Romanization, provincial notables, equestrian order, senatorial order, Roman citizenship, Constitutio Antoniniana, cursus honorum, patronage, Trajan, Severans, Roman Empire
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Abstract
This document discusses the integration of provincial notables into the Roman ruling orders from Trajan to the Severans, highlighting the factors influencing their career choices and the institutional mechanisms facilitating their access.
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[...] Participation in provincial assemblies constitutes an essential vector of this visibility. These assemblies, voting on decrees and organizing ceremonies, primarily send delegations to the emperor. Being chosen as an ambassador allows one to plead directly before the prince, an exceptional opportunity to be personally noticed. Notables mastering rhetoric, particularly Easterners trained in the Greek art of oratory, excel in these diplomatic functions that create direct contact with the summit of power. Since the end of the 1st century, entry into the senatorial order requires a candidacy before the emperor, making the support of an influential senator indispensable to recommend the applicant. [...]
[...] The strategies of the provincial notables A. The accumulation of wealth and local euergetism Wealth constitutes the indispensable prerequisite for any political ambition. Provincial notables develop various strategies for enrichment based primarily on land exploitation: large cereal domains in Africa Proconsularis, olive groves in Baetica and Africa, vineyards in Narbonese Gaul. Land provides both regular income and social prestige in a society where land ownership confers respectability. Commercial activities complement this land-based wealth, allowing for rapid enrichment despite their lower social valuation. [...]
[...] Contacts with governors during their missions, hospitality offered to imperial legates, forge lasting personal ties that facilitate subsequent recommendations. Marital alliances progressively transcend geographical boundaries and seal definitive integration. Provincial senators mingle with old Italian families, creating family solidarities that transcend origins. These unions facilitate insertion into Roman aristocratic networks and allow children, of mixed culture, to integrate naturally into the ruling orders. Above all, they demonstrate the complete adherence of provincials to the values of the traditional aristocracy. III. [...]
[...] Very few representatives from other provinces. Provincial notables will opt for a senatorial or equestrian career, depending on the degree of Romanization of the provinces in which they live, as well as the presence or absence of legions within those provinces Romanized = senatorial; + legion = equestrian) Conclusion The access of provincial notables to the equestrian and senatorial orders constitutes one of the major transformations of the period from Trajan to the Severans. This process reaches its definitive normalization under the Antonines and its culmination under the Severans with the creation of a truly imperial elite transcending traditional geographical divisions. [...]
[...] He married Appia Annia Regilla, from a family related to Hadrian and was one of the teachers of Marcus Aurelius. Another aspect: a certain proximity of the provincial elites to the private circle of the emperor, or even to the emperor himself. Example: Lucius Licinius Sura: Trajan's closest friend is probably originally from Celsa, a Roman colony in Tarraconensis. He is a senator, suffect consul under Domitian then eponymous consul in 102 and 107 ? Integration of provincial elites into positions of responsibility. [...]
