Les cités de l'Afrique romaine au Bas-Empire : les curies et l'évasion des notables municipaux
- Autores: Christophe Hugoniot
- Localización: Antiquité tardive: revue internationale d'histoire et d'archéologie, ISSN 1250-7334, Nº. 26, 2018 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Le gouvernement des cités dans l’Antiquité tardive (IVe-VIIIe siècles)), págs. 197-210
- Idioma: francés
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Resumen
Research works on Late Roman Africa are undeniably dominated by the thesis of Claude Lepelley, who clearly revealed the prosperity of the African cities during Late Antiquity. This prosperity is noticeable among public works, sign of wealth of the cities, and among the functioning of the municipal institutions, which, in spite of important changes, shows great continuity with the Principate. This proper functioning rested on the municipal council, and the question thus arises of the evasion of municipal curials to the superior orders of the Roman society, in particular to the Senate. Claude Lepelley put into perspective this evasion, sign for him of the ambition of the wealthiest and prominent citizens, and not of an elite's crisis. Five laws of the Theodosian Code, which were promulgated during the years 338-340, and nominally addressed to African cities, seem to be consistent with the image of a flight of the municipal elites to the Senate, with the aim of evading their duties towards their cities, but the comparison with the epigraphical documentation corrects this negative impression and suggests that the curial model remained attractive in the social sphere of the wealthy Africans.
