Munera (ancient Rome)

Last updated

In ancient Rome, munera (Latin plural; singular munus) were public works and entertainments provided for the benefit of the Roman people by individuals of high status and wealth. Munera means "duty, obligation" (cf. English "munificence"), expressing the individual's responsibility to provide a service or contribution to his community. The word was often a synonym for gladiatorial combat, which was originally sponsored as a funeral tribute at the tomb of a deceased Roman magnate by his heir. Munera depended on the private largesse of individuals, in contrast to ludi , which were games, athletic contests or spectacles sponsored by the state. [1]

Types and evolution

The most famous munera were the gladiatorial contests, which began as a service or gift rendered by the heirs of the deceased at funeral games. Munera could refer to the provision of such public services, or to the services themselves. In describing Rome's provision of water to the public, Frontinus describes certain lavishly decorated terminal fountains as munera. [2] [3] During the Republic and from 27 BC, many rich persons lavished funds on civic amenities, entertainments and banquets for citizens to gain their favor and enhance their own reputation. The crises of the Empire post-235 caused a rapid decrease in voluntary, private expenditures as evidenced by a dramatic drop in inscriptional attestations, for example of building works within cities credited to the governor and his representatives rather than the municipal aristocracies. From the time of the Tetrarchy (293–305), the munera of the curiales (city councilors) became subject to imperial regulation, apportionment and enforcement so that formerly voluntary "gifts" to the people became firstly civic obligations, then a form of taxation tied to a person's official status and social privilege, and finally a range of obligatory services rendered to the Roman State. [4]

Munera patrimonialia (the compulsory rendering of property) or personalia (service rendered in person) included the quartering of soldiers and members of the imperial household, the provision of various raw materials for imperial use, services and supplies for the public post, the production of horses and recruits, services connected with the supplies for the army and transport of troops. Munera corporalia (bodily works) or munera sordida ("dirty" works) required physical labor such as making charcoal, lime-burning and breadmaking. In addition, the lower classes had to furnish labor ( corvée ) in the state factories, mines and quarries, and in the construction and repair of public buildings, highways, bridges and other public works ( opera publica ). During the Later Empire these compulsory services, an integral part of the tax system, fell increasingly on the middle and lower classes. [5]

Other personalia included the production of garments, buying flour and oil for the city, monitoring the sale of bread and other food stuffs, collection and distribution of the Cura Annonae, collection in money of the capitatio, collection of civic revenues, police duties, the erection of palaces, docks, post stations, and the heating of the baths. [6] Munera (known as liturgies in Greek) were but one of many monetary taxes. Increasingly, taxes in kind made up munera/liturgies and burdens (functiones) and other charges that made up the tax liability of individuals and their municipality, expressed as abstract units of assessment, or iuga (originally a unit pertaining to agricultural land and estimations of its likely yield). [7] The term origo denotes and identifies the legal residence, region, village or estate of the registered taxpayer and/or liturgist. [8] The unified fiscal system devised by Diocletian gave the Roman Empire a budget in the modern sense for the first time. [9]

In the later empire, the performance of compulsory services was resented. The state made the obligation hereditary. The richest city councilors, principales, and others subject to the performance of munera or liturgies shifted the burden to their less wealthy colleagues, thereby weakening municipal government. Many tried to escape if they could, in particular, by rising to senatorial rank or by being granted exemptions.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladiator</span> Roman combatant for entertainment

A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Empire</span> Roman state following the Republic (27 BC–AD 1453)

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican state of ancient Rome. It 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. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Roman architecture</span> Ancient architectural style

Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical ancient Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture. Roman architecture flourished in the Roman Republic and to an even greater extent under the Empire, when the great majority of surviving buildings were constructed. It used new materials, particularly Roman concrete, and newer technologies such as the arch and the dome to make buildings that were typically strong and well engineered. Large numbers remain in some form across the former empire, sometimes complete and still in use today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liturgy</span> Customary public worship performed by a religious group

Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. Liturgy can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembrance, supplication, or repentance. It forms a basis for establishing a relationship with God.

Sextus Julius Frontinus was a prominent Roman civil engineer, author, soldier and senator of the late 1st century AD. He was a successful general under Domitian, commanding forces in Roman Britain, and on the Rhine and Danube frontiers. A novus homo, he was consul three times. Frontinus ably discharged several important administrative duties for Nerva and Trajan. However, he is best known to the post-Classical world as an author of technical treatises, especially De aquaeductu, dealing with the aqueducts of Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman citizenship</span> Citizenship in ancient Rome

Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in Ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, traditions, and cultural practices. There existed several different types of citizenship, determined by one's gender, class, and political affiliations, and the exact duties or expectations of a citizen varied throughout the history of the Roman Empire.

In ancient Rome, the Latin term municipium referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the municipium was a social contract among municipes, or citizens of the town. The duties were a communal obligation assumed by the municipes in exchange for the privileges and protections of citizenship. Every citizen was a municeps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman funerary practices</span> Care of the dead in ancient Rome

Roman funerary practices include the Ancient Romans' religious rituals concerning funerals, cremations, and burials. They were part of time-hallowed tradition, the unwritten code from which Romans derived their social norms. Elite funeral rites, especially processions and public eulogies, gave the family opportunity to publicly celebrate the life and deeds of the deceased, their ancestors, and the family's standing in the community. Sometimes the political elite gave costly public feasts, games and popular entertainments after family funerals, to honour the departed and to maintain their own public profile and reputation for generosity. The Roman gladiator games began as funeral gifts for the deceased in high status families.

<i>Civitas</i> Roman concept of citizenry as an entity united by law

In Ancient Rome, the Latin term civitas, according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the cives, or citizens, united by law. It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities on the one hand and rights of citizenship on the other. The agreement has a life of its own, creating a res publica or "public entity", into which individuals are born or accepted, and from which they die or are ejected. The civitas is not just the collective body of all the citizens, it is the contract binding them all together, because each of them is a civis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aqua Virgo</span> Ancient Roman aqueduct in Italy

The Aqua Virgo was one of the eleven Roman aqueducts that supplied the city of ancient Rome. It was completed in 19 BC by Marcus Agrippa, during the reign of the emperor Augustus and was built mainly to supply the contemporaneous Baths of Agrippa in the Campus Martius.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman aqueduct</span> Type of aqueduct built in ancient Rome

The Romans constructed aqueducts throughout their Republic and later Empire, to bring water from outside sources into cities and towns. Aqueduct water supplied public baths, latrines, fountains, and private households; it also supported mining operations, milling, farms, and gardens.

In ancient Rome, the curiales were initially the leading members of a gentes (clan) of the city of Rome. Their roles were both civil and sacred. Each gens curialis had a leader, called a curio. The whole arrangement of assemblies was presided over by the curio maximus.

Sanitation in ancient Rome, acquired from the Etruscans, was very advanced compared to other ancient cities and provided water supply and sanitation services to residents of Rome. Although there were many sewers, public latrines, baths and other sanitation infrastructure, disease was still rampant. The baths are known to symbolise the "great hygiene of Rome".

Opera publica is the Latin name used by Ancient Rome for the building of public works, construction or engineering projects carried out under the direction of the state on behalf of the community. The term "public works" is a calque of the Latin. Public works in the Roman Empire were not merely buildings for the conduct of the business of running the city, but all buildings for public use. Therefore, amphitheatres, aqueducts, temples, basilicae, theatres, fora, arches, defensive walls, harbours, bridges, thermae, fountains, roads, circuses, markets, and cloacae were classified as opera publica.

Euergetism (or evergetism, from the Greek εὐεργετέω, "do good deeds") was the ancient practice of high-status and wealthy individuals in society distributing part of their wealth to the community. This practice was also part of the patron-client relation system of Roman society. The term was coined by French historian André Boulanger and subsequently used in the works of Paul Veyne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aqua Julia</span>

The Aqua Julia is a Roman aqueduct built in 33 BC by Agrippa under Augustus to supply the city of Rome. It was repaired and expanded by Augustus from 11–4 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aqua Alsietina</span> Roman aqueduct

In Ancient Rome, the Aqua Alsietina was the earlier of the two western Roman aqueducts, erected sometime around 2 BC, during the reign of emperor Augustus. It was the only water supply for the Transtiberine region, on the right bank of the river Tiber until the Aqua Traiana was built.

De aquaeductu is a two-book official report given to the emperor Nerva or Trajan on the state of the aqueducts of Rome, and was written by Sextus Julius Frontinus at the end of the 1st century AD. It is also known as De Aquis or De Aqueductibus Urbis Romae. It is the earliest official report of an investigation made by a distinguished citizen on Roman engineering works to have survived. Frontinus had been appointed Water Commissioner by the emperor Nerva in AD 96.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curator Aquarum</span> A Roman official who managed the water supply of Rome

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.

References

  1. ↑ Bispham, Edward, From Asculum to Actium: The Municipalization of Italy from the Social War to Augustus (Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 15 and 26.
  2. ↑ In the early imperial era, around 10% of Rome's aqueduct water fed 591 public fountains; see Keenan-Jones, Duncan; Motta, Davide; Garcia, Marcelo H; Fouke, Bruce, W. "Travertine-based estimates of the amount of water supplied by ancient Rome's Anio Novus aqueduct", Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Science Direct, Volume 3, September 2015, pp. 1 - 10 (accessed online January 30 2021)
  3. ↑ The relevant MS and print versions of Frontinus (1.3 and 1.78) are uncertain in meaning. See Aicher, Peter J., "Terminal Display Fountains ("Mostre") and the Aqueducts of Ancient Rome", Phoenix, 47 (Winter, 1993), pp. 339-352, Classical Association of Canada, https://doi.org/10.2307/1088729 Stable URL https://www.jstor.https://doi.org/10.2307/1088729 (registration required - accessed April 29, 2021)
  4. ↑ Grey, Cam, Constructing Communities in the Late Roman Countryside, 2011 pp. 183, 195 ISBN   978-1-107-01162-5
  5. ↑ Pharr, Clyde, The Theodosian Code, Twelfth Reprinting, 2010, pp. 577, 592 ISBN   978-1-58477-146-3
  6. ↑ Jones, A.H.M.. The Later Roman Empire Vol. I, p. 749 ISBN   0-8018-3353-1
  7. ↑ Grey, pp. 189-197, 203-204, 209
  8. ↑ Grey, pp. 191-193
  9. ↑ Jones, LRE Vol. I, 1964, p. 66
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.