Resumen de The function of salles à auges in the African provinces. Elsa Rocca, Pauline Piraud-Fournet, François Baratte (éd.), Les « salles à auges ». Des édifices controversés de l’Antiquité tardive entre Afrique et Proche-Orient, Madrid, Casa de Velázquez
Following a review of the above monograph, it is hypothesized that the “bâtiments” or “salles à auges” in the African provinces were perhaps the monumental manifestation of the fundamental changes in the Late Roman system of tax assessment and collection initiated by Diocletian and his successors. These changes shifted responsibilities for revenue payments away from towns as collectivities to individuals, and eventually fostered the implementation of autopragria, the right of rural landowners to collect land and head taxes on their estates on behalf of the Roman government during this period. The auges buildings found in African towns were likewise, it is speculated, a response to the transfer of all public municipal lands and revenues to the imperial treasury initiated by Constantine or Constantius. The use of auges buildings for these purposes may have continued into the Vandal period, but in any event was certainly revived in Africa following its reconquest by Justinian.
