The Local Magistrates of Roman Spain

289 Pages·1990·11.579 MB·English

by  Leonard A. Curchin

The Local Magistrates of Roman Spain
Local aristocracies were crucial to the administrative and social assimilation
of provincial communities in the Roman world. Leonard Curchin focuses
on local political elites in the Iberian Peninsula, providing the first compre-
hensive and up-to-date prosopographical catalogue of all known local magis-
trates in Roman Spain.
Curchin makes full use of the latest epigraphic discoveries, including not
only the recorded careers of local magistrates but also the new Lex Irnitana.
In his introduction he examines both the political role of the magistrates
and the social mechanics of elite romanization. Among the traditional
assumptions he challenges are the standard size of the local senates, the
fixed order of offices, and the nature of the 'quattuorvirate.' He also discusses
magistrates' origins, career progression, duties, social status, personal
nomenclature, and private wealth.
Entries in the catalogue are arranged alphabetically by city within each
province. Indexes of names and magistracies facilitate cross-referencing.
The volume includes statistical tables as well as maps.
LEONARD A. CURCHIN is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Classics, University of Waterloo.
PHOENIX
Journal of the Classical Association of Canada
Revue de la Societe canadienne des etudes classiques
Supplementary Volume xxvm
Tome supplementaire xxvm
LEONARD A. CURCHIN
The Local Magistrates
of Roman Spain
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
University of Toronto Press 1990
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-5841-8
Printed on acid-free paper
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Curchin, Leonard A.
The local magistrates of Roman Spain
(Phoenix. Supplementary volume ; 28 = Phoenix.
Tome supplemental, ISSN 0079-1784 ; 28)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8020-5841-8
i. Spain - Officials and employees - History.
2. Spain — History — Roman period, 218 80-41 AD
3. Magistrates, Roman. I. Title. II. Series: Phoenix.
Supplementary volume (Toronto, Ont.) ; 28.
DP9~.c87 1990 936.6'o3 089-090743-9
CONTENTS
PREFACE Vll
ABBREVIATIONS IX
INTRODUCTION
i The Evolution of the Magisterial System 3
2 Evidence for Local Magistrates in Roman Spain 12
3 Career Progression: The Cursus Honorum 21
4 Duties of Magistrates 58
5 Social Status 71
6 Romanization 85
7 Personal Wealth 103
8 Magistrates in the Late Empire 115
9 General Conclusions 123
Select Bibliography 127
CATALOGUE OF MAGISTRATES
Introduction 135
i Baetica 137
2 Lusitania 168
3 Tarraconensis (Hispania Citerior) 179
4 Addenda 234
5 Spurious or Doubtful Magistrates 236
vi Contents
INDEX OF NAMES 247
INDEX OF MAGISTRACIES 259
GENERAL INDEX 263
MAPS
i Baetica 271
2 Lusitania and Northwestern Tarraconensis 273
3 Eastern Tarraconensis 275
PREFACE
Of this I am convinced: that it is better, braver and more helpful for us to believe
we should investigate what we do not know, than to assume we cannot or should
not.
Plato Meno 86 b
While we shall never possess a thorough understanding of the social history
of the Hispano-Roman upper classes, the Iberian Peninsula offers a wealth
of information on local, romanized elites which has never been dealt with
in any systematic or comprehensive fashion. In preparing my doctoral
thesis, The Creation of a Romanized Elite in Spain' (University of Ottawa
1981), I was able to utilize the prosopographical studies of Spanish priests
by Etienne and Alfoldy, and of Spanish senators and knights by Wiegels; the
catalogues and discussion provided by these scholars represent an essential
research tool for the provincial historian. But while the careers of these
officials have been exhaustively studied, those of municipal magistrates (by
far the most numerous of the attested members of the Spanish elite) have
been almost entirely neglected, despite the recognized importance of local
elites in the romanization of provincial society and the fact that the holders of
provincial priesthoods and junior equestrian posts were frequently recruited
from the urban aristocracy. Given the lack of an up-to-date epigraphic
corpus (the last attempt was published in 1892) or of an authoritative treatise
on Spanish coins (whose chronology remains uncomfortably haphazard), it
is hardly surprising that no one has until now undertaken the labour-
intensive task of cataloguing all known magistrates. One area where consid-
erable work has been done is the study of Spanish colonial and municipal
laws (those of Urso, Malaca, and Salpensa), though little effort has been
made to correlate their provisions with the recorded careers of real officials.
viii Preface
However, the recent publication of the new and important Lex Irnitana has
compelled abandonment or modification of many previous assumptions, and
its full implications have yet to be realized.
These remarks should serve to explain the origin and rationale of the
present monograph. Its purpose is twofold: first, the presentation of a
catalogue which compiles, for the first time, all known local magistrates of
Roman Spain, who now number nearly a thousand; and second, a study of
the social dynamics of the Roman magisterial system in Spain. If the scope
of the work seems limited, it is precisely because local magistrates are the
one element of the elite which has hitherto lacked the attention it merits.
By filling this gap I hope to have paved the way for further study of the
social history of the provincial upper classes in the Iberian Peninsula, and
ultimately throughout the Empire.
I have the pleasant task of thanking the many friends and colleagues who
have assisted at various stages of my research, as well as the Calgary
Institute for the Humanities which funded the initial preparation of the
manuscript. Professor Colin Wells first interested me in the romanization
of provincial elites and directed my attention to Spain. Professors Robert
Etienne and Robert Knapp read an early version of the draft and offered
valuable comments, as did the late Professor Edith Wightman for chapter
6. Professor Wightman's work on the romanization of Gallia Belgica also
inspired several of the graphs presented in that chapter. Finally I wish to
thank the readers of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and of the
Phoenix Editorial Board for a number of helpful suggestions.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
L.A.C.
Waterloo, Ontario
May 1988
Postscript As this volume goes to press, I have been unable to obtain AE
1986 or P. Palol and J. Vilella, Clunia ii: Epigrafia (Madrid 1987), which
may contain new magistrates. Also, Dr A. Stylow kindly informs me of a
new inscription from Regina (Baetica) naming lustus Modesti f., decemvir
maximus.
ABBREVIATIONS
Ancient and modern works are normally cited according to the system
employed in The Oxford Classical Dictionary 2nd ed (Oxford 1971) or
other standard reference works, especially L'Annee philologique for
periodicals.
In addition, the following abbreviations of Latin terms should be
noted: conv. for conventus, f. for filius in naming by filiation, i.d. for
iure dicundo, p.H.c. for provinciae Hispaniae citerioris, and r.p. for rei
publicae. Inv. stands for the inventory number at the Archaeological
Museum of Merida.
Abbott and Johnson MARE F.F. Abbott and A.C. Johnson Municipal
Administration in the Roman Empire Princeton 1926
AEA Archivo Espanol de Arqueologia
AHAM Anales de Historia Antigua y Medieval
Albertos OPP M.L. Albertos Firmat La onomdstica personal primitiva
de Hispania Tarraconensis y Betica. Salamanca 1966
Alfoldy Fasti G. Alfoldy Fasti Hispanienses Wiesbaden 1969
Alfoldy Flamines G. Alfoldy Flamines provinciae Hispaniae Citerioris
Madrid 1973
Arnold Roman System* W.T. Arnold The Roman System of Provincial
Administration 3rd ed Oxford 1914 (repr Freeport 1971)
Bol. Aur. Boletin Auriense
BRAH Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia
Callender Roman Amphorae M.H. Callender Roman Amphorae
London 1965
cic ]. Gomez-Pantoja El conventus iuridicus Caesaraugustanus: Personas
y ciudades (a. 4$—a.D. 192) diss, Universidad de Navarra 1983