An imperial estate (patrimonium or res privata) [1] in the Roman Empire it was the "personal property of members of the imperial family, as distinct from property belonging to the Roman state" (ager publicus). [2] On the Emperor's death, these properties passed to his successor, and not to his private heirs. [1]
Imperial estates were not only farming estates, or latifundia , but also pastures (saltus) and mines (metalla). [3] Management of imperial estates within a province was the responsibility of a procurator who, in turn, reported to the procurator patrimonii in Rome. [1] The procurator leased the estate to a conductor, a contractor, or administrator. On small estates, the conductor might farm the land himself. On larger tracts, the conductor sub-let the land to coloni , tenant-farmers. Coloni were free men, and not bound to the land like later serfs. The coloni paid the conductor in shares of their crops, and were also obliged to perform other services a few days a year. [4]
"At one period or another there seem to have been estates in most provinces of the empire." Estates were acquired in various ways: by "confiscation, acquisition by conquest and inheritance." Imperial estates might be disposed of through sales or given as gifts, to individuals, to temples, and later to christian churches. Land which remained imperial property was usually leased out. [5] It is difficult to estimate how much land was directly owned by the emperor. In North Africa in the fifth century, land registers show that he owned around 15–18%. [6]
Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages and lasted for almost a thousand years until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
Manorialism, also known as seigneurialism, the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, sometimes fortified manor house in which the lord of the manor and his dependants lived and administered a rural estate, and a population of labourers or serfs who worked the surrounding land to support themselves and the lord. These labourers fulfilled their obligations with labour time or in-kind produce at first, and later by cash payment as commercial activity increased. Manorialism was part of the feudal system.
The Roman Empire is generally understood to mean the period and territory ruled by the Romans following Octavian's assumption of sole rule under the Principate in 27 BC, the post-Republican state of ancient Rome. It included territories in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia and was ruled by emperors. The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD conventionally marks the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages.
Roman Egypt was an imperial province of the Roman Empire from 30 BC to AD 641. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai. It was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judaea, later Arabia Petraea, to the East.
The cursus publicus was the state mandated and supervised courier and transportation service of the Roman Empire, whose use continued into the Eastern Roman Empire. It was a system based on obligations placed on private persons by the Roman State. As contractors, called mancipes, they provided the equipment, animals, and wagons. In the Early Empire compensation had to be paid but this had fallen into abeyance in Late Antiquity when maintenance was charged to the inhabitants along the routes. The service contained only those personnel necessary for administration and operation. These included veterinarians, wagon-wrights, and grooms. The couriers and wagon drivers did not belong to the service: whether public servants or private individuals, they used facilities requisitioned from local individuals and communities. The costs in Late Antiquity were charged to the provincials as part of the provincial tax obligations in the form of a liturgy/munus on private individual taxpayers.
Fiscus was the treasury of the Roman Empire. It was initially the personal wealth of the emperors, funded by taxation on the imperial provinces, assumption of estates and other privileges. By the third century it was understood as a state fund rather than a personal one, albeit under the emperor's control. It is the origin of the English term "fiscal."
The practices of ancient Roman finance, while originally rooted in Greek models, evolved in the second century BC with the expansion of Roman monetization. Roman elites engaged in private lending for various purposes, and various banking models arose to serve different lending needs.
Judaea was a Roman province from 6 to 132 AD, which incorporated the Levantine regions of Judea, Samaria and Idumea, extending over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Judea. The name Judaea was derived from the Iron Age Kingdom of Judah.
Brent Donald Shaw is a Canadian historian and the current Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics at Princeton University. His principal contributions center on the regional history of the Roman world with special emphasis on the African provinces of the Roman Empire, the demographic and social history of the Roman family, and problems of violence and social order.
Richard John Alexander Talbert is a British-American contemporary ancient historian and classicist on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of History and is currently Research Professor in charge of the Ancient World Mapping Center. Talbert is a leading scholar of ancient geography and ideas of space in the ancient Mediterranean world.
The Patrimony of Saint Peter originally designated the landed possessions and revenues of various kinds that belonged to the apostolic Holy See. Until the middle of the 8th century this consisted wholly of private property; later, it corresponded to the territories under Papal sovereignty, but from the early 13th century the term was applied to one of the four provinces of the States of the Church.
In the late Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages a colonus was a tenant farmer. Known collectively as the colonate, these farmers operated as sharecroppers, paying landowners with a portion of their crops in exchange for use of their farmlands.
The alimenta was a Roman welfare program that existed from around 98 AD to 272 AD. It was probably introduced by Nerva and was later expanded by Trajan. It was designed to subsidise orphans and poor children throughout Italy, but nowhere else, with a cash income, food and subsidized education. The program was an Imperial gift, supported during Trajan's reign by booty from his Dacian wars and estate taxes on landowners. Landowners who registered to contribute received a lump sum from the imperial treasury as a loan, and were expected to repay a given proportion annually, as their contribution to a charitable fund. The program was likely terminated by emperor Aurelian.
Rome's military was always tightly keyed to its political system. In the Roman Kingdom the social standing of a person impacted both his political and military roles, which were often organised into familial clans such as the Julia. These clans often wielded a large amount of power and were huge influences through the Roman Kingdom into the Roman Republic. The political system was from an early date based upon competition within the ruling elite, the patricians. Senators in the Republic competed fiercely for public office, the most coveted of which was the post of consul. Two consuls were elected each year to head the government of the state, and would be assigned a consular army and an area in which to campaign. From Gaius Marius and Sulla onwards, control of the army began to be tied into the political ambitions of individuals, leading to the First Triumvirate of the 1st century BC and the resulting Caesar's civil war. The late Republic and Empire was increasingly plagued by usurpations led by or supported by the military, leading to the Crisis of the third century in the late empire.
Procurator was a title of certain officials in ancient Rome who were in charge of the financial affairs of a province, or imperial governor of a minor province.
Roman amphitheatres are theatres — large, circular or oval open-air venues with tiered seating — built by the ancient Romans. They were used for events such as gladiator combats, venationes and executions. About 230 Roman amphitheatres have been found across the area of the Roman Empire. Early amphitheatres date from the Republican period, though they became more monumental during the Imperial era.
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In ancient Rome, contubernium was a quasi-marital relationship between two slaves or between a slave (servus) and a free person who was usually a former slave or the child of a former slave. A slave involved in such a relationship was called contubernalis, the basic and general meaning of which was "companion".
The Curator Aquarum was a Roman official responsible for managing Rome's water supply and distributing free grain. Curators were appointed by the emperor. The first curator was Agrippa. Another notable Curator Aquarum was Frontinus, a Roman engineer.
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