Public Construction under Diocletian A Study of State Involvement in Construction in Roman Era Towns in Present Day Tunisia and Eastern Algeria. Monica Hellström Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2013 Monica Hellström All rights reserved ABSTRACT Public Construction under Diocletian. A study of State Involvement in Construction in Roman Era Towns in Present Day Tunisia and Eastern Algeria. Monica Hellström This study traces the development of building inscriptions in Roman North Africa, in order to understand the rich epigraphic record testifying to public construction during the reign of Diocletian. In particular, it examines the role of the imperial government in construction, both in how it itself built and how it related to locals who did. Treating construction as a form of communication between builder and society, I have examined the claims made by the state as it took on the role of builder, and to what social groups these claims were directed. A wide approach has been called for to understand the role played by public construction – and by broadcasting it through inscriptions – for the negotiation of influence in the province. I have examined the activities of both imperial and local builders, which has revealed well defined conventions as to what and where to build, and how to communicate it. Against this backdrop, I have traced the relations of the Diocletianic government to a number of social strata, as expressed through building inscriptions, from rural entrepreneurs and small town councilors to Carthaginian senators. An image has emerged of a government that was keenly aware of the social makeup of the province, and deeply invested in its economic fabric, concerned with maintaining a viable, small scale network of independent municipalities as a counterweight to the interests of the highest elites, while at the same time maintaining stable relations to said elites. CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION I.1 Project presentation ………………………………………………………… 1 Methods and materials …………………………………………………… 7 I.2 Historiography ………………………………………………………………. 16 Sources and debates concerning Diocletian and his reign ……………….. 16 The 3rd c. and the “crisis” ……………………………………………….. 22 Administration …………………………………………………………… 24 Art and architecture ……………………………………………………… 29 I.3 Roman Africa: outline of geography, demography, history ……………… 36 Historic outline and debates …………………………………………….... 36 Geographical considerations ……………………………………………... 45 Partitions …………………………………………………………………. 48 II. LOCALS BUILD. AFRICANS IN BUILDING EPIGRAPHY …………… 57 II.1 Building epigraphy and Africa: introduction and methodological issues 57 II.2 Local conventions: civic and private construction ………………………… 69 Local notables ……………………………………………………………. 70 The bigger fish …………………………………………………………… 84 Building inscriptions on estates ………………………………………….. 95 Towns and collectives …………………………………………………….. 100 Aims and audiences ………………………………………………………. 105 i Changes and conventions ………………………………………………… 110 III. THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT IN AFRICAN EPIGRAPHY ……… 123 III.1 The emperor and construction …………………………………………… 124 The emperors as builders: magistrates and benefactors …………………. 124 The emperors as builders in Africa ……………………………………….. 128 The involved emperor? Milestones, laws and land ……………………….. 135 Dedicatory formulas and statues: the visible emperor …………………… 145 III.2 Imperial representatives: legates, governors and curatores rei publicae 153 The legati Augusti pro praetore …………………………………………… 156 The proconsuls and their deputies ………………………………………... 159 Curatores rei publicae and the 3rd century ……………………………….. 167 Summary ………………………………………………………………….. 180 IV. BUILDING INSCRIPTIONS UNDER DIOCLETIAN …………………... 183 IV.1 Construction by local agents ………………………………………………. 184 Rebirth? …………………………………………………………………… 191 IV.2 Imperial construction ……………………………………………………… 195 Governors, legates and curators build …………………………………… 197 Formulas ………………………………………………………………….. 208 Geographical distribution ………………………………………………… 218 Funding …..……………………………………………………………….. 221 Summary conclusions …………………………………………………….. 227 V. FARMERS, TOWNS AND SENATORS …………………………………... 230 ii V.1 The African economy at the time of Diocletian …………………………… 231 The geography of production …………………………………………….. 233 Production in the Northeast ………………………………………………. 235 Production in the South: the interior powerhouse and the enigmatic Sahel 239 The social side of production …………………………………………….. 246 Estates, their owners, managers and workers …………………………… 250 Aristobulus, Sossianus and the rural communities ……………………….. 254 V.2 The state and social strata: the reach of the reforms ……………………. 265 Compliance and contention ………………………………………………. 274 The governors of the new system …………………………………………. 279 The state and the senators: the case of Carthage and the Northeast …….. 286 VI. CONCLUSIONS …………………………………………………………….. 298 VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………….. 309 VIII. APPENDIX A. MAPS OF DATED CONSTRUCTION ………………... 335 IX. APPENDIX B. LIST OF DIOCLETIANIC CONSTRUCTION ………… 345 X. APPENDIX C. CATALOGUE OF INSCRIPTIONS ……………………… 347 Inclusion criteria ………………………………………………………….. 347 Dating criteria …………………………………………………………….. 348 Catalogue organization …………………………………………………… 349 X.1 Northeastern Africa Proconsularis ………………………………………… 353 X.2 Western Africa Proconsularis ……………………………………………… 459 X.3 Byzacena ……………………………………………………………………... 506 iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Cover illustration, view from Thugga (private) Fig 1. AE 1968.599, Musti (EDH) ……………………………………………….. 8 Fig 2. Map of construction attested through epigraphy under Diocletian ………... 10 Fig. 3. Map of subregions ………………………………………………………… 48 Fig. 4. Graph of inscribed projects attested per reign and year …………………... 58 Fig. 5 Map of areas underrepresented through building epigraphy ………………. 62 Fig. 6. CIL 8.26121, Numluli (EDH) ……………………………………………… 72 Fig. 7. Bridge over the Medjerda river at Simitthus (private) …………………….. 122 Fig. 8. Map of distribution of curatores rei publicae in the 3rd c. ………………… 173 Fig. 9. Map of construction under Diocletian, with topography ………………….. 182 Fig. 10. Map of distribution of statues raised to Diocletian and his co-emperors ... 194 Figs. 11-3. Coins: RIC III.857, RIC VI.31, RIC VI.27, (Wildwinds.com) ……….. 211 Fig. 14. Map of kilns (after Bonifay 2004 and Hobson 2012) ……………………. 236 Fig. 15. Map of regions of olive oil production (after Sehili 2008) ………………. 241 Fig. 16. Vase signed by Navigius (Princeton University Art Museum) ………….. 249 Figs. 17-25. Maps of dated construction, from Hadrian to Diocletian ……… 336-344 Fig. 26. Table of number of buildings attested in epigraphy, per reign and year … 352 iv Acknowledgements During the course of this work, I have benefited from the support of many, first and foremost my advisors Roger S. Bagnall, Alan D. Cameron, and Natalie B. Kampen. Professor Kampen, who was my sponsor until her untimely passing in 2012, deserves a special mention – without her enthusiasm, friendship, and sound criticism, this study may not have seen the light of day. I am deeply grateful to professor Bagnall for taking on the task of sponsor at this difficult time. James E. G. Zetzel, Michelle R. Salzman, and Kristian Göransson, also part of my dissertation committee, have generously placed their time and experience at my disposal. Professor Salzman, together with Kimberly Bowes, accepted me as participant in the workshop The Falls of Rome, held at the American Academy in Rome in 2010, for which I am most grateful both to them and to the sponsor, the National Endowment for the Humanities. The number of people outside my committee from whose help I have benefited are too many to mention, but among those most deserving are Franz Alto Bauer and Ari Saastamoinen, who kindly made yet unpublished works available to me. Elizabeth Fentress, besides offering invaluable advice on Roman Africa, provided me with the opportunity to present my work to a scholarly audience at AIAC in Rome, and thanks should also go to Ingela Nilsson, Lena Larsson Lovén and Robert Coates-Stephens, as well as the directors of the Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish Institutes in Rome, for the same reasons. The Swedish Institute awarded me a one year Fellowship in Archaeology, for which I am deeply grateful, and thanks should also go to the committee awarding me with the Stuart W. Thompson fellowship to Rome. I offer my thanks also to the Gihls and Hagendahl foundations, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, and the Center for the Ancient Mediterranean at Columbia University, for providing me with the opportunity to travel to sites key to this study. v To friends and family – present and absent – for support and inspiration. vi I. INTRODUCTION I.1 Project presentation This study revolves around a group of building inscriptions from Roman North Africa, in an area corresponding to present Tunisia and Eastern Algeria and dating to the reign of Diocletian (284- 305). A great many of them bear witness to an unusual level of involvement by central authorities in the built landscape of African towns, through governors, legates and curators initiating and supervising construction in the name of the emperors. My aim has been to understand what relations these texts represent between local communities and central government – what the incentives were to publish them, who the audiences were, and what the government represented to them.