Communities, statutes and political ideology in Roman Dacia
Research project supported by a grant of the Romanian Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding,
project number PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0255, contract no. 82/12.07.2017
The specific objectives of this project are the following:
O1. The main objective of this project is to enhance knowledge on Roman communities, their status and their inner structures. We intend to offer a full view of the settlements of Roman Dacia, their status and their inner nets and networks. In order to achieve this, we will undergo the following activities:
A1. Critical analyses of the sources (epigraphical, literary, archaeological).
O2. The second objective focuses on analyzing the evolution of Dacia’s communities per se and creating individual mini-monographs, which will contain the rank, the autonomy’s evolution, the political institutions and its members, as well as the expression of political loyalty towards Rome. This data-set will also be accessible online. These stand alone individual community files will focus on: types of communities and autonomies: territorium, regio, vicus, pagus, forum, canabae, municipium, colonia; the communities’ elites and their manner of manifestation; the communities’ political institutions; the autonomy regarded from a juridical and economical perspective; the ratio between communities and central authority; the link between the communities’ evolution and the process of Romanization; the link between religion and ideology; the personification of the traditional values; the magistrates as representatives of the communities related to the divinity and other communities; the essence and the manner of expression of the Imperial cult; the communities within communities; Dacia’s role in the definition of the third century ideology.
The activities subsumed to O2 will be:
A1. Analysis of the:
A1. Analysis of the:
state of affairs in Dacia, beginning with 106, immediately after the conquest;
Roman communities’ making, a requisite for the new province’s viability;
link between autochthones and colonists;
province’s elite issues;
official tactics: colonization as state politics;
Bibliographic documentation of the:
concepts on the Roman public law;
municipal life;
Roman state religion.
A2. Collecting epigraphic and archaeological evidence, exhaustive and of first hand; in this respect, of great importance is the fact that the project’s members are themselves editors of volumes and sources, as well as archaeologists;
A3. Writing a short monograph for each community, that will contain the rank, the autonomy’s evolution, the political institutions and its members, as well as the expression of political loyalty towards Rome. This data-set will also be accessible online.
A4. Analysis of the municipal political institutions will be made, based on the evidence coming from Dacia, and from the rest of the Empire;
A5. Analysis of the associative structures (the professional and religious collegia), which operated in the Roman towns; moreover the project will also bring into scrutiny the manner in which these structures imitated the organization of the higher political and religious institutions;
A6. Research of the important social, political, religious and/or economic networks;
A3. Writing a short monograph for each community, that will contain the rank, the autonomy’s evolution, the political institutions and its members, as well as the expression of political loyalty towards Rome. This data-set will also be accessible online.
A4. Analysis of the municipal political institutions will be made, based on the evidence coming from Dacia, and from the rest of the Empire;
A5. Analysis of the associative structures (the professional and religious collegia), which operated in the Roman towns; moreover the project will also bring into scrutiny the manner in which these structures imitated the organization of the higher political and religious institutions;
A6. Research of the important social, political, religious and/or economic networks;
Identification of elite members through their position in the political institutions and in the economic life.
Analysis of the elite’s:
origin and its connection to the military environment;
behavior as for example regarding euergetism and mos maiorum.
The results will be structured in a catalogue which will comprise the name, origin, positions, worshipped divinities, dating and sources, will be also made available online;
A7. Analyses of the imperial ideology and the communities of Dacia (The way in which the political loyalty towards the Roman state was expressed will likewise be analyzed: its identification is possible through the Greco-Roman pantheon, with the help of formulas such as pro salute imperatoris, through the worship of the emperor’s genius and numen, through rituals fulfilled by the supreme magistrates, by the official priests (pontifices, augures, flamines) and by the Augustales, through the Imperial cult practiced by each corporation (collegia) or by individuals who have public positions. We will try to explain to what degree the political loyalty expresses the Roman identity of the Dacian communities’ inhabitants).
A7. Analyses of the imperial ideology and the communities of Dacia (The way in which the political loyalty towards the Roman state was expressed will likewise be analyzed: its identification is possible through the Greco-Roman pantheon, with the help of formulas such as pro salute imperatoris, through the worship of the emperor’s genius and numen, through rituals fulfilled by the supreme magistrates, by the official priests (pontifices, augures, flamines) and by the Augustales, through the Imperial cult practiced by each corporation (collegia) or by individuals who have public positions. We will try to explain to what degree the political loyalty expresses the Roman identity of the Dacian communities’ inhabitants).
Deliverables of O1-O2: mini-monographies of Dacian communities; articles published in international journals and volumes; conference attendances.
O3. The third objective focuses on dissemination and education. This objective has as focal point to make the project’s results known to the scientific community and to activate the educational component. We consider that education is what humanities scholars can – and are meant to – give back to society; thus, as outreach activities, we plan on organizing a series of workshops and meetings with interested students. The activities implied by this objective are:
A1. Publication of studies and articles;
A2. Participation in international conferences;
A3. Organizing a series of training workshops for students.
A2. Participation in international conferences;
A3. Organizing a series of training workshops for students.
O.4. The fourth objective is closely related to the previous objective and to the project’s impact. It aims to offer a research model which can be applied to the rest of the Empire, and to trigger new similar research projects on a larger scale, which could fill in an important gap in the history of the Roman Empire. This objective can be fulfilled by:
A1. Presentations of the project at foreign institutions;
A2. Organizing a thematic workshop, which will bring together scholars interested in developing this topic.
A2. Organizing a thematic workshop, which will bring together scholars interested in developing this topic.