historical process experienced in this time span in the mining exploitations of the northern slope of Sierra Morena, of which Sisapo was the administrative head The ancient city is located in the central-western sector of the Alcudia valley, around the easternmost volcanic domes of Los Castillejos de La Bienvenida, the highest elevations in the central area of this valley The site can be described as a plateau-shaped tell, which rises 620 m above sea level, and about 10 m above the surrounding land Its inner urban area is approximately 8 ha, delimited by the city wall and some perimeter structures, visible in aerial photographs (Fig 1) Furthermore, we have evidence for the existence of different kinds of archaeological remains spread outside the walled area The town was founded at the end of the 8th century or the beginning of the 7th century BC, most probably by Tartesian settlers interested in controlling the mining

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M Zarzalejos / C Fernández-Ochoa / P Hevia / Esteban / R Pina

Fig. 01 Location map of La Bienvenida-Sisapo and aerial view, looking east On the right, two marble epigraphs located at the north-western area of the domus of the Red Columns

resources of the Almadén and Alcudia regions 1 The period between the middle of the 7th century and the first half of the 6th century BC presents in this territory cultural features characteristic of an orientalizing phase, which leads to an early process of Iberization, visible since the middle of the 6th century BC During this phase, this territory is related to the upper basin of the Guadiana River and puts this city in the geopolitical context of the Oretani oppida2 With the arrival of Rome to these lands, a new chapter in the history of the city started Material evidence of this appears in the numerous archaeological remains that are now preserved in the excavated areas The epigraphic finds recovered from the site allow us to identify the ancient city of Sisapo and know its juridical status The first data on the municipality of Sisapo was released many years ago, after the discovery of a marble plaque

1 2

M Zarzalejos / G Esteban / P Hevia, El Bronce Final en el Alto Guadiana Viejos y nuevos datos para una lectura histórica, in: Jiménez Ávila, J (ed ): Sidereum Ana II El río Guadiana en el Bronce Final, Mérida 2012: 15–40 M Zarzalejos / C Fernández Ochoa, El Horizonte Ibérico Antiguo en el Alto Guadiana, in: Jiménez Ávila, J (ed ), Sidereum Ana I El río Guadiana en época post-orientalizante, Mérida 2008: 15–36

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fragment which reads […] (S)ISAPON(E) (Fig 1) This information was later ratified by an interesting, although fragmentary, epigraphic collection found filling the late period pits, which cut the stratigraphic units of use and amortization of the north-western sector of the domus of the Red Columns3 (Fig 2) It is common knowledge that the name of Sisapo was linked to the production of the most famous cinnabar exploited within the Roman Empire This is known from Pliny’s reference, who indicates that, despite the existence of minium in Carmania and Ethiopia, Rome only imported cinnabar from Hispania, with the Sisapo mine in the Baetica province being the most famous 4 Cinnabar was a strategic mineral for Rome, as can be deduced from the maintenance of state ownership of the mines and their lease to a societas publicanorum Today, we know that its use as the most expensive red pigment available for Roman pictores was complemented by its application in the form of mercury to the recovery of gold and silver by amalgamation, which undoubtedly triggered Rome’s interest in its exploitation and control Sisapo was also praised by the ancient authors for the exploitation of silver, as we read in Strabo’s passage referring to the silver wealth of Ilipa and Sisapo 5 Although some authors have considered that this reference could refer to the argentum vivum (mercury), our studies on the territory of Sisapo have shown that this interest also comprised the silver mines in the districts of Alcudia and Almadén Once under the control of Rome, the area of Sisapo remained in a territory of imprecise borders between the Hispanic provinces Initially, it would have belonged to Baetica and, within it, to the conventus Cordubensis, according to Pliny the Elder 6 However, Ptolemy’s reference to Sisapo as one of the cities belonging to the Conventus Carthaginensis in the Tarraconensis has been interpreted as a sign of a border adjustment between the provinces Baetica and Tarraconensis, so that the benefits of mining exploitations could be directly managed by the Emperor Some authors believe that this adjustment could have taken place in the time of Augustus This fact is confirmed by the results of the excavations at La Bienvenida, which show some strengthening in the settlement during the late-Augustan or Tiberian periods At this time, in fact, there is evidence for the layout and first paving of the porticoed street in the NW-SE direction excavated in area 1, probably the cardo maximus, as well as the construction of the large domus of the Red Columns, in which we have been working for several years In this area 1 we have identified the phenomena that we will study in relation to the diverse episodes illustrating the processes that took place in Sisapo from the last years of the 2nd century AD

3

4 5 6

C Fernández Ochoa / M Zarzalejos, ¿Sisapo en La Bienvenida (Ciudad Real)? De nuevo sobre la radicación geográfica y el estatuto jurídico de la capital del cinabrio hispano, in: Bueno, P , Gilman, A / Martín Morales, C / Sánchez Palencia, J (eds ), Arqueología, sociedad, territorio y paisaje Homenaje a Mª Dolores Fernández Posse, Madrid 2011: 361–373, esp 363–364 Plin Nat 33, 118 Str 3, 2, 3 Plin Nat 3, 14

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Fig. 02 Domus of the Red Columns Aerial view and floor plan

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2. Abandonment and reoccupation of the domus of the Red Columns The first of these processes has been observed in the domus of the Red Columns and implies the rupture of the single-family concept of the house For reasons of space, we refer the reader to our previous works describing the architectural features of this domus 7 The house, which was built during the late Augustan-Tiberian period, underwent some renovation works that included the remodelling of some of its spaces in the northern area, which ceased to have a craft function and became spaces for private use A new decorative cycle was carried out at this time, consisting of the renovation of the wall paintings in part of the rooms and the paving of five rooms with mosaics of remarkable quality The stratigraphic dating of these modifications is not easy, since the amortization of the structures and the extraordinary looting of Late Antiquity affected the strata corresponding to the previous occupancy stages However, we have some arguments for setting relative dates The first of these is the clear stratigraphic relationship between the mosaics and the last cycle of pictorial decoration, which ensures that these paintings were made after the paving of the rooms On the basis of their compositional, stylistic and technical features, these paintings belong to a provincial group characteristic of the late 2nd century AD, very well documented in several Hispanic cities On the other hand, we also have enough data to ensure that the set of mosaics of the Red Column domus is part of the same project These pavements have stylistic and compositional features that link them to the so-called “Mosaic style of Guadalquivir Valley”8 This group is characterized by a series of documented decorative patterns in numerous Baetican mosaics found in cities such as Italica, Corduba, Astigi, Carmo, Ilipa and Arva, dating from the third quarter of the 2nd century to the middle of the 3rd century AD The mosaics of Sisapo have a special affinity in technical and decorative details with the pavements and the painting of the House of Satyr (Córdoba), which lead us to suggest that they might have come from the same workshop, most probably located in the Colonia Patricia The excavation of this house in Córdoba makes it possible to include this decorative programme in a process of renovation dating from the last quarter of the 2nd century AD, immediately prior to its abandonment and the final amortisation of the domus, which would take place in the second quarter of the 3rd century AD This time framework for the construction of the mosaics of Sisapo could also be valid for establishing the end the Red Column domus use Indeed, during the 2014 and 2015 campaigns we have excavated a context in the SW area of the domus that could

7 8

M Zarzalejos / C Fernández Ochoa / P Hevia, Investigaciones arqueológicas en Sisapo, capital del cinabrio hispano (I) La decoración musivaria de la domus de las Columnas Rojas (La Bienvenida, Almodóvar del Campo- Ciudad Real), Madrid 2011, esp 53–58 I Mañas, La creación de la escuela musivaria del Guadalquivir: modelos itálicos e interpretación regional, in: Nogales, T / Rodà, I (eds ), Actas XI Congreso Internacional de arte romano provincial Roma y las provincias: modelo y difusión (Mérida 2009), Roma 2011: 635–641

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provide a terminus ante quem for its abandonment The works have been carried out in the cuts 1/25 and 1/26, in a space that affects the rooms annexed in the W to the culina (room 16), and immediately to the E of the tabernae on the SW flank of the house Despite the massive impact of Late Antiquity spolia practices, which we will discuss later, it has been possible to find a well-preserved context, apparently quite close in time to the abandonment of the house It is a room located next to the W of the culina, surrounded in the E by the western wall of the culina itself, and walls 46, 47 and 54 to the N and S, while its W closing was destroyed by subsequent actions (Fig 3 1) The north wall (SU 1/26/47) is built with a combination of stone and earth masonry and ashlar elements, of poor quality The south wall (SU 1/26/46) is built out of stone and earth masonry, quite irregularly and poorly made The eastern side of the room takes advantage of the west wall of the culina In the levels of use of the room we studied (Fig 3 2), parts of its original foundation in irregular masonry were visible, and on it the wall of opus africanum was built This means that, during this construction/use phase, the previous occupation units were dismantled The walls might have been insulated or lined with tiles, as can be deduced from the presence of a tegula in situ, next to the corner between the east and south walls (SU 1/26/51) In the NE angle, a structure can be identified (SU 1/26/54) that blocks the threshold between the room and the culina, cutting off direct communication between this room and the domus This structure is made of a combination of very irregular masonry and ashlar, with a filling of smaller stones in the space in contact with the culina wall; it has a sloping section and appears abruptly interrupted towards the N, cut by the large sacking ditches of the cut 1/8, so the possible connection with the north wall of the culina cannot be observed The space we have just defined was paved with juxtaposed tegulae (SU 1/26/50) whose surface is well preserved in the eastern half In the centre there is a rectangular firebox measuring approximately 1’50 × 1 m, partially supported on tegulae, with a perimeter of tile fragments and very poorly preserved stones In the NE corner of this room, part of a large dolium was found in situ (Fig 3 4), with its base wedged in by means of stones and fragments of tegulae (SU 1/26/56) Some content samples scrapped off the walls of the dolium have been analysed with Gas chromatography (CG-MS) by N Garnier’s laboratory The results allow us to conclude that these walls were waterproofed on several occasions first with a mixture of conifer pitch and beeswax, later with a heated mixture of animal fat and vegetable ash The discovery of markers such as tartaric, syringic and malic acids ensures that it was used as a container for red wine9 In the SU of abandonment of this space, an iron instrument was found next to the dolium, whose elongated and narrow shape could show 9

M Zarzalejos / C Fernández Ochoa / G Esteban / P Hevia, Huellas de ocupaciones tardoantiguas en Sisapo-La Bienvenida (Almodóvar del campo, Ciudad Real) El solar de la domus de las Columnas Rojas y la necrópolis de La Bienvenida, in: Perlines, M / Hevia, P (eds ), La Meseta Sur entre la Tardía Antigüedad y la Alta Edad Media, Toledo 2017: 21–46, esp 27

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Fig. 03 Room located west of the culina 1 Plan; 2 Levels of use; 3 Iron instrument; 4 Dolium founded in situ; 5 Amphora rim; 6–8 Hispanic terra sigillata

its use as a dispensing object for solid bagged products, such as legumes, grain, flour, etc Due to the lack of a closure at the end, where the object would be held, it seems more likely that it was a working tool, perhaps a carpenter gouge (Fig 3 3) Assigning a clear function to this space is not easy, although evidence for a previous removal, its planimetric layout, the closure of its communication with the culina and the absence of thresholds in its north and south walls seem to indicate that it had no relation to the original block of the domus Within this space we have excavated a stratum of abandonment (SU 1/26/49) composed of a layer of earth with stone and debris in the southeast corner The ceramic material dating this unit is composed of several sherds of Hispanic

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terra sigillata of the Hisp 27 and 15/17 forms, from the workshop of Andújar ( Jaén) (ancient Isturgi) (Fig 3 6–8) They display morphological and technical features which indicate its relation to the last production phase of the Isturgi workshop In addition, a Beltrán IIB (variant B) amphora rim has been found (Fig 3 5), made of one of the most common fabrics from the Baetican coast, Cádiz fabric, equivalent to Peacock & Williams Class 17; CAD AM of the National Roman Fabric Reference Collection 10 The presence of Isturgi’s sigillata inevitably leads us to the period of the latest productions of Andújar’s pottery In this respect, it has traditionally been argued that the decline of the centre of Andújar would have occurred around the middle of the 2nd century AD However, for some years now, the dating of the last stage of the workshop’s activity has been left open, considering the scarce portion of dumps excavated in relation to the total surface area of the pottery production and some important signs, such as the discovery of an imitation piece of ARSW C made in Andújar, which appeared in a 3rd century AD context in the theatre of Córdoba 11 More recently, an imitation of the Hayes 8 A form of ARSW A has been observed in Andújar’s own landfills This evidence, together with the arguments mentioned above, could indicate a more prolonged activity for the workshop, which would at least reach the period of the Córdoba context The Beltrán II B amphora is also documented in strata from the late 2nd century AD in Baelo Claudia12 and from the early 3rd century AD in Los Matagallares (Salobreña, Granada) 13 In addition to these relative dates based on the chronology of the materials just reviewed, radiocarbon analyses carried out on a sample of coal extracted from SU 49 provides a time range that could reach the first third of the 3rd century AD: Beta-407668 to 1 sigma (68 %) Cal AD130–230, Cal BP 1820–1720 On the basis of these relative and absolute dating proofs, it could be stated that the abandonment of this room might have occurred between the end of the 2nd century and the early years of the 3rd century AD Considering the date assigned to the mosaics on the basis of their technical and stylistic parameters – which would broadly coincide – it is not easy to determine whether the use of this space was part of a series of reforms of the domus that involved its decorative renovation or, otherwise, the house had already lost its unitary conception at that time Thus, the use associated with 10 11 12

13

D P S Peacock / D F Williams, Amphorae and the roman economy, London 1986: 117 R Tomber / J Dore, The National Roman Fabric Reference Collection A Handbook, London 1998: esp 87 M I Fernández García, Alfares y producciones cerámicas en la provincia de Jaén: balance y perspectivas, in: Bernal, B / Lagóstena, L (eds ): Figlinae Baeticae Talleres alfareros y producciones cerámicas en la Bética romana (s II a C -VII d C ), Oxford 2004: 239–272, esp 265 D Bernal / A Arévalo / L Lorenzo / A Cánovas, Abandonos en algunas insulae del barrio industrial a finales del s II d C , in: Arévalo, A / Bernal, D (eds ): Las cetariae de Baelo Claudia Avance de las investigaciones arqueológicas en el barrio meridional (2000–2004), Sevilla 2007: 383–353, esp 421, fig 23, 3–4 y fig 34, 3–4) D Bernal, La producción de ánforas béticas en el s III d C y en el Bajo Imperio, in: Actas del Congreso Internacional Ex Baetica Amphorae Conservas, aceite y vino de la Bética en el Imperio romano (Écija y Sevilla, 1998), Écija 2001: 239–372, esp 278

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this room would correspond to a reoccupation that would announce the beginning of a new stage in this part of the city In this case, the abandonment of the original household unit would have occurred within a period following the reform programme Within the framework of this hypothesis, we could bring up certain indicators which allow us to suggest that the abandonment of the dwelling might not have been a gradual process, but a sudden event In this sense, we find it interesting to highlight the phenomenon of decorative lack of coordination between the walls and the pavement in the triclinium This room, which shows the largest and most complex mosaic in the house, has the walls covered with a coarse mortar that was to be used as a base for the plaster on which the paint had to be applied, as evidenced by the traces of the trowel that can still be seen clearly It seems that something prevented the completion of the reform process, a circumstance which, incidentally, is also documented in the House of the Satyr in Córdoba 14 It is also worth noting the low wear and tear of the mosaics caused by their use, as the greatest damage is due to the cuts and destruction caused by subsequent reoccupations Advancing the causes of abandonment would be highly speculative From this moment on, the house will no longer be the object of repair works that attempt to restore its original function as a single-family occupancy unit We have information on its re-occupancy and novel uses instead This can be noticed, for example, through the construction of a large hydraulic structure in the old culina and room 15, or the cancellation of the viridarium pool with a lime flooring associated with four post holes Although this documentation is still fragmentary, the information furnished by other contexts under study, coming from different parts of the city, could lead us to think that in Sisapo the classical concept of city ceased between the end of the 2nd century and the beginning of the 3rd century AD This does not imply, as we have already seen, its total abandonment, but rather an important transformation in the forms of occupation that invites us to think of a life in ruins, as P Sillières pointed out a few years ago 15 As it is well known, this panorama is repeated in many other Hispanic cities, so this issue has attracted the interest of researchers in recent years 16 At the moment, there is a prevailing view that this is a process with multiple, non-generalizable causes 17 In the case 14 15 16 17

A Cánovas, La arquitectura doméstica de la zona occidental de Colonia Patricia Corduba, in: Vaquerizo, D / Murillo, F J (eds ), El Anfiteatro romano de Córdoba y su entorno urbano Análisis arqueológico (ss I–XIII), Córdoba 2010: 415–438, esp 431 P Sillières, Vivait-on dans des ruines au IIe siècle ap J -C? Approche du paysage urbain de l’Hispanie d’après quelques grandes fouilles récentes, in: Arce, J / Le Roux, P (eds ), Ciudad y comunidad cívica en Hispania (siglos II y III d C ) Madrid 1993: 147–152 A recent status quaestionis with overviews and case studies can be found in J Andreu (ed ), Oppida labentia Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017 J Arce, Conclusión, in: Andreu, J (ed ), Oppida labentia Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 541–547, esp 542– 543

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of Sisapo, it should be noted that, at that time, the mines of Hispania experienced a significant decrease in their activity Among the reasons for this decline, the authors cite technical imperatives, labour supply problems or the fact that the imperial economy of other producing regions such as Pannonia, Dalmatia or Upper Moesia was in competition Thus, the core of Sisapo’s existence for nine centuries staggered, becoming a powerful argument to explain its decline as an urban centre There are known phenomena of abandonment at the end of the 2nd century AD of some neighbourhoods in other Baetican cities which, as Baelo Claudia, anticipated the image of a city in ruins that bibliography traditionally attributes to a period later in the 3rd century AD 18 The case of Munigua appears to us to be very noteworthy to this effect,19 because it is also a settlement whose economy revolves around mining exploitation In fact, the analysis carried out by C Domergue at the time showed a very significant drop in mining operations in Sierra Morena, although some districts such as Linares-La Carolina still had some activity 20 An emblematic settlement in regional mining such as Castulo experienced a period of weakness in the conservation and management of its monumental heritage during the 3rd century AD However, in order to correctly assess these indications, it is necessary to take into account an exceptional epigraphic document illustrating the donation of Q Torius Culleo to the city of Castulo (CIL II, 3270), and which includes the repair of the road which linked this city with Sisapo If we accept the chronology of H G Pflaum,21 which dates the dedication to the 3rd century AD, we must infer that both mining capitals were still in operation at that time However, we must remember that R P Duncan Jones22 dates this epigraph between 20 and 160 AD, a stage much more in line with the golden age of mining on both sides of the Sierra Morena 3. Late Antiquity actions in area 1 In other sectors of area 1, further evidence of Late Antiquity actions in the site have been found In the northern end of this central sector, a room was identified at the confluence of one of the secondary decumani with the northern end of the cardo maximus This room has been excavated in cut 1/19 (Fig 4 1) It is made up of a series of very poorly preserved walls that partially take advantage of the structures originally associated with the delimitation of this street and the supports of porticus of the kardo The layer of gradual accumulation deposited on the floor of the kardo, on which the walls

18 19 20 21 22

D Bernal / A Arévalo / L Lorenzo / A Cánovas, op Cit (n 12), 495 P Sillières, op Cit (n 15): 147 C Domergue, Les mines de la péninsule Ibérique dans l’Antiquité romaine, Roma 1990: esp 216 H G Pflaum, La part prise par les chevaliers romains originaires d’Espagne à l’administration impériale, in Les empereurs romains d’Espagne, Paris 1965: esp 113 R P Duncan-Jones, The Procurator as Civic Benefactor, JRS 64 (1974): 79–85, esp 84

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were built, does not contain significant elements to set a post quem date for the construction of this room The same can be said about SU 1/19/5, which is the stratum of abandonment of the room In any case, this construction implies de facto the invasion of a public space, so this action must be incardinated in the stage of disaggregation of the urban fabric This action shows the rupture of the urban layout of the High Imperial Period and the consequent mutation in the concept of public and private spaces In fact, the cancellation of the main streets caused by the erection of structures on them, both domestic and related to diverse economic activities, becomes a common action documented in other sectors of areas 1 and 2 of the site Above the abandonment layer of this room that invades the public street, a pit filled with organic waste, remains of adobe bricks, opus spicatum bricks and various ceramic materials were identified: ARSW D (Hayes 91 A form), TSHTM (Orfila 1 form) and four almost complete amphorae23 (Fig 4 2) The African material would point to dates from the first half of the 5th century AD The amphorae ensemble is of particular interest because it provides information on the arrival of foodstuffs in late times The containers fall into three different types The first one (BV04/1/19/7/1) can be defined as an Almagro 51 A-B or Algarve 1 Lusitanian amphora (Fig 4 4) The manufacture of the form is well documented on the western and southern Lusitanian coast between the mid-4th century and the end of the 5th and early 6th centuries AD, and its main content appears to be salted-fish products The other three amphorae were found in the same stratigraphic unit, and their shapes are not equivalent to any of the known typologies Thus, it is very likely that they are representative of two new forms, both characterised by a flat-bottomed base, maybe of regional origin Gas chromatography analysis carried out suggests that both contained grapes or wine24 (Fig 4 3) The discovery of several amphorae in a context dating back to the first half of the 5th century AD in La Bienvenida site immediately raises some questions of the greatest interest Firstly, regarding the discovery of the Almagro 51 A-B Algarve 1 amphora, it should be considered whether this element is an effective indicator of the incorporation of the site into the mechanisms for the distribution of goods over long distances at such an advanced stage of its history At this moment, it is a timely finding, but its existence would lead us to think that there were still people interested in this place to consume fish products that travelled a long way from the Hispanic southwest coast to this place in the southwest of the Meseta The last group of actions we would like to discuss has been identified in what was the building site of the Red Column domus After the stage of occupying the semi-

23

24

M Zarzalejos / P Hevia / M R Pina / G Esteban, Ánforas en un contexto tardío de La Bienvenida -Sisapo Aportaciones al conocimiento de la difusión de ánforas tardorromanas en el interior de la Meseta, in: Járrega, R / Berni, P (eds ), Amphorae ex Hispania: paisajes de producción y consumo, Tarragona 2016: 347–361 M Zarzalejos / P Hevia / M R Pina / G Esteban, op Cit (n 23): esp 356, fig 11

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Fig. 04 Cut 1/19 1 Room invading public space; 2 Garbage-filled pit; 3–4 Complete amphorae

ruined spaces of the house, there was a long process of abandonment of this area and a generalised collapse of the architectural structures resulting in large masses of very compact soil, due to the disintegration of the adobe walls On these stratigraphic units of ruin numerous actions for the reuse of materials are identified, especially ashlars of the original construction of the house This is verified through the elongated and deep ditches reaching the stone ashlars, being paradigmatic for this purpose the sacking of the south and west walls of the triclinium In other cases, the removals affected very

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large areas where other materials such as tiles, bricks, or even earth for the setting up of walls, could be recovered The large holes generated by the removals were then filled with debris from nearby clearing, generating large overlays of heterogeneous layers that bury the devastated remains of the domus or even underlying constructions from the Republican or Iberian period These actions led to the disappearance of most of the remains of the house in this area, except for several very small sections of the foundations of the walls of the tabernae and the interior rooms, as well as a series of constructions carried out on the remains of the latter rooms during the reoccupation phase Only in the culina the high-imperial occupation phases have been preserved In the site where the domus of the Red Columns was located, these processes mainly affected the area where its western flank was located and decrease towards the east Logically, the search for building materials had to be carried out from the spaces of the city that were still passable and suitable for the transport of the recovered elements, that is to say, the old streets The archaeological sequence of this stage in the southwestern area of the domus site allows us to distinguish several episodes: 1 First, there was a large removal from the street into the interior, resulting in the razing of the foundations of the façade walls, quite possibly to obtain ashlars These actions included excavation to levels below the high-imperial foundations of the rooms located at the centre and north of the space, where bricks, tiles or other elements such as remains of concrete pavements could also be recovered We have documented the existence of several large trenches that make up a large space removed with a very irregular bottom, which adapts to the needs of plundering and stolen materials or structures, so that some areas are plundered deeper than others 2 Secondly, over a long period, the removed area was filled with debris, rubbish and gradual accumulations that generated very significant stratigraphic volumes These fillings overlap or support each other 3 These processes were not uniform, since a second phase of removal can be observed at certain points, which in this case correspond to smaller holes and ditches, more specifically those that had already been removed and plundered, especially walls that could still have reusable architectural elements 4 A last stage is the one corresponding to the filling phase of the last removals Obviously, the very nature of these actions determines the compositional heterogeneity of the stratigraphic filling units of the pillaging trenches, which explains why the ceramic materials correspond to a very broad chronology The later dated ceramics are registered in the productions of TSHT, ARSW C and D and TSHTM To give a first approximation we selected the material of the stratigraphic units of the trenches in the cuts 1/8 and 1/20 In the production of TSHT, the formal repertoire is rather monotonous and repetitive with various variants of bowl edges of shape 8 and 37t B, as well as

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bases of plates and dishes of indeterminate shape In decorative terms, the decorations of the first and second style and the pieces with burin are verified The period of circulation of these materials covers the entire 4th century AD and perhaps the first decades of the 5th century AD North African imports are also present in all the stratigraphic units concerned The ARSW D is well represented, with an interesting volume of type D1 pastes The formal repertoire is composed of plates of the forms Hayes 58 (300–375 AD), 59 B (320–420 AD), 61 A (325–400 AD), 61 B (380–450 AD) and 62 A The cups and vases without feet or with atrophied feet correspond in all cases to the Hayes 91 shape This is one of the latest documented profiles, with dates between 450–530 AD, although the stratigraphy of Carthage and other Mediterranean sites allow us to place its beginning at earlier times (mid-4th century AD) and can be extended throughout the 6th century and reach the 7th in its most recent versions Evidence of ARSW C corresponding to the variety C3 has also been recovered, with a lesser presence than that of Tunisian materials Within the recovered set, very fragmented, the Hayes 53 shape bowl is repeatedly identified Three small base fragments with relief decorations have also appeared This data shows a horizon of African imports between the first quarter of the 4th century AD and at least the end of the 5th century AD The pieces of African tableware that arrived at La Bienvenida, relatively concurrent with those of Corduba, allow us to think that both sites shared similar mechanisms of commercial distribution The TSHTM tableware plays a protagonist role in these contexts, with a typological repertoire made up of the Orfila 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9 forms, which are decorated with the characteristic bands that typify the production25 The last stage of occupation identified in this sector of the site is stratigraphically located on the last amortization fillings of the ditches of the Late Antiquity period We do not know if there is a chronological and functional correspondence between these constructive actions and the large earthworks described above This phase is documented through very partial remains of poor quality, very razed architectural structures located, in all cases, in the space that corresponded to the tabernae, both on the eastern and western fronts of the domus Therefore, in view of the available results, it must be concluded that in the excavated areas there is hardly any data to characterise the forms of habitation on the site during Late Antiquity, beyond being able to affirm that the site becomes a quarry and a supply point for construction materials However, the discovery of a Late Antiquity funerary space, to which we will refer now, allows us to assure that there was an effective Late Antiquity occupation in the area, although we cannot yet know its entity and even be certain about its location on the site of the old city or outside it

25

M Orfila Pons, La vajilla Terra Sigillata Hispánica Tardía Meridional, in: Bernal, D / Ribera, A (eds ), Cerámicas hispanorromanas Un estado de la cuestión, Cádiz 2008: 541–551, esp 543

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4. The Late Antiquity cemetery of Arroyo de La Bienvenida A few years ago, an archaeological supervision of the works on the CM-4202 road led us to discover part of a late antique cemetery located opposite the place where the ancient Sisapo stood (Fig 5) This work allowed us to obtain more information about the protagonists of the last actions identified in the site The results have been published in detail,26 so we will limit ourselves to a brief summary The excavated area is divided into two zones The eastern area has ten exhumed tombs in which the remains of a total of twenty-four individuals have been recovered in eight tombs In the west a well and a brick and adobe fireplace were found We have interpreted these as possibly auxiliary constructions of the necropolis and, therefore, integral elements of this funerary landscape Nine of the ten exhumed tombs share the same construction typology These are made of volcanic tuff ashlars of rectangular shape and covered with similar characteristics, which are preserved in five of the cases We believe it is very likely that the ashlars came from the looting of the high imperial structures of Sisapo Generally, the base of the funerary structures corresponds to the geological stratum of schistose slate, although ad hoc soils have been documented, as in the case of tombs 6 and 9, made with remains of bricks and tiles The tomb number 3, which corresponds to the remains of a sarcophagus made of volcanic tuff, is of different type and seems to be carved in three parts, a central area and two pieces for the head and feet All graves have a burial rite, with an E-W orientation with the head to the W The bodies were wrapped in a shroud, as indicated by the forced union of the extremities In some cases, the shroud could be held in place with small needles, simple or finished off with glass paste cabochons Only in tomb 10 a wooden coffin was used, as can be seen from the arrangement of the nails identified in the excavation The decomposition of the cadavers took place in vacuum, as some parts of the bodies were suspended (jaws) or moved from the supine position Regarding the organization of the excavated funerary space, two sets are identified that share one of the walls with the adjacent structure These groupings may identify family links, although DNA testing will be required to verify this With the exception of one tomb containing children’s remains and another that appeared empty, all the structures have burial goods made up of ceramic pieces (jars and pots) placed at the head of the tomb As for personal ornaments, earrings, rings and needles in bronze, beads in glass paste, amber and carnelian have been identified All the materials obtained in the excavation are deposited in the Ciudad Real Museum

26

P Hevia / G Esteban / M Zarzalejos, El conjunto funerario de Arroyo de La Bienvenida (Almodóvar del Campo, Ciudad Real) Aportaciones al conocimiento de la Antigüedad Tardía en el reborde suroccidental de la Meseta, Madrid 2017

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Fig. 05 Late Antiquity cemetery of Arroyo de La Bienvenida, general view and tomb 8 detail

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Paleoanthropological analyses carried out by the Laboratory of Populations of the Past of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) have identified two male individuals (one adult and one senior), three middle-aged female, five indeterminate infants, one perinatal and four indeterminate juvenile and subadult individuals Among the pathologies identified are a high number of dental caries and premortem tooth loss, due to a large accumulation of lime in the water and a high consumption of acid products and/or carbohydrates There is also the osteoarthritis identified in young individuals, which points to intense physical work and significant mechanical overload These paleoanthropological indicators could be related to the development of work involving heavy burdens, such as those related to mining practices However, the lack of identification of concurrent contexts associated with mining in the immediate vicinity of the archaeological site of La Bienvenida does not allow, for the moment, to ensure this possibility As we have already indicated, it is not easy to relate this cemetery to a particular model of occupation The data furnished by La Bienvenida site is not enough to prove that the necropolis was connected to a settlement that would maintain its urban functions during this period of History On the contrary, it seems that the community located in a territory immersed in an advanced process of ruralization, characterized by the proliferation of small agricultural settlements corresponding to the family pattern that also appears in the cemetery In this context, it is difficult to know whether we are dealing with a collective cemetery used by several small rural settlements, or these are family burials It is necessary to broaden the scope of the analysis, incorporating data available from the suburban population around La Bienvenida This allows us to reconstruct a dispersed rural occupation on the periphery of what was once the city of Sisapo 27

27

M Zarzalejos / G Esteban / L Mansilla / J L Gallardo / P Hevia / J Bermúdez, Espacios de explotación minera en la periferia de la ciudad de Sisapo-La Bienvenida (Almodóvar del Campo, Ciudad Real, in: García-Pulido, L J / Arboledas, L / Alarcón, E / Contreras, F (eds ), Presente y futuro de los paisajes mineros del Pasado, Granada 2017: 397–408

Carthago Nova between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD: the decline and urban crisis of a Roman city in South-Eastern Hispania* Alejandro Quevedo (University of Murcia)

1. Introduction The Colonia Urbs Iulia Nova Karthago was an important commercial and naval port in the southernmost confines of Hispania Citerior (Fig 1) Owing to its strategic position and to the rich lead and silver mines nearby, the walled Roman city, extending over an isthmus featuring five hills whose rugged terrain conditioned its irregular layout, flourished between the first centuries BC and AD As a matter of fact, it was at that time when the buildings that best define its urban landscape were constructed, on which there is increasingly more information thanks to the development of archaeological excavations over the past 40 years 1 The city’s theatre and forum, the thermal baths of the port and forum and the main domus and streets were all built at the turn of the 1st century BC In the Flavian Age, other monuments, including the amphitheatre, the Augusteum, the ‘Atrium Building’ – possibly the seat of a corporation – and the small temple of an adjacent sanctuary, perhaps dedicated to Isis and Serapis, were built or renovated 2 *

1

2

This contribution forms part of the research projects “De municipia latina a oppida labentia: sobre la sostenibilidad económica e institucional del municipio de derecho latino en la Hispania romana (siglos II y III d C )”, reference HAR2016–7485-P, and “Pictores et officinae per provincias La circulación de modelos pictóricos urbanos y rurales por el sur de la Tarraconense y de la Lusitania desde una perspectiva integral”, reference HAR2016–74847-P, both funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness This study has been carried out within the framework of a contract Saavedra Fajardo, Séneca Foundation, Science and Technology Agency of the Region of Murcia S Ramallo, Carthago Nova Puerto mediterráneo de Hispania Murcia 2011 With the intention of keeping this contribution as brief as possible, the most recent reference works containing descriptions of these buildings and their phases of construction, plus a full bibliography, have been included here J M Noguera / Mª J Madrid, Carthago Nova: fases e hitos de monumentalización urbana y arquitectónica (siglos III a C –III d C ), ETF(1) 17 (2014): 13–60

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Fig. 01 Plan of Carthago Nova with its principal classical monuments, as well as the archaeologically documented abandonment (end of the 2nd century AD) and destruction (mid 3rd century AD) layers

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Similarly, other buildings were refurbished in the first half of the 2nd century AD, such as the palestra of the baths of Molinete – where a popina was built – and the theatre’s stage, thus evincing the vitality and dynamism of the colony at the beginning of the Age of the Antonines 3 However, as from the Severan period, Carthago Nova experienced a gradual decline that would go hand in glove with important changes 2. Carthago Nova between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD: the transformation of the urban model of the classical period The main characteristics of Carthago Nova’s urban landscape between the High Empire period and Late Antiquity have been recently determined thanks to the analysis of different excavations 4 2 1 The deterioration of the city’s public and private buildings Between the final decades of the 2nd and the first of the 3rd century AD, many of Carthago Nova’s buildings were abandoned This phenomenon affected the city as a whole, including its dwellings and civic spaces (Fig 1) In many cases, before being permanently abandoned craftsmen and traders had set up shop between the structures from the High Empire period: pools, ovens and remains relating to these kinds of activities, such as glass and bones, among other things, have been discovered It can also be observed how these spaces were frequently compartmentalised and occupied by modest housing units Likewise, many of the buildings were subject to spoliation: pavements, claddings and other construction materials were torn up or removed The abandoned dwellings were then filled in by the collapse of their own structures – mudbrick walls, wall paintings, rooves – becoming in turn impromptu rubbish tips The main urban residences from the High Empire period, such as the domus of the Gorgona and that of Salvius, clearly reflect this phenomenon In the latter, a bread oven was built on the pavement raised with earth of one of the rooms in the phase prior to its permanent abandonment One of the city’s most iconic examples is the domus of Fortune,5 where some rooms were reconstructed with spoliated building materials, 3

4 5

A Quevedo / S Ramallo, La dinámica evolutiva de Carthago Nova entre los siglos II y III, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de “crise” Les espaces publics dans les villes d’Hispanie et de l’Occident Romain entre le II et le IV s apr J -C, Madrid 2015: 161–177, 162–163 A Quevedo, Contextos cerámicos y transformaciones urbanas en Carthago Nova (s II–III d C ), Oxford 2015 J Bermejo / A Quevedo, The Fortuna Domus (Cartagena, Spain): An Archaeological Analysis of Household Activities in a Hispano-Roman Colonia, EJA 17–3 (2014): 487–516

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while others were transformed into rubbish dumps As was the case with several of the aforementioned buildings, its abandonment has been dated, in light of the associated material contexts, to the end of the Age of the Antonines or to the beginning of the Severan dynasty As to the city’s public monuments, one of the most striking cases of abandonment is the curia Built next to the forum in the 1st century AD and renovated at the end of the century or at the beginning of the following one, it is formed by two large spaces, the atrium and the aula Between 180–210 AD, the building was plundered before becoming a rubbish tip Some of its decorative elements – marble cladding, the pavement in opus sectile and the sculpture of a figure, possibly depicting a member of the imperial house, wearing the robes of the pontifex maximus (Fig 2) – have been discovered between the abandonment layers covering it It is also possible that the collegium of the Augustales, inside which a quantity of spoliated marble had been stored, had already ceased to function as such

Fig. 02 Different views of the abandonment layers of the curia of Carthago Nova (180–210 AD), including the sculpture of the figure wearing his toga capite velato

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The transformation of other civic buildings enables us to qualify this process of deterioration This was the case with the theatre that reveals a different evolution: its stage was destroyed by fire at the end of the 2nd century AD, without it being rebuilt At around the same time, different craft- or trade-related structures occupied the porticus post scaenam, which was still standing Nevertheless, as was also the case in Clunia, there is a chance that it was still in use, maybe for shows like those staged in the amphitheatre, which had already been abandoned by that time This can be deduced, for example, from the existence of a lime pavement covering the orchestra and the first steps of the proedria, which had been plundered beforehand 6 Another paradigmatic example is the ‘Atrium Building’ on the Molinete hill, whose four main rooms were compartmentalised at the beginning of the 3rd century AD At that moment (Phase 2), the walls were decorated with new mural paintings, while several ‘pictures’ of muses in mural painting from a previous phase were recuperated and embedded in the wall, transforming the building into a possible museion 7 2 1 1 The street network As with some of the city’s buildings, the streets of Carthago Nova underwent an important transformation as from the end of the 2nd century AD In different parts of the city, the widening of pavements and the appearance of structures on the streets per se reduced the road space Similarly, the accumulation of rubbish and debris from the collapse of derelict dwellings limited the flow of traffic and, occasionally, blocked it completely The rubbish dumped on the streets could reach a height of over two metres, as occurred at the point where the Caridad and San Cristóbal la Corta streets meet in the city centre (Fig 3) It is evident that the street network went from bad to worse thenceforth, although in some places more than in others While in some areas, such as the eastern sector, the streets were totally abandoned, in others wheel marks on the rubbish and earth layers have been detected In short, as from the end of the Severan period the street network diminished, losing some of its thoroughfares, became less negotiable and its paving gave way to earth

6

7

S Ramallo / E Ruiz / A J Murcia / M Guillermo, Aproximación a las fases de ocupación de Cartagena desde el registro arqueológico obtenido en las excavaciones del teatro romano: breve síntesis de su evolución urbana, Anales de Prehistoria y Arqueología de la Universidad de Murcia Murcia 29 (2013): 23–56 J M Noguera / J M Abascal / Mª J Madrid, Un titulus pictus con titulatura imperial de Carthago Nova y puntualizaciones a la dinámica urbana de la ciudad a inicios del s III d C , Zephyrus 79 (2017): 149–172

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Fig. 03 Abandonment layers on top of the decumanus from the High Empire period in the calles Caridad and San Cristóbal la Corta (end of the 2nd beginning of the 3rd century AD)

2 2 The decline of the epigraphic habit Carthago Nova possesses one of the richest epigraphic collections in Hispania from the High Empire and, especially, the Republican period 8 Until the mid 2nd century AD, there had been a succession of public tributes, the municipal senate’s activity being reflected in the use of the formula loco dato decreto decurionum, i e the local government’s authorisation to erect a monument Some inscriptions clearly show the city’s dynamism at the time, such as those alluding to the compliance with the testamentary dispositions of L Aemilius Rectus, civis adlectus of Carthago Nova This individual, who appears in four inscriptions, was admitted to the equestrian order during the reign of Hadrian 9 He left part of his estate to the city for the building or repair of several unidentified public buildings – one of the epigraphs is 3 8 metres long – in addition to a silver sculpture weighing 50 pounds However, as from the last half of the 2nd century AD the number of epigraphs dropped substantially 10 Most of them are of a funerary nature, although little or nothing is known of the necropolis during that period Also noteworthy is the recent discovery of an epigraph dated to around the last half of the 2nd century AD, 8 9 10

J M Abascal / S Ramallo, La ciudad de Carthago Nova: La documentación epigráfica, Murcia 1997 J M Abascal / S Ramallo, op Cit (n 8): 213–217 A Quevedo, op Cit (n 4): 16–17, figs 9 and 10

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possibly referring to the presence of a curator reipublicae in the city11 (Fig 4a) It offers revealing information on the financial straits – or other problems such as shortages and corruption – that Carthago Nova might have been experiencing at the time

Fig. 04 Inscriptions from Carthago Nova: (a) an epigraph possibly referring to the presence of a curator reipublicae, mid 2nd century AD; (b) a titulus pictus mentioning the Emperor Heliogabalus and the senator and praetorian prefect M Oclatinius Adventus, 218 AD ( J M Noguera / J M Abascal / M J Madrid, op Cit (n 7): 157, fig 7); and (c) an inscription dedicated to Julia Mamea (222–235 d C ), the last tribute recorded in the city

The last extant epigraphs are from the Severan period The first is a titulus pictus linked to the aforementioned refurbishment of the ‘Atrium Building’, which mentions Heliogabalus and the senator and praetorian prefect Adventus, dated to 218 AD12 (Fig 4b) The second is a pedestal dedicated to Iulia Avita Mamaea, discovered in the vicinity of the forum, which was already in an advanced state of disrepair (Fig 4c) The inscrip11 12

A Fernández / S Ramallo / L Suárez, Dos nuevos epígrafes monumentales hallados en las termas del foro de Carthago Nova, ZPE 199, (2016): 243–253 : 249–253 J M Noguera / J M Abascal / Mª J Madrid, op Cit (n 7): 157–161

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tion has been dated to the reign of his son, Severus Alexander (222–235 AD) the dedicator being the conventus Karthaginiensis, rather than the local senate Thenceforth, until the 5th century, the epigraphic habit petered out 2 3 Territory and economy Between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century AD, the same fate befell the territory of Carthago Nova, with many residences and rural holdings being abandoned 13 In some cases, such as that of the symbolic seaside villa of Portmán, there is evidence of its use by craftsmen and traders before the complex was permanently abandoned during the Severan period 14 The region’s major bath complexes, like those at Archena, Fortuna and Alhama de Murcia, were similarly affected or fell into disuse at the time Together with the decline of city’s productive system, a fall in commercial traffic can be observed, borne out by the small number of contemporary wrecks that have been found in the waters of Cartagena or thereabouts 15 The causes behind the recession affecting the city and its ager were mainly of an economic nature The most important had to do with the closure of the region’s mines, thanks to which the building ‘boom’ of the first centuries BC and AD can be explained to a great extent The lead pollution graphs generated from the extant sedimentary records of the lagoon of El Almarjal, which surrounded Carthago Nova to the north, already show an abrupt fall in the 3rd century AD 16 The demise of the mining industry, the main driver of economic growth in Carthago Nova, affected the productive system that had emerged around it, with little or nothing being known of the exploitation of other resources – esparto, fishing and salting – or its impact on the local economy As from the last half of the 2nd century AD, other Hispanic cities also experienced difficulties deriving from an adverse political or financial climate, leading to the appearance of the first curatores, sent by Rome,17 the possible presence of one of whom has been detected in Carthago Nova The impact of other phenomena occurring during this period, such as the hypothetical raids of the Mauri or the effects of the Antonine 13 14 15 16

17

A J Murcia, El poblamiento romano en el Campo de Cartagena (s III a C –VII d C ), in: Noguera, J M (ed ), Poblamiento rural romano en el Sureste de Hispania 15 años después, Murcia 2010: 141–165, 143–149, figs 4 and 5 Communication provided by Alicia Fernández Díaz, director of the excavation, following the results of the 2017 campaign A Quevedo, op Cit (n 4): 297, fig 215 J -I Manteca / M Rosa-Sala / S Ramallo-Asensio / F Navarro-Hervás / T Rodríguez-Estrella / F Cerezo-Andreo / J -E- Ortiz-Menéndez / T De-Torres / M Martínez-Andreu, Early metal pollution in southwestern Europe: the former littoral lagoon of El Almarjal (Cartagena mining district, S E Spain) A sedimentary archive more than 8000 years old, Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2017), fig 16, fecha calibrada de 1750 BP J M Abascal / U Espinosa, La ciudad hispano-romana: privilegio y poder, Logroño 1989: 228–229

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Plague, on the colony have neither been substantiated in the written sources nor by archaeology 18 3. The urban crisis in the last half of the 3rd century AD The archaeological record of Carthago Nova for the decades following the Severan dynasty is very sparse At an architectonic level, spaces were still being reoccupied and architectural elements reused Albeit few and far between, the archaeological contexts have a common denominator: the traces of violent destruction Unlike the rubbish dumps from the late 2nd century AD, the stratigraphies from this time are made up of collapsed structures, often charred It is commonplace to find domestic items – chiefly pottery – fragmented in situ (Fig 5a) The best studied example is a small dwelling built on top of the remains of a former taberna from the High Empire period, located in 40, Cuatro Santos street, which was destroyed by fire around 240–270 AD A phenomenon of the same nature led, in that same chronology, to the collapse of part of the peristyle of the port baths 19 Other buildings, including the porticus post scaenam of the theatre and the Augusteum, also collapsed around the same time (Fig 5b) Now well into the 3rd century AD, the ‘Atrium Building’ underwent an important transformation altering its public or semi-public character It was compartmentalised, each one of its imposing halls being converted into an individual dwelling with distinguishable cooking and storage areas The different domestic units were organised around the space formed by the well and the lararium altar, which became a communal patio In the last half of the 3rd century AD – or perhaps at the beginning of the following one – the whole complex, whose contexts are currently being studied, was also destroyed by fire 20 It is particularly remarkable that none of the derelict building elements of the building were recuperated, remaining permanently buried What was the cause of that destruction? The size and relevance of the affected spaces suggests something more than an accidental fire There are two main hypotheses that might explain this episode: a Frankish raid and/or an earthquake In relation to the Franks, the sources place them in Hispania around 260–261 AD They laid siege to Tarraco, the provincial capital, where, according to Aurelius Victor, they seized a number of ships in order to sail to Africa Archaeology has demonstrated, on the strength of reliable evidence, their passage through Tarragona and the

18 19

20

A Quevedo / S Ramallo, op Cit (n 3): 170–172 Mª J Madrid / M Pavía / J M Noguera, Las termas del puerto de Carthago Nova: un complejo augusteo de larga duración, in: López, J (ed ), Tarraco biennal, Actes del 2on Congrés Internacional d’Arqueologia i Món Antic August i les províncies occidentals 2000 aniversari de la mort d’August Tarragona 2015: 15–22, 20 J M Noguera / J M Abascal / Mª J Madrid, op Cit (n 7): 152

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Fig. 05 (a) Ceramic context from 240–270 AD coming from the destruction of the house in 40, calle Cuatro Santos; (b–c) the collapse of the wall of the Augusteum in Carthago Nova on top of the adjoining porticus duplex: the wall’s elements, which toppled over on to a previously abandoned level, remained connected The collapsing wall (earthquake?) split or displaced the column of what might have been a basilica

surrounding area 21 According to Orosius, the German tribes remained in the peninsula for 12 years and, given their interest in ships, it is plausible to imagine that they were capable of acts of piracy It has recently been suggested that these were seaborne raids, which would explain the sailing knowledge of these gentes and would modify 21

J M Macías / J Morera / O Olesti / I Teixell, Crisi o invasió? Els Francs i la destrucció parcial de Tàrraco al s III, in: Vidal, J / Antela, B (eds ), Más allá de la batalla La violencia contra la población en el Mundo Antiguo, Zaragoza 2013: 193–214

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the traditional route which, rather than being overland, would have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar 22 The similarities between the destruction layers discovered in Cartagena and others found along the Mediterranean coast of the eastern region of Spain means that the possibility of a seaborne attack by the Franks should not be ruled out altogether 23 The nature of the destruction layers corresponding to the last half of the 3rd century AD may also be explained, in part, by an earthquake, as the different deformation processes that can be observed in buildings belonging to the ancient city would indicate The most obvious signs are to be found in the contemporary collapse of two public monuments, namely, the theatre’s porticus post scaenam and the wall of the Augusteum adjoining the porticus duplex of what might possibly have been a basilica In both cases, the collapse to the west of solid sandstone walls built in opus quadratum (Fig 5b) has been detected This coincidence in orientation and the fact that the architectural elements remained connected could correspond to the effects of a seismic wave that swept across the surface in a single direction 24 What is most interesting is that both buildings show signs of dereliction under their collapsed walls, which might indicate a prior lack of maintenance Only the ongoing analysis of their stratigraphic levels may determine the real cause of their destruction and improve its chronology The assumption that Carthago Nova might have been affected by such a natural phenomenon has been reinforced by the confirmation of one or several earthquakes in nearby Baetica The best studied case is that of Baelo Claudia (265–270 d C ), to which must be added those of Munigua (end of the 3rd century AD) and Cordoba (currently dated to the 50s or 60s of the 3rd century AD), although this point is still being debated due to the difficulties in identifying and dating phenomena of this type in the archaeological record 25 As a result of Diocletian’s reforms, it has traditionally been held that the city became, in around 298, the capital of the new territory to which it gave its name, viz the province Carthaginiensis As yet, there is still no evidence substantiating this claim, although the favourable conditions of the port of Carthago Nova have been one of the sustaining arguments of this hypothetical imperial decision Nevertheless, the archaeological record does not reflect the changes that the new political and administrative activity would have 22 23

24 25

L Brassous, Sur les traces des Francs à Tarraco au IIIe siècle: invasion terrestre ou raid maritime?, in: Cadiou, F / Navarro, M (eds ), La guerre et ses traces Conflits et sociétés en Hispanie à l’époque de la conquête Romaine (IIIe-Ier s a C ), Bordeaux 2104: 599–613, 609 A Quevedo, op Cit (n 4): 302–308; A Quevedo / S Ramallo, op Cit (n 3): 173–174 Although it should be stressed that there are no elements – bodies, weapons, etc – that enable us, unequivocally, to associate this episode with the Franks, except for an out-of-context German fibula (A Quevedo, op Cit (n 4): 162, fig 110 5) Likewise, there is passing mention of the presence of what may be a projectile in the sediment layers in aula 14 of the ‘Atrium Building’ ( J M Noguera / J M Abascal / M J Madrid, op Cit (n 7): 153, n 17) A Quevedo, op Cit (n 4): 310–316; A Quevedo / S Ramallo, op Cit (n 3): 174–175 M D Ruiz-Bueno, Actividad sísmica en el mediodía ibérico durante el siglo III d C La incidencia arqueológica en Corduba (Córdoba), Pyrenae 48/2 (2017): 29–51

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brought about after the arrival and establishment of the governor and his entourage in the city Only a small amount of ceramic and numismatic evidence certifies the existence of circulation levels in the first half of the 4th century AD 26 These discoveries have mostly been made in the vicinity of the Molinete hill, close to the forum and the city centre Hitherto, no building of an official character or representing this new stage or, for that matter, dwelling, whether humble or noble, has been identified The port baths are perhaps the only public or semi-public building that would have survived until well into the 4th or 5th century AD At this moment, the stratigraphic levels indicating fire and collapse are associated, although a fire that led to the abandonment of part of the peristyle has already been dated to the last half of the 3rd century AD 27 Nor has any necropolis been identified from this period, just a few scattered and isolated intramural burials, probably from the last half of the 3rd century AD, wedged between dilapidated structures from the High Empire period 28 Broadly speaking, the sharp decline in commercial activity, already conspicuous since the second half of the previous century and discernible in the scant material evidence and wrecks from this period, continued apace The same apathy can be observed in the rest of the territory where most of the villae and production centres abandoned in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD would not be reoccupied 4. Discussion As from the end of the 2nd century AD, the urban landscape of Carthago Nova was marked by the spoliation and abandonment of public and private buildings, their reuse by craftsmen and traders or conversion into dwellings, the proliferation of urban waste and the collapse of part of the street network The waste accumulation in the areas with collapsed monuments is surprising not only owing to its early appearance and intramural development, but above all for its general extension One of the most characteristic cases is that of the curia, next to the forum, which had already been converted into a rubbish dump in the Severan period The lack of maintenance highlights the local senate’s incapacity to guarantee the upkeep of the city’s basic infrastructures, such as its streets Although it is true that at a later date these would have been covered with earth, thus changing their aspect, their deterioration as from the end of the 2nd century AD can hardly be interpreted as a deliberate change The reduction of space would have impeded the two-way traffic of carts in many of them and the accumulation of rubble from derelict buildings would have made quite a few others unpassable

26 27 28

Mª J Madrid / A J Murcia / J M Noguera / M Fuentes, Reutilización y contextos domésticos del edificio del atrio (siglos III–IV), in: Noguera, J M / Madrid, Mª J (eds ), Arx Asdrubalis La ciudad reencontrada Arqueología en el cerro del Molinete / Cartagena Murcia: 2009: 226–237 Mª J Madrid / M Pavía / J M Noguera, op Cit (n 19): 20 A Quevedo, op Cit (n 4): 316–320

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As from the reign of Marcus Aurelius, no new public buildings have been identified in Carthago Nova and, on the whole, the refurbishment of those still standing ceased, except for the theatre’s stage and the ‘Atrium Building’ Even though some or other affluent private citizen or collective might have been able to afford improvements, such as the relocation of the paintings of the muses in the latter, dating from the time of Heliogabalus, discoveries are more the exception than the rule in the urban landscape The inscription dedicated to Julia Mamaea by the conventus would be the last to be erected in the forum, at a time when some of its buildings were already dilapidated The decline of the epigraphic habit in Hispania during the 3rd century AD is a proven fact that has been interpreted, rather than in a negative vein, as a change in mentality 29 In the case of Carthago Nova, however, this decline was abrupt, the habit disappearing altogether between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD; unlike other cities in the province, such as Tarraco and Valentia, there is no mention (as yet) of governors or the local senate, whose situation in the colony is still a mystery as from the Severan period The closure of the region’s mines, the economic powerhouse of the colony and its hinterland, is currently believed to be the cause behind its recession The lack of activity and investments might have been exacerbated by a widespread economic downturn 30 This would have affected primarily cities like Carthago Nova with limited agricultural resources, since the colony appears to have depended to a great extent on imports, as evinced in the Republican period In this scenario, the repercussions that the conflict between Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus might have had should also be borne in mind, as the exceptional case of the colony of Virtus Iulia Ituci has demonstrated 31 The aforementioned lack of epigraphs makes it impossible to know what happened to the city’s leading noble families – or their fortunes – as from the last half of the 2nd century AD In this respect, the total absence of high-ranking dignitaries holding office in the provincial capital or in Rome should be noted Even so, Carthago Nova must have possessed a minimum of resources, such as the levies imposed on merchandise entering and leaving its port In the post-Severan period, the city was still occupied to some extent, as is evidenced by the rubbish tips and modest dwellings such as that located at 40, Cuatro Santos street and those that were created inside the ‘Atrium Building’ This premature,

29 30 31

Ch Witschel, La crisis del siglo III en Hispania Algunas reflexiones, in: Andreu, J / Cabrero, J / Rodà, I (eds ), Hispaniae Las provincias hispanas en el mundo romano, Tarragona 2009: 473– 503, esp 457–478 G Chic, Marco Aurelio y Cómodo El hundimiento de un sistema económico, in: Hernández Guerra, L (ed ), La Hispania de los Antoninos (98–180) Actas del II Congreso Internacional de Historia Antigua (Valladolid, 10–12 November 2004) Valladolid 2005: 567–586, esp 579–583 A Ventura: Torreparedones (colonia Virtus Iulia Ituci) entre Severo y Constantino: ¿oppidum labens uel damnatum et adtributum?, in: J Andreu (ed ), Oppida labentia: transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanorromanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 443–487, esp 473–476

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gradual deterioration, the ‘slow change’ that has been defined for other Hispanic cities at a later date,32 was interrupted during the last half of the 3rd century AD by a violent event that could be interpreted as a possible Frankish raid, an earthquake or both What is more important than the phenomenon per se is the fact that the buildings affected were not rebuilt, thus contributing to create new derelict areas in the city centre It was an episode that can be described unequivocally as an ‘urban crisis’, understanding this as a one-off situation in which the patient recovers or dies, as defended by G Alföldy 33 In other words, it was not a long-drawn-out phenomenon like the ‘crisis of the 3rd century’, an historiographical concept that has often been applied without taking into account geographical or chronological nuances 34 Under these circumstances, it is possible that the city was chosen as the capital of Carthaginiensis following Diocletian’s reforms at the end of the 3rd century AD,35 although there is not a jot of literary or archaeological evidence to support this change in status The lack of civic buildings in the city from this period is surprising, while material contexts are all but conspicuous by their absence in comparison with earlier or later periods In view of this, noteworthy is the vitality and dynamism of the neighbouring colony of Ilici 36 The current archaeological picture suggests that this city might have displaced Carthago Nova as the area’s main economic powerhouse during the first half of the 4th century AD As a matter of fact, the rivalry between both cities and the alternation between axes of power is one of the arguments that has been deployed to explain the territorial changes at the time 37 In this connection, it is tempting to pose the question of whether Toledo, whose political pre-eminence would increase as from the 4th century AD, was the true capital of the province For the time being, there is no evidence confirming this hypothesis, besides the vitality of this inland city38 and its subsequent election as the capital of the Visigothic kingdom

32 33 34 35 36 37 38

S Panzram, Introducción El mundo de las ciudades de la península ibérica y el norte de África, in: S Panzram / L Callegarin (eds ), Entre civitas y madina El mundo de las ciudades en la península Ibérica y en el Norte de África (siglos IV–IX), Madrid 2018: 1–12, 5 G Alföldy, Hispania bajos los Flavios y los Antoninos: consideraciones históricas sobre una época, in: Mayer, M / Nolla, J M / J Pardo (eds ), De les estructures indígenes a l’organització provincial romana de la Hispània citerior: homenatge a Josep Estrada i Garriga, Granollers 1998: 11–32, esp 32 G Bravo, ¿Otro mito historiográfico? La crisis del siglo III y sus términos en el nuevo debate, SHHA 30, (2012), 115–140, esp 127 J Arce, El último siglo de la España romana, 284–409, Madrid 2009: 68 M Tendero / A M Ronda, Nuevos datos sobre la Colonia Iulia Ilici Augusta (s II–IV d C ), in: Ramallo, S / Quevedo, A (eds ), Las ciudades de la Tarraconense oriental entre los s II–IV d C Evolución urbanística y contextos materiales Murcia 2014: 275–320, esp 293–309 L Brassous / A Quevedo, Introduction, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de “crise” Les espaces publics dans les villes d’Hispanie et de l’Occident Romain entre le II et le IV s apr J -C Madrid 2015: 1–6, esp 6 R Barroso / J Carrobles / J Morín de Pablos / I Sánchez Ramos, Toletum Configuración y evolución urbana de la capital visigoda y su territorio, in: Sánchez, I / Mateos Cruz, P (eds ), Territorio,

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It would not be until a much later date – at any event not before the second half of the 4th century – that Carthago Nova would show signs of revival, a phenomenon clearly visible in the mid 5th century AD 39 As of that moment, the city emerged from the ashes under a new urban model that would systematically reuse the classical monuments The streets would be repaved with pedestals coming from the forum, as is the case in the Tres Reyes’ Square, and there would be renewed interest in waste management, with rubbish being buried in pits The city’s economic power is reflected in the construction of workshops, this also being the case in the surrounding territory, with the dynamism of the pottery workshops and fish-salting factories at Águilas and Mazarrón It is likely that this was when a new defensive enclosure was built, which also included the port front 40 Nonetheless, the Carthago Spartaria of Late Antiquity would never be as large as it had been during the High Empire period Nothing is known of the main public buildings in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, except for the market or warehouse built on top of the remains of the Roman theatre with recycled materials This building, a vast architectural work, attests to the interest of the new political and economic elites in recuperating certain civic spaces Nor has any religious building highlighting the rising power of the Church been identified, apart from a number of necropoleis Notwithstanding this, the city had several bishops according to the written sources As to the late domestic architecture, it is best described as modest and lacks a defined model, coexisting with spaces given over to handicrafts and storage which continued to be built on top of old buildings from the High Empire period The passage of the Vandals in 425, as noted in the sources, does not seem to have affected the city’s activity, which would undergo yet another transformation when it was occupied by the Byzantines during the reign of Justinian 5. Conclusion In Carthago Nova, the features that would define the late city were already visible in the Severan period, in view of the terminus post quem established by the study of numerous ceramic contexts 41 At that moment, the ancient colony suffered a deep recession that affected both its economy and its extension, an unicum among the principal cities of Hispania Although its urban decay should not be associated with that of its municipal

39 40 41

topografía y arquitectura de poder durante la Antigüedad tardía Jornadas Spaniae uel Galliae, territorio, topografía y arquitectura de las sedes regiae visigodas, Mytra, Madrid 2018: 195–236 J Vizcaíno, Ad pristinum decus La metamorfosis urbana de Carthago Spartaria durante el siglo V, in: Panzram, S / Callegarin, L (eds ), op Cit (n 32) S Ramallo / F Cerezo, Carthago Spartaria, declive y recuperación de una civitas romana en la Spania bizantina, in: I Sánchez / P Mateos Cruz (eds ), op Cit (n 38) A Quevedo, op Cit (n 4)

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institutions,42 their functioning is difficult to assess, particularly when the main representative body, the curia, had been abandoned since the first decades of the 3rd century AD Some epigraphic discoveries – the titulus of Heliogabalus and the inscription dedicated to Julia Mamaea – show the continuity of civic life during this period, but do not allow us to speak of urban vitality There are a number of weighty arguments supporting the city’s hypothetical decline: the abandonment of important public and private spaces as well as of numerous farms in its ager suggest that the ager was subsequently put to, the sharp drop in its commercial and mining activities – the latter confirmed by the sediment analysis of lead pollution – and the possible appearance of a curator reipublicae on the scene These changes were exacerbated by a violent phenomenon in the last half of the 3rd century AD – neither an earthquake, nor a fire, nor a Frankish raid can be ruled out – which, far from bringing about ambiguous transformations, led to the ruin of most of the ancient colony Leaving aside its nature, these episodes were the coup de grace to a situation that had first made itself felt at the end of the 2nd century AD, after which the city showed no signs of recovery, unlike other cities of Hispania suffering episodic crises The buildings that collapsed at the time were never repaired, nor were the household effects buried inside them recuperated To this must be added the lack of 3rd and 4th century constructions – civic or private, urban or rural – a scenario very far removed from the state of affairs in nearby regions such as Baetica Diocletian’s reforms do not seem to have curbed the city’s loss of political and economic pre-eminence; quite the opposite, in fact, since current archaeological reality even casts doubt on its alleged capital status Would that role have fallen to Toletum, the province’s name merely being a distant reminder of the once flourishing mining and port city? Nor should other hypotheses, such as the shift of economic activity to thriving Ilici close by, also linked to the Mediterranean through Portus Ilicitanus (Santa Pola), be overlooked Carthago Nova, unlike less important neighbouring enclaves that would disappear without trace, such as Lucentum (Tossal de Manises, Alicante), continued to be occupied, although it is still barely possible to visualise the extent and nature of that occupation The lack of literary and epigraphic evidence means that archaeology is the main documentary source offering insights into the changes occurring during this period of transition, a perspective that is constantly evolving thanks to new discoveries It would not be until well into Late Antiquity, especially as from the 5th century AD, when the city re-emerged under a different urban model, although without the relevance or size that it had had during the High Empire period

42

E Melchor, Las élites municipales y los inicios de la crisis del urbanismo monumental en el Occidente romano: algunas consideraciones, con especial referencia a Hispania, Latomus, 77/2 (2018): 416–440

Modelling the Late Antique urban crisis: the Ebro Valley explored* Pilar Diarte-Blasco (University of Alcalá)

1. Introduction Even though the meaning of the word crisis has progressively acquired a negative character, as a time of major disagreement, confusion, upheaval or suffering,1 the original meaning of the word, which is derived from the Greek krísis: decision, suggested a deep change and important consequences in a process or situation, or in the way they are viewed, without any kind of moral evaluation I have chosen the concept of ‘crisis’ in my paper’s title because I would like to show how the economic and social contexts of the centuries that saw the end of the Western Roman Empire and consolidation of the Visigothic Kingdom were crucial in the conformation of a new urban form In that sense, I will be arguing that many urban centres of Hispania took advantage of the situation to re-think many urban spaces, re-occupied some of the ones that had lost their original functionality and to build, in most cases, a new topography of power, mainly defined by urban walls, episcopal complexes and civil power buildings We cannot deny, however, that in these centuries, some towns and cities suffered so many calamities that culminated in the complete abandonment of their facilities; nor can anyone deny that, even the ‘most successful’ urban centres, suffered the obliteration of the sewers and the impoverishment of building techniques and materials, to name just *

1

This paper has been written as part of the Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación ( JCI-2015–24930) based at the Universidad de Alcalá and funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of the Spanish Government; and as part of the research line Cambio Climático y Construcción del Paisaje Medieval: Dinámicas de Variabilidad en un Periodo de Transformaciones (HAR2017–84144-P), and De municipia latina a oppida labentia: sobre la sostenibilidad económica e institucional del municipio de derecho latino en la Hispania Romana (siglos II y III d C ) (HAR2016–7485-P) My thanks go to Prof Neil Christie of the University of Leicester for his assistance in checking and improving this paper L Brown (ed ), The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary – Vol 1, A-M, Oxford 1993: 550–551

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the most cited issues The word ‘crisis’ in this context, certainly, embodied its full range of accepted meanings In recent years, our knowledge about late antique and early medieval urban transformations in the former Western Roman Empire has grown significantly The scholarship has made a notable effort to study these transitional contexts that, in the past, were traditionally overlooked for the much more appealing Roman archaeological materials, with its urban order, fine marbles and mosaics, or for the ruins of the medieval Christian kingdoms, with their churches and intricate urban plans The Iberian Peninsula has been part of this new focus of study and, as said, our knowledge about the centuries, mainly between the 4th and 8th centuries AD, has been expanded here, enabling us to make a bolder statement and vision of these centuries, not simply calling these centuries ‘transitional’ It is true, however, that the data generated are not homogenous and while some cities such as Mérida, Barcelona and Valencia2 have goods sets of data, for other urban centres, both in Spain and Portugal, the information tends to be scarce and fragmentary This paper, indeed, turns our attention to north-eastern Spain and, specifically, to the Ebro valley (Fig 1), a heterogeneous landscape with patchy archaeological record, above all for this chronological period: while the Catalan area has seen fairly intense study to question and interrogate urban transformations and sequences of settlement change, the middle Ebro valley, corresponding to the modern region of Aragón, has seen little attention on this crucial process of modification towards townscapes and countryside 3 A different situation is evident in the Upper basin, from the source of the river to the Aragonese region, and comprising mainly modern Cantabria, the Basque Country and Navarra, where a less-developed urban network prevailed, meaning that most of the archaeological studies are dedicated to other key phenomena of this period, namely the hill-top occupation and the creation of new types of rural habitats 4

2

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P Mateos Cruz / M Alba, De Emerita Augusta a Marida, in: Caballero Zoreda, L / Mateos, P (eds ), Visigodos y Omeyas Un debate entre la Antigüedad Tardía y la Alta Edad Media, Madrid 2000: 143–168; M Alba, Mérida Visigoda: construcción y deconstrucción de una idea preconcebida, in: Vaquerizo, D / Garriguet, J A / León, A (eds ), Ciudad y territorio: transformaciones materiales e ideológicas entre la época clásica y el Alto Medioevo, Córdoba 2014: 385–416; J Beltrán de Heredia, Barcino durante la antigüedad tardía, Zona Arqueológica 9 (2008): 275–291; A Ribera i Lacomba, La ciudad de Valencia durante el periodo visigodo Zona Arqueológica 9 (2008): 302–320 For a global overview of both spheres, see P Diarte-Blasco, Rural and Urban Contexts in North-eastern Spain: Examining and Interpreting Transformations across the 5th–7th Centuries A D , in: Diarte-Blasco, P / Christie, N (eds ), Interpreting Transformations of Landscapes and People in Late Antiquity, Oxford 2018: 179–191 J A Quirós Castillo, Arqueología del campesinado altomedieval: las aldeas y las granjas del País Vasco, in: Quirós Castillo, J A (ed ), The Archaeology of Early Medieval Villages in Europe, Bilbao 2009: 385–403; J A Quirós Castillo, Early medieval landscapes in north-west Spain: local power and communities, fifth-eighth centuries, Early Medieval Europe 19:3 (2011): 285–311

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Fig. 01 Ebro River Basin: Principal urban centres named in the text (Image by P Diarte-Blasco)

2. The Ebro valley and its urban sphere: trajectories and evolutions between the 4th and 7th centuries AD This area of the Peninsula corresponded to the core of the former conventus Tarraconensis and Caesaraugustanus, which mostly remained in imperial hands until AD 470–475 Together with the Guadalquivir valley, this territory was one of the earliest and most deeply Romanized areas of the Peninsula In fact, this process created an interconnected and dense urban network, which was soon included (via trade, population movements, religion, etc ) within the orbit of the Empire From the 1st to the 3rd century AD, Hispania grew as an increasingly important economic component of the Roman Empire,5 especially thanks to its productive lands and an active market, exporting many goods, such as wine, olive oil and fish sauce (garum) The so-called ‘3rd Century Crisis’ did not greatly affect the Peninsula, probably due to its ‘peripheral’ position and its overall minor role in imperial politics The

5

J S Richardson, The Romans in Spain, Oxford 1996

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4th century has been interpreted as a prosperous period, shown chiefly in big villae In any case, and specifically dedicated to our study area, a group of letters between the poet Ausonius and his friend and disciple Paulinus of Nola, during the latter’s trip to Hispania, Ausonius painted a desolate picture of the Tarraconesis province and refers to the dramatic situation of cities, such as Ilerda (modern Lérida), Bilbilis (near to Calatayud, Zaragoza) and Calagurris (Calahorra, La Rioja), which he says were in ruins and inhospitable 6 This was probably an overstatement driven by Ausonius’s wish to recall his friend from these lands and to return to Burdigalia Paulinus, however, pointed out that there were still active and splendid centres, such as Caesaraugusta, Barcino and Tarraco 7 For too long, Ausonius’s statements have been considered a clear guide to introduce and stress the pessimistic trend in urban life in these centuries and the difficult times in which the inhabitants lived across the Early Middle Ages But, a century later, and related to the migration of and damage by the so-called ‘barbarians’, Hydatius informs us of destructions in many territoria, including in Caesaraugustanam regionem (in 449)8; we are also told about the so-called Bagaudae/Bacaudae (probably groups of people rebelling against large landowners), who affected particularly rural contexts, even if some attacks against urban centres were noted, such as against Turiaso (Tarazona), and Ilerda which, in 449, was sacked by a band made up of both bagaudae and Suevi 9 These historical data and the scarce information we have from authors contemporary to these events reveal a complicated political context that surely impacted the cities But, does this mean that most of the cities were affected by difficult situations which had grave consequences to normal urban development? In which ways did the end of the Empire and the consolidation of a new Kingdom affect the urban centres? Were the minor towns more vulnerable to these changes? As a case study of late antique change, from late Roman to Visigothic, the Ebro valley shows a great diversity of landscapes with specific trajectories, which form a good range of different evolutions that, through attentive systematization of the information, could be divided into three marked trends: (i) territories with cities that maintained and/or increased their role as central places; (ii) territories with cities that decayed (sometimes suffering a complete loss) and (iii) landscapes without cities – to which I am not referring in this paper, and corresponding mainly to the regions of Cantabria (part of it) and País Vasco, where, as said, there was a scarce number of important urban centres since Roman times, a situation that continued in the late antique centuries Nevertheless, as well as urban decay, new settlements developed in those same spaces – villages and hamlets – which,

6 7 8 9

Auson Ep 29, 50–61 Paulinus Carm 10, 202–238 Hyd Chron 142 J Arce, Bárbaros y romanos en Hispania, Madrid 2005: 216–217 About these groups of people, see J Arce, op Cit (n 8): 159–167

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in some cases, acquired some traditional urban roles such as markets and economic redistribution, social and religious centres (i) Territories with cities that maintained and/or increased their role as central places As said, the urban situation in the Tarraconensis was far from homogeneous, but it is undeniable that some towns and cities underwent important transformations that did not finish with the monumental physiognomy of the urban centres, even if the spaces were re-evaluated and, in most cases, passed through the Christianity filter I refer to cities such as Caesaraugusta, Tarraco, Barcino, Gerunda and most of the centres that lay on the coastal zone, all of which maintained their urban role until the arrival of the Muslims in 711 and, in many cases, beyond The prosperity of Tarraco was clearly linked with its role as provincial capital of the largest Roman province of the Iberian Peninsula following the provincial division of Augustus By the end of the 3rd century, with Diocletian’s reforms, the Provincia Hispania Citerior Tarraconensis was divided into three provinces Tarraconensis, Carthaginensis and Gallaecia, and the capital of the Diocesis Hispaniarum was installed in Emerita This situation, even if it prompted decline in the political role of Tarraco, has no clear reflection in the archaeological record, although private evergetism was considerably reduced and some public infrastructures decayed10 such as some areas of the port suburbium, where small funerary areas appeared over the ruins of buildings and, sometimes, partially over the streets (Fig 2) 11 Nonetheless, some building operations and restorations were pursued during the 4th century mostly by imperial initiative This is the case for the public baths built in the port suburbium12 and for the restoration of some entertainment buildings (specifically the amphitheatre and the circus, since the theatre was abandoned already by the end of the 2nd century) and official buildings Noticeably, the Concilium Provinciae maintained its original role during the 4th and 5th centuries This official space, however, was far from the original splendid Roman decus and was instead occupied, in part, by domestic spaces, workshops and open air dumps

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S Keay, Tarraco in late antiquity, in: Christie, N / Loseby, S T (eds ), Towns in Transition: Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Aldershot 1996: 18–43; M Pérez Martínez, Tarraco en la Antigüedad Tardía Cristianización y organización eclesiástica de una capital provincial romana (siglos III al VIII), Tarragona 2012: 40 A Lasheras González, El suburbio portuario de Tarraco en la Antigüedad tardía: modelos de ocupación y evolución urbana entre los siglos III y VIII, in: Panzram, S (ed), Oppidum Civitas – Urbs Städteforschung auf der Iberischen Halbinsel zwischen Rom und al-Andalus, Berlin 2017: 777–809 J M Macías, Les termes públiques de l’àrea portuària de Tàrraco Carrer de Sant Miquel de Tarragona, Tarragona 2004: 155–156

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Fig. 02 Tarraco: Inhumation of the late 3rd or early 4th centuries, located inside a building, formerly used as port warehouse (Archivo Codex – Arqueologia i Patrimoni Image courtesy of A Lasheras González)

which certainly transformed the picture of what had been one of the most representative spaces of the city 13 Domestic spaces, indeed, appeared in many urban zones of Tarraco, such as the circus and the port warehouses,14 pointing to a privatization trend that hit most urban centres in these centuries It is interesting to see, however, how the extraordinary dimensions of Tarraco (ca 50 ha intra muros plus 30–40 ha outside the walls) were re-evaluated with clear symptoms of contraction, with the city developed in

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14

TED’A , Un abocador del segle V d C en el Fòrum Provincial de Tàrraco, Tarragona 1989: 447– 448; F Bosch / J M Maciás / J Menchon / A Muñoz / I Teixell, La transformació urbanística de l’acrópolis de Tarragona: avanç de les excavacions del Pla Director de la Catedral de Tarragona (2000–2002), in: Gurt i Esparraguera, J M / Ribera i Lacomba, A (coord ), VI Reunió d’arqueologia cristiana hispànica Les ciutats tardoantigues d’Hispania: cristianització i topografia, Barcelona 2005: 167–173, esp 169 M Adserias / C A Pociña / J A Remolà, L’hàbitat suburbà portuari de l’antiga Tàrraco Excavacions afectats pel PERI2 ( Jaume i-Tabacalera), in: Ruiz de Arbulo, J (ed ), Tàrraco 99 Arqueologia d’una capital provincial romana, Tarragona 2000: 137–154; J M Macías, op Cit (n 12): 169; J M Macías / J A Remolà, L’àrea portuària de Tarraco, in: VI Reunió d’Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica, Barcelona 2005: 175–187

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two different parts: one around the area of the former Concilium Provinciae and a second, ca 1 km away, in the port area, where most of the business operations were developed 15 After the arrival and settlement of the so-called barbarians, this province was the only one that remained under imperial control, meaning that Tarraco gained a new administrative role for the Empire on the Peninsula and saw an important revitalization In this sense, the figure of the bishop was crucial in the new building operations in the last moments of the Empire and, likewise, during the Visigothic period In the 6th century, in fact, major constructions, such as the basilicas built within the necropolis of Francolí and inside the amphitheatre16 and, notably, the transformation of the upper terrace of the city, replacing the Concilium Provinciae with a large episcopal complex 17 Although Tarraco maintained its decisive role on the eastern Iberian coast, little by little, the nearby smaller city of Barcino (ca 10 ha inside the walls) acquired growing relevance, shown in the 4th century by the refortification with strong walls and square-shaped towers (with extensive use of architectonic elements from the suburban necropoleis), and the existence of large domus (luxurious private properties not yet attested in the capital, Tarraco) In addition, more surprisingly the forum at Barcino maintained its shape and function until at least the 6th century One important historical moment relates to the usurpation by Maximus (410–411) and his choice of the city as his capital and mint;18 probably, the impressive urban defences19 and its growing economic strength were behind this decision Successively, the city was used as royal seat by the Gothic king Ataulf, who died here in AD 415 During the 6th century, then known as Barchinona, the city was an urbs regia at different moments (almost always short-term), until the definitive formation of the Kingdom of Toledo It is probably during this and the 7th century that a new urban image was developed, with the big 15 16 17

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J M Macías, Querer y no poder: la ciudad en el “conuentus tarraconensis” (siglos II–IV), in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre les IIe et IVe siècle, Madrid 2015: 41–42 J López, Les basíliques paleocristianes del suburbi occidental de Tàrraco El temple septentrional i el complex martirial de Sant Fructuós, Tarragona 2006: 252–254; TED’A : L’amfiteatre romà de Tarragona, la basílica visigòtica i l’església romànica, Tarragona 1990: 233 X Aquilué, La seu del Col·legi d’Arquitectes: una intervenció arqueològica en el centre històric de Tarragona, Tarragona 1993; F Bosch / J M Maciás / J Menchon / A Muñoz / I Teixell, La transformació urbanística de l’acrópolis de Tarragona: avanç de les excavacions del Pla Director de la Catedral de Tarragona (2000–2002), in: Gurt i Esparraguera, J M / Ribera i Lacomba, A (coord ), VI Reunió d’arqueologia cristiana hispànica Les ciutats tardoantigues d’Hipania: cristianització i topografia, Barcelona 2005: 167–173; J M Macías / J J Menchon / A Muñoz / I Teixell, Contextos cerámicos derivados de la transformación cristiana de la Acrópolis de Tarragona (s V/ VI d C ), in: Société Française d’Étude de la Céramique Antique en Gaule Actes du Congrès de l’Escala-Empúries, Marsella 2008: 287–293 T Marot, Algunas consideraciones sobre la significación de las emisiones del usurpador Máximo en Barcino, in: Teja, R / Pérez, C (eds ), La Hispania de Teodosio, Congreso Internacional (octubre de 1995, Coca y Segovia), Vol 2, Segovia 1997: 569–580 J J Cepeda Ocampo, A propósito de las acuñaciones del usurpador Máximo en Barcino (411), Numisma 244 (2000): 43–51 F Puig / I Rodà de Llanza, Las murallas de Barcino, Barcelona 2010

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domus lost and the former public buildings discarded, while the (progressively monumentalising) episcopal power and suburban areas, with diverse churches and necropoleis, now became the city’s core foci of attraction 20 In the Catalan region, apart from these two important cities, other urban centres, even if not well-known, are Ilerda and Gerunda, whose urban character continued during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages In Gerunda, we know that, by c AD 300, the late Republican urban circuit was rebuilt, adding strong square towers; it was repaired again in the 5th century 21 The construction used many architectural elements from public buildings fallen into disuse (including the forum) and also funerary monuments Indeed, in the 6th century, part of the forum space was used for the construction of a prominent building, on two storeys and with opus signinum pavements, which has been identified with the palace of the comes cuitatis 22 Doubts, however, exist about the exact location of the episcopal complex: currently the cathedral occupies the area of the former pagan temple of the forum, which was certainly the episcopal complex during the Carolingian period 23 However, the town was an episcopal see since the 5th century, but archaeologically this early phase is not documented prior to the Carolingian building Ilerda, however, appears as a different case, as seen in the scarce archaeological data – in most cases coming from various dumps analyzed –, which points to a severe economic crisis during the 3rd century (probably reflected in the urban decay that prompted Ausonius to talk about its ruinous situation a century later), and a gradual revival during the 4th and 5th centuries, as indicated by the arrival of foreign goods, such as African and South Gallic pottery, and marbles from Asia Minor 24 Yet, the original urban extension, ca 20–30 ha, was not recovered during these centuries; despite this, the geo-strategic position of this episcopal see between the coastal area and the interior of the valley probably assured its continuity In recent years, more information on the coastal urban centres has been gathered, showing how market dynamics were crucial to the maintenance of cities such as Bae-

20 21

22 23 24

J Beltrán de Heredia, La cristianización del suburbium de Barcino, in: Vaquerizo, D (ed ), Las áreas suburbanas en la ciudad histórica Topografía, usos, función, Córdoba 2010: 363–396 J M Nolla, Gerunda y la defensa de la Via Augusta en la Antigüedad Tardía, in: Rodríguez, A / Rodá, I (eds ), Murallas de ciudades romanas en el Occidente del Imperio: Lucus Augusti como paradigma Actas del Congreso Internacional celebrado en Lugo (26–29 de noviembre de 2005), Lugo 2007: 633–647 J M Nolla / L Palia / J Sagrera / M Sureda / E Canal / G García / M J Lloveras / J Canal, Del fòrum a la plaça de la Catedral Evolució histórico urbanística del sector septentrional de la ciutat de Girona, Gerona 2009: 128 J Canal / E Canal / J M Nolla / J Sagrera, Girona, de Carlemany al feudalisme El trànsit d’una ciutat antiga a l’època medieval Historia Urbana de Girona Reconstrucció cartogràfica (5), Gerona 2003: 183–189 E Junyent / A Pérez Almoguera El Bajo Imperio ilerdense: las excavaciones de la Paería, in: III Reunió d’Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica (Maó, 1988), Barcelona 1992: 130–144

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tulo (Badalona), Iluro (Mataró) and Dertosa (Tortosa),25 where it has been possible to recover a complete stratigraphic sequence (such as in the Plaza de Olivera of Tortosa), from the 5th century until today 26 It is true, however, that these cities, saw upheavals (as did most cities, including the provincial capital, Tarraco), which affected the urban space in different ways In Baetulo,27 for example, a process of decay in various insulae is documented between the end of the 1st and the early 2nd century, yet this is when the theatre was built During the 3rd century, this crisis situation remained in some areas, while the epigraphical record points to ongoing activity by the municipal power and the archaeological data shows a continuous process of re-paving of the streets, which probably endured across the 4th century Meanwhile, trade to the city’s port included many African goods – mainly pottery, amphorae above all – during the 5th and 6th centuries, comparable to Iluro and Dertosa (and, obviously, Barcino and Tarraco too) These materials, even if at reduced levels, continued to arrive during the 7th century, reaching almost exclusively towns, while being practically unknown in the rural sphere 28 Moving into the inland territories, in the central Ebro basin the quality and quantity of the information available drop considerably The best proof of this is the scarce archaeological knowledge about the pre-medieval phases of the former capital of the conventus, Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza) We know, nevertheless, that the city was chosen by Constans,29 son of the usurper Constantine III, to establish his court in AD 408, signifying a strong and strategic location (Fig 3) Its importance is also shown in the fact that the city was venue for various Church councils during Visigothic rule This urban prosperity was maintained across the Early Middle Ages as documented by the Arab geographers Al-Udri, Al Hymyari and the Anonymous of Almería 30 25

26 27

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29 30

R Járrega Domínguez, Transformacions urbanístiques a les ciutats de la costa central catalana durant l’antiguitat tardana, in: J M Gurt i Esparraguera / A Ribera i Lacomba (coord ), VI Reunió d’arqueologia cristiana hispànica Les ciutats tardoantigues d’Hipania: cristianització i topografia, Barcelona 2005: 157–158 A Carles Reverté, La relación entre civitas y territorium en la transición del mundo romano al medieval Una aproximación al caso de Dertosa, in: Sabaté, F / Brufal, J (eds ), La Ciutat Medieval i Arqueologia VI Curs Internacional d’Arqueologia Medieval, Lérida 2014: 111–138 For a recent overview of the city’s evolution, see P Padròs / J Sánchez Gil De Montes, Transformación de los espacios urbanos en Baetulo Siglos II al IV d C , in: Ramallo Asensio, S / Quevedo, A (eds ), Las ciudades de la Tarraconense oriental entre los s II–IV Evolución urbanística y contextos materiales, Murcia 2014: 89–117 R J Járrega Domínguez, El comercio con África y el Mediterráneo en las costas orientales de Hispania entre los siglos V y VII: las producciones cerámicas, in: Ebanista, C / Rotili, M (eds ), Ipsam Nolam barbari vastaverunt L’Italia e il mediterraneo occidentale tra il V secolo e la metà del VI Atti del convegno internazionale di studi (Cimitile-Nola-Santa Maria Capua Vetere, 18–19 giugno 2009), Cimitile 2009: 163–181, esp 175–178 Gregorius of Tours, Hist , 29; V Escribano Paño / G Fatás Cabeza, La antigüedad Tardía en Aragón (284–714), Zaragoza 2001: 112–114 V Escribano Paño, Caesaraugusta, in: Morín de Pablos, J / López Quiroga, J / Martínez Tejera, A (eds ), El tiempo de los ‘barbaros’ Pervivencia y transformación en Galia e Hispania (s V–VI d C ), Alcalá de Henares 2008: 521–525

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Fig. 03 Caesaraugusta: city walls (Image by P Diarte-Blasco)

Apart from this city – whose role as capital, large size and population density was sustained throughout the medieval period – most towns of the Middle Ebro basin were of small size Moreover, by the mid-5th century, a majority of these suffered a notable decline in their vitality, shown by historical and archaeological data It is likely that this reduced size affected their evolution In fact, only Turiaso, Calagurris and Pompaelo (Pamplona) – each, however, with inconsistent information, but holding episcopal sees (the first two since the 5th century and the later since the 6th century) – persisted until the Middle Ages and onward 31 Yet in most cases we are ignorant of the characteristics of the Roman towns and we need to wait until the Middle Ages for information about these centres For Calagurris, we know of the construction of defences by the second half of the 3rd century and some documents such as a letter from Papa Hilarius in the 5th century refer to honorati and possessores 32 In the 7th century, King Swinthila minted coins here (Calagorre), showing its probable geostrategic position in a territory continuously af31

32

U Espinosa, La ciudad en el valle del Ebro durante la Antigüedad tardía, in: VII Semana de Estudios Medievales (Nájera 29 julio a 2 agosto 1996), Logroño 1997: 37–59, esp 50–51; U Espinosa, “Civitates” y “Territoria” en el Ebro Medio: continuidad y cambio durante la Antigüedad Tardía, in: Espinosa, U / Castellanos, S (eds ), Comunidades locales y dinámicas de poder en el norte de la Península Ibérica durante la Antigüedad Tardía, Logroño 2006: 41–100, esp 76–77 S Castellanos, Calagurris cristiana: Sobre el concepto ideológico de civitas en la antigüedad tardía, Kalakorikos 2 (1997): 55–68

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fected by tensions between the Visigoths and the Vascones 33 For Pompaelo and Turiaso, the archaeological data for these post-classical centuries is limited to some finds related to the (possible) location of the episcopal see,34 a so-called Visigothic necropolis in Pamplona,35 and the long-running excavation inside Tarazona’s medieval cathedral, which probably superseded a late antique episcopal church 36 (ii) Territories with cities that decayed (sometimes seeing a complete loss) It is likely that this area of the Central Ebro basin is the one were more urban failure is documented (upstream the urban density was considerably lower) As said, many of the small towns of this area languished during this period Two good examples of this process could be two centres (ca 100 km from Caesaraugusta, one located in the north, close to the pre-Pyrenees, and the other in the south) which probably between the 6th and 8th centuries were completely abandoned For that located north of ancient Zaragoza we remain ignorant of its Roman name and so it is currently known by the name of the archaeological site, Los Bañales (Fig 4) This small urban centre had an interesting thermal complex and a forum – the main known public infrastructures – which seem to have been largely neglected already by the mid-3rd century One hypothesis would be the relocation of the reduced population to higher ground, to a small hillock; indeed, this rocky space features some buildings (probably, domestic spaces) as well as a defensive wall The definitive breakdown of the hill-settlement is dated to the 8th century 37 In Bilbilis, similarly, we can observe an intense urban vigour since the Julio-Claudian period until the Flavians (first decades of the 2nd century), after which the centre started a progressive process of abandonment, evident in the scarcity of investments and the contraction of the population and the abandonment of many peripheral spaces This decline could be considered as ‘complete’ by the 6th century38

33 34 35 36

37

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U Espinosa, Calagurris Iulia, Logroño 1984: 318 R Jimeno, Aproximación al primitivo cristianismo en Navarra, in: Andreu, J (ed ), Navarra en la Antigüedad Propuesta de actualización, Pamplona 2006: 287–288 M A Mezquíriz, Necrópolis visigoda de Pamplona, Príncipe de Viana 26 (1965): 107–131 J F Casabona, Avance de resultados de las excavaciones arqueológicas en la Catedral de Tarazona, Hydria 5 (1998): 11–14 y J F Casabona, La Arqueología y la Historia, in: Aguerri, F (ed ), La Catedral de Tarazona Plan Director y restauración Reencuentros con la Catedral, Tarazona 2012: 24–37, 131 J Andreu / J J Bienes / A A Jordán, Monumentalización y regresión urbana en un municipio flavio del norte del convento jurídico Caesaraugustano: Los Bañales de Uncastillo, in: Ramallo, S / Quevedo, A (eds ), Las ciudades de la Tarraconense oriental entre los s II–IV Evolución urbanística y contextos materiales, Murcia 2014: 175–205 C García Villalba / J C Sáenz Preciado, Municipium Augusta Bilbilis ¿Paradigma de la crisis de la ciudad Julio-Claudia?, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre les IIe et IVe siècle, Madrid 2015: 221–235

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Fig. 04 Los Bañales: ortophoto of the archaeological site (Diego Gaspar, Arqueocad S L Image courtesy of Javier Andreu)

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Other examples with a clear initial process of loss from the 5th–6th centuries are Vareia (a town located in a peripheral quarter of modern Logroño), with an intermittent occupation until its complete abandonment in the 6th century,39 while other centres such as the municipium located at Andelos (Navarra), survived until the Middle Ages but with a rural configuration 40 Indeed, one of the main questions we should ask to the archaeological record is whether the continuity of the population of a former urban centre enabled the maintenance of the urban character? In Graccurris (Alfaro, La Rioja), a low density population during the late antique period is the key characteristic of the site, even if in the 7th century a level of revitalization assured its continuity until the first decades of the 9th century 41 About 30 km from this site, a similar situation prevailed at Contrebia Leukade (Inestrillas, La Rioja), where, over the ruins of the classical monuments and structures, a new occupation is documented in the last decades of the 6th century or early 7th century 42 The level of neglect in the Middle Basin is clearly more prominent than at the mouth of the river, in the Catalan area However, there are also important examples in this region that we should consider, e g Iesso (Guissona, Lérida), perhaps abandoned by the 4th–5th centuries as a settlement, but not as a burial focus or, probably, a cult centre, which seemly persisted and, evolved into a fortified site some centuries later 43 Emporiae, an expanding city until the High Empire, gradually lost its key role in the territory from the second half of the 2nd century, likely as a consequence of the strength of other neighbouring cities such as Tarraco and Narbo 44 The abandonment of much of the ancient town and the contraction of the settlement to the fortified area of Palaiapolis – where the location of the episcopal church has been recently proposed45 – is a clear symptom of an increasing loss of population and, perhaps, of the classical urban facilities

39 40 41

42 43 44 45

U Espinosa, op Cit (n 33): 51–52 U Espinosa, op Cit (n 33): 46–53 J A Hernández Vera / E Ariño / J Núñez / J M Martínez Torrecilla, Graccurris Conjuntos monumentales en la periferia urbana: puentes, presas y ninfeos, Alfaro 1995; J M Martínez Torrecilla / J P Del Fresno, Evolución del poblamiento en las eras de San Martín Avance de los resultados de las campañas de 2000 a 2005, Graccurris 17 (2006): 87–129 J A Hernández Vera / J M Martínez Torrecilla, Consideraciones sobre la última ocupación de las ruinas de Contrebia Leukade, Aguilar del Río Alhama, Estrato 5 (1995): 16–22 R Martí, Ciudad y territorio en Cataluña durante el siglo VIII, in: García, A / Izquierdo, R / Olmo, L / Peris, D (eds ) Espacios urbanos en el Occidente Mediterráneo (s VI–VIII), Toledo 2010: 239–245 X Aquilué, Empúries Municipium Emporiae, Roma 2012 J Sales Carbonell, Las construcciones cristianas de la Tarraconensis durante la Antigüedad Tardía: topografía, arqueología e historia, Barcelona 2012: 247, 252–253, 388–394; A Chavarría, Obispos, iglesias y suburbio Sobre la errónea ubicación de algunos complejos episcopales en la Hispania tardoantigua, in: Vaquerizo, D (ed ) Las áreas suburbanas en la ciudad histórica Topografía, usos, función, Córdoba 2010: 435–522

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3. Conclusions: the concept of urban crisis in the Ebro valley in late Antiquity From the 5th and 6th century, we can see a notable weakening in the network of civitates in the Mid-Ebro basin However, this was an unbalanced process and it is difficult to establish an exclusive trajectory for those that did not survive beyond Late Antiquity As discussed, urban debilitation is more evident in inland areas than in the coastal region, where many towns remained active during this period and, indeed, continued to play a major role as foci to their territoria Why some (theoretically) similar civitates resisted while others decayed until complete abandonment is still difficult to explain, but it seems clear that the proximity of the sea permitted an easy route to maintain the commercial-economic character of these centres, whereas the inner territories suffered significant urban losses, probably related to a self-sufficient economy and an increasing distance from the old market-oriented economy In fact, most of the large-sized cities such as Tarraco and Caesaraugusta persisted as central places as economic, social and religious hubs, while medium to small sites generally witnessed more upheavals as exemplified by Gerunda and Ilerda (even if the episcopal role assured a level of relevance in the social organization of a related territory) The exception might be Barcino, whose size and population density did not assure an exponential growing relevance, but with a notable evolution in these turbulent centuries, developing from just another Roman town to an splendid city playing an increasing socio-political and economic role Either way, each urban site underwent different moments of ‘crisis’, meaning not only decline but also the phase of recovery and upturn The capacity to overcome or to benefit from those moments depended often on the previous economic role, the geo-strategic position and, most likely, on the resilience and capabilities of the populations themselves This latter factor perhaps depended on the particularities of the territories, the will of people or a mix of these and other issues which probably marked the historical path of towns and cities in the passage to the Middle Ages

Rupturas del modelo urbano en los siglos II–III d C en las ciudades hispanorromanas de la Meseta Sur Juan Francisco Palencia (UNED)

1. Introducción En muchos casos, apenas sabemos nada del urbanismo de las ciudades de la Meseta Sur durante el s II–III d C , debido a la escasez de fuentes, tanto literarias como epigráficas (pese al magnífico trabajo de G Alföldy sobre el fenómeno urbano, del que recientemente se cumplieron treinta años1) Aun así, existen ciudades en esta zona que están viviendo una recuperación patrimonial importante desde hace décadas, estos serían los casos de Complutum, Toletum, Segobriga, Valeria, Ercavica, Sisapo, Caesarobriga, etc (Fig 1) De todas estas civitates, que han sido estudiadas por nosotros siguiendo un criterio geográfico y comparativo, hemos seleccionado en esta ocasión, por motivos de espacio, cuatro municipia, más una colonia, que muestran signos tempranos del agotamiento de su modelo clásico de ciudad En este sentido, creemos que es interesante destacar la escasez de estudios dirigidos a constatar las repercusiones de la crisis institucional y económica que sufrieron todos estos núcleos desde la segunda mitad del s II d C 2 Para entender este proceso, conviene recordar que la ciudad era el mercado de la región, la capital administrativa del área, el lugar donde se reunía el senado local, el punto de encuentro con los espectáculos públicos, la sede del culto religioso y el hábitat de los honestiores, y, por fin, el centro de defensa de los habitantes del territorium en caso de peligro 3 1 2

3

G Alföldy, Römisches Städtewesen auf der neukastilischen Hochebene Ein Testfall für die Romanisierung, Heidelberg 1987 Contamos con amplios estudios sobre su municipalización, tanto en época augustea ( J M Abascal, Los tres viajes de Augusto a Hispania y su relación con la promoción jurídica de ciudades, Iberia 9 (2006): 63–78) como en la etapa flavia con el ius Latii universae Hispaniae de Vespasiano 73–74 d C ( J Andreu, Municipalización y vida municipal en las comunidades romanas de la Meseta Sur, in: Carrasco, G (ed ), La romanización en el territorio de Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca 2008: 225–260) J Arce, El último siglo de la España Romana, 284–409, Madrid 2009: 131

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Fig. 01 Ubicación y promociones de las ciudades de la Meseta Sur que se citan en el texto (Elaboración propia)

Por tanto, estas ciudades tras su municipalización, tuvieron una época de “boom económico”, fenómeno que en las fuentes registramos con la expresión ad aemulationes alterius civitatis4, y que tiene un claro registro arqueológico en época flavia,5 pero tras esta etapa asistimos a un periodo de importantes transformaciones en su tejido urbano 2. Estado de la cuestión y metodología Al ser éste un claro trabajo de síntesis, no podemos ser muy exhaustivos en este apartado, aunque nos gustaría destacar que la crisis institucional de las civitates del Imperio, que arrancaría del s II d C , se puede rastrear partiendo de las propias fuentes clásicas, este sería el caso de la correspondencia entre Plinio el Joven y el emperador Trajano, sobre las ciudades de la provincia oriental de Bythinia, que adolecían de obras públicas

4 5

Dig 50, 10, 3 J Andreu, Construcción pública y municipalización en la provincia Hispania Citerior: la época flavia, Iberia 7 (2004): 39–75

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muy costosas, y por ello, notablemente sobredimensionadas 6 Otro ejemplo ilustrativo sería el proporcionado por la Historia Augusta que nos mostraría como el emperador Antonino Pío tuvo que hacer generosas aportaciones a varias ciudades, cuyas maltrechas arcas públicas lo requerían 7 Siguiendo con la misma fuente y línea argumental, algunas de estas ciudades son descritas como oppida labentia, “ciudades en dificultades”8 Y es que en este momento de la historia, en pleno tránsito entre el Alto Imperio y la Antigüedad Tardía, se conjugaron varios factores económicos negativos, derivados de los altos gastos de la administración y del ejército, que supusieron una reducción de los flujos comerciales, un aumento de la devaluación de la moneda, de la inflación y de la carga tributaria 9 Como ya indicaran algunos autores,10 este fenómeno que se detecta desde época adrianea, implica una cierta dificultad por parte de las élites urbanas para mantener el equilibrio entre munera y honores Llegados a este punto, quizás convendría preguntarnos: ¿cómo podemos rastrear los síntomas de esta crisis financiera e institucional en las civitates objeto de nuestro estudio? A este respecto, creemos que existen una serie de indicios que consideramos fiables: uno de ellos sería el declive de la edilicia y del evergetismo, que se refleja en una clara decadencia tanto de las obras públicas de las ciudades, como en la atestiguación de un menor número de inscripciones honoríficas Otro aspecto a tener en cuenta sería el de los cambios en los hábitats poblacionales, no sólo en las funciones de las zonas propiamente urbanas, sino también en traslados a zonas más ruralizadas Estos “hiatos ocupacionales”, que nos muestra la estratigrafía arqueológica en estas civitates, son esenciales en este trabajo, destacando los estudios ceramológicos Todo ello unido a aspectos comunes tales como el de la crisis de la minería del s II d C , el viario como factor de cambio o la no existencia de sedes episcopales 11

6 7 8

9 10 11

Plin Ep 10, 38 SHA , Ant Pius, 8, 4 SHA , Marc 23, 3 J Mata, Crisis ciudadana a partir del siglo II en Hispania: un modelo teórico de causas y dinámicas aplicado al conventus Carthaginensis, CAUN 22 (2014), 219–251; J Mata, Oppida labentia ¿Existe un modelo de la crisis urbana a partir de finales del Alto Imperio?: La provincia Citerior, in: Andreu, J (ed ), Oppida labentia Transformaciones, cambios y alteraciones en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 37–52 B Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the end of civilization, Oxford-Nueva York 2006: 97–100; F McLynn, Marcus Aurelius: warrior, philosopher, emperor, Londres 2009: 7 Á d’Ors, Epigrafía jurídica de la España Romana, Madrid 1953: 142; G Alföldy, Hispania bajo los Flavios y los Antoninos: consideraciones históricas sobre una época, in: De les structures indígenas à l’organització provincial romana de la Hispania citerior, Barcelona 1998: 21–25, entre otros G Alföldy: op Cit (n 1): 39

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3. Ciudades cuya crisis fue definitiva a partir de la segunda mitad del s. II d. C. Desde el s II d C se empieza a detectar un fenómeno de crisis edilicia en algunas de las ciudades arriba citadas Da la impresión, en este sentido, de que la inversión constructiva fue desmesurada, con el inicio de obras tan monumentales como circos Serían los casos de los municipios de Consabura o Laminium, pero también, por razones distintas, de Ilunum, Sisapo, incluso de la colonia de Libisosa Foroaugustana 3 1 La colonia Libisosana Foroaugustana (Lezuza, Albacete) Este enclave se localiza en el “Cerro del Castillo”, su interés en la antigüedad se vincula a un oppidum ibérico Además está constatada su estratégica situación en el viario, dominando parte del Campo de Montiel 12 De este modo, Ptolomeo en el s II d C la incluye entre las principales poblaciones de la Oretania 13 Conocemos por Plinio, que obtiene el rango de colonia en época temprana,14 su cognomen es bastante explícito, ya que en una etapa previa fue considerada un forum, y por tanto, un enclave comercial, dotado de magistrados, pero todavía carente de aspecto urbano De hecho, al sur de su territorio se sitúa el campus spartarius, descrito por Estrabón y Plinio el Viejo 15 Sería con Augusto, a lo sumo Tiberio,16 cuando se le otorgaría el estatuto de colonia, ya que controlaría parte de la zona minera de Sierra Morena y su conexión a través del viario con Carthago Nova Las excavaciones sistemáticas comenzaron en 1996, se ha excavado parte de la muralla, la Puerta Norte, la Puerta Sur, el foro y una domus de carácter oligárquico 17 En la parte más elevada del cerro se localiza el foro de la colonia, del que se han detectado cuatro fases constructivas, que van desde estructuras tardorrepublicanas hasta la amortización de sus espacios forenses Las fases III y IV son las de su remodelación, presentando una cronología propia de la primera mitad del s II d C , aunque no sería su amortización definitiva, ya que las estructuras septentrionales del foro se remodelaron, con la construcción de una fuente monumental, así como el aterrazamiento de sus lados oriental y septentrional Esta fase de reforma y abandono definitivo nos acerca a 12 13 14 15 16 17

It Ant , 446, 11; Rav , 4, 44; 313, 14 Ptol 2, 6, 58 Plin Nat 3, 4, 25 Str 3, 4, 9 y Plin Nat 19, 26–30 y 31, 94 J Uroz, La colonia romana de Libisosa y sus precedentes, in: Carrasco, G (ed ), La ciudad romana en Castilla La Mancha, Cuenca 2012: 103 J Uroz / J Molina / A M Poveda / J C Marqués, Aproximación al conjunto arqueológico y monumental de Libisosa, in: Investigaciones arqueológicas en Castilla-La Mancha 1996–2002, Salamanca 2004: 182

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Fig. 02 A Pedestal foral dedicado por los habitantes de la colonia de Libisosa a Marco Aurelio, presenta una cronología en torno al 166–167 d C (Foto del autor) B Inscripción monumental de la muralla de Ilunum, hace referencia a Lucio Domicio Ahenobardo, menciona el nombre de la ciudad, el de sus duunviros, hasta del propio Augusto (Equipo Arqueológico Ilunum-Tolmo de Minateda) C Pedestal dedicado a Licinia Macedonica, flaminica perpetua de Laminium (Foto del autor) D Ortofoto y localización del circo romano de Consabura, junto a sus principales restos excavados (elaboración propia) E Inscripciones exhumadas en Sisapo que hacen mención al municipio (Equipo Arqueológico Sisapo-La Bienvenida)

la segunda mitad del s II d C , fecha que coincide con la crisis del sector minero, que supuso en la zona una reestructuración del viario 18 Respecto a los hallazgos epigráficos, aparte de la promoción a flamen provincial de uno de sus ciudadanos (CIL II, 4254 = CIL II2/14), destacamos el pedestal honorífico dedicado por los habitantes de la colonia al emperador Marco Aurelio (Fig 2/A), cuya procedencia parece ser forense (CIL II, 3234 = ILER 1133) y que presenta una crono-

18

J Uroz / J Molina / A M Poveda / J C Marqués, op Cit (n 17): 190

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logía del 166–167 d C , por la titulatura imperial 19 Desconocemos el motivo de este agradecimiento, pero da la impresión que la ciudad parecía languidecer ya durante esa etapa 3 2 Ilunum / Elo, Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete) Su promoción parece relacionarse con el tercer viaje de Augusto a Hispania (16–15 a C ) 20 Ilunum es citado por Ptolomeo 21 Gracias de nuevo a la epigrafía, se recuperó parte de una inscripción monumental en su muralla, fechada en torno al 9 a C , y en posición derivada, debido a que tiempo después, se reutilizarían sus sillares en una muralla visigoda (Fig 2/B) 22 La ciudad tuvo una extensión de unas 10 Ha , está acreditada su importancia en el viario, en concreto en la vía Complutum-Carthago Nova, como demuestran los milarios documentados,23 uniendo el SE peninsular con la Meseta Sur, en otras palabras, Carthago Nova, la capital conventual con zonas del interior Al parecer, avanzada la época imperial, probablemente ya en el s II d C , el municipio sufrió un aparente abandono, que se acrecienta durante el Bajo Imperio en beneficio de los asentamientos rurales del valle, que presentan por el contrario materiales del s II al s V d C 24 Por tanto, el núcleo resurge en época visigoda, considerándose el proyecto urbanístico que se acomete en el s VI–VII como una ciudad casi ex novo, sede de un nuevo obispado El principal motivo de este resurgir urbanístico, no parece que sea su relevancia como municipio romano, sino las luchas entre visigodos y bizantinos,25 en la segunda mitad del s VI, durante la campaña de la Orospeda iniciada por Leovigildo

19 20 21 22

23

24 25

J M Abascal, Inscripciones romanas en la provincia de Albacete, Albacete 1990: 43–44; J Uroz, op Cit (n 16): 118 y 120 J M Abascal, op Cit (n 2): 73–74 Ptol 2, 6, 60 Al parecer la inscripción hace referencia a Lucio Domicio Ahenobardo (AE 1996, 907 a), cuya familia era conocida en Roma por haber participado en varias batallas militares en época tardorrepublicana, se menciona el nombre de la ciudad y el de sus duunviros (AE 1996, 906), hasta del propio Augusto L Abad, La epigrafía de Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete) y un nuevo municipio romano del conventus Carthaginensis, AEspA 69 (1996): 101–108 Pese a no aparecer en las fuentes itinerarias, el geógrafo árabe Al-’Udrî la menciona en el s XI Los miliarios del Hito, Cuenca, datados uno en época de Augusto y otro en la de Tiberio, al igual que el de Pozo Cañada, Albacete, también de época de Tiberio, deben de ser suficientes para documentar esta vía: J Lostal, Los miliarios de la provincia tarraconense: conventos tarraconense, cesaraugustano, cluniense y carataginense, Zaragoza 1992: nº 22, 41 y 42 L Abad / S Gutiérrez Lloret / B Gamo / P Cánovas, El Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín Albacete, España): un proyecto de investigación y puesta en valor del patrimonio, Debates de Arqueología Medieval 2, (2012): 354 y 356 L Abad / S Gutiérrez / B Gamo, El Tolmo de Minateda Hellín (Albacete), in: Investigaciones arqueológicas en Castilla-La Mancha 1996–2002, Salamanca 2004, 150

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3 3 Sisapo (La Bienvenida, Almodóvar del Campo, Ciudad Real) La civitas Sisaponensis se insertaba en un principio en el conventus Cordubensis26, pero acabaría vinculado al conventus Carthaginensis, debido al interés de la administración romana por el control de los importantes centros mineros del cinabrio del Valle de Alcudia y de la plata de Sierra Morena, lo que, en parte, explicaría su precocidad como municipio augusteo 27 Destaca el hallazgo epigráfico de la campaña de 1982, en la que apareció en el ángulo SW del espacio porticado, una placa honorífica marmórea (Fig 2/E), en la que se refleja el nombre de la comunidad: [---S]isaponen[sium] (CIL II2/7, 793) Por los rasgos paleográficos, su datación probablemente sea flavia o antonina 28 Esta inscripción se completa con dos pequeños fragmentos en mármol, aparecidos en el 2001 en la misma domus (zona de vertidos tardorromanos), en el primero parece leerse: mun[icipii] [Si] sapo[nensis], mientras que el segundo es de nuevo una tabula en escritura libraria que hace referencia a la presencia de seviri augustales La cronología vuelve a retrotraernos al último cuarto del s I d C o mediados del siglo siguiente 29 Respecto a las fuentes epigráficas e itinerarias, destaca el hallazgo de una inscripción en los alrededores de Córdoba, donde se menciona a una societas Sisaponensis (CIL II2/7, 699 a), vinculada a una vía privada Sisapo-Corduba; además aparece como mansio,30 en relación a la vía que comunicaba con Augusta Emerita y Caesaraugusta Por otra parte, este enclave estaría unido al importante centro minero de Castulo (CIL II, 3270), lo que la convierte en un lugar estratégico La arqueología se inició de forma sistemática en el yacimiento en 1980, y pese a que de momento no ha proporcionado grandes restos monumentales urbanos, sí que presenta interesantes líneas de investigación, que nos relatan una intensa reestructuración de su entramado urbano31: tabernae, área porticada del cardo maximus, reformas en la

26 27

28 29 30 31

Plin Nat 3, 3, 14 Pese a que los estudios de G Alföldy o J Andreu, entre otros, declaran su probable municipalización augustea (G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 56 y J Andreu, op Cit (n 2): 236–237) No obstante, conviene recalcar las reservas de A U Stylow: El municipium flavium V(---) de Azuaga (Badajoz) y la municipalización de la Baeturia Turdulorum, SHHA 9 (1991): 11–27 sobre su promoción preflavia Sobre la riqueza minera de su minio las fuentes destacan la misma en época temprana (Cic Phil 2, 1, 48; Plin Nat 23, 118) G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 57–58 C Fernández Ochoa / M Zarzalejo, ¿Sisapo en la Bienvenida (Ciudad Real)? De nuevo sobre la radicación geográfica y el estatuto jurídico de la capital del cinabrio hispano, in: Arqueología, sociedad, territorio y paisaje (Homenaje a Mª Dolores Fernández Posse), Madrid 2010: 363–364 It Ant , 444, 7 M Zarzalejos / C Fernández Ochoa / P Hevia, El proyecto Sisapo-La Bienvenida (Almodóvar del Campo, Ciudad Real), in: Investigaciones arqueológicas en Castilla-La Mancha 1996–2002, Salamanca 2004: 163–180

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llamada “Casa de las Columnas Rojas”, domus del s I d C , que se embellecería en el siglo siguiente, gracias a un nuevo programa pictórico y musivario Pero lo cierto es, que Sisapo parece presentar un cierto abandono temprano de su núcleo urbano, en un corto lapso de tiempo, tras este periodo de reformas, como nos refleja la estratigrafía de la citada domus (UE 1/26/49), con la existencia de niveles tardíos sobre estructuras ya aruinadas,32 y este periodo nos lleva a finales-principios del s II–III d C Todo apunta a la decadencia de la minería hispana, y en particular, la Sisaponense, que estaría organizada por un amplio territorio compuesto por poblados y núcleos metalúrgicos Entre las razones para explicar la crisis se argumentan imperativos técnicos, problemas de abastecimiento de mano de obra o la concurrencia en la economía imperial de otras regiones productoras como Panonia, Dalmacia o Mesia Superior 33 3 4 Consabura (Consuegra, Toledo) La ciudad de Consabura controlaba un vasto territorio, rico en recursos agropecuarios y extractivos en el alto Guadiana (comarca de la Mancha Alta) Su paisaje urbano es un claro ejemplo de traslado poblacional en el cambio de Era, desde el Cerro Calderico a la ciudad ex novo en el llano, de ca 15 Ha La obtención del título de municipio creemos que llegaría con la dinastía Flavia,34 una vez que los textos plinianos nos transmiten una situación para la ciudad como oppidum stipendiarium,35 pese a ello, conviene recalcar que su programa edilicio ya estaba produciéndose durante la etapa julio-claudia, como demuestran las características formales y tipológicas de sus esculturas marmóreas forenses 36 Pero la máxima monumentalización de Consabura, prueba del orgullo cívico de sus habitantes, llegaría en época antonina, con la construcción de su circo Creemos totalmente demostrada su existencia en la parte SE de la localidad, a través de una serie de indicios: la obra de D de Aguirre37 ha sido crucial en este sentido para su identificación, ya que nos proporcionó su localización, planta y dimensiones (de unos 373 m x

32 33 34 35 36 37

M Zarzalejos / C Fernández Ochoa / G Esteban / P Hevia, Huellas de ocupaciones tardoantiguas en Sisapo El solar de la domus de las Columnas Rojas y la necrópolis del Arroyo de La Bienvenida, in: La Meseta Sur entre la Tardía Antigüedad y la Alta Edad Media, Toledo 2017: 30 C Domergue, Les mines de la péninsule Ibérique dans l’ Antiquité romaine, Roma 1990: 309 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 52–54 Plin Nat 2, 25 J F Palencia, Las esculturas de ámbito público y privado del municipio romano de Consabura (Consuegra, Toledo), in: VIII Reunión de Escultura Romana en Hispania (Homenaje a Luis Baena del Alcázar), Córdoba 2018: 318–322 D de Aguirre, Descripción del Gran Priorato de San Juan de Jerusalén en Consuegra, Consuegra 1769: f 61

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unos casi 80 m de ancho), por cierto, muy similares a las de la vecina Segobriga38 con una capacidad que rondaría los 8 000 espectadores Tras su descripción en estas fuentes históricas, vinieron los primeros trabajos arqueológicos en la década de los años sesenta del pasado siglo 39 La revisión de los materiales inéditos que aparecieron contextualizados en la citada excavación,40 nos permitió replantear la orientación de su posible ubicación en el callejero urbano (Fig 2/D), en base a las ortofotos de 1945–46 y 1956 Además, pudimos ratificar sus dimensiones, identificamos los sondeos con una zona próxima a los carceres de salida, al igual que planteamos una datación relativa (basada en los materiales cerámicos, numismáticos y constructivos), en torno a la segunda mitad del s I d C / primera mitad del siglo siguiente Existe por tanto, una curiosa coincidencia, en la que la epigrafía y los restos arqueológicos parecen ponerse de acuerdo, el pedestal honorífico dedicado al eques Lucio Domitio Dentoniano, que llegaría a ser flamen provincial, fechado entre el 105–117 d C , y que se insertaba entre los múltiples pedestales del foro provincial de Tarraco (CIL II, 4211=RIT 271)41 El documento parece encajar bastante bien con este periodo de desarrollo económico y constructivo de Consabura Pero a partir de finales del s II d C / principios del s III d C , Consabura tornará hacia un proceso de rápido abandono del edificio circense, que por tanto, apenas contaría con cien años de “vida activa” Creemos que este hecho marcó un importante momento de inflexión en el núcleo urbano, y que supuso un nuevo traslado poblacional en beneficio de dos ámbitos: el rural en los siglos III y IV d C y el de la ladera norte del Cerro Calderico, ya avanzada la época tardoantigua En este sentido, han sido muy significativos los materiales cerámicos de la reciente excavación del Parque de la C / de Viariato, realizada entre el 2017–18, en la que hemos podido localizar las cimentaciones expoliadas de la cabecera del circo Los fragmentos parecen marcar un claro “hiato ocupacional”: etapa flavia con predominio de sigillata hispana altoimperiales, junto a la presencia de terra sigillata Hispánica tardía meridional (TSHTM)42 y Cerámicas de Imitación de sigillata (CIS)43 Junto a estos materiales 38 39 40 41 42 43

J Ruiz de Arbulo / R Cebrián / I Hortelano, El circo romano de Segobriga (Saelices, Cuenca) Arquitectura, estratigrafía y función, Cuenca 2009: 90 F J Giles, Contribuciones al estudio de la arqueología toledana Hallazgos hispanorromanos en Consuegra, Anales Toledanos 5 (1971): 152–154 J F Palencia / F J Giles, ¿Existió un circo romano en la antigua Consabura (Consuegra, Toledo)?, in: III Congreso de Arqueología y Mundo Antiguo La gloria del circo: carreras de carros y competiciones circenses, Tarragona 2017: 175–182 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 24 M Orfila, La vajilla Terra Sigillata Hispánica Tardía Meridional, in: Bernal, D / Ribera i Lacomba, A (eds ), Cerámicas hispanorromanas Un estado de la cuestión, Cádiz 2008: 541–561 L C Juan Tovar, Las cerámicas de imitación de sigillata en el occidente de la Península Ibérica durante el siglo V d C , in: Bernal, D / Ribera i Lacomba, A (eds ), Cerámicas hispanorromanas Un estado de la cuestión, Cádiz 2012: 97–130

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se documentaron indicios de reutilización doméstica de este edificio para espectáculos a partir de un momento avanzado del s IV d C , que, en definitiva, marca el abandono del mismo como espacio público 44 Finalmente la ciudad, citada en las fuentes itinerarias,45 no tuvo sede episcopal, prueba del evidente declive temprano de la misma y de la importancia creciente de la sede metropolitana de Toletum, cuyo dominio, creemos que llegaría hasta su territorium 3 5 Laminium (Alhambra, Ciudad Real) Actualmente identificado con el municipio de Alhambra, al norte del Campo de Montiel, los Laminitani son mencionados por Plinio, no sólo dentro de las civitates stipendiariae del conventus Carthaginensis,46 sino en relación al nacimiento del río Anas (Guadiana)47 y a la calidad de sus piedras afiladeras, que constituirían uno de los motores económicos de su territorium48 Será Ptolomeo49 quien curiosamente ubique el enclave en el área carpetana, en lugar de la Oretania Asimismo, la ciudad es mencionada en las fuentes itinerarias, como un auténtico cruce de caminos que une la Submeseta Sur, con el Levante y la Baetica 50 De todos modos, epigráficamente puede constatarse que la ciudad alcanzaría su status municipal bajo los Flavios, ya que tenemos constancia de su denominación como municipium Flavium Laminitanum (CILA, 6, 48 y CILA, 6, 47) La epigrafía pone de relieve, también, el evergetismo de la familia de los Licinii (perteneciente a la tribu Galeria), atestiguados en varios epígrafes,51 por tanto, la ciudad se asocia a dos tribus, una anterior a su municipalización, junto a la posterior Quirina Por otro lado, en una de estas inscripciones aparece el flaminado en la figura de Licinia Macedonica (CIL II, 3231), que fue flaminica perpetua de la ciudad (Fig 2/C), este tipo de cargo se vincula al culto imperial, de hecho suele adscribirse a la época flavia 52 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

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Aunque los materiales cerámicos se encuentran en fase de estudio, agradecemos desde estas líneas tanto al Ayuntamiento de Consuegra, como al arqueólogo D Jorge Morín de Pablos, el habernos encargado el estudio de los materiales de esta intervención It Ant , 446, 6 y Rav 313, 15 Plin Nat 3, 25 Plin Nat 3, 1,6: ortus hoc in Laminitano agro Citerioris Hispaniae … Plin Nat 36, 165 Ptol 2, 6, 57 It Ant , 445, 4; 46, 4; 446, 8; Rav 313, 17 Sobre los Licinii (CIL II, 3229; CIL II, 3230, CIL II, 3231 y CIL II, 3232), que se vinculan a Saetabis ( Játiva, Valencia), véase G Alföldy, op Cit (n 1): 36–37 Procedentes también del Levante son los Gratii en Segobriga y Valeria Sobre ellos: J M Abascal, Élites y sociedad romana de la Meseta sur, in: Epigrafía y sociedad en Hispania durante el Alto Imperio: estructuras y relaciones sociales, Alcalá de Henares 2003: 142 R Étienne, Le culte impérial dans la Péninsule Ibérique d’Auguste a Dioclétien, París 1958: 235–236 y Andreu, J , op Cit (n 2): 39–40

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Laminium debió sufrir un proceso de monumentalización a mediados del siglo I d C , que transformaría el antiguo oppidum Oretano, como se documenta por el hallazgo de una serie de esculturas de togados datados a mediados del s I d C 53 La existencia arqueológica de un circo en su periferia (obras de circunvalación de la carretera N-43054), unido a un potente ager Laminitanus, explicaría de nuevo su creación, como muestran otras ciudades cercanas (Segobriga, Consabura, etc ) El caso de Laminium, también parece mostrar una debilidad institucional y económica temprana, de finales del Alto Imperio, ya que no contamos con inscripciones de época postflavia 4. Conclusiones Nos ha sido particularmente interesante en este trabajo el ahondar en los casos más ignotos para la investigación como: Consabura o Laminium, debido a que, en definitiva, constituyen los modelos más claros de ruptura con la ciudad clásica en el territorio escogido, además nos ha permitido comprobar que esta crisis afectó gravemente también a promociones de época augustea, como Libisosa, Ilunum o Sisapo sobre la que se aporta más información en otra contribución de este mismo volumen Todo ello, además, con claros indicios de decadencia/transformación de las ciudades: disfunción de las estructuras de abastecimiento y evacuación de aguas, descomposición del viario, surgimiento de vertederos, vacíos urbanos, abandono de los espacios públicos, que comienzan a ser privatizados y expoliados, etc Pero del mismo modo, esta idea de decadencia imparable de las ciudades meseteñas de Hispania debe matizarse, según los casos Sólo a través de un enfoque multidisciplinar basado en las fuentes literarias, el registro arqueológico a través de la edilicia y de la cultura material (especialmente la epigrafía evergética y la cerámica romana), junto al estudio del territorium y del viario, podrán esclarecer esta interesante crisis que afectó a todos los núcleos urbanos de la provincia de la Hispania Citerior, pero que, desde luego, no lo hizo de igual forma

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C Fernández Ochoa / L Baena, Esculturas romanas de Ciudad Real, in: Acuña, F (ed ), Finis Terrae Estudios en lembranza do Prof Alberto Balil, Santiago de Compostela 1992: 334–335 y 339–340 A I Díaz-Cacho, La Atlántida del Guadiana: Laminium Controversias historiográficas y evidencias arqueológicas, RECM 4 (2015): 158–159 Además, existe una foto de la excavación de su circo en el Museo Municipal de Alhambra Agradecemos a los responsables de su Ayuntamiento, las facilidades que nos brindaron para el acceso a las colecciones de este museo

Lucentum: nacimiento, vida y extinción de un municipio de la provincia Tarraconensis* Antonio Guilabert / Manuel H Olcina / Eva Tendero (MARQ Alicante)

Sobre el Tossal de Manises, un pequeño cerro dispuesto junto al mar en el barrio de La Albufereta, a 3,5 km al norte de Alicante, se sitúa el municipio altoimperial de Lucentum, atestiguado tanto en las fontes como epigráficamente1 (Fig 1) Frente a la secuencia tradicional defendida para el yacimiento en el último tercio del siglo XX, los resultados de las intervenciones realizadas en las últimas décadas han redefinido por completo la secuencia de ocupación del enclave, y con ello han matizado notoriamente su interpretación respecto a su etiología, evolución y consunción, que exponemos en las siguientes líneas sucintamente 1. Nacimiento del municipium Frente a las reminiscencias de la periodización tradicional, que siguen manteniendo un origen para Lucentum en el siglo III a e 2, los datos actuales apuntan que el municipio de derecho latino tuvo su origen en época temprano-augustea, convergiendo en

* 1 2

El presente trabajo ha sido realizado en el marco del proyecto HAR2015–64386-C4–2-P, subvencionado por el Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad del Gobierno de España Pompon Chor 2, 93; Plin Nat 3, 3, 19–20; Ptol 2, 6, 14; CIL, II, 5958; AE, 1987, 701a P e I Grau / J Molina, Diversité territoriale et modes d’exploitation des paysages ruraux du sud de la Tarraconaise (IIé s av J -C –IIé s apr J -C ), in: Paysages ruraux et territoires dans les cités de l’occident romain Gallia et Hispania, Montpelier 2013: 60; P Rosser / S Soler, El mito del héroe en una necrópolis periurbana tardo-republicana de un asentamiento del Mediterráneo Occidental (Alicante, España), Historias del Orbis Terrarum 12 (2014): 80 y ss ; J Molina, Cuantificación arqueológica para la construcción de hipótesis históricas: métodos, protocolos (PCRS/14) y correctores estadísticos (MR y AC/CM), in: Cuantificar las economías antiguas Problemas y métodos, Barcelona 2018: 133; J Molina, Tráfico marítimo bajoimperial y tardo-antiguo en la bahía portuaria

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Fig. 01 Localización y restos visibles del Tossal de Manises/Lucentum

esta fecha tanto los datos históricos como los arqueológicos 3 Para su emplazamiento se eligió un pequeño cerro junto al mar, desde el que se dominan visualmente 50 km de

3

de l’Albufereta (siglos III–VI d C ), in: Carta Arqueológica Subacuática de Alicante I Fondeadero de Lucentum (Bahía de l’Albufereta, Alicante), Alicante 2018, 203 G Alföldy, Administración, urbanización, instituciones, vida pública y orden social, in: Las ciudades y los campos de Alicante, Alicante 2003: 49; J M Abascal, Los tres viajes de Augusto a Hispania y su relación con la promoción jurídica de ciudades, Iberia 9 (2006): 76; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, La curia de Lucentum, in: Las sedes de los ordines decurionum en Hispania Análisis arquitectónico y modelo tipológico, Mérida 2013: 169; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, Lucentum: el municipi d Lucentum, in: Ciudades romanas valencianas, Alicante, 2014 205 y ss ; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, Lucentum: el paisaje urbano augusteo, in: Tarraco Biennal Actes del 2ón Congrés Internacional d’Arqueologia i Món Antic I, Tarragona 2015: 255–262

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costa y un embarcadero que antecedió y sobrevivió a la ciudad 4 Esta misma ubicación fue la elegida dos siglos atrás por los bárquidas para el desarrollo de un primer proyecto urbano, destruido al final de la II Guerra Púnica y tras el cual tuvo lugar un largo siglo de abandono,5 en el que se plasma en lo local el desmembramiento de la estructura urbana regional6 – cuestión minimizada7 o negada8 por otros autores – La fundación de la colonia de Valentia (ca 138 a e ), entre Tarraco y Carthago Nova, pudo ser el acicate que potenció el eje viario entre las dos ciudades más meridionales, posteriormente consagrado por la Via Augusta, junto al que comenzó a aglutinarse población en el solar de Ilici a finales de la centuria 9 Para entonces, dada la ausencia de evidencias arqueológicas litorales al sur de la Bahía de La Albufereta,10 esta se presenta como la mejor candidata regional para albergar instalaciones portuarias asociadas a Ilici, dispuesta 25 km hacia el Sur En esta situación, el uso de la bahía se muestra como la mejor explicación para dar cuenta de la construcción y mantenimiento de un castellum en época de las guerras civiles romanas tardorrepublicanas en el solar del Tossal de Manises, máxime dada su situación intermedia entre Carthago Nova, Ebusus y Dianium y el distinto papel que estas jugaron en las sucesivas fases de las contiendas 11 De este modo, ya durante el Segundo Triunvirato, con la primera deductio colonial de Ilici,12 el puerto de La Albufereta y el castellum que lo protegía quedaron integrados probablemente en el ager Ilicitanus, puesto que, pese a las propuestas que defienden la fundación entonces del Portus Ilicitanus13,

4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

C de Juan, La Bahía de L’Albufereta (Alicante) Una statio náutica en el Levante peninsular, Saguntum 41 (2009): 129–148 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, Lectura púnica del Tossal de Manises (Alicante), in: Los Púnicos de Iberia: proyectos, revisiones, síntesis, Málaga 2010: 229–249; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, Fortificaciones tardorrepublicanas de Lucentum (Hispania Citerior), in: Las huellas de las Guerras Civiles Romanas en el sureste de Hispania, Alicante 2014: 127–140; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, Una ciudad bárquida bajo Lucentum (Alicante) Excavaciones en el Tossal de Manises, in: El oriente de Occidente Fenicios y púnicos en el área ibérica VIII Coloquio del CEFyP, Alicante 2017: 285–328 M Olcina y T Ximénez de Embún, Arqueología romana y mundo tardoantiguo, in: II Jornadas de Arqueología y Patrimonio Alicantino Arqueología en Alicante en la primera década del siglo XXI, Alicante 2014: 110 J García, Los discursos del poder en el mundo ibérico del Sureste (siglos VII–I a C ), Madrid 2016: 246 J Moratalla, La Cultura Ibérica en el curso bajo del Medio Vinalopó: nuevos datos Nuevas perspectivas, in: Investigaciones ibéricas, romanas y medievales, 2000–2015, Elda 2017: 58 M Tendero / A Mª Ronda, Ilici en las guerras civiles romanas, in: Las huellas de las Guerras Civiles Romanas en el sureste de Hispania, Alicante 2014: 227–228; M Tendero / A Mª Ronda, La ciudad romana de Ilici (L’Alcúdia de Elche, Alicante), in: Ciudades romanas valencianas, Alicante 2014: 231 M Olcina, La época romana, in: Guardamar del Segura Arqueología y Museo, Alicante 2011: 137–139 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 5): 136–140 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 3): 43 J C Márquez / J Molina, El comercio en el territorio de Ilici Epigrafía, importación de alimentos y relación con los mercados mediterráneos, Alicante 2001: 71–73; J Molina, La cetaria de Picola y la evolución del Portus Ilicitanus (Santa Pola, Alicante), in: El Mediterráneo: la cultura del mar y

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estratigráficamente sigue siendo inviable su existencia con anterioridad a época augustea14 La segunda deductio de Ilici15 llevó pareja la fundación del Portus Ilicitanus, y esta, lejos de ser la causa final de la ruina de Lucentum, se presenta como la mejor explicación de su fundación Con ella, que pudo comportar la segregación de la zona más septentrional del ager teórico de Ilici para albergar a la población congregada en torno al embarcadero asociada a un incremento de los restos arqueológicos detectado desde mediados del siglo I a e 16, el puerto de Lucentum se perpetuó como primer punto de apoyo a la navegación con estatuto urbano privilegiado al sur de los cabos de la Nao, de San Antonio y del Canal de Ibiza, una zona vital en las comunicaciones marítimas entre Italia, el Golfo de León y el sur Peninsular y también con el norte de África en caso de ponientes17, coincidente con una orografía abrupta que dificulta enormemente las comunicaciones terrestres entre el mediodía alicantino y el ámbito valenciano18 Y en este sentido, con el tercer viaje de Augusto a Hispania y la concesión del estatuto municipal a Dianium (15–13 a e ), así como la inmediata creación de los conventus iuridici19 – en todo caso augustea20 –, para el cambio de era el paisaje regional quedó plenamente definido, apareciendo su puerto como punto de apoyo a la navegación, de uso posible que no obligatorio21, entre los mares Ibericum y Balearicum (Fig 2a) Conformó entonces, junto con el municipio de Dianium y la civitas fœderata de Ebusus, el tercio septentrional del dominio costero del conventus Carthaginiensis,

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la sal, Santa Pola 2005: 100; J C Márquez / J Molina, Del Hibervs a Carthago Nova Comercio de alimentos y epigrafía anfórica grecolatina, Barcelona 2005: 87–88 E Gailledrat / E Moret / P Rouillard / Mª J Sánchez / P Sillières / Badie, A , Mil años en La Picola (Santa Pola, Alicante): del poblado ibérico fortificado al barrio romano de salazones, in: Nuestra Historia I Congreso de Historia Local, Santa Pola 1997: 22 y 32; A Badie / E Gailledrat / P Moret / P Rouillard / Mª J Sánchez / P Sillières, Le site Antique de La Picola à Santa Pola (Alicante, Espagne), París-Madrid 2000, 54 y ss G Alföldy, op Cit (n 3): 44 M Olcina, El Tossal de Manises en época romana, in: Historia de la ciudad de Alicante I, Alicante 1990: 182–183; M Olcina / R Pérez, Lucentum: la ciudad y su entorno, in: Las ciudades y los campos de Alicante en época romana, Alicante 2003: 108; M Olcina (ed ), Lucentum (Tossal de Manises, Alicante): Arqueología e Historia, Alicante 2009: 52, 65 y 120–122 J Ruiz de Arbulo, Rutas marítimas y colonizaciones en la Península Ibérica: una aproximación náutica a algunos problemas, Itálica 18 (1990): 90 y ss ; J Molina, La dinámica comercial romana entre Italia e Hispania Citerior, Alicante 1997: 211 y ss ; P Arnaud, Les routes de la navigation antique Itinéraires en Méditerranée, París 2005: 149–171 J C Márquez / J Molina, op Cit (n 13): 91 y ss C Carreras / P de Soto, The Roman transport network: a precedent for the integration of the European mobility, Historical Methods 46/3 (2013): 123 y fig 6 P Le Roux, La question des conventus dans la Péninsule Iberique d’époque romaine, in: Au Jardin des Hespérides Histoire, société et épigraphie des mondes anciens Mélanges offerts à Alain Tranoy, Rennes 2014: 344 P Ozcáriz, La administración de la Provincia Hispania Citerior durante el Alto Imperio Romano, Barcelona 2013: 69–75 J Remesal, De Baetica a Germania, consideraciones sobre la ruta y el comercio atlántico en el Imperio Romano, in: Viajeros, peregrinos y aventureros en el Mundo Antiguo, Barcelona 2010: 150

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Fig. 02 Evolución de la costa del conventhus Carthaginiensis entre finales del principado de Augusto y el final de la dinastía Flavia

siendo necesario recordar que entre las funciones de los conventus se ha propuesto recientemente el control, que no recaudación, de los portoria22, ayudando al distrito fiscal hispano y a Roma al control de los impuestos en el proceso de sustitución de las societates publicanorum por los libertos en la gestión de los recursos públicos,23 en un largo camino en el que los intereses privados se irán subordinando progresivamente a los intereses del Estado24 2. Vida municipal En esta coyuntura arrancó el municipium de Lucentum, y prueba de su temprana pujanza es la seriación arqueológica de una sucesión de obras públicas y privadas que 22 23 24

P Ozcáriz, Los conventus de la Hispania Citerior, Madrid 2006: 91–108; P Ozcáriz: op Cit (n 20): 84 y ss y 204 y ss F Martín, La administración fiscal de las provincias, in: La administración de las provincias en Imperio Romano, Madrid 2013: 122 G Chic, Aspectos fiscales y de tributación a partir de Marco Aurelio: indicios de cambio, in: Andreu, J (ed ), Oppida labentia: Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la Tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 133

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denotan su vitalidad 25 Estas acciones, reflejo de la edificación y monumentalización que acompañó al proceso de urbanización impulsado por Augusto, fueron ligadas a la aparición y consolidación de las élites urbanas hispanorromanas, oligarquías detentadoras del poder económico y político de las civitates que, mediante el desempeño de cargos y honores, alcanzaron la ciudadanía romana No cabe duda de las competencias de senados y magistrados locales en la construcción de edificios e infraestructuras públicas,26 como tampoco la cabe de su financiación mediante el pago de las summæ honoraniæ y de actos evergéticos particulares,27 a agregar a la recaudación de los vectigalia e impuestos indirectos que, en conjunto, posibilitaron entonces la dotación y monumentalización de las ciudades hispanas La fortaleza de un sistema que garantizaba la promoción social de los homines noui traía parejos, no obstante, sus propios límites, que en casos como Lucentum se muestran de forma evidente: dada la imposibilidad cronológica de la aplicación del Latium maius28, el ius Latii minor29 tuvo que ser la fórmula empleada para acceder a la ciudadanía romana mediante el ius adipiscendæ civitatis Romanæ per magistratum30; este garantizaba que el desempeño efectivo de una magistratura abría las puertas a la ciudadanía romana para el interesado, sus ascendentes y sus descendientes, excluidos los de la vía materna, de modo que aunque anualmente sólo seis magistrados obtuvieran tales honores – duoviros, ediles y cuestores –, en unos años todo el album decurional lucentino, que no parece haber superado la treintena de miembros31, habría obtenido la ciudadanía romana, y con ellos sus familias Pese a la posible incorporación posterior de ingenui enriquecidos a los ordines locales32, del engrosamiento de los alba mediante el procedimiento de las adlectiones o las cooptationes33 para la substitución de miembros que desempeñaban el cargo casi de for25 26

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M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 169 y ss ; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 205 y ss ; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 255 y ss B Goffaux, Municipal intervention in the public construction of towns and cities in Roman Hispaniae, Habis 32 (2001): 257–270; E García Riaza, Aspectos de la administración municipal en las ciudades mediterráneas del conventus Carthaginiensis (Hispania citerior), MEFRA 119/2 (2007): 397–407 E Melchor, Las élites municipales de Hispania en el Alto Imperio: un intento de aproximación a sus fuentes de riqueza, Flor Il 4–5 (1993–1994): 336 y ss ; E Melchor, Construcciones cívicas y evergetismo en Hispania romana, ETF(2) 6 (1993): 443 y ss ; E Melchor, Las élites municipales hispanorromanas a fines de la República y en el Alto Imperio: ideología y conductas sociopolíticas, in: J Andreu / J Cabrero / I Rodà (eds ), Hispaniæ Las provincias hispanas en el mundo romano, Tarragona 2009, 392 y ss A N Sherwin-White, The Roman Citizenship, Oxford 1973: 255 Mª J Bravo, Latium maius versus Latium minus en la Hispania Flavia, AFDUDC 13 (2009): 46 y ss E García Fernández, El municipio latino Origen y desarrollo constitucional, Madrid 2001: 150–151 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 184 E Melchor, op Cit (n 28): 396 J F Rodríguez Neila / E Melchor, Los ordines decurionum: procedimientos jurídicos de integración y de vinculación honorífica (con especial referencia a Hispania), in: Del municipio a la corte La renovación de las élites romanas, Sevilla 2012: 243–270

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ma vitalicia, o la posible distinción con honores decurionales a miembros muy exclusivos de las élites supralocales34, lo cierto es que tan solo en una generación, una ciudad del tamaño de Lucentum habría copado plenamente las expectativas de obtención de la ciudadanía romana del segmento de la población que, por patrimonio – no necesariamente prolijo35 –, podía aspirar a la misma, limitando desde entonces los alicientes para ostentar los ornamenta decurionalia a la philotomia, la dignitas, la existimatio, la honoris æmulatio o al deseo de promoción social supralocal Quizá esta sea la principal razón de que cuando analizamos las secuencias estratigráficas, denotan una ralentización de la inversión en los espacios públicos entre los principados de Claudio y el de los primeros flavios, limitándose a actuaciones puntuales en el mantenimiento de sus principales vías Estas, de carácter público, estaban sometidas a un mantenimiento mixto, en el que los vecinos y magistrados debían velar por su correcto uso y sostenimiento36; en este sentido, el hecho que se deriva es que asistimos a un estancamiento en el desarrollo urbano lucentino, traducido en la ausencia documental de nuevos equipamientos urbanos o de su remodelación significativa en este interludio Esta sensación se acentúa al comprobar la incapacidad de las instituciones locales en el mantenimiento de las infraestructuras básicas, caso de la principal cloaca de la ciudad37, dado que era competencia de los gobiernos municipales la construcción y conservación de la red de alcantarillado público, como sancionan las leges Irnitana, Vrsonensis y Tarentina38 Aunque las fechas proporcionadas por el inicio de la colmatación del albañal, que apuntan al gobierno de Vespasiano-Tito39, nos indican sólo cuándo se produjo la situación de bloqueo que determinó el inicio del proceso de colmatación de la alcantarilla, no podemos precisar cuándo se inició el abandono de las labores de

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E Melchor, Élites supralocales en la Bética: entre la civitas y la provincia, in: Roma generadora de identidades La experiencia hispana, Madrid-Sevilla 2011: 267–300 E Melchor, François Jacques tenía razón: sobre el no declinar de las élites locales y de la vida municipal durante el siglo II y el primer tercio del siglo III d C , in: Oppida labentia: Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la Tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 222 S Panciera, Netezza urbana a Roma: organizzazione e responsabili, in: Sordes Urbis: la eliminación de los residuos en la ciudad romana, Roma 2000: 98; N Romaní Sala, El proceso de recrecimiento de las vías urbanas en época romana: entre el proyecto y la casualidad, in: IV Congreso de las Obras Públicas en la Ciudad Romana, Madrid 2008: 159–163; A Kaiser, Roman urban street networks, Londres 2011: 16 y 21 A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, Lucentum (Tossal de Manises, Alicante) Estudio de caso de un municipium de la Tarraconense sur, in: Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics dans d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre les IIé et IVé s , Madrid 2015: 147–148 J F Rodríguez Neila, Problemas medioambientales urbanos en el mundo romano, in: La gestión de los residuos urbanos en Hispania, Mérida 2011: 43 y n 169 A García / M Olcina / J J Ramón, Un nivel de amortización de una cloaca de Lucentum, RCRF Acta 41 (2010): 354 y 356

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su mantenimiento ni su dilación40, pero sí sus consecuencias: el foro, solar del locus celeberrimus, y la plaza que lo flanquea por el oeste, vieron mermada su capacidad de drenaje al verse desposeídos de una cloaca en pleno uso, substituida por un simple canal de desagüe cegado en su extremo y mantenido en el foro hasta el ecuador del siglo II d e 41 Por otro lado, las termas de Popilio se vieron abocadas a su fin, dada la imposibilidad por cota de evacuar sus residuos líquidos, restringiendo por tanto los equipamientos del municipio Con ello Lucentum engrosaría el catálogo de “los errores de cálculo y la eterna codicia”42 de la ciudad julio-claudia, en los que se evidencia la falta de previsión real a la hora de emprender proyectos urbanos e infraestructuras sin atender a la realidad económica de las ciudades recién fundadas o remodeladas, en absoluto reñida con una desaceleración generalizada del fenómeno urbanizador en Hispania durante los principados de Claudio y Nerón, asociada a una marginalización de las provincias occidentales en las nuevas políticas imperiales 43 La época flavia fue testigo de un relanzamiento del urbanismo lucentino, documentado tanto en la urbs como en su área periurbana, en el marco de un segundo empuje evergético y constructivo generalizado en las Hispaniæ y enmarcado en la concesión del ius Latii por Vespasiano Las evidencias arqueológicas dan prueba de esta revitalización, visible tanto en las dotaciones públicas44 – entre ellas la ampliación del muelle tiberiano de La Albufereta45 – como en el ámbito privado – donde se constata una proliferación de grandes domus perimetrales que obliterarán amplios tramos de las murallas urbanas46, la creación de nuevas villæ suburbanas y la remodelación de otras preexistentes47 –, prolongándose esta fase hasta época trajano-adrianea Será entonces cuando se documenten los últimos programas pictóricos en domus y villæ48, las postreras intervenciones edilicias y ornamentales en el solar del foro municipal y en 40 41 42 43 44 45

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X Dupré / J A Remolà, A propósito de la gestión de los residuos urbanos en Hispania, Romula 1 (2002): 50 A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 148 M A Martín-Bueno, La ciudad hispanorromana: deseo y realidad, in: Oppida labentia: Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la Tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 10 F López Sánchez, La crisis de las ciudades hispanas comenzó con Adriano: ¿decadencia interna o falta de estímulos externos?, in: Oppida labentia: Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la Tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 164 M Olcina, Actuación arqueológica en el foro y las termas de Popilio de Lucentum (Tossal de Manises, Alicante) Campaña de 2009–2010, in: II Jornadas de Arqueología y Patrimonio Alicantino Arqueología en Alicante en la primera década del siglo XXI, Alicante 2014: 259 F Lozano / A Pérez, Intervención arqueológica en 2011 en estructuras portuarias romanas altoimperiales en la Albufereta de Alicante, in: Arqueología subacuática española Actas del I Congreso de Arqueología Náutica y Subacuática Española (Cartagena, 14, 15 y 16 de marzo de 2013), vol II, Cádiz 2014: 32 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 211 M Olcina / R Pérez, op Cit (n 16): 108; C Martínez / J Molina, La villa de la C / Olimpo y la organización territorial de la periferia urbana de Lucentum (Alicante), Pyrenæ 47/1 (2016): 182 A Fernández, Algunos restos pictóricos de la ciudad de Lucentum (Tossal de Manises-Alicante),

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el mantenimiento de su desagüe49, cuando se alcanza la mayor extensión de los suburbia y villæ periurbanas50 – acorde con el resto del panorama peninsular51 – y el último periodo del yacimiento donde las emisiones monetarias están bien representadas52, evidenciando desde inicios de la centuria muestras tempranas de un estatismo – generalizado en buena parte de las ciudades hispanorromanas53 – visible también en la ralentización del hábito epigráfico, que no parece alcanzar el siglo III en el territorium de Lucentum54 En el marco regional, esta pulsión revitalizadora coincidió con la plasmación del Edicto de Latinidad de Vespasiano, traducido en la práctica en el final del proceso municipalizador de las Baleares55, con la concesión del estatuto privilegiado a la cercana Allon56 y con el acceso al expediente municipal de la fachada mediterránea del conventus Gaditanus57 hasta alcanzar Baria, con su debatida adscripción y rango58, coetáneas todas ellas al definitivo resurgir urbano de la colonia de Valentia59 Con ello, el mapa del litoral del Sureste peninsular mostrará una serie de alteraciones sensibles respecto a su situación desde el cambio de era (Fig 2b), reflejo de la definición de una “segunda

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Lucentum 19–20 (2000/2001): 215–235; A Pérez / A Fernández, Pintura mural romana del Camino Colonia Romana (La Albufereta, Alicante), Romula 4 (2005): 205 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 177–179; A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 148 M Olcina / R Pérez, op Cit (n 16): 105 y ss ; P Rosser, Arqueología del poblamiento de un territorio del Mediterráneo Occidental (Alicante, España) en época tardo-antigua Un espacio activo sin ciudad, AnMurcia 30 (2014): 59 D Romero, La ciudad hispanorromana en el siglo II d C , Córdoba 2016: 373 [https://helvia uco es/handle/10396/14222], consultada 13/08/2018; D Romero: Las áreas suburbanas hispanas en el s II d C Una lectura sincrónica, in: Oppidum – Civitas – Urbs Städteforschung auf der Iberischen Halbinsel zwischen Rom und al-Andalus, Münster 2017: 711–712 J J Ramón, Moneda y vida económica en la ciudad romana, in: Lucentum (Tossal de Manises, Alicante): Arqueología e Historia, Alicante 2009: 51 D Romero, Crisis urbana y estatuto jurídico Una aproximación a las trayectoria de los municipia Flauia en época antonina, in: Oppida labentia: Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la Tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 53–54 J Corell, Inscripcions romanes d’Ilici, Lucentum, Allon, Dianium i els seus respectius territoris, València 1999: 125 y ss E García Riaza / Mª L Sánchez León, Roma y la municipalización de las Baleares, Palma de Mallorca 2000: 145 y ss A Espinosa / D Ruiz / A Marcos, Allon, in: Ciudades romananas valencianas, Alicante 2014: 188 y ss J Andreu, Edictum, municipium y lex: Hispania en época Flavia (69–96 d C ), Oxford 2004: 156 y ss J L López / V Martínez, De la Baria fenicia a la Baria romana, in: La etapa neopúnica en Hispania y el Mediterráneo centro occidental: identidades compartidas, Sevilla 2012: 348; P Ortiz de Urbina, La evolución política de las ciudades de tradición fenicio-púnica bajo la dominación romana (II A C -I D C ), in: La etapa neopúnica en Hispania y el Mediterráneo centro occidental: identidades compartidas, Sevilla 2012: 197–198; P Ozcáriz, op Cit (n 20): 35–36 A Ribera / J L Jiménez, La imagen urbana de Valentia, in: Ciudades romananas valencianas, Alicante 2014: 152 y ss ; A Ribera / I Escrivà, Valentia augustal Ciutat de ficció o ficció de ciutat, in: Tarraco Biennal Actes del 2ón Congrés Internacional d’Arqueologia i Món Antic I, Tarragona 2015: 252–253

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Hispania” en la que se atestiguan fricciones urbanas60 motivadas por la búsqueda de acomodo en sus escenarios regionales de las viejas y nuevas ciudades, en un verdadero proceso de isostasia urbana61 en el que la política municipalizadora flavia mermó la vitalidad de los antiguos enclaves privilegiados de época cesariana y augustea62 Esta parece ser la razón de que el paisaje urbano de la provincia Citerior, reflejo de la vitalidad de la política municipal63, esté marcado entre el final de la dinastía flavia y la severa por el particularismo en la marcha de cada ciudad64, ya que civitates muy próximas entre sí muestran distintos ritmos en los indicadores arqueológicos interpretados como evidencias de su parálisis o degradación, con pruebas tempranas y agudas – casos de la misma Lucentum65 o de Carthago Nova66, esta última parcialmente matizada67 –, más tardías y diluidas – casos de Allon68 o Ilici69 – o disfrutando un momento de auge y esplendor hasta el arranque del último tercio del siglo III, como se ha señalado para las Baleares70 o Valentia71 Lo cierto es que este impulso revitalizador parece detenerse a nivel general antes de mediados de siglo, quebrándose entonces la tendencia atestiguada desde época flavia de crecimiento continuo y surgiendo un doble modelo urbano en Hispania en el que, por un lado, se constatará cierta vitalidad ciudadana prolongada según los casos hasta el siglo III y, por otro, definirá la aparición de un modelo regresivo caracterizado por mostrar precozmente los síntomas de degradación urbana que se generalizarán décadas más tarde en el resto del panorama hispano72 Lucentum, desde luego, se insertaría

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P Guichard, Les effets des mesures flaviennes sur la hiérarchie existant entre les cités de la Péninsule ibérique, in: Ciudad y comunidad cívica en Hispania Siglos II y III d C , Madrid 1993: 68 y ss A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 160 P Guichard, op Cit (n 60): 76–77 y 83–84 J Mata, Crisis ciudadana a partir del siglo II en Hispania: un modelo teórico de causas y dinámicas aplicado al conuentus Carthaginensis, CAUN 22 (2014): 224 J Mata, Evolución urbanística en la provincia Citerior: los siglos II y III, CAUN 24 (2016): 150 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3), 177–179; A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 147–152 A Quevedo / S F Ramallo, La dinámica evolutiva de Carthago Nova entre los siglos II y III, in: Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics dans d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre les IIe et IVe s , Madrid 2015: 161–178; A Quevedo, Contextos cerámicos y transformaciones urbanas en Carthago Nova (s II–III d C ), Oxford 2015: 281 y ss J M Noguera / J M Abascal / Mª J Madrid, Un titulus pictus con titularidad imperial de Carthago Nova y puntualizaciones a la dinámica urbana de la ciudad a inicios del siglo III d C , Zephyrus 79 (2017): 161–166 A Espinosa / D Ruiz / A Marcos, op Cit (n 56): 190 y ss M Tendero / A Mª Ronda, Nuevos datos sobre la Colonia Iulia Ilici Augusta (s II–IV d C ), in: Las ciudades de la Tarraconense oriental entre los s II–IV d C Evolución urbanística y contextos materiales, Murcia 2014: 279 y ss I Busquets / J M Rosselló, La crisis del siglo III y las Baleares, VI Jornades d’Arqueologia de les Illes Balears, Formentera 2015: 303 y ss A Ribera / J L Jiménez, op Cit (n 59): 152 y ss D Romero, op Cit (n 51): 372–380

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en este “modelo urbano regresivo”73, compartiendo con otras civitates una serie de rasgos comunes sintetizados en su marginalidad económica y su parálisis institucional que, junto a los desastres naturales y la guerra74 o las decisiones políticas75, componen el set explicativo al uso para analizar el fin de las trayectorias urbanas antiguas En nuestro caso concreto, esta marginalidad económica obedeció a una doble causa; por un lado, el acceso al privilegium libertatis de Allon, 25 km al Norte, le privó de su situación como puerto urbano privilegiado más cercano en la costa peninsular al Sur del Canal de Ibiza, al tiempo que la distancia entre este y el Portus Ilicitanus, 45 km lineales, hacía superflua una escala intermedia en el tránsito de la costa76, salvo en la práctica de un cabotaje en saut de puce, complementario de la navegación segmentada77 Por otro, el yacimiento, como el resto de la fachada costera de la Citerior, padeció una significativa disminución en la recepción de mercancías foráneas a lo largo del siglo II, atestiguada tanto por la caída drástica del número de naufragios respecto al siglo I, con todos sus matices78, como por los contextos terrestres del litoral79, resintiéndose entonces la que parece ser la fuente principal de recursos de la ciudad80 En todo caso, el argumento de la competencia comercial entre Ilici y Lucentum para explicar el fin de esta última81 parece diluirse, ya que ambas participaron de un mismo proceso económico para el que las curvas modales evolutivas que reflejan la llegada de contenedores anfóricos82 (Fig 3) demuestran unas vidas paralelas que sólo presentan diferencias sensibles a partir del siglo III, cuando la gráfica compara dos realidades distintas, una

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D Romero: op Cit (n 51): 378–383 N Christie, Vrbes Extinctae: Archaeologies of and Approaches to Abandoned Classical Cities, in: Vrbes Extinctae Archaeologies of Abandoned Classical Towns, Aldershot 2012, 12 y ss J Arce, La fundación de nuevas ciudades en el Imperio Romano tardío: de Diocleciano a Justiniano (s IV–VI), in: Sedes Regiæ (ann 400–800), Barcelona: 2000: 39 y ss ; Á Ventura, Torreparedones (colonia Virtus Iulia Ituci) entre Severo y Constantino: ¿oppidum labens uel damnatum et adtributum?, in: Oppida labentia: Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la Tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 473 y ss A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 158–160 J Arnaud, op Cit (n 17): 78 y 107 y ss A Wilson, Developments in Mediterranean shipping and maritime trade from the Hellenistic period to AD 1000, in: Maritime Archaeology and Ancient Trade in the Mediterranean, Oxford 2012: 37 y ss ; A Wilson, Quantifying Roman economic performance by means of proxies: pitfalls and potential, in: Quantifying the Greco-Roman Economy and Beyond, Bari 2014: 150; C Rice, Shipwreck cargoes in the western Mediterranean and the organization of Roman maritime trade, JRA 29/1 (2016): 167 J Molina, op Cit (n 17): 264 y ss ; J C Márquez y J Molina, op Cit (n 13) M Olcina / J J Ramón, Las cerámicas africanas de Lucentum (Tossal de Manises, Alicante): los fondos antiguos del Museo Arqueológico Provincial y consideraciones en torno a la decadencia de la ciudad romana, in: Scripta in Honorem Enrique A Llobregat Conesa I, Alicante 2000: 413 P e J C Márquez / J Molina, op Cit (n 17): 86; C Frías, El poblamiento rural de Dianium, Lucentum, Ilici y la ciudad romana de La Vila Joiosa (siglos II a C -VII d C ) Bases para su estudio, Alicante 2010: 154; I Grau / J Molina, op Cit (n 2): 60; C Martínez / J Molina, op Cit (n 47): 189 J Molina, op Cit (n 2): 216, figs 9 y 10; J Molina, op Cit (n 2): 133, fig 7 y 8

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Fig. 03 Evolución comparada del tráfico anfórico del embarcadero de L’Albufereta (Lucentum) y del Portus Ilicitanus (Fuente: J Molina, op Cit (n 2): 216, figs 9 y 10)

urbana – Ilici – y otra que, en ese momento, ya no lo es – Lucentum –, alterando por tanto la relación jerárquica83 entre ambos embarcaderos En referencia a su parálisis institucional, pese a que buena parte de las inscripciones monumentales conservadas del municipium se daten en el siglo II84, el registro arqueológico muestra un letargo notorio trascurridas las primeras décadas de la centuria, que no hará sino agravarse conforme avance el siglo Aunque carezcamos de datos

83

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E García Vargas / A Villalobos / M Jiménez Melero, Perspectivas de investigación sobre puertos y fondeaderos en el sur de Hispania, in: Le struture dei porti e degli approdi antichi, Roma 2004: 10–11; P Arnaud, Systèmes et hiérarchies portuaires en Narbonnaise, in: Archéologie des rivages méditerranéens 50 ans de recherche, París 2010: 110–112 J Corell, op Cit (n 54): 126 y ss

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concretos es posible, como se ha defendido para el caso de la colonia de Astigi, que parte de la revitalización lucentina experimentada con el advenimiento de los flavios tuvo como destinataria la cercana colonia de Ilici, ya que las élites que habían ascendido socialmente per honorem, desde su fundación o tras su resurgir flavio, “podían ampliar sus miras desde el punto de vista político, social y económico al integrarse en la colonia tras el acceso a la ciudadanía romana”85 Tal hecho habría descapitalizado al municipium, como parecen evidenciar los datos arqueológicos, al provocar una fuga de recursos amparada en la condición jurídica única de cives Romani, integrantes del populus Romanus86, siendo esta totalmente independiente de la origo individual87 Además, la colonia de Ilici ostentaba el ius italicum – vigente en época severiana88 – y la immunitas – referida por Plinio89 –, que no sólo eximían a sus ciudadanos de los tributos territoriales, en diferente grado según su tipo90, sino que les habilitaba para la propietas efectiva de sus tierras en el ager colonialis91, frente a la possessio a la que tenían derecho como munícipes Volviendo de nuevo a Lucentum, estas muestras tempranas de ralentización se traducirán hacia el ecuador de la centuria en claros síntomas de degradación urbana, que arrancarán con la aparición de los vertederos de recesión intra mœnia y el desmantelamiento del enlosado del foro y de la via strata que lo cruzaba, derivando, ya en la segunda mitad de la centuria, hacia un proceso imparable que abocará a la urbs hacia su colapso arquitectónico y urbanístico ca 200 d e , momento desde el que se nos presenta el escenario de una urbs trunca, sine senatu, sine plebe, sine magistratibus92 3. Civitas extincta Aunque podamos situar con precisión un horizonte ca 200 d e como punto de no retorno en el proceso material de consunción urbana de Lucentum, más complicado resulta fijar el momento en el que se puso fin a su condición jurídica como municipium, atestiguada epigráficamente todavía hacia el 177–180 d e 93, por su desaparición o de-

85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93

P Sáez, Colonias romanas y municipalización Flavia ¿Conflicto de intereses?, in: Mangas, J / Novillo, M Á (eds ), El territorio de las ciudades romanas, Madrid 2008, 170 E Ortiz de Urbina, Derecho latino, organización cívica y élites hispanas, in: Romanización, fronteras y etnias en la Roma Antigua: el caso hispano, Vitoria-Gasteiz 2012: 634–635 y n 5 M González herrero, Adlecti inter ciues en las colonias y municipios de Hispania, Revista Portuguesa de Arqueologia 21 (2018): 142 Dig 50, 15, 8 Plin Nat 3, 19 G Alföldy, Das neue Edikt des Augustus aus El Bierzo in Hispanien, ZPE 131 (2000): 197–198 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 3): 46 Liv 31, 29, 11 CIL II, 5958; HEp 4, 47

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gradación a vicus94 Nos resulta difícil abstraernos al hecho de que será precisamente en los primeros compases de la dinastía severa cuando el registro muestra contundentemente la disolución de la urbanitas lucentina En la urbe, este hecho será especialmente visible en el solar del foro95 y en el desvanecimiento de la retícula urbana de sus alrededores96, presentando sólo exiguos signos de mantenimiento en la calle del foro, tanto a su paso por el solar del complejo forense97 como en la puerta urbana hacia la bahía aledaña, donde veremos aparecer caminos terreros que se prolongarán, al menos, hasta un momento avanzado del siglo IV98 Este mismo horizonte severiano ha sido señalado para el final del embarcadero situado a los pies de la ciudad99 y para contextualizar un significativo proceso de abandono tanto de las construcciones periurbanas de Lucentum100 como de las villæ del retropaís101 Toda esta serie de datos no hace sino reforzar la imagen de un verdadero colapso demográfico que tuvo lugar a caballo entre los siglos II y III en la urbs y su ager, reflejado en la práctica en la aparición de uno de los agri deserti mencionados con carácter general por algunos autores del siglo III102 El terminus post quem vendría de la mano de los censos realizados con posterioridad al 177–180 d e , pudiendo arrancar con el que formalizó Q Hedius Rufus Lollianus Gentianus como censitor Hispaniæ Citerioris en 198/199103, tras la llegada de Septimio Severo al poder, las ejecuciones, las proscripciones y las confiscaciones a los partidarios de Clodio Albino104, también documentadas en la vecina provincia Lugdunen-

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M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 187; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3), 214; A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 156 95 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 178 96 A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 149–150 97 A Guilabert / M Olcina / J J Ramón / E Tendero, El hallazgo El contexto estratigráfico de la pieza, in: El báculo y la espada Sobre un fragmento de escultura monumental romana de bronce de Lucentum, Alicante 2007: 36 y ss 98 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, Porta Maris La excavación de la puerta marítima del Tossal de Manises (Alicante) Campañas 2015 y 2016, in: V Jornades d’Arqueologia de la Comunitat Valenciana (València, 2016), en prensa; A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 97): 43–44; A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37), 150–151 99 J R Ortega / M A Esquembre-Bebiá / F A Molina / F J Moltó, Las instalaciones portuarias ibérica y romana localizadas en el barranco de la Albufereta (Alicante) (Siglos V/IV a C –II/ III d C ), in: Carta Arqueológica Subacuática de Alicante I Fondeadero de Lucentum (Bahía de l’Albufereta, Alicante), Alicante 2017: 95; F Lozano / A Pérez, op Cit (n 45): 34 100 M Olcina / R Pérez: op Cit (n 15): 112–113; M Olcina: op Cit (n 16): 58–89; C Frías, op Cit (n 81): 154; P Rosser: op Cit (n 50): 59–60; A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 152; J Molina, op Cit (n 2): 217 101 C Frías, op Cit (n 81): 157, tabla 3 102 G Alföldy, El Imperio romano durante los siglos II y III: continuidad y transformaciones, in: Tarraco christiana ciuitas, Tarragona 2013: 16 103 G Alföldy, Fasti Hispanienses, Wiesbaden 1969: 47; I Mennen, Power and Status in the Roman Empire, AD 193–284, Leiden 2011: 68 y n 58, 106 y 206; P Ozcáriz, op Cit (n 20): 138 104 J Arce, El siglo III d C : los preludios de la transformación de Hispania, in: Hispania El legado de Roma, Zaragoza 1998: 357; A R Birley, Septimius Severus The African Emperor, Londres 2002: 125–128

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sis105 y propuestas para la Bætica106; o ligeramente después, con el trabajo de P Plotius Romanus, legado con función censual a las órdenes del gobernador provincial en la Citerior entre los años 214 y 216107, justo después de la promulgación de la Constitutio Antoniniana en 212/213 y la concesión de la ciudadanía universal en la búsqueda de la ecúmene ex toto orbe Romano en su conversión en patria communis108 que, sintomáticamente, no uniformizó los derechos vigentes en cada provincia salvo en materia fiscal109 Ya señalamos la reorganización fiscal de Diocleciano como fecha límite en la que este hecho pudo concretarse históricamente110, dado que con las reformas de inicios del Dominado asistimos a la prevalencia definitiva de los criterios fiscalizadores y catastrales sobre los demográficos en la labor de los censitores111 al amparo de la imposición de la iugatio-capitatio112, base de un nuevo sistema fiscal – pese a sus claroscuros113 –, y de la elaboración de los censos de población y reparto de tierras de los años 297, 302, 307 y 312 d e 114, en los que según Lactancio115 nada ni nadie escapó al escrutinio de la renovada administración imperial Estas reformas coincidirán cronológicamente además con la compilación de los Imperatoris Antonini Augusti itineraria duo, provinciarum et maritimum116, probablemente relacionado con la reorganización de la anonna militaris, nueva tasa impuesta por los severos117, donde Lucentum ya no aparece 105 106 107 108 109

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M Christol, La carrière de Q Hedius Rufus Lollianus Gentianus, REA 86/1–2 (1981): 75–84; I Mennen, op Cit (n 103) Á Ventura, op Cit (n 75): 477 P Ozcáriz, op Cit (n 20): 204 A Mastino, Orbis, κόσμοσ, οίκουμένη: aspetti spaziali dell’idea di impero universale da Augusto a Teodosio, in: Popoli e spazio romano tra diritto e profezia, Napoles 1986: 92 R González, Casio Dion y los motivos (¿fiscales?) de la concesión (¿universal?) de la ciudadanía romana, in: Koinòs Lógos Homenaje al profesor José García López, Murcia 2006: 386–391; R González / S Fernández, Algunas cuestiones en torno a la promulgación de la Constitutio Antoniniana, Gerión 28/1 (2010): 179–181 A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 156 J Arce, La transformación administrativa de Italia: Diocleciano, in: L’Italie d’Auguste à Dioclétien, Roma 1994: 406; P Cañas, Aspectos jurídicos del censo romano, UNED Boletín de la Facultad de Derecho 26 (2005): 480–485 A H M Jones, The Late Roman Empire, 284–602: a social economic and administrative survey, vol I, Oxford 1973: 41 y ss ; W Goffart, Caput and Colonate: Towards a History of Late Roman taxation, Toronto 1974: 31 y ss G Bravo, Historia de la Roma antigua, Madrid 1998, 108–109; A Aparicio, Las grandes reformas fiscales del Imperio Romano (Reformas de Octavio Augusto, Diocleciano y Constantino), Oviedo 2006: 58 y ss A Chastagnol, L’evolution politique, sociale et économique du monde romain du Dioclétien à Julien La mise en place du régimen du Bas-Empire (284–363), París 1982: 373 Lact De mort pers 33, 1–7 P Arnaud, L’Itineraire d’Antonin: un thémoin de la littérature itinéraire du Bas-Empire, Geographia Antiqua 2 (1993): 33–47; R J A Talbert, Author, Audience and the Roman Empire in the Antonine Itinerary, in: Herrachen und Verwalten Der Alltag der romischen Administration in der Hohen Kaisemeit, Viena 2007: 256–270 M Corbier, Coinage and taxation: the state’s point of view, a d 193–337, The Crisis of Empire, a d 193–337 The Cambridge Ancient History, vol XII, 2nd Edition, Cambridge 2008: 381 y ss

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Entre ambas fechas, ya en el último tercio o cuarto del siglo III, media un episodio que marcó el desmantelamiento físico de los restos de la ciudad118, centrado en la remoción de los restos arquitectónicos de titularidad pública que conformaron poco tiempo antes la urbis decus Asistimos entonces al desmantelamiento sistemático de los publici splendoris ornati, sus estructuras e, incluso, sus subestructuras, centrando su ámbito de actuación en las infraestructuras y dotaciones que dependían directamente de la administración municipal: la puerta marítima y el complejo forense, a los que probablemente tengamos que añadir las públicas Termas de la Muralla, excavadas en los años 30 del siglo XX y para las que carecemos de estratigrafías fiables119, pero que muestran el mismo patrón estratigráfico que el de los otros dos conjuntos citados Lejos de constituir el ejemplo de una obtención oportunista y ocasional de præda, la envergadura de los spolia referidos, la logística necesaria para su obtención, limpieza, adecuación120 y transporte121 previos a su reempleo, y la potencial rentabilidad de esta acción122 – que, lejos de ser selectiva respecto al material edilicio, parece que afectó a todo el conjunto de elementos susceptibles de ser reaprovechados –, sugieren que el expolio sistemático de los elementos del ornato público lucentino fue una acción planificada y ejecutada de una sola vez, más que el fruto de acciones sucesivas dilatadas en un tiempo no excesivamente prolongado La logística y personal requerido en la operación, así como el volumen y peso del material expoliado, cuya salida del yacimiento parece que aprovechó la antigua calle del foro y su posible traslado por mar – con las consecuentes dificultades de carga y estiba pero, simultáneamente, con la ventaja de poder desplazar grandes volúmenes de forma unitaria y maximizar así los beneficios

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M Olcina, op Cit (n 16): 56 y ss ; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 177–178; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 214; A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 149–152 119 M Olcina, op Cit (n 16): 90–93 120 CIL VI, 940; D Kinney, The Concept of Spolia, in: A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, Oxford 2006: 234; Mª A Utrero / I Sastre, Reutilizando materiales en las construcciones de los siglos VII–X ¿Una posibilidad o una necesidad?, Anales de Historia del Arte 22/II (2012): 316–318; Y A Marano, Il reimpiego a Roma tra tarda Repubblica e alto Impero: evidenza archeologica e fonti giuridiche, in: Pietre di Venezia Spolia in se spolia in re, Roma 2015: 161 y n 12 121 B Russell, Lapis transmarinus: stone-carrying ships and the maritime distribution of stone in the Roman Empire, in: Maritime Archaeology and Ancient Trade in the Mediterranean, Oxford 2011: 151; B Russell, The Economics of the Roman Stone Trade, Oxford 2013: 134–135; C Rice, Shipwreck cargoes in the western Mediterranean and the organization of Roman maritime trade, JRA 29/1 (2016): 169 y ss 122 S J Barker, Roman builders – pillagers or salvagers? The economics of deconstruction and reuse, in: Arqueología de la Construcción II Los procesos constructivos en el mundo romano: Italia y provincias occidentales, Madrid-Mérida 2011: 130 y ss ; S J Barker, Roman marble salvaging, in: Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone, Tarragona 2012: 26–27; J Barker / Y A Marano, Demolition laws in an archaeological context Legislation and architectural re-use in the Roman building industry, in: Decor Decorazione e architettura nel mondo romano, Roma 2017: 838

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frente al transporte por tierra123 –, con la necesaria participación de agentes especializados diversos y coordinados, nos parecen argumentos suficientes para defender esta tesis Con ello, se ponía fin definitivamente a la urbis decus lucentina, entendida no sólo como su ornato cívico sino también, en su otra y más grave acepción, como su orgullo cívico124, extinguiéndose a finales del siglo III cualquier vestigio de la urbanitas altoimperial lucentina Justo entonces, o a inicios de la centuria siguiente, asistimos en los alrededores de la urbs extincta a un renacimiento de la ocupación rural, interpretada por algunos autores como el mantenimiento de la urbs in agro125, optando por respaldar la persistencia de una estructura jurídica y tributaria como la municipal sin dar razón alguna de los mecanismos que pudieran permitir tal hecho hasta la tardoantigüedad126 Tal vez el origen del problema radique en la aceptación tácita por parte de la investigación regional de la imposibilidad de extinción del municipio, pocas veces explicitada127, o en la asunción de que este hecho sólo pudiera producirse tras la caída de Roma128 Sin embargo, los casos de Orcistus129, Maiuma, Cæsarea de Capadocia130, Ituci131, Ruscino, Glanum, Lucus Augusti de la Gallia, Vienna132, Antiochia o Neapolis de Palestina133, entre otros, son motivo suficiente para poner en duda tales afirmaciones134 Con ello es factible aceptar la posibilidad de la desaparición formal del municipio y la de la fagocitación de su territorium por parte de otra ciudad o ciudades que sobrevivieron al periclitar de Lucentum, planteando un escenario marcado por su extinción 123

R Duncan-Jones, The Economy of the Roman Empire: Quantitative Studies, Cambridge 1974: 366–369; P Sillières, Les voies de communication de l’Hispanie Méridionale, París 1990: 761–762 124 J Alchermes, Spolia in Roman Cities of the Late Empire: Legislative Rationales and Architectural Reuse, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 48 (1994): 172–173 125 P Rosser, op Cit (n 50), 60; J Molina, op Cit (n 2): 203 y 217–218; J Molina, op Cit (n 2): 133; C Martínez / J Molina, op Cit (n 47): 183 126 C Frías, op Cit (n 81): 154; J Molina: op Cit (n 2): 217–218; P Rosser, op Cit (n 50): 68–69 127 R Lorenzo, L’Alcudia d’Elx a l’Antiguitat Tardana Anàlisi historiogràfica i arqueològica de l’Ilici dels segles V–VIII, Alicante 2006: 122 y n 221 128 R Lorenzo, Ecclesiæ Ilicitanæ, qui et Eiotanæ, episcopus Sobre la extensión y dualidad de la sede episcopal de Ilici en la Antigüedad Tardía, Lucentum 35 (2016): 285 y ss y 294–295 129 A Chastagnol, L’inscription constantinienne d’Orcistus, MEFRA 93/1 (1981): 381–416; E Moreno Resano, La política de fundación de ciudades de Constantino (306–337), ETF(2) 19–20 (2006– 2007): 297–301; R Van Dam, The Roman Revolution of Constantine, Cambridge 2008: 152–162; J Arce, La inscripción de “Orcistus” y las preocupaciones del emperador, in: Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics dans d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre les IIe et IVe s , Madrid 2015: 311 y ss 130 J Arce, op Cit (n 75): 39–40 131 Á Ventura, op Cit (n 75) 132 B Beaujard, Les cités de la Gaule méridionale du IIIe au VIIe S , Gallia 69/2 (2006): 12 y ss 133 S Perea, Los Severos en Oriente y su programa colonial, a propósito de Ulpiano, Digesto, 50, 15, 1: la perspectiva militar, in: Poder central y poder local Dos realidades paralelas en la órbita política romana, Madrid 2015: 213 134 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 187; M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 214; A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 156–157

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o su degradación administrativa a vicus o pagus, siendo Ilici la mejor posicionada para haber jugado este papel, especialmente tras la revalorización de su efervescencia en el siglo IV135 En este nuevo escenario, la indiscutible revitalización rural de los alrededores de Lucentum puede interpretarse en otra clave A finales del siglo III y a lo largo del siglo IV, dentro del resurgimiento de las villæ como forma de ocupación y explotación rural preeminente en el occidente romano136, las áreas meridional y oriental de la Península Ibérica presentan unas características y evolución ligeramente diferente a las del interior peninsular Aquí muestran dimensiones más reducidas y una vocación productiva más acentuada, apreciándose una menor disociación de sus partes urbana y rustica que en ocasiones alcanza a anular parcial o totalmente su función residencial Este hecho ha sido interpretado como el resultado de un proceso de concentración de propiedades, desarrollado a lo largo de la época romana y la Antigüedad tardía, mediante el que las tierras se vieron aglutinadas en manos de unos pocos possessores que monumentalizaron sólo algunos de los complejos con funciones residenciales, reutilizando las villæ restantes con fines productivos o abandonándolas directamente137 Además, frente a la imagen tradicional de su proliferación como reflejo del declive de la vida urbana y del traslado de las aristocracias a sus residencias rurales para el desarrollo de una economía autárquica y de autoabastecimiento, desde hace años son analizadas como la otra cara de la moneda de un resurgir urbano y de sus élites138, denotando la permanencia de un fuerte vínculo entre ambos ámbitos hasta el final del Imperio Cabría recordar al respecto que en el renacer del poblamiento rural en el área periurbana de Lucentum, este muestra claros signos de marginalidad respecto a los casos aledaños de Ilici, Allon y Dianium, todos ellos de carácter suburbano o situados en vici destacados de los mismos, donde se documenta una suntuosidad en las partes dominicæ de algunos de los asentamientos de tipo villa totalmente desconocida en la comarca natural alicantina para estos momentos139 Esta ausencia de áreas de representación y su contraste con los ejemplos referidos, nos induce a defender la marginalidad económica para entonces del antiguo ager lucentino, en el que revitalización económica del entorno del embarcadero se explicaría exclusivamente por la presencia de este, por el 135 136 137 138

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M Tendero / A Mª Ronda, op Cit (n 69), 279 y ss ; M Tendero / A Mª Ronda: La ciudad romana de Ilici (L’Alcúdia de Elche, Alicante), in: Ciudades romanas valencianas, Alicante 2014: 231; M Tendero, Ilici L’Alcúdia d’Elx, La Rella 28 (2015): 133 Ch Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages Europe and the Mediterranean 400–800, Oxford 2005: 442 A Chavarría, El final de las villae en Hispania (siglos IV–VII d C ), Turnhout 2007: 157 J Arce, Las ciudades, in: La Hispania del siglo IV Administración, economía, sociedad, cristianización, Bari 2002: 56; A Chavarría, op Cit (n 137): 112–114; A Perich Roca: Arquitectura residencial urbana d’època tardoantiga a Hispania (segles IV–VIII dC), Tarragona 2014: 132–137 [https:// www tdx cat/handle/10803/293906], consultada 31/08/2018 M Olcina / A Guilabert / E Tendero, op Cit (n 3): 211; A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, op Cit (n 37): 152

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cual saldría el excedente de producción hacia los mercados urbanos, en especial, el suyo propio: Ilici La antigua colonia, que vivió entonces uno de sus momentos de máximo esplendor140, afrontó así los retos del Bajo Imperio desde una posición reforzada, en la que la posible anexión del territorium de Lucentum y, probablemente, del de Ilunum – si esta civitas no logró sobrevivir al temprano despoblamiento de su urbs141 y sufrió un camino paralelo al de nuestro objeto de estudio – amplió notablemente su ager, fortaleciendo las bases económicas de la ciudad y modelando el territorio en el que poco después comenzarán a gestarse las nuevas realidades urbanas, rurales y sociales post-clásicas

140 M Tendero / A Mª Ronda, op Cit (n 133), 241; M Tendero, op Cit (n 135): 133 141 S Gutiérrez Lloret / I Grau, El territorio tardoantiguo y altomedieval en el Sureste de Hispania: Eio-Iyyuh como caso de estudio, in: Visigodos y Omeyas El territorio, Mérida 2012: 191 y ss ; S Gutiérrez Lloret / J Sarabia, The Episcopal Complex of Eio-El Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete, Spain) Architecture and Spatial Organization 7th to 8th Centuries AD, Hortus Artium Medievalium 19 (2013): 268; L Abad / S Gutiérrez Lloret / B Gamo, P F Cánovas, El Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete, España):un proyecto de investigación y puesta en valor del patrimonio, Debates de Arqueología Medieval 2 (2014): 360; L Abad, Ciudades Romanas en la Comunidad Valenciana Una introducción, in: Ciudades romanas valencianas, Alicante, 2014, 23; S Gutiérrez Lloret / J Sarabia, L’episcopio del Tolmo de Minateda (Albacete, Spagna) Architettura e funzione degli ambienti tra la fine del VI e l’inizio dell’VIII secolo, in: La villa restaurata e i nuovi studi sull’edilizia residenziale Tardoantica, Edipuglia, Bari 2014: 214; L Abad, La inscripción monumental del Tolmo de Minateda (Hellín, Albacete) y la génesis de un epígrafe, Gerión 35 (2017): 651–652

Las últimas decisiones del ordo decurionum de Segobriga Evidencias arqueológicas del funcionamiento de la vida pública municipal a partir del siglo II d C Rosario Cebrián

(Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

1. Introducción El foro de Segobriga constituye el inicio del proceso del nuevo marco urbano monumental construido a partir de época augustea y a la manera romana sobre el enclave indígena La incorporación de una plaza con pórticos, basílica, curia, templo y tabernae en la ladera norte del cerro de Cabeza de Griego (Saelices, Cuenca) obligó a su aterrazamiento, mediante el uso de criptopórticos y un sistema de celdillas ciegas a modo de subestructura, que modificaría radicalmente la fisonomía que hasta entonces había tenido el antiguo castro celtibérico, convertido en un oppidum stipendiarium1 desde mediados del siglo I a C Su edificación no puede entenderse sin la concesión del nuevo estatus municipal y viceversa, respaldada además por la pujanza económica de la ciudad y su lucrativo comercio del lapis specularis, que permitió la contribución privada en su financiación En el proyecto inicial de construcción del foro participaron indígenas de condición peregrina, tal y como se desprende de la lectura del texto conservado de la inscripción de litterae aureae de la plaza, que recordaba a [Proc?]ulus Spantamicus y La[---] [---]us, que asumieron el coste del material empleado en su pavimentación 2 La monumentalización de la ciudad y su vitalidad comercial la convirtieron en una importante ciudad del centro peninsular, conectada directamente a través de una vía terrestre con el puerto de Carthago Nova, lo que favoreció su integración en los circuitos

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Plin Nat 3, 25 Sobre el urbanismo de Segobriga a mediados del siglo I a C : R Cebrián, Segobriga, civitas stipendiaria (Plin HN 3 25) Nuevos datos arqueológicos sobre el urbanismo inicial de la ciudad, Gerión 35–2 (2017): 471–489 J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, Segobriga V Inscripciones romanas 1986–2010, Madrid 2011: nº 31, 54–59, con la bibliografía anterior

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comerciales que alcanzaron a todo el mundo mediterráneo durante el siglo I d C El distrito minero situado en el territorio de Segobriga generó la riqueza necesaria para que a partir de época de Claudio se produjese la promoción al Senado de personajes oriundos de la ciudad Entre ellos, se encontraban los Octavii, que aparecen en la inscripción de la scaenae frons del teatro como los evergetas que financiaron su decoración a inicios de época flavia y en la que se menciona a ocho personas, cuatro hombres y cuatro mujeres, con lazos de parentesco con una familia homónima de Carthago Nova 3 Otra familia fueron los Iulii, uno de cuyos miembros fue admitido en el ordo senatorial, adlecto in senatum, hacia mediados del siglo I d C e identificado como el más antiguo senador de Segobriga 4 También los Caecilii – Oinogenus y su hijo, con cognomen que delata su ascendencia celtibérica – pertenecieron al grupo de senadores segobrigenses, mencionados en dos pedestales de Roma con alusión al conventus Carthaginensis al que pertenecieron 5 A finales del siglo I d C , el programa de urbanización de Segobriga había adquirido la imagen de una ciudad romana Una nueva plaza se había construido al norte del foro en época tiberiana, en torno a un templo precedente de triple cella, configurando un área sacra rodeada de un tripórtico con criptopórticos, que se extendió hasta la muralla La obra del teatro debió emprenderse simultáneamente, aprovechando la ladera norte del cerro en la talla de prácticamente toda la cavea y sirviendo aquella plaza de nexo de unión entre el edificio escénico y el interior del recinto amurallado También el foro se ampliaba en época de Claudio con la edificación de un aula con exedra en el extremo septentrional junto a las viejas termas tardorrepublicanas, quizás sede del colegio de los sodales Claudiani Por último, en los primeros años del reinado de Vespasiano concluyeron las obras del anfiteatro y la ciudad se dotó de un nuevo complejo termal y de un aula basilical, que sirvió como lugar de reunión y negocios (Fig 1) Las primeras actuaciones del ordo decurionum de Segobriga se fechan en los primeros años del reinado de Augusto, como demuestran diversas inscripciones honoríficas que formaron parte del programa epigráfico del foro, con mención expresa decreto decurionum / ex decreto decurionum en sus textos 6 Desde entonces, en el foro de la ciudad se

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G Alföldy, Nuevos senadores, la inscripción dedicatoria del teatro y la aristocracia senatorial de Segobriga, in: J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 2): nº 1 a 19, 366–372 Sobre la reconstrucción del texto de la inscripción y su lectura, G Alföldy, op Cit (n 3): 374–381 y en relación al programa estatuario del teatro y su cronología, J M Noguera, Segobriga (Provincia de Cuenca, Hispania Citerior) (Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani – España, vol I, 4), Tarragona 2012: 299–309 G Alföldy, op Cit (n 3): 357–360 y nº 1, 382 CIL VI 41083 y 41084; G Alföldy, op Cit (n 3): nº 12–13, 386–387 Las evidencias epigráficas más antiguas de las actuaciones del ordo decurionum de Segobriga corresponden a un fragmento de pedestal con los nombres de los cónsules del año 15 a C ; el pedestal dedicado al secretario personal de Augusto, M Porcius M f Pup , en su condición de patrono del municipio; el dedicado al senador C Calvisius Sabinus; y el altar en honor a Augusto instalado en el pórtico meridional del foro Sobre estas inscripciones: J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 2): nº 27, 51–52; nº 20, 42–44; nº 12, 33–34; nº 5, 28–30

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Fig. 01 Topografía arqueológica de Segobriga en época altoimperial

alzaron numerosos pedestales de estatuas pedestres y ecuestres, que honraron a miembros de la familia imperial, patronos de la ciudad y magistrados, instalados en las antae de los once tramos de escalera de acceso a la basílica, la plaza y los intercolumnios del pórtico meridional y septentrional Del conjunto epigráfico de Segobriga, un poco más del 20 % pertenecen a inscripciones de carácter honorífico que se situaron en su espacio público, sobre todo, el foro durante la primera mitad del siglo I d C , si tenemos en cuenta que el 90 % de los epígrafes honoríficos se fechan en época augustea y julioclaudia Ya a finales del siglo I d C se encontraban inutilizados la mayor parte de los tramos de escalera que permitían la entrada a la basílica desde la plaza del foro debido a la colocación de nuevos pedestales de estatua y a la construcción de un pequeño edículo pavimentado con marmor Saetabitanum y marmor Lunense 7 También algunas de las tabernae situadas al sur del pórtico meridional habían modificado su función tras una restauración 7

J M Abascal / R Cebrián / M Trunk, Epigrafía, arquitectura y decoración arquitectónica del foro de Segobriga, in: S Ramallo (ed ), La decoración arquitectónica en las ciudades romanas de Occidente Actas del Congreso Internacional (Cartagena, 2003), Murcia 2004: 246

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del espacio, como es el caso de la taberna central (nº 4), en cuya pared del fondo se sitúo un podium sobre el que se colocaron ortostatos de caliza local que incluían un texto en honor de [T(itus) (?) F]lavius dedicado por [F]lavia Tych[e] y Flavius Ro[---] Esta transformación sugiere la adquisición de la taberna por una familia para convertirla en un espacio de autorrepresentación en un momento en el que el foro de la ciudad se encontraba repleto de pedestales de estatua, sobre todo, su pórtico meridional Segobriga y sus elites iniciaban el siglo II con el programa de monumentalización urbano terminado y las mismas expectativas económicas que le habían precedido, merced a su posición monopolista como principal centro productor y exportador del lapis specularis 2. Signos de continuidad de la vida urbana durante la primera mitad y años centrales del siglo II d. C. En el foro de la ciudad continuaron los homenajes a magistrados, erigiéndose estatuas y pedestales honoríficos La evidencia epigráfica más moderna de la labor administrativa del senado en la ciudad se fecha en los primeros años del siglo II d C y alude a la solicitud cursada al ordo, por parte de varios libertos, de la concesión de suelo público en el foro para honrar con un pedestal de estatua a su patrono, empleando para ello la fórmula accepto ab ordine loco 8 De los hallazgos epigráficos recientes en las excavaciones en el foro solo los pedestales de L Iulius Gallus, IIIIvir bis y flamen Augusti, y T Mollicus pueden fecharse en época antonina por el tipo de letra y el uso de una moldura para enmarcar el campo epigráfico 9 Mientras se alzaban estos monumentos en el foro se acometieron algunas reformas en el espacio público, que se presentan como indicadores del funcionamiento de la vida pública municipal En la trasera de las tabernae se sitúan una serie de recintos que tuvieron la función de contener la presión de la ladera del cerro y que se colmataron con rellenos de nivelación en época antonina Varios de estos niveles ofrecen un catálogo de piezas bastante amplio en el que están presentes formas de terra sigillata Hispánica, Drag 1 a 8, Drag 13, Drag 15/17, 27, 30, 36, 37 a y b, 44, Hisp 2, 5, 7, 20 y 51, Ritt 8, junto a producciones de terra sigillata Hispánica brillante, formas 9, 10 y 13, y cerámica pintada, formas Abascal 11 y 12 En la categoría de las ánforas se documentan contenedores que transportan vino – forma Dressel 2/4 de la Tarraconense y ánforas rodias – y salazones y salsas de pescado – forma Beltrán 2B – Completan el conjunto algunos ejemplares de lucernas – forma Deneauve VIIb y mineras – y un fragmento de cerámica vidriada decorado de hojas de piña, tipo Lattara 6 Gla-Ro 1a La cronología

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J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 2): nº 26, 49–51 J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 2): nº 22, 45–46 y nº 57, 79–80

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se establece a partir de la cerámica de cocina, con bordes que imitan claramente la forma Lamb 10a/Hayes 23b, o las marmitas que recuerdan a los caccabus de procedencia norteafricana Otro indicador podemos rastrearlo en la distribución urbana de agua potable suministrada por un acueducto, excavado por M Almagro Basch10 y fechado hacia la mitad del siglo I d C En las excavaciones realizadas en el foro de la ciudad en los años 2002 y 2003 se documentaron en la zona de acceso al foro desde el cardo maximus, en el pórtico meridional y en las tabernae algunas fistulae de plomo y elementos relacionados con la canalización del agua, como tapones de tubería y un filtro, que se convertían en los primeros hallazgos que evidenciaban la existencia de una red de distribución de agua urbana Una de estas tuberías se relaciona con una pequeña fuente instalada en la taberna nº 6 en época flavia, que presenta impresa con una matriz metálica las letras r(es) p(ublica) S(egobrigensis vel Segobrigensium) poniendo de manifiesto el carácter público de dicha red 11 El abastecimiento regular de agua a la ciudad continuó durante el siglo II d C como parece demostrarlo el hallazgo de una tapa de registro con bisagra con la misma inscripción que la fistula plumbea anterior, vinculada a una vivienda de época antonina localizada en la terraza superior a la basílica forense 12 Esta zona de la ciudad estaba ocupada por un barrio de casas construido a mediados del siglo I a C , que fueron terraplenadas en época de Tiberio, cuando el foro de la ciudad estaba construido y se encontraban muy avanzadas las obras de edificación de la plaza porticada en la ladera norte del cerro Desde entonces y hasta principios del siglo II, el área permaneció sin construcciones hasta que se levantó aquella vivienda de la que solo se ha conservado su impluvium Junto a estas evidencias, la construcción ex novo de un circo en la mitad del siglo II d C constituye el mejor exponente de la buena marcha de la ciudad y de la riqueza de sus habitantes,13 que continuaron participando en el proceso monumentalizador iniciado en época augustea para conmemorar su nuevo estatus jurídico (Fig 2)

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M Almagro Basch, El acueducto romano de Segobriga Saelices (Cuenca), Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos 79 (1976): 875–901 Esta tubería se encontró rota en dos fragmentos en la parte posterior de la taberna 6 y corresponde a una fistula quinum denum Sobre ella: J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, R(es) p(ublica) S(egobrigensis vel Segobrigensium), ZPE 168 (2011): 293–295; J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 2): nº 52, 72–73 Se trata de la tapa de registro de una arqueta de distribución de abastecimiento de agua pública a una vivienda La pieza mide 7,3 × 9,5 cm y su texto dice R(es) P(ublica) S(egobrigensis vel Segobrigensium) Se localizó en un nivel fechado en época tardoantigua (UE 14173), de amortización del espacio doméstico Sobre ella: J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 10): 291–292; J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 2): nº 126, 142–144 La construcción del circo y su financiación pueda relacionarse con la presencia en la ciudad del procurador minero, de origen griego, C Iulius Silvanus Melanio Sobre esta idea: J Ruiz de Arbulo / R Cebrián / I Hortelano, El circo romano de Segobriga (Saelices, Cuenca) Arquitectura, estratigrafía y función, Cuenca 2009: 96

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Fig. 02 Superposición del graderío norte del circo sobre un sector de la necrópolis noroccidental

El nuevo edificio para espectáculos se diseñó en una amplia meseta natural, de 400 m de longitud y 125 de anchura, localizada en el suburbio norte de la ciudad Excavado entre los años 2004 y 2008, se conoce algo más de dos tercios del edificio, del que se conserva buena parte de las carceres y grandes tramos de los graderíos norte y sur incluyendo dos tribunas realizadas en sillería, aunque no se han hallado indicios del hemiciclo de cabecera y del euripus Los materiales cerámicos presentes en los rellenos de nivelación de la arena sitúan el inicio de las obras hacia principios de la segunda centuria El repertorio cerámico documentado incluye una importante presencia de terra sigillata Hispánica, sobre todo, de formas decoradas – Drag 37b, Drag 35 y Drag 15/17 –, que establece la cronología

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a partir de la primera mitad del siglo II, aunque la presencia en estos mismos rellenos de una cazuela de la forma Hayes 23b y una tapadera, forma Hayes 182, de cerámica común africana, retrasan la datación a mediados de esta centuria La construcción del circo de Segobriga requirió la intervención del ordo municipal no solo porque se trataba de un edificio público sino también porque el área más oriental del espacio elegido para su edificación estaba ocupada desde época tardoaugustea por una necrópolis, organizada en torno a una vía funeraria, que discurrió en parte por una vaguada natural 14 Sabemos por la lex flavia Irnitana que los loca religiosa eran competencia de los aediles15, de manera que suponemos fueron ellos los encargados de iniciar el procedimiento que impidiese llevar a cabo nuevas sepulturas en esta área cementerial; vigilar el traslado de las tumbas a otra necrópolis, dada la condición de loca religiosa16 de los lugares concretos donde habían sido depositados los restos óseos de los difuntos; y supervisar las obras de construcción del circo, que incluía la destrucción de los monumentos funerarios Los trabajos arqueológicos llevados a cabo en el edificio circense revelaron que estos preceptos previstos en la ley se cumplieron Los enterramientos de la necrópolis segobrigense fueron reubicados en nuevos espacios funerarios como evidencia el escaso número de urnas cinerarias descubiertas, que no supera la docena, en un sector del cementerio donde fueron enterrados cerca de doscientas personas, según testimonian los datos epigráficos Una vez que los loca sepulturae habían sido trasladados, se procedió a la destrucción de los monumenta destinados a asegurar la memoria del difunto pero que no estaban afectados por el derecho sepulcral En el caso de Segobriga, la mayor parte de los monumentos funerarios quedaron conservados bajo los cimientos 14

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La necrópolis noroccidental de Segobriga se ubicó a 450 m del pomerium, articulándose en torno a una vía de estricto carácter funerario, muy cerca de la calzada Carthago Nova-Complutum Su excavación documentó 76 incineraciones y 3 inhumaciones Fue utilizada desde las primeras décadas del siglo I hasta mediados del siglo II d C , cuando la construcción del circo obligó a su desmantelamiento Dispuso de un ustrinum colectivo para la incineración de los cadáveres y un área de enterramientos en fosas A ambos lados de la vía funeraria, se situaron parcelas delimitadas por cipos con indicatio pedaturae o por vallas de madera que no han dejado huella arqueológica Junto a estas estructuras ligadas a los rituales funerarios, se localizaron cerca de doscientas inscripciones – principalmente, estelas – que evidencian el uso de la necrópolis, sobre todo por esclavos y libertos, muchos de ellos inmigrantes de origen griego Existieron también monumentos funerarios como demuestra el hallazgo de un notable conjunto de elementos de decoración arquitectónica y esculturas destinados a su ornamentación Los resultados de su excavación han sido dados a conocer en R Cebrián / I Hortelano, Segobriga VI La necrópolis noroccidental de Segobriga (Saelices, Hispania citerior): arquitectura funeraria, organización espacial y cronología, Cuenca 2016 M Mayer, H M H N S N L S El monumento funerario como confin inamovible, in: Bertinelli, M G / Donati, Á (eds ), Misurare il tempo misurare lo spazio, Atti del colloquio A I E G L , Borghesi 2005: 209–232 Dig 1, 8, 6, 4 Sobre la res religiosa y el régimen jurídico del espacio funerario, S Lazzarini, Regime giuridido degli spazi funerari, in: Banelli, G / Verzár-Bass, M (dirs ), Terminavit sepulcrum I recinti funerari nelle necropoli di Altino, Atti del Convegno (Venecia, 2003), Studi e Ricerche sulla Gallia Cisalpina 19, Roma 2005: 47–57

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del circo Algunas estelas o cipos fueron desplazados de su emplazamiento original y volcados hacia la vía durante su rellenado; otras fueron partidas intencionadamente manteniendo sus zócalos in situ; finalmente, unas pocas, las de menor altura, se dejaron en su ubicación original, sepultadas en el interior de los rellenos de nivelación Este proceso de desmontaje de la necrópolis fue paralelo al de la construcción del edificio para espectáculos, como lo evidencia que la mayor parte de los vertidos constructivos se mezclasen con los materiales de las incineraciones Los órganos de administración y magistraturas segobrigenses llevaron a cabo la desacralización y destrucción del área cementerial e iniciaron las obras de construcción del circo, que quedarían inacabadas En la misma fecha en la que la ciudad programaba este proyecto edilicio y lo ponía en marcha, dos flamines provinciales oriundos de Segobriga alzaban sus estatuas en el foro de la provincia Hispania citerior en Tarraco Uno de ellos, L Caecilius Porcianus (150–180 d C ?) con permiso del Consejo de la provincia, y otro L Annius Cantaber (120–180 d C ) costeada con los recursos del municipio, pecunia publica segobrigenses, que se lee en su inscripción 17 La construcción del circo, aún a pesar de que aceptemos que la obra no fue concluida, y la presencia de personajes de la élite local asumiendo el flaminado provincial de la Hispania citerior por decisión de su concilium, confirma la complejidad de su vida urbana, aun previsiblemente como gran metrópolis minera, y el dinamismo de sus elites decurionales a mediados del siglo II d C El declive de la actividad minera del yeso especular debió comenzar a finales del siglo I d C provocado por la competencia comercial ejercida por nuevas áreas mineras de lapis specularis situadas en Chipre, Capadocia, Sicilia y África pero, sobre todo, por la pujante industria del vidrio, que debió suponer un varapalo importante de índole económico para la ciudad Sin embargo, el final de esta industria por sustitución e inviabilidad comercial puede situarse en la segunda mitad del siglo II d C provocando en Segobriga la reducción drástica de las inversiones que la ciudad o los miembros de la élite local pudieron permitirse 18

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La lista de los flamines de origen segobrigense puede verse en J M Abascal / M Almagro-Gorbea, Segobriga, la ciudad hispano-romana del sur de la Celtiberia”, in: Carrasco, G (coord ), La ciudad romana en Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca 2012: 338–340, con la bibliografía anterior En este sentido, en los contextos cerámicos fechados a partir del siglo II y hallados en distintas zonas de la ciudad se observa un cambio en la orientación comercial hacia las rutas de distribución del interior peninsular, reduciéndose drásticamente los intercambios con la costa mediterránea y en los que predominan los productos netamente mesetarios, son escasas las importaciones norteafricanas y disminuyen los recipientes anfóricos, R Cebrián / I Hortelano, Los morteros centroitálicos procedentes de los rellenos constructivos del anfiteatro de Segobriga, Lucentum 35 (2016): 154

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3. Las primeras dificultades en la ciudad. Las obras de mantenimiento de las instalaciones públicas y la edilicia doméstica en la segunda mitad del siglo II d. C. De forma gradual a lo largo de la segunda mitad del siglo II, Segobriga sufrió un proceso de disminución de la actividad edilicia urbana La ciudad llevará a cabo obras de conservación y mantenimiento de las instalaciones públicas pero ya no acometerá, al menos que conozcamos por el momento, ninguna otra construcción monumental y de envergadura Se han constatado algunas iniciativas del mantenimiento de la red viaria pública Un sector de la necrópolis occidental sufrió las consecuencias de una crecida de un arroyo cercano, que anegó por completo un tramo de la calzada Carthago Nova-Complutum, obligando a su inmediata reparación 19 En 2008 la reexcavación de la denominada tumba monumental documentó esta crecida, que dejó bajo el lodo la moldura del podio sobre el que se dispuso una decoración pseudoarquitectónica de columnas corintias y arruinó el nivel original de la vía a cuya fachada se abría el mausoleo 20 Seguidamente se procedió a la sobreelevación de la cota de la calzada, vertiendo una capa de compactación y creando una cuneta para desaguar la vía Esta actuación permitió que la vía se mantuviese en uso una vez que el monumento estuvo, en parte, cubierto por las deposiciones aluviales del arroyo, cuya crecida se fecha en la primera mitad del siglo II d C por la presencia únicamente de producciones hispánicas de terra sigillata, entre las que se identifican las formas Drag 15/17, 18, 27, 36, 37, 37b e Hispánica 1 A finales del siglo II o inicios del III, el estado de ruina en el que se encontraba el aula rectangular, de carácter religioso, construida al este del viejo templo tardorrepublicano, y probablemente los pórticos circundantes, provocó que la ciudad acometiera su reconstrucción Esta zona había sido monumentalizada en época de Tiberio con muros de opus vittatum, terraplenando para ello un conjunto de viviendas de mediados del siglo I a C Su reconstrucción supuso el realzado de sus muros mediante fábricas de opus caementicium y la nivelación interior mediante el vertido de rellenos La técnica constructiva utilizada fue la del encofrado de hormigón de cal, de ejecución descuidada, tal y como se advierte en las improntas dejadas por la tablazón empleada 21 Esta

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Los programas de mantenimiento oficiales de esta vía prosiguieron hasta las primeras décadas del siglo IV como atestigua el hallazgo de un miliario de Constantino II en las excavaciones llevadas a cabo en el año 1952 por G de la Chica en el anfiteatro de Segobriga Sobre este miliario, J Velaza, Los miliarios en el ámbito de la Meseta meridional, in: Carrasco, G (coord ), Vías de comunicación romanas en Castilla-La Mancha (Ciudad Real, 2014), Cuenca 2016: 220–221, con la bibliografía anterior R Cebrián, La denominada tumba monumental de Segobriga (Saelices, Cuenca) Un mausoleo en forma de altar, Lucentum 29 (2010): 141–142 J M Abascal / A Alberola / R Cebrián / I Horelano, Segobriga 2009 Resumen de las intervenciones arqueológicas, Cuenca 2010: 47–49

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reparación supuso también la eliminación del acceso al edificio cultual a través del aula rectangular desde la plaza situada al norte y la creación de una puerta en su costado oeste junto al decumano que conectaba directamente con el área forense Sin embargo, otras evidencias arqueológicas muestran que el equipamiento urbano comenzó a ser desatendido La cloaca principal de la ciudad, situada bajo el cardo maximus, empezó a colmatarse La excavación de su relleno interior (UE 7656) proporcionó 14 monedas de época antonina, siendo las más modernas las acuñadas bajo los reinados de Marco Aurelio y Cómodo, junto a materiales cerámicos del mismo momento: terra sigillata Hispánica, formas Drag 15/17, 27, 37, Ritt 8, Ritt 13, lucerna Den VIIa y IX y cerámica africana de cocina, forma Hayes 23b 22

Fig. 03 Tabernae en el criptopórtico del aula con exedra del foro construidas en el siglo III (Imagen: J M Abascal)

Por su parte, en el ámbito privado se registró cierta actividad constructiva A finales del siglo II d C una vivienda de nueva planta se situó junto a las termas monumentales, a

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A pesar de la falta de mantenimiento, la cloaca continuó en uso hasta la segunda mitad del siglo V – primera mitad del VI cuando se documenta su colapso definitivo, fechado a partir del hallazgo en su relleno interior de un cuenco de terra sigillata clara D, forma Hayes 99, así como diferentes ejemplos de cerámica común y cerámica de cocina con decoración incisa Sobre las monedas encontradas en la excavación del relleno interior de la cloaca, J M Abascal / A Alberola / R Cebrián, Segobriga IV Hallazgos monetarios, Madrid 2008: 180, con referencia al catálogo

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la que venimos asociando al procurador imperial C Iulius Silvanus con su propietario, pues su nombre aparece en un altar en lengua griega dedicado a Zeus Theos Megistos hallado en sus cercanías 23 Su programa ornamental incluyó un pavimento de mosaico24 en la denominada estancia 2, pinturas murales del IV estilo provincial con imitaciones marmóreas, decoración metopada y paneles con escenas figuradas, con la imagen de pájaros y plantas, en las paredes de esta estancia y un techo pintado con guirnaldas25 (Fig 3)

4. El devenir de la ciudad en el siglo III d. C. Programas epigráficos y decorativos en el foro, inversiones y reparaciones puntuales en edificios públicos y la transformación de espacios. Durante época severa el ordo segobrigense continuó decretando la erección de estatuas y pedestales honoríficos dedicados a miembros de la familia imperial y a personajes de alto rango social, como lo manifiesta la estatua con umbo contabulato, que fue encontrada en el interior de una fosa datada en la segunda mitad del siglo IV en el pórtico sur del foro, perteneciente a un miembro del orden ecuestre,26 y un fragmento marmóreo con los restos de la labra de un retrato imperial, que sufrió una damnatio memoriae 27 Junto a estas evidencias, el hallazgo, delante de uno de los tramos centrales de escalera de acceso a la basílica desde la plaza, de un fragmento de epígrafe imperial, parcialmente borrado, que presenta la titulatura de un Caesar o de un Caesar Augustus, que a juzgar por el uso del título felicissimus corresponde a la tercera centuria 28 Ello avalaría la continuidad del funcionamiento de la vida pública municipal en la primera mitad del siglo III, que en el ámbito constructivo acometerá el desescombro y la compartimentación del criptopórtico del aula con exedra situada al norte del foro para convertirla en un espacio comercial, conformado por cuatro tabernae abiertas a una plaza, constatándose además algunas pequeñas reparaciones en los equipamientos públicos 23 24

25

26 27 28

J M Abascal / G Alföldy, Zeus Theos Megistos en Segobriga, AEA 71 (1998): 157–168 El mosaico presenta un panel circular de triángulos blancos y negros, flanqueado en sus esquinas por rosetas de seis pétalos dentro de círculos, limitado por una línea dentada y otra de triángulos, cuyo estilo se fecha a finales del siglo II, J M Abascal / R Cebrián, Mosaico romano de Segobriga, AEA 72 (1999), 299–301 R Cebrián / A Fernández Díaz, Un techo pintado en la domus de G Iulius Silvanus en Segobriga (Saelices, Cuenca, Conventus Carthaginensis), in: Actes du VIIIe Colloque international de l’Association Internationale pour la Peinture Murale Antique (Budapest-Veszprém, 2001), Budapest 2004: 137–146 J M Noguera, op Cit (n 3): nº 206, 154–156 y 272 J M Noguera, op Cit (n 3): nº 238, 170 y 272 J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 2): nº 11, 33

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En época de Claudio se había edificado un nuevo edificio detrás del pórtico septentrional del foro, elevado sobre un criptopórtico hasta el nivel de la plaza, desde donde se accedía atravesando las dos galerías porticadas del referido pórtico Su excavación en el año 1999 aportó un retrato de Agrippina maior junto a varios bloques epigráficos en los que se mencionaba a los promotores de su construcción, de los que conocemos los nombres de [Sempr]onia Arganta y M(arcus) Iuliu[s ---?]29, y diversos elementos de la decoración arquitectónica original del piso superior, que sugieren la existencia de aediculae adosadas a las paredes La función de la construcción se ha vinculado al culto dinástico, donde pudo situarse un ciclo estatuario en honor de la familia julioclaudia30, aunque a partir de su arquitectura parece verosímil pensar que sirvió como sede colegial de los sodales Claudiani, atestiguados epigráficamente en el ámbito funerario en la ciudad31 y dedicados al culto imperial, que configuró una sala para reuniones abierta a una exedra, con decoración estatuaria imperial en nichos situados en tres de sus lados 32 Ya en el siglo III el edificio se encontraba arruinado, llevándose a cabo su desescombro y remodelación 33 Se procedió entonces a la compartimentación en cuatro habitaciones, a modo de tabernae, con muros de opus caementicium, de muy mala factura, que se situaron en el interior del antiguo criptopórtico, demoliendo parte del muro occidental, de opus vittatum, para crear los vanos de acceso a cada una de las tabernae y los pilares que sustentaron el piso superior original, y reconstruyendo el lienzo murario del lado oriental (Fig 4) Lo interesante de esta reforma acaecida en pleno siglo III es la constatación de la reutilización de materiales altoimperiales con anterioridad al período tardorromano, que pone de relieve las dificultades financieras por parte del municipio para sufragar obras públicas en un momento en el que el fenómeno evergético de las elites locales

29 30

31

32

33

El texto de la inscripción alude a la donación de una construcción cum [--- Ce]phalo, que puede verse en J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 2): nº 32, 59–61, con la bibliografía anterior Para J M Noguera, op Cit (n 3): 276, este ciclo estatuario imperial de época temprana de Claudio puede asociarse al collegium funerario de los sodales Claudiani a partir del estudio escultórico y la información arqueológica proporcionada por la excavación de la denominada aula con exedra del foro segobrigense La epigrafía de Segobriga evidencia la existencia de dos asociaciones colegiales: los sodales Claudiani (CIL II 5879, 3114) y los sodales Iovis (AE 1999, 945) En tres ocasiones más, se cita a sodales sin apelativo (CIL II 3115 y J M Abascal / G Alföldy / R Cebrián, op Cit (n 2): nº 204, 196–197 y nº 245, 235–237) Sobre los conjuntos colegiales y su tipología arquitectónica, puede verse una síntesis en F Marcattili, v Collegiorum sedes, in: Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum (ThesCRA) IV, Los Ángeles 2004: 216–219 En relación a la ubicación de la sede de los sodales Claudiani en Segobriga, B Goffaux, À la recherche des édifices collégiaux hispaniques, in: Dondin-Payre, M / Tran, N (dirs ), Collegia Le phénomène associatif dans l’Occident romain, Scripta Antiqua 41 (2012): 207–209, ha planteado el posible uso de las tabernae del foro en las actividades colegiales J M Abascal / M Almagro-Gorbea / R Cebrián, Segobriga 1989–2000 Topografía de la ciudad y trabajos en el foro, MM 43 (2002): 140–141

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Fig. 04 Restos de la vivienda de C Iulio Silvano levantada al oeste de las termas monumentales a finales del siglo II

comenzaba a decaer 34 La utilización de elementos arquitectónicos – un fuste de columna y un capitel corintio – y epigráficos – los bloques conservados de la inscripción original situada en la fachada del edificio – como parte del material de construcción de los muros de encofrado se evidencia en la gran cantidad de argamasa adherida a sus caras con la que se encontraron y el lugar de hallazgo Las paredes de las nuevas tabernae fueron decoradas con paneles blancos delimitados por dos líneas paralelas en color rojo entre las que se situaban pequeños círculos, también en rojo, fechados a partir del siglo III Mientras esto sucedía, el suelo original del mosaico del frigidarium de las termas monumentales fue reparado con teselas de caliza amarilla, de mayores dimensiones,35 y la denominada taberna nº 5 del foro recibía un nuevo pavimento de marmor Chium Las placas de mármol presentan medidas distintas y están colocadas sin ninguna disposición regular Este hecho, junto a la ausencia de un mortero de preparación para

34 35

Sobre las donaciones de edificios y obras públicas en época altoimperial y la disminución de los actos evergéticos a partir del siglo III, E Melchor, La regulación jurídica del evergetismo edilicio durante el Alto Imperio, Butlletí Arqueològic 5–31 (2009): 145–169 Sobre el edificio, J M Abascal / A Lorrio / M Almagro-Gorbea, Las termas monumentales de Segobriga, Revista Arqueología 195 (1997): 38–45

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su instalación, aconseja pensar que no se trata del suelo original de la taberna y que el marmor empleado fue reutilizado proveniente de algún otro edificio de la ciudad, que había caído en desuso o que había sido objeto de una nueva pavimentación36 (Fig 5)

Fig. 05 Pavimento de placas de marmor Chium en una de las tabernae del foro

La arqueología ha constatado los niveles de abandono del foro, que se datan a partir de mediados de la tercera centuria En el ángulo sureste de la plaza y cubierto por el derrumbe de la basílica se documentaron dos niveles arqueológicos sin apenas materiales pero uno de ellos (UE 5689) contenía un fragmento de una fuente Hayes 50a de terra sigillata Africana clara C con una datación del 230–350 d C Otro nivel de abandono se localizó en el centro de la plaza (UE 5142), entre cuyos materiales se encontró una escultura togada caída sobre la inscripción broncínea del pavimento de la plaza De ahí proceden varios fragmentos de terra sigillata Africana clara C, asociados a formas Drag 15/17, 33 y 37 de terra sigillata Hispánica, que establecen la cronología a mediados del III o en su segunda mitad

36

R Cebrián, Mármoles coloreados de producción hispana utilizados en la decoración arquitectónica de edificios públicos en Segobriga (Saelices, Cuenca), in: Carrasco, G (coord ), La ciudad romana en Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca 2012: 392–393

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Junto a estas evidencias de abandono, se documentan los primeros signos de transformación del espacio público En la denominada taberna nº 1 del foro, la más cercana a la basílica, se instaló un horno para fundición de metales Su hallazgo, junto a algunos fragmentos de bronce de estatuas broncíneas procedentes de procesos de spolia del foro, hierro y plomo, en el nuevo nivel de uso, conformado por un pavimento de tierra apisonada, permite relacionar al conjunto de instrumentos de pesar recuperados en las tabernae y pórtico meridional del foro en niveles del siglo III d C con la nueva actividad artesanal emplazada en el foro de Segobriga 37 También en el costado occidental del aula basilical en este momento se producirá una remodelación del espacio convirtiendo el área en una zona destinada a un uso doméstico Reutilizando las estructuras de la fase anterior – una cisterna de uso público – se creó una vivienda de planta rectangular, de cuatro habitaciones dispuestas en dos pisos, con acceso desde uno de los decumani de la ciudad Su construcción se realizó con muros de piedra trabados con tierra en la zona oriental y cimentaciones de zócalo de piedra con alzado de tapia, revestido de estuco blanco y rosado, en las estancias situadas más al oeste Se taladró además la pared norte de la cisterna creándose una puerta para acceder a una estancia, que pudo funcionar como almacén Mientras en el piso superior, el suelo original de opus signinum del antiguo depósito de agua se utilizó como pavimento de una de las estancias de la nueva vivienda Por su parte, los edificios para espectáculos situados extramuros en el suburbio septentrional siguieron en uso hasta finales del siglo III Un incendio claramente evidenciado por M Almagro Basch38 en la excavación del anfiteatro, a partir del hallazgo de muros quemados y niveles arqueológicos con señales de fuego, fue la causa de su abandono definitivo, mientras en la orchestra y la scaena del teatro se instalaron espacios artesanales antes de su reocupación, fechada a mediados del siglo IV 39 El circo evolucionará de la misma manera, produciéndose su abandono, ruina, expolio y reocupación en época tardorromana 40 El registro arqueológico no permite concretar qué sucedió en los edificios públicos de la ciudad entre el último tercio del siglo III y la mitad del siglo IV, cuando se definirán nuevos espacios domésticos, que reaprovecharán elementos arquitectónicos, escultóricos y epigráficos anteriores en su construcción, asociados a silos de almacenamiento de cereal, reutilizados como vertederos Sin embargo, previsiblemente, la pér-

37 38 39 40

R Cebrián / I Hortelano, Librae, staterae y aequipondia de Segobriga Instrumentos de pesar hallados en la ciudad y su entorno, Lucentum 36 (2017): 217 M Almagro Basch, Segobriga Guía del Conjunto Arqueológico, Madrid 1986: 74 M Almagro-Gorbea / J M Abascal, Segóbriga y su conjunto arqueológico, Madrid 1999: 62–63 J Ruiz de Arbulo / R Cebrián / I Hortelano, El circo romano de Segobriga (Saelics, Cuenca) Carreras sobre las lápidas, in: Actes 3r Congré Internacional d’Arqueologia i Món Antic La Glòria del circ, curses de carros i competicions circenses (Tarragona, 2016), Tarragona 2017: 170–172

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dida de poder del ordo decurionum y el progresivo afianzamiento del cristianismo y su iglesia iniciarán el proceso de transformación hacia la ciudad tardoantigua 41

41

Sobre las transformaciones en la ciudad y su suburbio en época tardoantigua, puede consultarse una puesta al día en R Cebrián / I Hortelano, La topografía cristiana de Segobriga (Saelices, Cuenca), in: La Meseta Sur entre la Tardía Antigüedad y la Alta Edad Media (Almadén, 2015), Toledo 2017: 107–122

The Late Iulia Lybica in the context of the Peninsular Pyrenees Cèsar Carreras / Jordi Guardia / Josep Guitart (Autonomous University of Barcelona)

1. Introduction In Archaeology civil urbanism has always been employed as a symbol of city vitality By contrast, the lack of civil spaces and their abandonment implied a socioeconomic crisis in Classical cities1 This general trend that seems to affect the Western Roman Empire in the late 2nd century or early 3rd century AD affects towns in different ways In the case of NE Hispania, the crisis in the conventus Tarraconensis appeared in the 3rd century as a consequence of a change in the already exhausted socioeconomic model2 However, the response of each town to such economic crisis varied all over the territory of the conventus Tarraconensis from the quick recovery of some coastal cities such as Tarraco or Barcino, to a partial abandonment of inland towns such as Ilerda The case of the town of Iulia Lybica represents another original response to this general crisis The Pyrenees are the range of mountains that today separate two countries, but in the Roman times both sides were part of the same political entity, the Roman Empire In the last decades of the 1st century BCE, Rome decided to colonise all those mountains creating a series of complex road infrastructures and founding some small towns One of these small towns was Iulia Lybica (present Llívia), an urban foundation in the middle of the Cerdanya, a county covering a E-W valley that crosses the Pyrenees from the area close to Andorra to the river Tet valley leading to Ruscino (Perpignan) (Fig 1) This route was a natural corridor from Southern Gaul to the Mid-Ebro valley following the course of the Segre River to the city of Ilerda and the Ebro valley In medieval 1 2

L Brassous / A Quevedo (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise, Madrid 2015 J M Macias, Querer y no poder: la ciudad y el Conventus Tarraconensis (siglos II–IV), in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre les IIe et IVe s , Madrid 2015: 29–46

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Fig. 01 Map with the location of Iulia Lybica (Llivia)

times, this pilgrimage route was named Strata Ceretana3 With regard to the Roman town, it lies on the skirts of a hill (Puig Castell) in its southern side which protected its inhabitants from the cold northern winds Nearby, there are sources of iron ore and different hard stones, as well as a nice plain for agricultural exploitation Besides, there is a series of hot springs around this area It seems that the town was a Roman foundation, in a place earlier occupied by indigenous populations (Cerretani) Iulia Lybica was the first town of the Hispania Citerior when crossing the border with Gaul, so it probably acted as statio to collect a border tax such as the quinquagesima It is not a unique case since there are Augustan foundations4 in the Pyrenees near the border between both provinces controlling important

3 4

J Padró, Les vies de comunicació romanes al Pirineu català, in: V Col·loqui Internacional d’Arqueologia de Puigcerdà, Puigcerdà 1984: 61–87 Cass Dio (Liv 33, 7) refers to the city foundations of Augustus in Spain during his second journey on the Iberian Peninsula dated in 5 A D

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mountain routes such as Iturissa (4,5 ha – Burguete) near the port of Roncesvalles or Iacca (7,5 ha – Jaca) near the port of Somport 2. The early Iulia Lybica: excavations around the forum area The modern town of Llivia was supposed to be the ancient Iulia Lybica, which according to Ptolomeus5 in the 2nd century AD was a polis of the Cerretani The other classical reference comes from Pliny the Elder who said that “… enjoying Latin rights, the Ausetani, and the Cerretani, both Julian and Augustan”;6 the same status that enjoyed Lugdunum Convenarum (Saint Bertrand de Comminges) in the central French Pyrenees7 Archaeology in the modern town of Llivia started in the late 70s and early 80s with scientific excavations in the upper town on the skirts of Puig Castell There were small interventions with some dwellings dated to the Principate (i e Hort de la Rectoria, Carrer del Forns) as well as other sites with Roman material (i e Cal Meranges, Hort de la Falona, Cal Doctor) However, little was known about the town urbanism until the excavations at the Colomines A and B in 19988 A development of high standard apartments in the Colomines brought about some rescue excavations that unearthed a Roman site (Colomines B) with a series of rooms and a hypocaust, together with a lot of South Gaulish-Samian pottery Moreover, the excavations at Colomines A provided a large building with a peristyle in the middle, a couple of rooms in the Northern part and an exedra The high quality of colour marbles and decoration motifs such as capitals or mouldings indicate that the construction may have been a public building, and one possible choice was a forum Marbles came from exotic lands such as Asia Minor (i e Pavonazzetto, Portasanta, Africano) or Northern Africa (i e Assuan, Giallo Antico)9 and a wide variety of Pyrenees marbles from Southern Gaul (i e Saint Beat, Aubert)10 Therefore, the extension of the Roman town in 2001 was around 2–3 ha over two or three terraces in the upper part of modern Llívia Likewise, there were a couple of sites on the outskirts of the old town (i e Camí Ral, Cal Barrier) probably related to ancient roads to access the municipium In 2013, the research project was resumed seeking to

5 6 7 8 9 10

Ptol 2, 6, 68–69 Plin Nat 3, 22–23 Str 4, 2, 2 J Campillo / M Grau / J Guàrdia, Primers resultats de les excavacions dutes a terme a la zona de Les Colomines de Llívia, Cerdanya, in: XI Col·loqui Internacional d’Arqueologia de Puigcerdà, Puigcerdà 1998: 285–294 Colour marbles have been classified by the research group EMLA from the UAB J M Fabre / R Sablayrolles, Carrières de marbre des Pyrénées centrales Le point sur la recherche, Gallia 59 (2002): 61–81

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determine whether the Colomines A building was really a forum and confirm its three occupation phases11 It was decided to undertake an electromagnetic (EM) geophysical survey of all the area around the Colomines A building, which provided some geophysical anomalies Therefore, all those potential anomalies were sampled with small trenches offering different results On the one hand, one anomaly was identified in what became the NW corner of the forum with a double wall together with an opus signinum floor in the Northern part of the modern church of Mare de Déu dels Àngels In the southern part of the church another anomaly revealed the western forum wall12 Therefore, those small trenches provide us with the whole forum width, which was 42 5 meters (14 3 perticae) However, the southern archaeological drillings revealed that the peristyle and external forum wall continued beyond the exedra, descending to a lower terrace The final forum length is now 42 8 meters, although there is no sign of the closing southern wall In 2017, a second geophysical survey was carried out with Leica GPR that has provided new anomalies in the southern part of the street below, which may be identified with the forum limits Those anomalies are recorded at 54 4 meters from the Northern wall, but they need to be confirmed by future excavations As regards to chronology, some layers from the foundation of the forum wall as well as from the exedra record Italian Samian ware that can be dated to the reign of Augustus (10 BC) and Tiberius (AD 15) Lugdunum Convenarum (Saint Bertrand de Comminges) shows many signs of public euergetism in the first decades of the 1st century AD, exactly as the Iulia Lybica forum’s dating13 Since the forum width could be revealed, there was the hypothesis that a relevant building should be located in the middle of the Northern forum side (Fig 2) A large trench was excavated there and a relevant building in the form of a temple was discovered The temple cella is well-preserved with its B&W tiled floor, remains of a sculpture pedestal and coated lateral walls The temple cella covers an area of 10 5 meters long (14 passus) and 7,8 meters wide (10,4 passus) that is completed by a 7 meters long eroded pronaos (9,3 passus) This column entrance is preserved below the level used, so there are no remains of any column basis and their number is also unknown Everything is complemented by two 11 12

13

J Guàrdia / M Maragall, Periodització del jaciment de Les Colomines de Llívia zona A (segles I– VI d C ), Setenes Jornades d’Arqueologia de les Comarques Gironines, Girona 2004: 247–252 C Carreras / J Guàrdia / J Guitart / O Olesti, Prospecció arqueològica i sondejos al fòrum de Iulia Libica (Llívia, Cerdanya), in: XII Jornades d’Arqueologia de les Comarques de Girona, Girona 2014: 253–260 J Guàrdia / C Carreras / J Guitart / O Olesti / M Ramón, Excavacions al fòrum de Iulia Libica Campanyes 2014 i 2015, in: X3 Jornades d’Arqueologia de les Comarques de Girona, Girona 2016: 209–216 S Edmonde-Cleary, Rome in the Pyrenees Lugdunum and the Convenae from the First Century B C to the Seventh Century AD, New York 2008

The Late Iulia Lybica in the context of the Peninsular Pyrenees

Fig. 02 Plan of the town forum (Les Colomines A)

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frontal external walls, but no signs of a front staircase Probably, there was a lateral staircase covering the distance between the podium and the forum ground (Fig 3)

Fig. 03 Temple cella with a B/W tiled floor

One of the later walls (5–6th century AD) rests on the temple’s basement and contains fragments of white marble sculptures that may belong to the temple’s divinity and the forum decoration programme There are two joint fragments of a feminine goddess (Fig 4), a male Iulia-Claudian head and a hand with a ring The forum complex seems to have been functioning with only minor changes – remains of post-holes in the peristyle vaults – until the end of the 2nd or early 3rd century AD, when the building underwent complete transformation14

14

J Guàrdia / C Carreras / J Guitart / O Olesti, El Fòrum de Iulia Libica i la capitalitat ceretana en època altimperial Novetats arqueològiques Treballs d’Arqueologia 21 (2017): 181–204

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Fig. 04 Two-fragment of a feminine head of the possible temple’s divinity

3. A great reform of the Forum area (3rd–4th century AD) The late 2nd and early 3rd centuries AD saw a major transformation of the entire forum area, and probably also the city It is difficult to know whether this change can be labelled as a crisis, or a new role of the town and forum The extension of the town shrank to a size of 1–2 ha according to the archaeological contexts documented so far For instance, the important domus of Colomines B was abandoned and there is no sign of new structures The external part of the forum registers a raise in the floor levels of at least 20–40 cm This compact layer with African red slip and African coarse wares (Ostia I 264A; Ostia II 3 332) also includes fragments of marble and decorative materials Therefore, it seems that the forum was reused for another function and part of the decorative programme was dismantled One of the clearest evidence of such transformation is the use of an altar stone and a sculpture pedestal as construction material in the Eastern forum entrance The reuse of both stones implied that some religious rituals and civil elements were no longer in use in the forum Perhaps, this is a long process that affected the 4th century AD when imperial edicts in favour of Christianism did not exclude other pagan cults, whose extinction is documented later in Late Antiquity (5th century onwards)15 Besides, there are a series of new walls subdividing the Northern rooms of the forum (i e Room 3) with some remains of hearths, which may suggest a private use of space rather than a public function Again, there are many marble crustae and capitals

15

J M Macias, op Cit (n 2): 35

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reused in these news structures In other words, the forum had lost its basic function as a political and religious space and would have been transformed into a residential area With regard to the imports of luxurious materials, either marbles or pottery, it seems that this phase 2 reveals a downturn The town of Iulia Lybica did not receive many African Red Slip wares, which was the main fine ware of this period together with Hispanic Samian ware16 In fact, the supply of these fine wares is so low that it suggests a possible local production of Hispanic Samian in the region of Cerdanya17 In fact, the excavation of Cal Barrier, outside the town, documents the presence of pottery kilns, but the scarce presence of Hispanic Samian ware or moulds reveals that these did not produce fine wares Furthermore, the evidence coming from the amphorae shows that Iulia Lybica did not import the main products of the period (wine, oils, garum) in ceramic vessels as it is recorded in coastal towns with remains of North African and Eastern amphorae Even if the phase 1 registers a wide variety of amphorae of different origins and products, this second period barely shows any sign of commercial transactions on the basis of amphorae Despite being a frontier town, the lack of products coming from both provinces suggests that Iulia Lybica had a self-sufficient economy in this period focused on local agriculture and stock raising Commercial contacts through the Strata Ceretana were at its lowest level during the 3rd and 4th century AD, partially due to the insecure roads Indeed, the Roman colony of Ruscino18, which was the commercial partner of Iulia Lybica, was at its height until the end of the 1st century AD when it started its decline partially due to an earthquake In AD 350, the usurper Magnentius sent a detachment of light cavalry to slay Constans, the legitimate emperor, in Elna19 Afterwards, Constantine II sent troops to take back control of the Pyrenees 4. Iulia Lybica in Late Antiquity (5th–6th AD) Despite the town’s contraction, its special location in the middle of a strategic route crossing in the Pyrenees supported its continuity over time Probably, some initial functions such as border control or statio may have undergone transformation in these centuries, but the city was a hub of land communications in this region 16 17 18 19

J Guàrdia / C Carreras / P De Soto, Circuits comercials de Iulia Lybica (Llívia): visions a partir de les ceràmiques i dels marbres Revista d’Arqueologia de Ponent 27 (2017): 147–168 J Buxeda / J Campillo, Identificació arqueològica i arqueomètrica de noves produccions de Terra Sigillata Hispànica a l’àrea dels Pirineus Catalans Pyrenae 31–32 (2001): 113–131 M Heijmans, Les espaces civiques dans les villes de Gaule Narbonnaise, II–IV siècle, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), op Cit (n 2) 47–62 Zos 2, 58

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In the following chronological phase 3 – which covers the 5th and 6th centuries AD – the activity in the town did not change much since it occupied the same area of 1–2 ha Naturally, there were many transformations inside the forum because the space it occupied remained the same The Northern rooms were divided to create 4 spaces of relatively small size with remains of post-holes and hearths One of the long walls (east to west) is dated to the 5th century, and it also rests on the temple walls This wall is especially relevant because it contains all the fragments of white marble sculptures mentioned above, which are supposed to belong to the public square, the temple divinities or another sculpture programme of the Augustan or Tiberian period These sculptures were destroyed in the 5th century AD and employed as construction material when, probably, the new inhabitants worshiped the Christian God However, there are no signs of the new religion in the forum because the temple was completely abandoned and no known structures can be associated to a Christian basilica In the Western part of the forum, close to the present church of Mare de Déu dels Àngels, a trench was excavated in 2013 providing a few burials dating to the 11th–12th centuries Perhaps, those burials can reveal a primitive church or basilica in the Western part of the forum below the modern church What is clear from the remains of sculptures of the 5th century wall is that the pagan temple was desacralized A surprising find of this period is a treasure of 197 coins recovered in 2001 inside room 3 under the pavement, which can be dated to the mid-6th century AD by a Justinian nummus (AD 534–539) issued at Carthage20 The rest of the treasure consists of minimi – small coins (17–12 mm) – with the legend GLORIA EXERCITVS (10 coins), VIRTVS AVGVSTI (10 coins), SPES REIPVBLICAE I (35 coins), SPES REIPVBLICAE II (24 coins), FEL TEMP REPARATIO (27 coins) The distribution of those coins from Byzantine and Vandal origin was not strange in the region where there are parallels in places such as Saint Bertrand de Comminges and Toulouse Again, this find appears to suggest the presence of a contemporary military detachment in Iulia Lybica, acting as a strategic point on the road leading to Ruscino (Perpignan) In the AD 408–9, Paulus Orosius21 refers to conflicts in the Pyrenees due to the usurpation of Constantine III The Suebi, Alans and Vandals also crossed the mountains from the Eastern side to settle later in Gallaecia Later in 456 AD, the Visigoths entered in the Iberian Peninsula as Roman foederati to fight those tribes and settled definitely here Within this migration context in the Pyrenees, a monkey’s (macaque)

20

21

P M Guihard / O Olesti / J Guàrdia / O Mercadal, Soutenir l’usage monétaire dans le Nord de la péninsule ibérique au Vie siècle L’exemple du dépôt de minimi de Llívia (Espagne), in: Produktion und Recyceln von Münzen in der Spätantike / Produire et recycler la monnaie au Bas-Empire, Mainz 2016: 119–138 Oros 7, 40

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burial dating by C14 to the mid 5th century is documented in front of room 3,22 which is especially puzzling not only because of the type of animal but also its dressing and the tomb itself The macaque’s tomb was a small grave adapted to its size (Fig 5) that included a series of metal objects such as rings, a brooch belt, decorated plates distributed in its arm and near its hip Those metal objects may have fastened or decorated the ape’s dress One should bear in mind that the cold climate of Llívia was not suitable for a macaque, so it may have been here temporarily, perhaps with one of the German tribes crossing the Pyrenees Furthermore, the quality of its dressing and the burial position may suggest that the animal had a singular relevance amongst the town inhabitants, perhaps the pet animal of an important person or military unit This period also documents some new domestic constructions contiguous to the early forum, using some of its walls These constructions are recorded in the Eastern side with different building materials and techniques Even if they have not yet been completely excavated, the structures appear to be small residences Likewise, there are other odd structures such as a small stone-room (2 × 2 metres) in the NE corner of the forum, with a wall that leads to the outside forum as well as different construction phases In terms of archaeological material, this is a very poor period which does not show any external contacts with other regions and the Mediterranean Again, it is believed that Iulia Lybica maintained a self-sufficient economy based on agriculture and stock-raising with few outside contacts through the Strata Ceretana This main road, probably origin of the town, became once more a military strategic axis now under the control of the Visigoths Julian of Toledo explained in his Historia expeditionis Wambae Regis23 of AD 672 that the king Wamba sent his troops to quell the uprising of the duke Paulus in the Pyrenees taking the fortresses of Vulturaria (castrum quoduocatur Clausuras), Colliure and the castrum of Iulia Lybica, thereby controlling the Strata Ceretana It is interesting that Julian of Toledo mentions a castrum in Iulia Lybica, which may have a fortress on top of Puig del Castell However, there is no archaeological evidence of this earlier occupation in Late Antiquity; only some walls belonging to the Dark Ages (9–10th centuries) before the construction of the castle between the 11–12th centuries

22

23

J Guàrdia / M Maragall / O Mercadal / O Olesti / J Galbany / J Nadal, Enterrament d’època tardoromana d’un macaco amb aixovar al jaciment de Les Colomines (Llívia, La Cerdanya), Empúries 55 (2007): 199–227 O Olesti / J Guàrdia / M Maragall / O Mercadal / J Galbany / J Nadal, Controlling the Pyrenees: a Macaque’s Burial from Late Antique Iulia Libica (Llívia, La Cerdanya, Spain), in: Sarantisand, A / Christie, N (eds ), War and Warfare in Late Antiquity, Leiden-Boston 2013: 703–731 Iul Tolet 11

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Fig. 05 Late monkey burial in the middle of the forum (mid Vth c AD)

5. Transformation of Iulia Lybica over the time As it happens in many other towns of the conventus Tarraconensis, the town of Iulia Lybica evolved from its foundation in the late 1st century BC to the 7th century AD The general plan of Augustus consisted in a series of corridors through the Pyrenees that could make this range of mountains more permeable as in the Italian Alps Neverthe-

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less, this ambitious plan was never completely accomplished There were some commercial transactions between Gallia and Hispania through those corridors but most contacts were made through the coastal roads (via Augusta) or by ship Nevertheless, a small town in the Pyrenees such as Iulia Lybica survived reasonably well during the Principate, even if the commercial traffic was never spectacular24 It combined a self-sufficient economy with some commercial transactions from its main road It is believed that some extra wealth may be due to the presence of a statio or customs post where traders should pay taxes or portoria for crossing merchandises from one province to the other As a result, it became a typical road city and capital of a large territory with an extra source of income from its administrative function At the end of the 2nd century and early 3rd century, the town archaeology documents a major change that it is reflected in a reduction of its size and the reuse of the forum for new functions Moreover, there is a drop in imports from other places, which affected local economy in farming customs taxes Is this a sign of crisis? What kind of crisis? A road city such as Iulia Lybica depended on the economic prosperity of a route, in this case the road connecting Ruscino (Perpignan) to Ilerda (Lleida) As has been said, Ruscino suffered an earthquake in the early 2nd century and its economy never recovered As regards Ilerda, there are signs of abandonment in the early 3rd century AD on the basis of archaeology and also a quote of Ausonius of Bordeaux in the late 4th century AD25: “Will be able to, besides, Bilbilis, or the Calagurris held on to the rocks, or the arid Ilerda in ruins disordered between rough mountains, that looks from the high to the torrent Sicoris, lodge to who is my pride and the one of his land …?” Therefore, the road Ruscino-Ilerda was in crisis because both the main destinations in the route were already in decline Of course, the economic dynamics of the road affected all the cities, which had to adapt to a new situation For instance, it was difficult to farm border taxes when there was a lack of commercial movements Our present evidence from Iulia Lybica shows that the town reduced its economic activity and adapted to a new situation Perhaps the word crisis does not apply to the case of our town, but rather a major change As happens in the Roman Republican period before the town’s foundation, the Strata Ceretana was still an important military pass-way through the Pyrenees26 The town was always in a military corridor for Romans and Barbarians from the 4th century onwards, and its control was vital

24 25 26

C Carreras / P de Soto, Historia de la movilidad en la Península Ibérica: Redes de transporte en SIG, Barcelona 2010 Auson Ep 29, 60–61 A Muñoz, Anàlisi de rutes de mínim cost (LCP) aplicada al cas de l’avanç del contingent cartaginés d’Anníbal Barca durant l’etapa catalana-Pirenaica [Unpublished BA dissertation (UAB)], Barcelona 2015

Changes in the city network in Roman Hispania Laurent Brassous (University of La Rochelle)

Ancient accounts and recent archaeological data have revealed that, as from the 2nd and especially the 3rd century AD, the civic spaces of many cities in the provinces of Roman Hispania where the political community went about its business suffered an acute deterioration or were even abandoned1 This state of affairs thus challenges the existence and functioning of the civitas at the time It should also be recalled that, while these civic spaces were in the process of being abandoned, in most of these cities they continued to be occupied, not only sporadically, but sometimes consistently and over long periods Such phenomena appear to have affected all categories of cities, viz coloniae such as Carthago Nova (Cartagena)2 and Clunia3 and Augustan or Flavian municipia such as Emporiae (Ampurias)4, Baelo (Bolonia)5, Lucentum (Tossal de Manises)6,

* 1

2 3 4 5 6

This work is part of the R&D&I project HAR2016–74854-P “De municipia latina a oppida labentia Sobre la sostenibilidad económica e institucional del expediente municipal latino en la Hispania Romana (siglo I–III d C )”, financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad P Diarte-Blasco, La configuración urbana de la Hispania tardoantigua, Oxford 2012; L Brassous / A Quevedo (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre le IIe et le IVe siècle, Madrid 2015; J Andreu (ed ), Oppida Labentia Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017 A Quevedo / S Ramallo, La dinámica evolutiva de Carthago Nova entre los siglos II y III, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre le IIe et le IVe siècle, Madrid 2015: 161–177 P Palol / J Guitart, Los grandes conjuntos públicos El foro colonial de Clunia, in: Clunia 8 1, Salamanque 2000 X Aquilué / R Mar / J M Nolla / J Ruiz de Arbulo / E Sanmartí, El fórum romá d’Empuries, Barcelona 1984 P Sillières, Vivait-on dans des ruines au IIe siécle ap J -C ? Approche du paysage urbain de l’Hispanie d’après quelques grandes fouilles récentes, in: Ciudad y comunidad cívica en Hispania: siglos II y III d C = Cité et communauté civique en Hispania, Madrid 1993: 147–152 A Guilabert / M Olcina / E Tendero, Lucentum (Tossal de Manises, Alicante), estudio de caso de un municipium de la Tarraconense sur, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre le IIe et le IVe siècle, Madrid 2015: 145–159

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Ercavica (Cañaveruelas)7, Segobriga (Saelices)8 and Labitolosa (La Puebla de Castro)9 Recent archaeological excavations at the sites of Los Bañales and Torreparedones (Itucci?) also point in this direction10 This degradation of civic spaces, which not only affected civil and religious buildings in forums and other sanctuaries, but also theatres and amphitheatres, intra-urban road networks, water facilities and city walls, has for quite a while begged several questions, first and foremost the reasons behind this phenomenon Whatever the primary cause of this decline11, it is obvious that the municipal authorities were slow to react, if at all, to the deterioration of spaces that must have been indispensable for the functioning, the collective memory and the mere existence of communities Apparently, neither had they the means nor the will to sustain or repair those spaces in which community members went about their daily lives and expressed their views This situation, which was also accompanied by the gradual disappearance of the epigraphic evidence of their continuity – while the cities were still inhabited – seems to suggest the disappearance of the civitas, i e the secular institution on which Greco-Roman culture was based Does this mean that this evidence testifies to the disappearance of the civitas in Roman Hispania? It would be a grave mistake to accept this interpretation Indeed, the outmoded views of modern scholars, such as M Rostovtzeff – one of the most influential – among others, who accepted the general decadence of the 7 8 9 10

11

J Morin / A Ribera, Los foros de Valentia y Ercavica Dos modelos de crisis urbana a finales del alto imperio, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre le IIe et le IVe siècle, Madrid 2015: 123–125 J M Noguera / J M Abascal / R Cebrián, El programa escultórico del foro de Segobriga’, in: Noguera, J M , Conde, E (eds ), Escultura romana en Hispania, 5, Actas de la reunión internacional (Murcia, 2005), Murcia 2008: 283–343 Mª A Magallón / P Sillières, Labitolosa: la Puebla de Castro, province de Huesca, Espagne: une cité romaine de l’Hispanie citérieure, Bordeaux 2013 J Andreu / I Delage, ‘Diurna atque aeterna ciuitas?’ sobre la sostenibilidad de los ‘municipia Latina’ hispanorromanos a partir de un caso paradigmático: Los Bañales de Uncastillo, in Andreu, J (ed ), Oppida Labentia Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 345–373; J A Morena / A Ventura / C Márquez / A Moreno, El foro de la ciudad romana de Torreparedones (Baena, Córdoba): primeros resultados de la investigación arqueológica (campaña 2009–2010), Itálica Revista de Arqueología Clásica de Andalucía 1 (2011): 145–169 The answers given by historians and archaeologists who question the notion of crisis in this regard are either general and structural (higher taxes, crisis of the elites, etc ) or local and cyclic (lack of natural resources, natural disasters, imperial intervention, etc ) Even though the list of potential causes is too long to list and discuss here, two contributions provide plenty of food for thought: A Cepas, Crisis y continuidad en la hispania del siglo III, Madrid 1997, especially 13–27, and C Witschel, La crisis del siglo III en Hispania, algunas reflexiones, in: Andreu, J / Cabrero, J / Rodà, I (eds ), Hispania: las provincias hispanas en el mundo romano, Tarragona 2009: 473–503 The only point of consensus today is that it had nothing to do with the invasions of the Mauri at the end of the 2nd century or with those of the barbarians in the 3rd century ( J Arce, La crisis del siglo III en Hispania y los invasiones bárbaras, HAnt 8 (1978): 257–269)

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civitas, which would have succumbed under the weight of a late Roman state that was increasingly more interventionist and overbearing, should be rejected12 This analysis is now no longer tenable, as others scholars have demonstrated elsewhere13 It was impossible for the city institution, as a local political community, organised and recognised by the state, to disappear as long as this held sway over the provinces The civitas was a necessary link in the Empire’s administrative chain of command as regards the management of local affairs and taxation14 Territorial control depended on an efficient city network, which was the last level in an administrative system conditioned by the decisions of the Princeps and his agents Although it is impossible to claim that, by and large, the civitas disappeared, it does seem that a certain number of cities ceased to perform their civic functions, as the deterioration of their civic spaces would indicate The relegation of an urban agglomeration from capital city status to that of a secondary agglomeration or vicus was neither impossible nor unknown in the Empire This loss of the ‘privilege of liberty’ is mentioned in some literary sources, unfortunately outside the Iberian Peninsula It often responded to political considerations, insofar as only the emperor could award or retain this privilege: Herodian15 was familiar with the cases of the cities of Byzantium and Antioch which had risen against Septimius Severus and which were placed under the control of the cities of Perinthus and Laodicea, respectively The causes behind this loss of autonomy could also have been economic, as indicated by Libanius16, when referring to the city of Emesa which lost its city status owing to the lack of resources It is not known in what year this occurred, but in 388 the rhetorician of Antioch advised the ambassadors of Emesa to the Magister Officiorum so that the Emperor Arcadius might restore it to its former status According to A Chastagnol, it was this same cause, linked to demographic decline, that was supposedly behind the Phrygian city of Orcistus’ relegation to the status of vicus, attested by a Constantinian inscription celebrating its recovery (ILS, 6091)17 Given the lack of evidence, it is impossible to say for certain whether this was ever the case in Hispania Nonetheless, A Ventura has recently formulated a similar assumption about the colonia Ituci (Torreparedones?), which would have lost its autonomy

12 13

14 15 16 17

M I Rostovtseff, The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, Oxford 1926 A H M Jones, The Later Roman Empire (284–602), Oxford 1964, vol 2: 712–766; J M Carrie / A Rouselle, L’Empire romain en mutation des Sévères à Constantin (192–337), Paris 1999: 263–266 et 696–711 For Hispania in particular: J Arce, Las ciudades, in: Teja, R (ed ), La Hispania del siglo IV Administración, economía, sociedad, cristianización, Bari 2002: 41–58; M Kulikowski, Late Roman Spain and its Cities, Baltimore/London 2004; L A Curchin, The Role of Civic Leaders in Late Antique Hispania, SHHA 32 (2014): 281–304 L A Curchin, op cit (n 14): 290 Hdn 3, 6, 9 Lib 80, [846 F] A Chastagnol, L’inscription constantinienne d’Orcistus, MEFRA 93–1 (1981): 381–416

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following Septimius Severus’ repression of the followers of Albinus, perhaps to the benefit of the neighbouring city of Tucci18 Hispanic sources describing city life during Late Antiquity are rare and unsatisfactory Some of them, which have already been widely discussed, such as the inscription of Oretum, the rescripts from the Theodosian Code and the canons of the Council of Iliberis, indicate that in some cities municipal organisation continued as before19 On the other hand, archaeological research has also shown that the deterioration of the civic spaces of a number of cities occurred at a much later date, not until after the 4th century and following the collapse of Roman administration in the Hispanic provinces This not only occurred in the provincial capitals (Tarraco, Corduba and Emerita)20, but also in some smaller towns such as Conimbriga, Complutum and even Valentia21 The construction or rebuilding of the walls of many cities as from the end of the 3rd century and throughout the following one (Barcino, Lucus, Asturica, Gijón, etc ) attest to their vitality22 Walls were the ultimate civic monuments since they protected the urban communities that had, in all likelihood, funded them In this connection, some authors have even speculated – based on examples whose selection has been excessively rigorous – that there was no real change in Hispanic 18

19

20

21

22

Á Ventura, Torreparedones (colonia ‘Virtus Iulia Ituci’) entre Severo y Constantino: ‘¿oppidum labens uel damnatum et adtributum?’, in: Andreu, J (ed ), Oppida Labentia Transformaciones, cambios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017: 443–487 J Arce, La ciudad en la España tardorromana: ¿continuidad o discontinuidad?, in: Ciudad y comunidad cívica en Hispania: siglos II y III d C = Cité et communauté civique en Hispania, Madrid 1993: 177–184; C Witschel, op Cit (n 14): 489–492; M Kulikowski, op Cit (n 14): 39–43; L A Curchin, op Cit (n 14): 301–302 In Tarraco, the colonial forum was partially restored at the end of the 3rd century, as suggested by the inscription evoking the restoration of a portico (RIT, 91) It seems to have been abandoned in the second half of the 4th century (X Aquilué, Arquitectura official, in: Dupré, X (ed ), Las capitales provinciales de Hispania 3 Tarragona, Colonia Iulia Urbs Triumphamlis Tarraco, Rome 2004: 41–53); recent archaeological finds in Merida do not point to the abandonment of civic spaces during the 3rd century The monumental buildings housing the halls, recently identified as a curia and a hypothetical aerarium, do not appear to have been abandoned, sacked or reoccupied before the 5th century (R Ayerbe / T Barrientos / F Palma, El foro de ‘Augusta Emerita’: génesis y evolución de sus recintos monumentales, Madrid 2009: 828–831) In Corduba, imperial dedications offered by the city at the beginning of the 4th century in the so-called ‘colonial forum’ sector suggest that the civic heart of the city was still beating at the time (CIL, II2/7, 261 et 264) For Conimbriga, cf J Alarcão / R Etienne, Fouilles de Conimbriga, 1, l’architecture, Paris 1977: 145–146; for Complutum, cf S Rascón / A L Sánchez Montes, Complutum: modelo urbanístico para una ciudad romana privilegiada en los siglos III–V, in: Brassous, L / Quevedo, A (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre le IIe et le IVe siècle, Madrid 2015: 199–220; for Valentia, cf J Morin / A Ribera, op Cit (n 8): 105–125 L Brassous, Les enceintes urbaines tardives de la péninsule Ibérique, in: L’Empire romain en mutation: répercussions sur les villes romaines dans la deuxième moitié du 3e siècle: colloque international (Bern/Augst, 3–5 December 2009), Montagnac 2011: 275–299; L A Curchin, op Cit (n 14): 295–296

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civitates and that it had been plain sailing for local civic communities throughout the 3rd and 4th centuries23 However, the archaeological evidence of the cities’ material deterioration contradicts this interpretation Since the decay of civic monuments was not widespread, it seems to evidence a reorganisation of the Hispanic city network, which had gradually been created under the authority of Rome since the conquest of Hispania and which had structured the provinces hitherto This reorganisation, politically desirable or not, would have taken place mainly during the 3rd century and seems to have been characterised by the collapse of civic organisation in some cities, and its continuity in others, ultimately resulting in the establishment of a pecking order in the city network Others scholars have suggested that such changes were strictly related to the administrative reorganisation of Hispania, following the reform of Diocletian, and only affected new provincial capitals24 Although the major provincial capitals undoubtedly benefited from the presence of a governor encouraging urban development and, ultimately, the vitality of the civitas in which he resided, some examples such as Carthago Nova show that this analysis is perhaps too inflexible This city was one of the major urban centres on the peninsula and is supposed to have been an important hub of provincial administration before and especially after the provincial reform of Diocletian However, the many archaeological discoveries made in Cartagena in recent decades have shown that the collapse of the civic community seems to have been a reality as from the3rd century Lastly, other scholars, who have rightly interpreted the deterioration and transformation of civic spaces as indications of a change in the internal organisation of urban centres, have only considered the decay of municipal structures in a few isolated cases, such as Labitolosa25 In fact, these interpretations differ as to the extent or even the reality of this restructuring of the city network in Hispania Why? In part because they are based on specific and occasional data, whose choice has been dictated by the availability of documentary evidence that is never exhaustive and varies according to how a particular source is read The problem lies in evaluating the changes in the city network on a global scale, namely, throughout the Iberian Peninsula So, to assess their magnitude, it would be necessary to perform a comparative study of similar sources from the High Empire and Late Antiquity Yet the dissimilarity of the sources from both periods is a major handicap

23 24

25

M Kulikowski, Late Roman Spain and Its Cities, Baltimore/London 2004: 39–64 L A García Moreno, La ciudad en la antigüedad tardía (siglo V a VII), in: García Moreno, L A / Rascón, S (eds ), Complutum y las ciudades hispanas en la antigüedad tardía, actas del I Encuentro Hispania en la Antigüedad Tardía (Alcalá de Henares, 16 October 1996), Alcalá de Henares 1999: 7–24 C Witschel, Krise-Rezession-Stagnation? Der Westen des Römischen Reiches im 3 Jahrhundert n Chr , Frankfurt am Main 1999: 262–284

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Thanks not only to numerous municipal inscriptions, but also to Pliny’s Book III of Natural History, which probably used a 1st century formula provinciarum, we have a relatively detailed picture of the city network and municipal activity in Hispania during the High Empire Pliny’s account allows us to estimate the number of cities in the three provinces (Baetica, Lusitania and Hispania Citerior)26 at more than 513 Of these – Pliny only provides the names of some of them – only one third has been definitely or provisionally pinpointed Thus, we can legitimately claim that the network of civitates, of which no detailed map can really be drawn due to the lack of information on their names and locations, was fairly dense In comparison, the number of Gallic cities at the time has been estimated at 100, for an area of roughly the same size On the other hand, the sources from Late Antiquity are too incomplete to confirm the existence and status of the civic communities and, consequently, to determine the durability of this city network Since the quantity of epigraphic evidence decreased progressively during the 3rd century, to the point of almost disappearing altogether, these cities’ dedications to the emperors are the only real indications we have of their historical evolution at the time These dedications are clearly dated and explicitly mention the civic community that made them, thus enabling us to identify 60 cities (Fig 1), but vanish once and for all at the beginning of the 4th century27 Despite the fact that, as already noted, these inscriptions continued to be fairly numerous during the first half of the 3rd century, becoming scarcer thereafter, they still attest to the

26

27

Pliny mentions 175 cities in Baetica (Nat 3, 3, 7), 293 in Tarraconensis (Nat 3, 3, 18) and 45 populi in Lusitania (Nat 4, 21–22) Not all of these communities were organised around an urban centre and there were also dependent communities (contributa) These figures suggest that at the time of his Natural History, perhaps at the beginning of the 1st century, there were at least 513 civitates in Hispania Map drawn using the following corpus (n 26): Acci (CIL II, 3400; CIL II, 3393 = CILA 4, 125); Aquae calidae (IRC I, 41 = HEp 1, 1989, 132); Aquae flaviae (AE 1973, 309; CIL II, 4787); Baetulo (CIL II, 4606–4608 = IRC I, 135–137); Barcino (IRC IV, 23 = HEp 9, 1999, 240); Baria (CIL II, 5947); Callet Aenanicorum (CIL II, 1372 = CILA 2, 1219); Capera (CIL II, 810 = CILCáceres, 185); Ciuitas Lunenses (CIL II2/5, 216); Corduba (CIL II2/7, 256); Curiga (CIL II, 1040); Dertosa (CIL II2/14, 787–788); Ebora (CIL II, 110 = IRCP 380); Edeta Liria (CIL II2/14, 123) ; Emerita (AE 2003, 873 = HEp 13, 2003–2004, 100) Gerunda (CIL II, 4620–4621 = IRC, III, 1–2); Iliberris (EE VIII, 143 = ERPSoria, 128; CIL II2/5, 621); Isturgi (CIL II2/7, 60); Lesera (CIL II2/14, 770); Malaca (CIL II, 1969; CIL II, 4688 = HEp 4, 1994, 560 = AE 1998, 724); Mago (CIL II, 3707 = CIL II, 5991); Mirobriga (Vettonum) ? (CIL II, 863 = CIRPSal, 39; AE 1980, 555) ; Murgi (AE 1935, 10); Norba (CIL II, 693 = AE 1919, 88); Olisippo (CIL II, 188); Osset? (CIL II, 1254); Regina (CIL II2/7, 980); Salmantica (AE 1993, 990 = HEp 5, 1995, 674 = HEp 6, 1996, 852 = HEp 11, 2001, 395); Segobriga (AE 2003, 980); Siarum (CILA 2, 931 = HEp 2, 1990, 636); Singilia Barba (CIL II2/5, 776); Tarraco (CIL II, 4101 = RIT, 82; AE 1929, 235 = RIT, 83; CIL II, 6083 = RIT, 86); Toletum (CIL II, 3073; HEp, 5, 1995, 789); Tucci (CIL II2/5, 74–78); Tugia (CIL II, 3328 = CILA 3, 541); Tutugi (AE, 1983, 609 = CILA 4, 154; AE, 1917/18, 9 = CILA 4, 156; CIL II, 3406 = CILA 4, 157; AE 1983, 608 = AE 1984, 598) ; Valentia (CIL II2/14, 14–17); Ucubi (CIL II2/5, 441–442); Viuita (CIL II, 3343 = CILA 3, 607); Ulia fidentia (CIL II2/5, 492–494); Ulisi (CIL II2/5, 721); Urgao Alba (CIL II2/7, 75 et 88); Urso (CIL II2/5, 1028); Uxama (EE VIII, 143 = ERPSoria, 128); and completed by the corpus below (n 26)

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Fig. 01 Civitates known by an imperial dedication during the 3rd century AD (©P Brunello / L Brassous)

existence of 24 cities in Hispania during Gallienus’s reign (Fig 2)28 So this does not mean to say that the cities of which no evidence has come down to us simply disappeared What do the literary sources have to say on the matter? Some point to the existence of a number of cities in Late Antiquity, but the evidence is fragmented Orose’s 28

Map drawn using the following corpus: Acci (CIL II, 3394 = ILPGranada, 71); Aeso (CIL II, 4459 = IRC II, 22 = HEp, 1, 1989, 436); Astigi (CIL II2/7, 260); Barcino (CIL II, 4505–4507 = IRC, IV, 24–25 et 27; AE 1994, 1088 = IRC IV, 26); Castulo (AE 1973, 281; CIL II, 335 = HEp 5, 1995, 425); Corduba (CIL II2/7, 257; AE 1994, 927b = HEp 5, 1995, 318 = CIL II2/7, 260a; CIL II, 2202 = HEp 4, 1994, 304 = CIL II2/7, 262); Dertosa (CIL II2/14, 789); Ebussus (CIL II, 3660 = HEp 2, 1990, 52); Ercavica (AE 1987, 662 = HEp 2, 1990, 367); Hispalis (AE 1987, 498 = HEp, 3, 1993, 356; CIL II, 1171); Iesso (CIL II, 4452 = IRC II, 73); Iliberri (CIL II2/5, 622); Italica (CIL II, 1115 = AE 2001, 1130; CIL II, 1116 = HEp, 4, 1994, 726; CIL II, 1117 = CILA 2, 372; CILA 2, 374; CIL II, 5037 = HEp 4, 1994, 727); Malaca (HEp 10, 2000, 374); Mirobriga (IRCP, 149 = AE, 1991, 944 = HEp 4, 1994, 1086); Ossonoba (CIL II, 1 = HEp 14, 2005, 443; EE, VIII 91 = IRCP, 4); Saetabis (CIL II, 3619); Saguntum (CIL II2/14, 314–318); Segarra? (IRC, I, 18 = HEp 12, 2002, 72); Singilia Barba (CIL II2/5, 777–779); Tarraco (RIT, 88 = AE, 1932, 83); Tucci (CIL II2/5, 79–80); Valentia (CIL II2/14, 18–19); Valeria (HEp 2, 1990, 391 = AE, 1982, 607 = AE 1985, 598)

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Fig. 02 Civitates known by an imperial dedication during the second half of the 3rd century AD (©P Brunello / L Brassous)

Histories and Hydatius’ Chronicle, dating from the 5th century, refer to the existence of some civitates in Late Antiquity, but these accounts are always sketchy and over-represent certain regions such as Gallaecia in the case of Hydatius Also very incomplete is Honorius’ Cosmography, a document dating from the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century, about which little else is known, thus undermining its credibility Nor is it possible to rely on the information contained in late itineraries, such as the Antonine Itinerary and the Ravenna Cosmography by an anonymous cleric, because the former is a register of the stations and distances along various roads and the latter a list of place names, rather than civitates Exceptionally, the status of a station is indeed mentioned, such as the colonial status of Barcino29 This highlights the problem of these itineraries’ dating, which is indeed poor30 Although these works were probably written in the 4th century or later, they draw on earlier sources, some of which could 29 30

Rav 341, 15 P Arnaud, L’Itinéraire d’Antonin un témoin de la littérature itinéraire du Bas-Empire, Geographia Antiqua 2 (1993): 33–49

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date from the end of the first or the beginning of the 2nd century Thus, the mention of the colonial status of Barcino in the Ravenna Cosmography, written when this status no longer had any legal meaning, evidences the use of ancient sources For their part, the ecclesiastical sources are more substantial As the principal literary source, the papal correspondence occasionally mentions some cities, for example the civitas of Leon in the 5th century It should also be noted that this source testifies to the emergence of a new civitas, which was only a military camp, with its cabanae, during the High Empire The only sources that provide us with a slightly more complete picture are the lists of episcopal sees in the High Middles Ages If it is postulated that the organisation of the Church was modelled on the civil administration, according to the recommendations of the Council of Nicaea31, the medieval episcopal sees would generally correspond to the cities, where the bishops would have had their seats This ‘principle of accommodation’32 is now widely used by historians in other provinces, such as Gaul33 When this premise has been accepted, the difficulties have not disappeared in the case of Hispania, because our knowledge of the network of episcopal sees is incomplete and both difficult to determine and place chronologically Even though the papal correspondence or the proceedings of the first councils occasionally evoke this or that Hispanic bishopric, this information is necessarily anecdotal To our mind, the most interesting sources are rather those that supposedly contain lists of bishoprics because they offer a general overview The most comprehensive list of episcopal sees –71 in all – throughout the Iberian Peninsula (Fig 3) dates from the beginning of the 8th century Though it might have been drawn up at a later date because it derives from a document known as the ‘Division of Wamba’, which could be a twelfth-century fake34 According to the aforementioned premise, namely, that the Church’s principle of accommodation converted each city into an episcopal see, there would have been a similar number of civitates in Hispania in the 4th century As this figure is well below that of the 513 civitates mentioned by Pliny, the drop in the number of cities would have been considerable between the 1st and the 4th centuries – it should be remembered that many former capital cities had by then become secondary agglomerations – But the main problem

31 32 33

34

J M Mayeur / Ch Pietri / L Pietri / A Vauchez / M Venard, Histoire du christianisme, tome 3 Les Églises d’Orient et d’Occident (432–610), Paris 1998: 507–509 For a discussion on the limits of this principle of accommodation read the remarks by Fl Mazel, L’Évêque et le territoire L’invention médiévale de l’espace (Ve–XIIIe siècle), Paris 2016: 160–163 B Beaujard / F Prevot, Introduction à l’étude des capitales ‘éphémères’ de la Gaule (Ier s - début VIIe s ), in: Ferdière, A (ed ), Capitales éphémères Des capitales de cités perdent leur statut dans l’Antiquité tardive, Actes du colloque organisé par le Laboratoire Archéologie et Territoires (Tours, 2003), Revue Archéologique du Centre de la France, Tours 2004: 25 L Vázquez de Parga, La división de Wamba, Madrid 1943; D Mansillo, Geografía eclesiástica de España Estudio histórico-geográfico de las diócesis, 1, Rome 1994

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Fig. 03 Hispanic episcopal sees in the High Middle Ages according to the donation of Wamba – 8th to 12th century AD (©P Brunello / L Brassous)

with this list of bishoprics is its chronology It may reflect the transformations occurring between the period under study here and the 8th century Nevertheless, its comparison with two earlier lists included in the canons of the Councils of Iliberris and Tarragona, more closely related to provincial synods, provides some arguments in favour of this interpretation The first list contains the names of the bishops assembled at the Council of Iliberris, traditionally dated to the beginning of the 4th century (Fig 4)35, but which, as some hold, might have been held later in the second half of the century36 While the second 35

36

Map based on the list of signatories of the council in J Vives / T Martín Martínez / G Martínez Díez, Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, Madrid 1963; F Rodríguez proposes an updated critical edition of the first Christian Councils in Hispania in Martínez Diez, G / Rodríguez, F (eds ), La colección canónica Hispana Tomo IV Concilios galos Concilios Hispanos, primera parte, Madrid 1984, but since it is difficult to consult, I have used the indication edition by J Vives Not only the date when the council was held but also its nature have always been subject to controversy See the discussion in M Sotomayor On the date of the council, see M Sotomayor / J F Fernández Ubiña (eds ), El concilio de Elvira y su tiempo, Granada 2005: 137–167

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Fig. 04 Episcopal sees mentioned in the Iliberri’s council – 4th century AD (©P Brunello / L Brassous)

names the signatories of the Council of Tarragona in 516 (Fig 5)37 A comparative analysis of these two lists and the ‘Wamba list’ underscores the relative stability of the network of bishoprics in the regions for which we have sufficient documentary evidence, i e Tarraconensis and Baetica, which should come as no surprise since ecclesiastical institutions were markedly conservative This similarity thus reinforces the validity of the Wamba list, despite the time elapsing between the date when it was drawn up and the period under study here, viz the end of the Roman Empire in Hispania Indeed, this list, except for some particular places, probably reflects a state of affairs relatively similar to that of antiquity It is thus as an important source for evaluating the Hispanic city network at the end of the Roman Empire, should the principle of accommodation – the initial premise of this analysis – be valid We may add that in Baetica, more particularly, it is interesting to note that the cities that were episcopal sees in the 4th century were also essentially cities,

37

List also based on the edition by J Vives / T Martín Martínez / G Martínez Díez, op cit (n 36)

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Fig. 05 Episcopal sees mentioned in the First Tarraco’s council – 516 AD (©P Brunello / L Brassous)

whose existence towards the end of the 3rd century is attested by their imperial dedications, as was the case with Hispalis, Corduba, Tucci, Acci, Iliberri and Castulo, more than half of the ecclesiastic sees This convergence may be a further indication that the network of episcopal sees had gradually been grafted onto the city network, thus validating the principle of accommodation In other words, the network of bishoprics mentioned in the Wamba list may well reflect that of Hispanic civitates at the end of the Roman Empire A closer look at these lists is very revealing Some of those cities whose civic spaces had disappeared, as already noted, no longer figure on them Evidently, Baelo, Labitolosa, Clunia, Lucentum and Itucci did not become episcopal sees This seems to support the idea that these cities had effectively lost their civitas and capital city status, along with their civic adornment If this were indeed the case, it would still be difficult to determine to which city they and their territories would have been attached as contributa As for Lucentum, it is possible that this old city might have become dependent on Ilici, its neighbour The case of Baelo is more problematic The city might have become a mere secondary agglomeration The fact that it was not an episcopal see seems to have

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been corroborated by the archaeological data, indicating that its loss of capital city status coincided with the disappearance of its civic spaces But on which city would this secondary agglomeration have become dependent? An examination of the bishoprics listed in this region yields few candidates Everything would indicate that, in the old conventus Gaditanus, most of the cities lost their civic status: Barbesula, Carteia, Salduba, Mellaria, etc Surprisingly, this was apparently also the case with the capital Gades, which was once one of the largest cities in Hispania, according to Strabo38 So, the lists of bishoprics would thus point to a very sharp fall in the number of cities But to which city would all the territories of these ancient cities have been attached? Many of them would have been grouped together into larger territorial entities Although it still remains to be proven which city was chosen as the capital – Malaca or Asido? – something that is actually difficult to determine Wherever it was located, the situation would have been similar to that of the Gallic provinces in which several large cities dominated immense territories strewn with secondary agglomerations The case of Carthago Nova poses another conundrum Archaeological finds show that the main civic monuments were abandoned between the 2nd and 3rd centuries39, but the presence of a bishop in the city, mentioned in the proceedings of the Tarragona Council in 516, might indicate that it had retained its capital city status40 It should be noted, however, that there is no evidence supporting the presence of a bishop in the 4th century Might the city have temporarily lost its privileged status perhaps to the benefit of nearby Eliocroca, which was the primitive episcopal see, according to the Council of Iliberis41? This would be surprising for a city that many scholars believe, despite the lack of any clear references42, was the capital of the late antique province of Carthaginiensis Furthermore, it should be noted that those cities that had lost their civic spaces still appear as episcopal sees and, therefore, retained their status as such, as was the case with Emporiae, Ercavica and Segobriga Regarding Emporiae, the existence of a late antique episcopal see might mean that it had also retained some semblance of civic organisation The capital might have been transferred to the small, neighbouring peninsula of San Martí43, which would have greatly restricted the area of its agglomerated habitat But the site at San Martí can still be regarded as a town with no documented public monuments Even though these urban centres continued to sustain civic com38 39 40 41 42 43

Str 3, 2, 1 A Quevedo / S Ramallo, op Cit (n 7): 161–177 J Vives / T Martín Martínez / G Martínez Díez, op Cit (n 36): 4, 1–2, 34 J Vives / T Martín Martínez / G Martínez Díez, op Cit (n 36): 1 L Brassous, L’identification des capitales administratives du diocèse des Espagnes, in: Caballos, A / Lefebvre, S (eds ), Roma generadora de identidades La experiencia hispánica, Madrid 2011: 337–353 M Kulikowski, op Cit (n 24): 99–100

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munities, it is doubtful whether the civic organisation characterising the High Empire prevailed The same can probably be said of Ercavica The existence of an episcopal seat in Late Antiquity would indicate that, despite the city’s physical deterioration, a kind of civic organisation was still in place; there might have been a move from the capital to another site44 For its part, the existence of a bishopric in Segobriga would imply that the city continued to sustain a civic community, whereas the abandonment of its public spaces would indicate that its civic monuments had seen better times, that those spaces of collective memory and of communion between citizens and the emperor had been abandoned Even if a community had indeed persisted, its civic practices would probably have evolved We must then consider a change in those practices and presume that, in many Hispanic cities, civic communion no longer occurred in the same places, did not congregate the same people and, probably, did not meet the same expectations Conclusion Departing from the principle of accommodation, the study of the network of episcopal sees in Late Antiquity seems to reflect a profound change in the Hispano-Roman city network at the end of the Roman Empire, in comparison with its High Empire forerunner This change would explain the archaeological evidence pointing to the deterioration of a number of civitates between the 2nd and 4th centuries Nevertheless, as we have seen, a clear parallel cannot be drawn between the archaeological data and the ecclesiastical documentary evidence discussed above For this reason, it is still unclear whether it faithfully reflects the late antique city network in Hispania However, the presence of episcopal sees in late antique cities testifies to the existence of well-established Christian communities, which can probably be taken as a yardstick to measure their importance The lists of bishoprics are thus important sources that allow us to become familiar with the Iberian Peninsula’s late antique city network For they partly reflect the changes taking place between the High Empire and Late Antiquity If correct, is the dwindling number of cities mentioned in the literature evidence of a crisis? Although it is more than likely that some cities lost their capital city status, this does not necessarily point to a widespread crisis For, while some lost that privilege, others gained in importance when larger expanses of territory fell under their control Moreover, the different dates of abandonment, as confirmed by the archaeological record, rule out the possibility that the difficulties were circumstantial, which would fit better with a sudden and transitory crisis On the contrary, they suggest structural difficulties It is likely that the redistribution of the city network reflects the inability

44

J Morin / A Ribera, op Cit (n 8): 120

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of some cities to maintain their civic adornment Should this be the case, these transformations cast doubt on the viability and adaptability of the municipal system as it developed in the Hispanic provinces after the Roman conquest

The cities that never were (?) Connectivity between urban settlements and the rural landscape in Lusitania during Late Antiquity1 André Carneiro (University of Évora)

1. Introduction From the sixteenth century onwards, Western paintings were replete with images of urban landscapes in ruins It is impossible to account for the total number of pictures depicting urban scenarios with abandoned, decaying monumental structures, standing in stark contrast to the minuscule men who can be spotted in the midst of them, looking at the wreckage in astonishment and admiration, or simply ignoring them, because these ruins are part of their daily lives The ruins are always disproportionately large, serving as a measure of a civilization of giants who left a permanent mark of their entrepreneurship, though the inexorable passage of time has led the men who created these masterpieces into oblivion To name all of those who bore witnesses would be virtually impossible, first example being an engraving consisting of an anatomical study, De humani corporis fabrica (Andreas Vesalius, 1543, Book II, page 174), where an image of the human muscle system is coupled with ruins that are visible in the background An analysis would then incorporate A capriccio of roman ruins by Marco Ricci (1720) and lead all the way up to The Roman Theatre at Taormina by Louise-Joséphine de Belmont (1828) Some authors specialised in this type of portrait of decadent urban landscapes, and provided important graphic documents such as the well-known case of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) Others, however, would explore these images, using them as an allegorical symbol of the transience of all powers, as portrayed by Hubert Robert, nicknamed Robert des ruines (1733–1808)

1

CHAIA/UÉ – Ref UID/EAT/00112/2013, This project was funded by the FCT/Foundation for Science and Technology

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This scenic imaginary, which was dense and extraordinarily rich in content, has helped us build a prototypical reality that corresponds to the ideal of a classical city (that is to say, both the Greek materialisation of polis and Roman urbs) The monumentality of the public spaces and buildings that lined their streets, the magnificence of the building and monumental devices, the grandeur of the scale that lead people to believe they were built by giants left a very strong impression that shaped the stereotype of what would become a model city; a model that Europe would continually seek to replicate from the sixteenth century onwards At the same time, the paradigm of a centralised city, an organic unit that is central to and manages the surrounding territory, was also consolidated as an ideal archetype, which would remain in the state and popular imaginary (i e as a model for the elite and the administration to follow, but also as a standard expected by the population) from the nineteenth century onwards as well as in Developmentalist models This live, active urban model characterized the idea of a classic city, which was made up of an infrastructure designed to provide the means by which the social body could undertake tasks planned to lead to their correct functioning In many of the provincial urban settlements, this reality worked, and was taken on as an ideal model In fact, if we look at the urban dynamics that allowed for the uninterrupted continuity of the status of major cities right up to the present day, we start to understand the relevance of these life-generating poles On the contrary, urbes extinctae can be found in vast stretches of land, fields of ruins that were abandoned and bear no trace of having been (re) occupied later on, although their remains mark the imaginary of the population However, the heart of the matter lies in us trying to understand if this classic model was actually fulfilled, and whether the cities behaved like cities built by giants, assuming the role of urban centres and as poles of connectivity between the surrounding land, or if the abandonment of several cities shows that the model did not live up to what was expected of it, after all To this end, we will look at Lusitania as a whole, and will try to understand if we can distinguish how imperial centrality was taken on when urban centres were abandoned2 2. The urban model in the Southwest of Lusitania The territory under analysis focuses on the region in the south-west of the Iberian peninsula, comprising the Atlantic coast of what is now Portugal, and the in-land area of the Alentejo, that is, the entire area west of the former provincial capital of Augusta Emerita, present-day Mérida It is a region with good infrastructural links, given the 2

This text makes reference to several considerations contained in A Carneiro’s “Non uno itinere Urban and rural landscapes: Connectivity during late antique Lusitania” Thanks are owed to Pilar Diarte Blasco and Neil Christie for being present at the beginning of the research and for providing access to various pieces of published information

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presence of a dense road network (including three connecting roads between Augusta Emerita and its Atlantic port, Olisipo – present-day Lisbon –, consisting of routes XII, XIV and XV of the Antonine Itinerary), as well as an exceptional concentration of monumental villae, that were placed naturally and spaciously in particularly attractive areas3 Large urban centres were located within this area and, in certain cases, had taken on their role long before Roman conquest, already being involved in contacting and exchanging with the Mediterranean circles There is no doubt about the roles of Olisipo and Salacia as Atlantic ports that served as points of contact with the Mediterranean, a factor that boosted their growth and reinforced a dynamic that the Romans would know how to increase, supported by the entrepreneurial capacity of the cities’ local elites Moving inland, it is easy to perceive the dynamic of a city like Pax Iulia, and how it anchors the surrounding land, while clusters like Ebora or Ammaia – both apparently of ex novo foundation – leave no doubt as to how they took on their urban role (although they would have different destinies), benefitting from the existence of a forma urbis, which was endowed with central spaces and monumental devices However, a quick glance at the map (Fig 1) reveals the existence of huge voids, consisting of land where urban settlements could have existed in Roman times4, but that have not been located as of yet One hundred twenty kilometres separate Ammaia and Ebora We can be sure that the mansio of Abelterium, which was referred to in the itinerary of road XIV and corresponds to the present-day town of Alter do Chão, could have functioned as an urban centre, but even then, the sheer size of the empty space is too conspicuous Similarly, there are no records of possible cities between Ebora and the present-day border with Spain, and this emptiness extends to the provincial capital It is therefore paradoxical that, although dotted with monumental villae and crossed by several roads, these more than 150km do not appear to have had a distinctive settlement that carried out the functions of an urban centre Further south, the 80km-long empty stretch between Ebora and Pax Iulia seems to have been empty, just as further inland the only settlement found is the port city of Myrtilis There is the possibility that there are more urban settlements waiting to be discovered Examples are the cases of Concordia, referred to as the capital of the Concordians and with the legal status of civitas stipendiaria5, and Aritiense oppido veteri6, which is 3

4 5 6

For the Upper Alentejo, see A Carneiro, Lugares, tempos e pessoas Povoamento rural romano no Alto Alentejo, Coimbra 2014 (Accessible at: https://digitalis uc pt/ptpt/livro/lugares_tempos_e_ pessoas_povoamento_rural_romano_no_alto_alentejo_vol_i; https://digitalis uc pt/ptpt/livro/ lugares_tempos_e_pessoas_povoamento_rural_romano_no_alto_alentejo_vol_ii) Versus: “the Spanish landscape, unlike that of much of Gaul, really was defined by its network of cities […] Spaniards, in other words, had internalized the desire to live together in towns” M Kulikowski, Late Roman Spain and its cities, Baltimore 2004: 18 Plin Nat 4, 118; Ptol 2, 5, 6 CIL II, 172

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Fig. 01 Roman cities in Lusitania

possibly related to the Aritium Praetorio, a constant feature of the roads of the Antonine Itinerary However, the problem persists inasmuch as there are no prospective areas that serve as possible locations in which these urban settlements might be found, and this invisibility in current archaeological records also tells us a lot about the lower monumentality given to urban systems and their specific devices7 This question is relevant, because one of the fundamental elements for the characterization of these cities in the southwest of Lusitania lies precisely in the distinctively scarce monumentality of urban devices that characterize an urbs That is, if we analyse the existing examples, we can see a remarkable absence of cities endowed with spaces that actually fulfilled the attributes that urban dignitas presupposed The cartography of these devices is symptomatic (Fig 2) and, while it is true that most of these agglomerates have not yet been extensively excavated, the fact that no traces of urban devices have been found is very relevant, showing precisely the precariousness and size of the structures, or even the complete absence of them This suggests that when they were founded, these settlements were not endowed with the whole set of operational and functional infrastructures required for the effective fulfilment of the urban functions 7

In general terms, the list was provided by J Alarcão, Investigação das cidades da Lusitânia portuguesa e dos seus territórios, in: Gorges, J -G (ed ), Les villes de la Lusitanie Romaine Hiérarchies et territoires, Paris 1990: 32–34, and is still valid

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Fig. 02 Roman cities in Lusitania: continuities/discontinuities during Late Antiquity

assigned to them This led to them functioning more as a space of transference for pre-existing identity connections, to which the elites adhered with obvious enthusiasm, albeit with a possibly slow, phased process of urban promotion8 The city should be seen as a scenario set rather than as an effective organ of vitality and centralizing action, showing how the valida urbs took on various forms due to several changing factors: previous dynamics, connections with external agents who gave them the necessary stimuli, their own resources and use of the land, internal connectivity and/or positioning within the context of the Empire’s geographical strategy However, the internal protagonists also played their part In this regard, the improvements made in certain urban settlements by some notable local people should be recognised, who in the context of euergetism endowed their cities with devices that ennobled them, and would thus preserve the name of their benefactors Some of the (few) examples of this in the province of Lusitania are the case of Olisipo, the founding

8

I make reference to the case of Ammaia, studied in detail by Vasco Gil Mantas, where the onomastics of the magistrates demonstrate their integration into classical codes; in particular, see V G Matas, Ammaia e Civitas Igaeditanorum Dois espaços forenses lusitanos, in: Nogales, T (ed ), Ciudad y foro en Lusitania romana, Mérida 2010: 167–188, esp 172–174

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inscription of the Cassios9 thermal baths, the improvements made by Caius Heius Primus in the theatre10, the equipment given to the Balsa11 circus, the temple of Minerva consecrated by Alfidian[us] in Colippo12 and C Cantius Modestinus’s13 accomplishments Further examples of collective donations in agglomerates located north of the area (for example Bobadela, with its interesting collection), can be added to this limited list, although these do not prevent Lusitania from being the least represented province of Hispania14, which demonstrates the weak civic ties of their elites, as well as the lack of availability of means of investment, especially when compared with other provinces In summary, therefore, Lusitania appears to have been an imbalanced expanse of land from the point of view of urban flourishing While some urbes were able to take on a central role of gathering resources (often benefiting from external stimuli), they were few and far between, leaving large stretches of land with no recognized urban settlements Due to this specific situation, caution must be exercised with regard to making hasty generalizations that advocate for sudden changes or, conversely, continuity, since archaeological records display specific and variable patterns, even within the same regional areas This view should be recognized as the starting point, since different dynamics will require specific processes 3. Lacrimabile tempus15 There are no known archaeological contexts in the Southwest of Lusitania that validate the literary accounts of constant destruction, slaughter and looting promoted by barbarian besiegers, which can be noted particularly in Hydacio’s16 texts It should be noted, however, that the stratigraphic levels of the late-ancient period were generally ignored in urban archaeological excavations carried out using traditional methodologies Even in more recent excavations they are systematically lacking descriptions It

9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

So-named in an inscription at a later date See CIL II and the considerations in J d’ Encarnação, As termas dos Cássios em Lisboa – ficção ou realidade?, in: Gorges, J -G / Encarnação, J d’ / Nogales, T / Carvalho, P (eds ), Lusitânia romana: entre o mito e a realidade Actas da VI mesa-redonda internacional sobre a Lusitânia Romana, Cascais 2009: 481–494 CIL II, 183; AE 997, 773 CIL II, 5165; CIL II, 5166 AE 1993, 884 V G Mantas, C Cantius Modestinus e seus templos, in: Cardim, J (ed ), Religiões da Lusitania Lonquuntur Saxa, Lisboa 2002: 231–234 E Melchor, La construcción pública en Hispania romana: iniciativa imperial, municipal y privada, MHA 13–14 (1992–1993): 129–170 Jer Ep 123 Ad Geruchiam; so used by Hyd Praef 5–7 In particular the description of his arrival in Lisbon: R W Burgess, The Chronicle of Hydatius and the Consularia Constantinopolitana: two Contemporary Accounts of the Final Years of the Roman Empire, Oxford 1993: 111 (457, Ol 309, 1)

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should be noted, for example, that cases of the enigmatic terra nigra or black land17 are not generally known and published, although some of this has already been informally documented, with the omission of the nature of its presence and what can be interpreted from it It is true that the strength of historical accounts has largely conditioned the reading of archaeological reality, as exemplified by the emblematic case of the domus attributed to Cantaber in Conimbriga18 However, it is necessary to note that the weight placed on ancient texts is unequal: if Hydacio’s account was prioritized by modern research, attracted by a picture of destruction and chaos, mention of the siege mounted by Almansor on the walls of Conimbriga, in 986, would have to be forgotten, as it was a sign that the city still maintained its strategic relevance and the monumentality of some spaces19 In short, some texts are taken into account more often than others, thus distorting possible interpretations The perception of the processes that took place in the urban settlements of the southwest of the peninsular during the Roman Empire and in Late Antiquity is inevitably conditioned by investigation, which in turn is limited by the different possibilities offered by archaeological research The largest urban centres of antiquity are cities that have been inhabited in continuum to the present day, such as Olisipo/Lisboa, Ebora/ Évora, Pax Iulia/Beja, Myrtilis/Mértola or Ossonoba/Faro Naturally, there are many constraints to archaeological digs in these locations, and the readings are exacerbated by the inevitable phenomena of spolia, destruction and erasure, or by the difficulty of getting insight in large areas, given the constraints of the urban landscape that has developed in the locations In other occasions, cities were abandoned and have crystallized into ruins in the landscape, but there is a recurrent inability to build solid and time-bound research projects that provide sufficiently stable reference frameworks Apart from the example of Conimbriga, which was exemplarily excavated and published, but had severe constraints in the interpretative framework in terms of the levels of Late Antiquity, the results obtained in urbes extinctae such as Eburobritium, Ammaia, Balsa or Mirobriga are not sufficiently clear, either because of a lack of continuity of the projects or due to scarcity of published results Knowledge about the transformation in Late Antique Lusitanian cities is therefore considerably scarcer than in other regions, especially when compared to the informa-

17 18

19

For the problem and its meanings, see N Christie, From Constantine to Charlemagne An Archaeology of Italy AD 300–800, Aldershot 2006: 262 When the unburied corpse of an inhabitant was found inside the house’s main cistern holding two Honorius coins (402–408), it was immediately interpreted as: “Fica seguramente provado que o ataque a esta casa e a morte do seu desditoso habitante ocorreu em 464”: J de Alarcão, Conímbriga, o chão escutado, Lisboa 1999: 75 A de Man, Defesas urbanas tardias da Lusitânia, Mérida 2011: 185, with references

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tion received recently from the province of Baetica20 However, some power lines can be detected In general terms, the trend points to the progressive loss of the recognizable forma urbis, given the gradual occupation of public spaces by private agents All the sectorial phenomena point to the growing difficulty in taking over the management and maintenance of daily life It seems that municipal magistrates had difficulties not only in preventing private appropriation, but also became complicit in the process, since it took place in ostensibly visible spaces This phenomenon is very evident in Augusta Emerita, where M Alba draws a connection between the double interest of the public powers, that not only received revenue by collecting licenses, but who also dismissed the expenses inherent in the maintenance of the spaces21, a reason why the ediles were also interested in the process According to archaeological evidence, the progressive privatisation of public spaces was the most evident phenomenon in Lusitania, being particularly well documented in Augusta Emerita, where, for example, private thermal baths were constructed in the fringes of the colonial courthouse22 The urban fabric was coming undone where the privatisation of buildings would lead to a loss of the recognisable traditional markers, a phenomenon which also took place in cities like Ebora, Conimbriga and Ammaia It is particularly interesting that, according to evidence, it is perceived that this process began around the middle of the 2nd century A process of “ruralisation” also took place in the city, with the use of spaces to aid in agricultural practices or to keep livestock in23 This phenomenon must be considered, given the well-documented existence of spaces and activities of this type in other cities that have nothing to do with later processes24 The process progressed on all levels of society, even within domestic spaces, where much larger units were compartmentalised, resulting in houses no larger than 20 to 40m2 These couldn’t have been further from the previous paradigms, as they also used the peristyles as common courtyards25 In urban areas, these phenomena progressed in

20

21 22 23 24 25

M Ruiz Bueno, Topografía, imagen y evolución urbanística de la Cordoba clásica a la tardoantigua (sec II–VII d C ) Tesis Doctoral en Arqueología presentada a la Universidad de Cordoba [policopiada], 2 vols, Córdoba 2016 For a broader picture, see his volume 2018, Dinámicas topográficas urbanas en Hispania El espacio intramuros entre los siglos II y VII d C Bari 2018 M Alba, Mérida visigoda: construcción y deconstrucción de una idea preconcebida, in: Vaquerizo, D / Garriguet, J A / León, A (eds ), Ciudad y territorio: transformaciones materiales e ideológicas entre época clásica y el Alto Medioevo, Córdoba 2014: 383–414 R Ayerbe / T Barrientos / T Palma (eds ), El foro de Augusta Emerita Génesis y evolución de sus recintos monumentales, Mérida 2009: 803 M Alba, Evolución y final de los espacios romanos emeritenses a la luz de los datos arqueológicos (pautas de transformación de la ciudad tardoantigua y altomedieval), in: Augusta Emerita, Territorios, espacios, imágenes y gentes en Lusitania romana, Mérida 2004: 207–255 The most iconic case is documented in W Jashemski, The gardens of Pompeii: Herculaneum and the villas destroyed by Vesuvius, New Rochelle 1979 M Alba, op Cit (n 23): 2014

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the same way A progressive situation could be observed, where regular, defined lines made way for the appropriation of spaces, which would then be used for private purposes In Conimbriga, a phenomenon of privatization was documented in which public spaces were privatised, especially in the area around the forum and theatres26 The same pattern can also be detected in the compartmentalisation of spaces in the arches of the vomitorium in Olisipo, that at a certain point began to be used as private residences27 New sections of the city walls were built from the middle of the 3rd century onwards, confirming the radical endurance of this process Public and/or private spaces were sacrificed in favour of new defensive structures that, in certain cases, greatly modified the consciousness of the forma urbis In this case, the spolia placed on the wall demonstrate the use of all available materials, implying the symbolic loss of the dignitas of certain elements that were now seen as merely functional The most iconic example of this process in the southwest of the peninsula took place in Pax Iulia where the bishop of the city, Friar Manuel of the Cenacle (1724–1814, friar between 1770 and 1802), oversaw an important collection of materials Along with spolia found during excavations of sites recognised by him, these make up the first pieces in the Museum of Évora’s collection, which are still kept there today It should be noted that this reuse of materials is unrelated to the dismantling of ornaments for iconoclastic reasons, which began between the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 5th century This practice targeted specific elements, which would then not be reused This contrasted with the practice of collecting materials that were no longer useful, dismantling them and giving them a functional use in buildings constructed during the 3d and early 4th centuries This process would have been uncontrollable, reaching truly unprecedented scales, as demonstrated by some archaeological examples found in urban settings28 Spolia used for private purposes in Lusitania are efficiently documented in Augusta Emerita This was even done in phases from the 5th century onwards, as looters began with noble materials such as marble, bronze and lead, then turned their attention and efforts to recognizable elements such as columns, capitals and other sculpted elements, finally pillaging indiscriminately29 The use of heavy machinery suggests that this process, from its second phase at least, was conducted with the approval of local authorities, according to precepts documented for other areas of the Empire30 This

26 27 28 29 30

J Alarçãao / R Étienne, Fouilles de Conímbriga I (L’Architecture), Paris 1977: 175 A M Diogo, O teatro romano de Lisboa: notícia sobre as actuais escavações, Cuadernos de Arquitectura Romana 2 (1993): 222–224 The most iconic case is the Crypta Balbi in Rome: D Manacorda, Crypta Balbi Archeologia e storia di un paesaggio urbano, Milan 2001 M Alba, op Cit (n 23): 214 See an order from Majorian to Aemilianus, then praefectus urbi of Rome (Cod Theod 4, 458), to put an end to the spolia of “public buildings, wherein consists the whole beauty of the Roman State, are on all sides being destroyed by the most deplorable connivance of the City administration” Quoted in N Christie: “From royalty to refugees: looking for the people in reconstructing

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profound alteration of the urban landscape also led to another type of evidence found during archaeological excavations – areas where debris and residue were collected, large ash stains resulting from bonfires and dumps and scattered osteological remains can be found, all of which would lead to profound changes in the perception of space One of the consequences of this process of urban devitalisation was the atrophy of one of the most emblematic forms of management in the Roman world: basic sanitation and urban waste management Once again, our knowledge about the process is very imbalanced, as the process in Augusta Emerita was particularly well studied by J Acero31, but little is known about most other urban centres In this particular case, the proliferation of areas where waste was dumped clearly shows the difficulty faced in dealing with the atrophy of sanitation systems, and although literary sources paint a picture of stability and prosperity, situations documented in archaeological excavations show how significant changes took place in the daily life of the city In particular, the topography of spaces of power faced substantial changes in Augusta Emerita Around a building called the Temple of Diana, there was a progressive accumulation of areas used for depositing sediment from the 5th century onwards This created a “depositional continuum” that accumulated on the original demolished pavement32, along with an intentional dismantling of monumental structures33 In this respect, the process that took place in front of the temple in the courthouse in Ebora was also eloquent, as what followed the spolia of the marble ornaments and pavements was a process of perforation of any opus signinum in sight, within which numerous silos were dug (generally thought to be from the period of Islamic rule, although they could have been from earlier) which would serve as dumping grounds for any waste34 The difficulty posed by waste management was evident in the provincial capital, largely as a result of the collapse of two of the four aqueducts that supplied the city at the end of the 4th century (followed by the destruction of yet another during the following century), which led to the city facing enormous constraints when it came to

31 32 33 34

urban change in late antique Italy”, text presented to the International Conference on Urban Transformations in the Late Antique West: From Materials to Models – Évora, 22–23 June 2017 and present in a forthcoming monograph (N Christie, P Diarte-Blasco, A Carneiro, forthcoming) It should also be noted that this order was preceded by measures (Cod Theod 15, 1, 40, year 398) authorising private individuals to use property that was in ruins if they should request to do so, indicating that the process of spolia and abandonment had already long been taking place J Acero, La gestión de los residuos en Augusta Emerita Siglos I a C –VII d C , Madrid 2018: 310ss, with references J Acero, op Cit (n 31): 322 M Alba, op cit (n 23): 217 T Hauschild, Some observations about the buildings that made up the courthouse in Ebora Liberalitas Iulia, in: Nogales, T (ed ), Ciudad y foro en Lusitania romana / Cidade e Foro na Lusitânia romana, Mérida 2010: 27–36

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managing effective sanitation These circumstances provoked some attempts to repair35 the hydraulic systems, undertaken more by the local elites than because of any initiative shown by the Church However, it seems that attempts were not successful, as the technical complexity of the structures meant that it took a long time to repair36 The lack of maintenance of the cura aquarum systems was due to a lack of the very specific engineering knowledge required which, at the time, was no longer obtainable Another problem that greatly affected normal urban functioning was the occurrence of pests and epidemics, at least two episodes of which were documented in the Vitae Sanctorum Patrum Emeritensium concerning Augusta Emerita, although we are aware of more episodes37 that took place during the 6th century, a rather troubled time in this respect Such episodes took place in the provincial capital in both 571 and 586, which, combined with periods of drought, worsened the sanitary condition of the population38

Fig. 03 Urban equipments in the Roman cities in Lusitania

35 36 37 38

M Alba, Contribuciones al estudio de las infraestructuras hidráulicas de Augusta Emerita, in: Mangas, J / Martínez, S (eds ), El agua y las ciudades romanas, Madrid 2007: 147–182 For the general frame, see E Sánchez López / J Martínez Jiménez, Los acueductos de Hispania Construcción y abandono, Madrid 2016: 244–257 J Bicl Chronica 573, 4; see K B Wolf (ed ), Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain Second Edition Liverpool 1999 B Curado, La medicina en Mérida según la Vida de los Padres Emeritenses, Mérida 2004: 233–274

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It is therefore not surprising that many settlements were simply extinguished For more than half of the cases in the region, we can observe gradual and on-going abandonment from at least the 3rd century (Fig 3) If we count the points of passage mentioned in the itineraries of the roads – some of which are yet to be physically located – we can see how many of them, despite the dynamic granted by the roads themselves, also disappeared without a trace Furthermore, even in the urbes that remained, transformations took place All these phenomena show how cities became less urbanized and populated, although this factor is not always considered in research39 However, the existence of areas of waste-disposal and accumulation demonstrates the de-functionalization of these spaces, creating a ‘leopard-skin pattern’ (to use Anglo-Saxon terminology) That is, areas that were in use alternated with abandoned areas that bordered on residential areas This many-faceted design is difficult to perceive because of the difficulty of establishing open area floor plans, either because some urban settlements are now inhabited and urban archaeology is subjected to the constraints of everyday life in the twenty-first century, or because, although the cities are fossilized and abandoned, Urban Archaeology also has to submit to the constraints of a lack of investment for continued research and excavation projects, causing a limbo of funding that has strangled the possibility of obtaining new data * In this brief overview, the processes of transformation undertaken by a new protagonist, the rising power of Christianity, were not considered A focus was placed, above all, on the occurrence of internal transformative phenomena, which originated from the dynamics of a changing reality It is important to take into account that these phenomena did not originate in conjunction with each other at a given time, and did not coincide with the traditional framework of the “end of the Empire” These causes are the result of processes that had already begun in the previous centuries40 These causes were recently detected by an attentive and uncompromising investigation, and feature 39

40

Referring to the compartmentalization of private spaces in Augusta Emerita, in the Morería area, where a domus was converted into several smaller residential units, Miguel Alba alludes to a “saturated” space that forced more families to be concentrated into smaller spaces See M Alba, op Cit (n 23): 233 “Nuestro punto de partida ha sido la primera mitad del siglo II, cuando el arquetipo de ciudad clásica en Hispania se consolidó y llegó a su cénit Dicha situación no se mantuvo mucho tiempo, puesto que grosso modo desde mediados de la segunda centuria se asistió a una desigual y heterogénea evolución de los esquemas de vida urbanos preexistentes, lo que en última instancia supuso la extinción de la urbe clásica y la configuración de la ciudad tardoantigua En la península ibérica, el paso de un modelo urbano a otro se extendió a lo largo de un extenso período de cinco siglos en el que los distintos núcleos urbanos preexistentes participaron en tiempos, modos, ritmos e intensidades que distan de ser uniformes Así, la fecha de arranque de determinados fenómenos varió

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in scientific meetings and new analyses undertaken by researchers who are less subject to traditional paradigms The growing – and recent – volume of publications resulting from collective contributions or syntheses41 shows how this is a subject that has stirred research seeking explanatory causes for phenomena of great social and historical importance, which are also unexpectedly contemporary The traditional perspective of powerful, centralizing classical urbes should be deconstructed, as it is believed that urbes such as these were variable and dependent on multiple factors, most of them of a social order The Augustan paradigm, which was heavily used and a defining feature throughout the Empire, later reinforced by Flavian and/or later improvements, or by the localized action of private benefactors, may not have been fully accomplished in a social landscape that, to a great extent, had distinct behavioural codes and that never, truly, acquired classic experiential concepts More than a city that collapses or faces sudden decline it will never recover from, many of the urban settlements in Lusitania had structural weaknesses, were equipped with expensive devices or technically difficult to maintain, which meant that they weighed on the population after the initial investment in their construction In peripheral areas, these small settlements individually and progressively turned into either a civitas intermortua or oppidum labens42 This was in great part thanks to work carried out internally by its residents, more than as the result of hordes of barbarians or external factors The immense “confederation of regions”43 of the Roman Empire of the West, and more particularly of Hispania, over time returned to the axis that gave it power: a network of local connections that gained strength in its rural existence Recording the changing behaviour of these populations is important, as it demonstrates how different populations reacted in times of profound change in the course of history: “[…] so that whether the people re-opened the drains, embellished façades, planted gardens, or

41

42 43

años, décadas, o incluso siglos, dependiendo de cada ciudad ” (M Ruiz Bueno, op Cit (n 20): 203) The debate has resulted in a rich collection of literary works about Hispania, of which the following stand out: Diarte-Blasco, P , La configuración urbana de la Hispania tardoantigua Transformaciones y pervivencias de los espacios públicos romanos (s III–VI d C ), Oxford 2012; D Vaquerizo / J A Garriguet / A León (eds ), Ciudad y territorio: transformaciones materiales e ideológicas entre la época clásica y el Altomedievo, Córdoba 2014; S Ramallo / A Quevedo, Las ciudades de la Tarraconense oriental entre los siglos II–IVd C : evolución urbanística y contextos materiales, Murcia 2014; L Brassous / A Quevedo (eds ), Urbanisme civique en temps de crise Les espaces publics d’Hispanie et de l’Occident romain entre le IIe et le IVe siècle, Madrid 2015; J Andreu (ed ), Oppida Labentia Transformaciones, câmbios y alteración en las ciudades hispanas entre el siglo II y la tardoantigüedad, Uncastillo 2017; J Martínez Jiménez / I Sastre de Diego / C Tejerizo, The Iberian Peninsula between 300 and 850 An Archaeological perspective, Amsterdam 2018 See also M Ruiz Bueno, op Cit (n 20), as well as the forthcoming work by N Christie / P Diarte-Blasco / A Carneiro, op Cit (n 30) J Andreu (ed ), op Cit (n 41): 347–349 P Brown, Through the eye of a needle: wealth, the fall of Rome, and the making of Christianity in the West 350–550 AD, Princeton 2012 (cap 24)

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walked away from the whole dysfunctional mess, is itself a message of political intent, a glimpse of an agenda”44 It is not a question of political planning The idealised city in Augustus’ complex plan was, in its essence and for large areas of the empire, an epiphenomenon that, over time, was extinguished This must remind us that, no matter the external will for a location, the fate of a place is dictated by the will and resilience of the people who inhabit it

44

M Carver, “Debating urbanism in Post-Roman Europe: some thoughts about objectives, in: D Sami / G Speed (eds ), Debating urbanism within and beyond the walls A D 300–700, Leicester 2010: 289–291 (290)

Conclusion/Conclusión

Salvian of Marseilles and the end of the ancient city* Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (University of Cambridge)

I would like to approach the set of questions which this book poses, about the durability and fragility of the urban system of the Roman empire, from what may seem a rather oblique angle, from the perspective of a Christian writer in 5th century Gaul, Salvian of Marseilles The issues he raises, about cities, citizenship and sense of identity, seem to me fundamental for an understanding of what Roman cities were about He is one of a trio of Roman voices who in the early 5th century found themselves confronted with the deepest crisis Roman urbanism had faced, through a wave of barbarian invasions, and the traumatic spectacle of the sack of a sequence of cities, including Rome, Carthage and Trier 1 It made Christians ask, what divine providence had in mind for them? The three, Augustine from Africa, Orosius from Spain, and Salvian from Gaul, came up with slightly different answers, but were sure of one thing, that divine providence knew what it was doing They also felt that cities and citizenship were fundamental to human society, if in somewhat different ways Augustine’s answer was in some ways the strongest, and certainly the most influential: we should be focusing on the civitas Dei not the civitas terrestris 2 Despite his deeply urban commitment as a north African bishop, Augustine offers little way forward for the terrestrial Roman city, though indeed the terrestrial civitas which he sought to substitute was not the city as such, but the power of the city of Rome and the citizenship it embodied to provide a common identity to an empire The young Spanish

*

1 2

This paper was researched in the context of the ERC Advanced Grant project on the Impact of the Ancient City: I am grateful to my colleagues in that project, especially Dr Javier Martínez Jiménez and Dr Sam Ottewill-Soulsby, as well as other Cambridge colleagues, especially Professor Rosamond McKitterick and Peter Garnsey, for valuable discussion of an area they know better than I The classic analysis of J H W G Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall of the Roman City, Oxford 2001, in asking only what of the ancient city was lost, omits to ask what survived and had a continuing impact On the relationship between the authors, see J J O’Donnell, Salvian and Augustine, Augustinian Studies 14, (1983): 25–34: D Lambert, Uses of decay: History in Salvian’s De gubernatione dei, Augustinian Studies 30–2 (1999): 115–130, arguing that Salvian is simply independent of Augustine

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presbyter, Orosius, whom Augustine set to the task of research into Roman history, had a rather more optimistic answer: Roman history was a long story of brutalities and catastrophes survived, and unpleasant though the sack of Rome might have been, horrors were simply part of what was to be expected 3 Did not my eyes fill with tears as I reviewed the past in order to prove that calamities have recurred in cycles through the ages? … As I pondered over all this, did I not make the terrible experiences of my ancestors my own? … And yet, if I may speak of my own story, how for the first time I saw those strange barbarians … I slipped through the clutches of those who with stones and spears pursued me over the sea, I would that I could move my audience to tears 4

He can offer an example close to home of the repetitive horrors of history Already in the reign of Gallienus in the mid 3rd century there had been a scourge of barbarian invasions, sent as divine punishment for the persecution of Christians: Throughout the various provinces, there exist today poor and insignificant settlements situated in the ruins of great cities which still bear evidences of their names and tokens of their misfortunes Our own city of Tarraco in Spain is one of these, and we can point to it to console ourselves over our recent misery 5

So barbarian invasions are nothing new, and the consolation is that things could actually be worse, and God is on the side of the Roman city, as could be seen in the way he got the barbarians to spare the Christians in Rome (7, 39) Orosius could still be remarkably cheerful about the advantages of being a Roman citizen in a Christian Roman empire After his flight from Spain to Africa, he takes comfort in the reflection that as a Roman he can take refuge anywhere in the empire: One God, who established the unity of this realm in the days when he willed himself to become known [Orosius regards the Pax Augusta as providentially co-incident with the birth of Christ] is known and feared by all The same laws, which are subject to God, hold sway everywhere Wherever I go, stranger though I be, I need harbour no fear of sudden

3

4

5

See A T Fear, Orosius Seven Books of History against the Pagans, Liverpool 2010 The translations cited below are those of I W Raymond, Seven Books of History against the Pagans: the Apology of Paulus Orosius, New York 1936 For a sympathetic reading of Orosius’ ‘optimism’ as a rhetorical strategy, see P Van Nuffelen, Orosius and the Rhetoric of History, Oxford 2012 Orosius 3, 20: ego ipse … in relatu tanti mali, quo uel morte ipsa uel formidine mortis accepta totus mundus intremuit, numquid inlacrimaui oculis ? numquid corde condolui ? numquid reuoluens haec propter communem uiuendi statum maiorum miserias meas feci ? cum tamen, si quando de me ipso refero, ut ignotos primum barbaros uiderim … manibus etiam paene iam adprehendentes repentina nebula circumfusus euaserim, cunctos audientes me in lacrimas commoueri uelim … Orosius 7, 22: exstant adhuc per diuersas prouincias in magnarum urbium ruinis paruae et pauperes sedes, signa miseriarum et nominum indicia seruantes, ex quibus nos quoque in Hispania Tarraconem nostram ad consolationem miseriae recentis ostendimus

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assault as a man without protection Among Romans I am a Roman; among Christians, a Christian; among men, a man 6

There is, for Orosius, a complete coincidence between Roman law and identity on the one hand and Christianity on the other If Augustine felt himself more a citizen of the civitas Dei than the civitas terrestris, for Orosius, thanks to divine providence, they overlap entirely And indeed he believes that even the Goths have understood the necessity of the rule of Roman law, and cites the acquaintance from Narbo whom he had met in Bethlehem who had heard Athaulf repeatedly say that he had abandoned the ambition to obliterate the Roman name and create a Gothia in the place of Romania when he understood that the barbarians were so lawless that a state could only be established by Roman laws (7, 43) On this irrepressibly cheerful note Orosius ends his history challenging the reader to find any equally fortunate period from the foundation of the world to the present day 7 Orosius was writing in 416/17 Over the next three decades, barbarians sacked enough Roman cities to puncture this optimism By the 440s, Salvian in Gaul had a rather longer list of disasters to account for, and a rather longer charge sheet to answer against the divine providence 8 He therefore takes a rather different line of defence: God is punishing the Romans for being bad Christians The problem he addresses is why God is kinder to barbarians who are not Christians than to Romans who are His answer is that it is the Romans who are failing to live up to their gospel Since, then, some men think it unsupportable that we should be adjudged to be worse, or even not much better than barbarians, let us consider in what way we are better, and in relation to which of the barbarians For there are two kinds of barbarians in the world, that is heretics and pagans To all of these, as far as the divine law is concerned, I declare that 6

7 8

Orosius 5, 2: unus Deus, qui temporibus, quibus ipse innotescere uoluit, hanc regni statuit unitatem, ab omnibus et diligitur et timetur; eaedem leges, quae uni Deo subiectae sunt, ubique dominantur; ubicumque ignotus accessero, repentinam uim tamquam destitutus non pertimesco inter Romanos, ut dixi, Romanus, inter Christianos Christianus, inter homines homo legibus inploro rempublicam, religione conscientiam, communione naturam Orosius 7, 43: ex quo utcumque concesserim, ut licenter Christiana tempora reprehendantur, si quid a conditione mundi usque ad nunc simili factum felicitate doceatur I cite Salvian’s de gubernatione dei in the translation of E M Sandford, On the Governance of God by Salvian, New York 1966 On Salvian, I have found particularly helpful P Brown, Salvian of Marseilles: theology and social criticism in the last century of the western empire, Oxford 2012; and more broadly, P Brown, Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350–550 AD, Princeton 2012 See also M Maas, Ethnicity, orthodoxy and community in Salvian of Marseilles, in: Drinkwater, J / Elton, H (eds ), Fifth-Century Gaul: a crisis of identity?, Cambridge 1992: 275–84; C Gray, Salvian, the ideal Christian community and the fate of the poor in fifth-century Gaul, in Atkins, M / Osborne, R (eds ), Poverty in the Roman World, Cambridge 2006: 162–82; S Elm, Salvian of Marseilles On the Governance of God, Journal of Early Christian Studies 25–1 (2017): 1–28 The fullest study of Salvian is J Badewien, Geschichtstheologie und Sozialkritik im Werks Salvians von Marseilles, Göttingen 1980

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we are incomparably superior; as far as our life and actions are concerned, I say with grief and lamentation that we are worse 9

Barbarians were by definition non-Catholics, either pagans or Arians, which meant that they did not understand the will of God, and were not disobeying it in the way Catholics were We are thus offered a vision of the Roman world formed, as Peter Brown nicely puts it, of concentric circles Gaul was ringed by an outer fringe of unconverted, pagan barbarians – Saxons, Huns, Franks, Gepids and Alamans They were a supremely nasty lot … Next came an anomalous grey zone Goths and Vandals were not pagans They were Christians They were Arian heretics … They erred in good faith Only the Catholic, Roman Christians of Salvian’s time had no excuse They could expect no mercy 10 The barbarians lack not only true religion, but education, and this too excuses them The heretics cannot help their heresy, for they have been given incomplete and falsified versions of the scriptures by unscrupulous men The barbarians, indeed, lacking the Roman training or any other sort of civilized education, knowing nothing whatever unless they have heard it from their teachers, follow blindly what they hear 11

Here the old topic of Rome’s mission civilisatrice, of bringing education and humanitas to the conquered, is turned on its head The fact that these barbarians have not been civilised and Romanised means also that they are innocent of true Christianity, and therefore innocent of breaking God’s word The antithetical pairs of Roman v barbarian, civilized v uncivilized, Catholic v heretic and pagan entirely coincide What emerges from a series of contrasts between Romans and barbarians is a corrupted ideal of Roman citizenship He speaks of Romans who have chosen to live among the barbarians: Although these men differ in customs and language from those with whom they have taken refuge, and are unaccustomed too, if I may say so, to the nauseous odor of the bodies and clothing of the barbarians, yet they prefer the strange life they find there to the injustice rife among the Romans So you find men passing over everywhere, now to the Goths, now to the Bagaudae, or whatever other barbarians have established their power anywhere, and

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Salvian, de gub Dei 4, 13: igitur quia non ferendum quidam existimant, ut deteriores aut non multo etiam meliores barbaris iudicemur, uideamus aut quomodo meliores simus aut quibus barbaris duo enim genera in omni gente omnium barbarorum sunt, id est aut haereticorum aut paganorum his ergo omnibus, quantum ad legem diuinam pertinet, dico nos sine comparatione meliores: quantum ad uitam ac uitae actus, doleo ac plango esse peiores P Brown, op Cit (n 8): 11 Salvian, de gub Dei 5, 2: barbari quippe homines, Romanae immo potius humanae eruditionis expertes, qui nihil omnino sciunt nisi quod a doctoribus suis audiunt, quod audiunt, hoc sequuntur

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they do not repent of their expatriation, for they would rather live as free men, though in seeming captivity, than as captives in seeming liberty 12

The body odour, strange clothing, and non-Latin language of the barbarian might put them beyond the pale, but freedom is an overriding consideration Libertas is a defining characteristic of the Roman citizen even more important than language, clothing and personal care (how sweet the Roman must have smelt oiled and scented from the public baths!) That libertas is now to be found with the barbarians is the worst collapse of citizenship imaginable And this point Salvian spells out vividly: Hence the name of Roman citizen, once not only much valued but dearly bought, is now voluntarily repudiated and shunned, and is thought not merely valueless, but even almost abhorrent What can be a greater proof of Roman injustice than that many worthy noblemen to whom their Roman status should have been the greatest source of fame and honor, have nevertheless been driven so far by the cruelty of Roman injustice that they no longer wish to be Romans? The result is that even those who do not take refuge with the barbarians are yet compelled to be barbarians themselves; for this is the case with the greater part of the Spaniards, no small proportion of the Gauls, and, in fine, all those throughout the Roman world whose Roman citizenship has been brought to nothing by Roman extortion 13

In speaking so of the value of the Roman citizenship, Salvian surely has in mind St Paul, and the centurion who had bought his citizenship for a great price (Acts 22, 28) It has been widely assumed that after the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 AD, the Roman citizenship, having become universal, lost its value, and was displaced by the honestiores/ humiliores distinction which conveyed freedom from physical punishment 14 There are

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Salvian, de gub Dei 5, 5: quamuis ab his, ad quos confugiunt, discrepant ritu discrepant lingua, ipso etiam, ut ita dicam, corporum atque induuiarum barbaricarum foetore dissentiant, malunt tamen in barbaris pati cultum dissimilem quam in Romanis iniustitiam saeuientem itaque passim uel ad Gothos uel ad Bacaudas uel ad alios ubique dominantes barbaros migrant; et commigrasse non paenitet; malunt enim sub specie captiuitatis uiuere liberi quam sub specie libertatis esse captiui Salvian, de gub Dei 5, 5: itaque nomen ciuium Romanorum aliquando non solum magno aestimatum sed magno emptum nunc ultro repudiatur ac fugitur, nee uile tantum sed etiam abominabile paene habetur et quod esse maius testimonium Romanae iniquitatis potest, quam quod plerique et honesti et nobiles et quibus Romanus status summo et splendori esse debuit et honori, ad hoc tamen Romanae iniquitatis crudelitate compulsi sunt, ut nolint esse Romani? et hinc est, quod etiam hi, qui ad barbaros non confugiunt, barbari tamen esse coguntur, scilicet ut est pars magna Hispanorum et non minima Gallorum, omnes denique, quos per uniuersum Romanum orbem fecit Romana iniquitas iam non esse Romanos There has been growing discussion of citizenship after Caracalla: see the papers in Rapp, C / Drake, H A (eds ), The City in the Classical and Post-Classical World Changing Contexts of Power and Identity, Cambridge 2014 and Ando, C (ed ), Citizenship and Empire in Europe 200–1900 The Antonine Constitution after 1800 Years, Stuttgart 2016 The argument for the loss of importance of citizenship is rehearsed by R Mathiesen, Peregrini, Barbari, and Cives Romani: Concepts of Citizenship and the Legal Identity of Barbarians in the Later Roman Empire, American Historical

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many difficulties with this argument, not least the assumption that the citizenship was now universal 15 Apart from the exclusion of slaves, informally manumitted slaves continued to be excluded as Latini, and people suffering from infamia, from brigands to prostitutes, were also deprived of their rights There were plenty of barbarians within the empire, and they were systematically excluded from citizenship: indeed, intermarriage could be a capital offence What Salvian makes clear, even more so than Orosius, was that citizenship was still valued as the mark of freedom Hence his protests against the disenfranchisement of the Bacaudae 16 He maintains that they were citizens forced by the tax system to abandon citizenship I must now speak of the Bacaudae, who, despoiled, afflicted, and murdered by wicked and bloodthirsty magistrates, after they had lost the rights of Roman citizens (ius Romanae libertatis), forfeited also the honor of the Roman name (honorem Romani nominis) We transform their misfortunes into crime, we brand them with a name that recalls their losses, with a name that we ourselves have contrived for their shame!17

The Roman city has lost touch with the values of citizenship Here too, the barbarians prove their superiors: Now almost all barbarians, at least those who belong to one tribe, under one king’s rule, love one another, whereas almost all the Romans are at strife with one another What citizen is there who does not envy his fellows? Who shows complete charity to his neighbors?18

For Salvian, Christianity reinforces the ideals of citizenship: citizens should treat each other with Christian charity Yet there is more cohesion in a barbarian tribe He places the blame for this situation squarely on the ruling class, the curiales:

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Review (2006): 1011–40 On the scale of extension of citizenship, see M Lavan, The Spread of Roman Citizenship, 14–212 CE: Quantification in the Face of High Uncertainty, Past & Present 230 (2016): 3–46 Strongly questioned by P Garnsey, Roman citizenship and Roman law in the late Empire, in: Swain, S / Edwards, M (eds ), Approaching Late Antiquity: the Transformation from Early to Late Empire, Oxford 2010: 134–55 On whom see J Drinkwater, The Bacaudae of fifth-century Gaul, in: Drinkwater, J / Elton, H (eds ), op Cit (n 8): 208–17; G E M de Ste Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World, London 1981: 478–9 Salvian, de gub Dei 5, 6: De Bacaudis nunc mihi sermo est, qui per malos iudices et cruentos spoliati afflicti necati, postquam ius Romanae libertatis amiserant, etiam honorem Romani nominis perdiderunt et imputatur his infelicitas sua, imputamus his nomen calamitatis suae, imputamus nomen, quod ipsi fecimus: uocamus rebelles uocamus perditos quos esse compulimus criminosos Salvian, de gub Dei 5, 4: omnes se fere barbari, qui modo sunt unius gentis et regis, mutuo amant, omnes paene Romani se mutuo persequuntur quis enim ciuis non inuidet ciui? quis plenam uicino exhibet caritatem?

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What a situation is this, how savage, how rooted in the same impiety we deplore, how alien to barbarians and familiar to Romans, that they proscribe one another by mutual exactions … Nor is it only the highest officials who do this, but the least too in almost equal measure; not only the judges, but their obedient underlings as well For what cities are there, or even what municipalities and villages, in which there are not as many tyrants as curials?19

Barbarian success is down to the abandonment of the ideal values of the city The ruling class uses its position to fleece the poor, merely in order to indulge their desires I myself have seen men of lofty birth and honor (homines domi nobiles dignitate sublimes), though already despoiled and plundered, still less ruined in fortunes than in morality … They reclined at feasts, forgetful of their honor, forgetting justice, forgetting their faith and the name they bore There were the leaders of the state, gorged with food, dissolute from winebibbing, wild with shouting, giddy with revelry, completely out of their senses, or rather, since this was their usual condition, precisely in their senses In spite of all this, what I have next to say is still worse: not even the destruction of their towns put an end to their excesses 20

The sack of Roman cities by barbarians shows not just their barbarity, but the collapse of values of the city, the barbarism within Salvian speaks with the passion and authenticity of an eye-witness He has seen the devastation of Trier, from the region of which he came This (the unwillingness of cities to change their ways) can be quickly tested by the example of the greatest city of Gaul (summa urbe Gallorum – Trier), three times destroyed by successive captures, yet when the whole city had been burned to the ground, its wickedness increased even after its destruction Those whom the enemy had not killed when they pillaged the city were overwhelmed by disaster after the sack; those who had escaped death in the capture did not survive the ruin that followed … Worse than all this, other cities (civitates) suffered from the destruction of this single 19

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Salvian, de gub Dei 5, 4: iam uero illud quale, quam saeuum quam ex hac ipsa impietate descendens, quam alienum a barbaris quam familiare Romanis, quod se inuicem exactions proscribunt: immo non inuicem: nam hoc tolerabilius ferme esset, si pateretur quisque quod fecerat: illud est grauius, quod plurimi proscribuntur a paucis, quibus exactio publica peculiaris est, praeda, qui fiscalis debiti titulos faciunt quaestus esse priuatos, et hoc non summi tantum, sed paene infimi, non iudices solum, sed etiam iudicibus obsequentes quae enim sunt non modo urbes sed etiam municipia atque uici, ubi non quot curiales fuerint, tot tyranni sunt? Salvian, de gub Dei 6, 13: uidi siquidem ego [Treueros] ipse homines domi nobiles dignitate sublimes, licet iam spoliatos atque uastatos, minus euersos tamen rebus fuisse quam moribus … iacebant in conuiuiis obliti honoris obliti aetatis obliti professionis obliti nominis sui, principes ciuitatis cibo conferti uinolentia dissoluti, clamoribus rabidi bacchatione furiosi, nihil minus quam sensus sui, immo, quia prope iugiter tales, nihil magis quam sensus sui sed cum haec ita essent, plus multo est quod dicturus sum: finem perditioni huic nec ciuitatum excidia fecerunt

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town (urbs) There lay all about the torn and naked bodies of both sexes, a sight that I myself endured These were a pollution to the eyes of the city, as they lay there lacerated by birds and dogs The stench of the dead brought pestilence on the living: death breathed out death Thus even those who had escaped the destruction of the city suffered the evils that sprang from the fate of the rest 21 He regards this as a self-inflicted disaster, the consequence of a perversion of values, seen most clearly in the response to the third barbarian sack of Trier The city authorities petition the emperor to restore the circus games: What followed these calamities? Who can assay such utter folly? The few men of rank who had survived destruction demanded of the emperors circuses as the sovereign remedy for a ruined city … Do you, O citizens of Trier, long for circuses when you have been plundered and captured, after slaughter and bloodshed, after stripes and captivity, and the repeated destruction of your ruined city?22

The circuses and games had of course been a target of Christian polemic since Tertullian 23 Orosius has a very similar complaint about the sack of Rome, the new Sodom: The Roman people, indeed, have unmistakably borne witness that the disturbance which for a short time interrupted their customary pleasures was of but slight importance, for they freely cried out, “If we are given our circus back again, we have suffered nothing”24

Salvian also sees Carthage as corrupted by a passion for games As the Vandals devastated Africa, the Carthaginians persisted in their circuses, and all the immorality that went with it: The barbarians’ arms clashed about the walls of Cirta and Carthage while the Christian congregation of the city raved in the circuses and wantoned in the theaters Some had their

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Salvian, de gub Dei 6, 15: denique breuiter id probari potest excisa ter continuatis euersionibus summa urbe Gallorum, cumque omnis ciuitas combusta esset, malis et post excidia crescentibus nam quos hostis in excidio non occiderat, post excidium calamitas obruebat, cum id, quod in excidio euaserat morti, post excidium non superesset calamitati … et quid plura? excidio unius urbis adfligebantur quoque aliae ciuitates iacebant siquidem passim, quod ipse uidi atque sustinui, utriusque sexus cadauera nuda lacera, urbis oculos incestantia auibus canibusque laniata lues erat uiuentium foetor funereus mortuorum: mors morte exalabatur ac sic etiam qui excidiis supradictae urbis non interfuerant mala alieni excidii perferebant Salvian, de gub Dei 6, 15: quid post haec, inquam, quid post haec omnia? quis aestimare hoc amentiae genus possit? pauci nobiles, qui excidio superfuerant, quasi pro summo deletae urbis remedio circenses ab imperatoribus postulabant … circenses ergo, Treueri, desideratis, et hoc uastati hoc expugnati, post cladem post sanguinem, post supplicia post captiuitatem, post tot euersae urbis excidia? See D Van Slyke, The Devil and his Pomp in Fifth-century Carthage: renouncing spectacula with spectacular imagery, DOP 59 (2009): 53–72 Orosius 1, 6: adeo autem paruo quodam et leui motu haesitasse erga se parumper consuetudinem uoluptatum indubitatissime contestatus est, ut libere conclamaret, Si reciperet circum, nihil esse sibi factum, hoc est, nihil egisse Romae Gothorum enses, si concedatur Romanis spectare circenses

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throats cut without the walls, while others still committed fornication within; part of the people were captive to the enemy without, while part within the city were captive to their own vices 25

If circuses and theatres are the most objectionable part of the city, the immorality of its streets is hardly better Carthage has betrayed its claim to be the second city of the empire and a centre of learning and culture Indeed, the entire city is a brothel What part of the city was not full of indecency, what street or bypath was not a place of shame? Lust had so cut off most of the crossroads and streets with its snares, and entangled them with its nets, that even those who utterly abhorred such vices could scarcely avoid them … You would think the city a sinkpot of lust and fornication, like the muck collected from the offscourings of all the streets and sewers What hope could there be in such a place, where, except for the temple of the Lord, here was nothing to be seen but filth?26

Salvian’s account of the crisis of the 5th century city seems to me to capture the city at a crucial turning point, between the pagan city of the Classical era, and the Christian city of the middle ages Many features of the classical city are still recognisably there The ruling class, the curiales, still dominate the countryside as well as the town; and they consolidate their ties in classic urban dinner parties On the one hand they exploit the peasants; on the other, they seek favour with the masses by staging spectacles in the circus and theatre Spectacles are still, as Keith Hopkins described them, the ‘glue’ that held together a Roman community 27 As magistrates their duty is to keep the streets free of the tide of moral and literal filth: no classical city is thinkable without the brothel and the sewer Salvian’s demand to save the Roman world by higher standards of Christianity points to a new sort of city, dominated by the bishop, with Christian basilicas not circuses as the principal monumental form 28

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Salvian, de gub Dei 6, 12: circumsonabant armis muros Cirtae atque Carthaginis populi barbarorum, et ecclesia Carthaginensis insaniebat in circis luxuriabat in theatris alii foris iugulabantur alii intus fornicabantur: pars plebis erat foris captiua hostium pars intus captiua uitiorum Salvian, de gub Dei 7, 17: quae enim fuit pars ciuitatis non plena sordibus, quae intra urbem platea aut semita non lupanar? adeo omnia paene competa omnes uias aut quasi foueae libidinum interciderant aut quasi retia praetexebant, ut etiam qui ab hac re penitus abhorrerent tamen uitare uix possent faetebant, ut ita dixerim, cuncti urbis illius ciues caeno libidinis, spurcum sibimet ipsis mutuo impudicitiae nidorem inalantes sed horrori eis tamen horrida ista non erant, quia idem omnes horror infecerat unam enim putes fuisse illic libidinum fornicationumque sentinam, caenum quasi ex omni platearum et cloacarum labe collectum et quae illic spes esse poterat, ubi praeter id, quod in domini templo erat, nihil uideri penitus nisi sordidum non licebat? K Hopkins, Death and Renewal, Cambridge 1983: 1–30 J H W G Leibeschuetz, op Cit (n 1): 137–68 sees ‘the rise of the bishop’ as inimical to the values of the Classical City His characterization of the pagan city as secular overlooks the role of pagan priests

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Salvian wants change: but he still believes in being a Roman, and cares about the values of a citizenship from which St Paul benefited For Augustine, the faithful were citizens of a heavenly city, but strangers, peregrini, here on earth Orosius, as we have seen, was in one sense more optimistic As a Christian, he was not a peregrinus, an outsider to Roman law, but a citizen, free to travel safely across a vast Mediterranean empire, fleeing from Spain to Africa and even to Palestine Salvian takes his argument a step further Romans are distinctive from barbarians, who are not only uncouth, unwashed, uneducated and ignorant, but either pagans or heretics Salvian reminds Romans that citizenship is a bundle of values: it involves freedom and justice, mutual respect between citizens The Catholic faith is not an alternative to the old Roman values, but reinforces them In a word, he is capable of imagining that the cities of the empire, rather than being foreign to the civitas Dei, can be made stronger by its characteristics That, for Salvian, is the best way to beat the barbarians Salvian is no neutral commentator: on the contrary, a passionate proselytization runs through his tract But in many ways it accurately exposes a longer term process, one which Karl Stroheker long ago set out with synthetic elegance: the manner in which the cities of Roman Gaul and their ruling elite from the 4th to the 7th century AD adapted to the realities of barbarian invasion 29 Stroheker’s point was that the old senatorial nobility adapted by becoming bishops, to remain the key figures in the urban fabric, acknowledged as such by Visigothic, Burgundian and Frankish kings, and continuing to represent the interests both of their own landed estates and of the urbanised population But part and parcel of the survival of an aristocracy is the survival of the urban fabric itself: the France which Gregory of Tours, descendant of the old nobility, reveals to us, despite the torments brought on them by feuding Merovingian kings, is one of cities, and of the same cities, with rare exceptions, as that of the late Roman administrative structure 30 Cities and citizenship survived the ultimate stress test, that of repeated invasions by alien peoples They found resilience in adaptation, and the message which Salvian urged, of finding identity in the Catholic faith, was an integral part of that adaptation

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K F Stroheker, Der senatorische Adel im spätantiken Gallien, Tübingen 1948 Well argued by S T Loseby, Decline and change in the cities of late antique Gaul, in: Die Stadt in der Spätantike – Niedergang oder Wandel?, Stuttgart 2006: 67–104

At the end of the 2nd century AD the urban network of the Roman Empire was subject to weakness and crisis. We know this on one hand through decrees from the Flavian era, comments of Pliny the Younger on the financial problems of some cities and on the other hand through notices in the Historia Augusta reporting the existence of oppida labentia – „cities in decline“. In this volume, we discuss some of these issues with the following ques-

tions: was the municipal system, at least in the Roman West and, particularly in Roman Spain, a useful and sustainable model of managing local autonomy? Was it a durable system? Were new cities more fragile than others in terms of financial sustainability? What were the causes and the indicators signalling the lack of strength of many urban centres from the 2nd century AD onwards?

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