The Problem of Evading Curial Duties by Decurions in the 4th Century AD in the Light of the Theodosian Code
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/BPMH.2022.001Keywords
Late Roman Empire; city councils; decurions; munera; fiscal burdens; normative sourcesAbstract
At the turn of the 3rd and the 4th century AD, the position of the members of the city councils underwent important changes. In particular, the legislation of the Emperor Constantine I (306–337) made membership of the council obligatory. This caused avoidance of the service by curiales and a decrease in the number of the members of the city councils. How deep this process was is a matter of discussion by modern scholars. In this paper, I present the main ways to evade service in the town and city councils based on normative sources, especially the Theodosian Code (Chapter I, Book 12). At the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries, solutions which significantly limited the position of decurions appeared in imperial legislation, and the tone of the laws seemed to be more severe.
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