Intimate Communities. Honorific Statues and the Political Culture of the Cities of Africa Proconsularis in the First three Centuries CE

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dc.contributor.advisorEdmondson, Jonathan Charles
dc.creatorDawson, Christopher David
dc.date.accessioned2016-11-25T13:55:23Z
dc.date.available2016-11-25T13:55:23Z
dc.date.copyright2016-04-26
dc.date.issued2016-11-25
dc.date.updated2016-11-25T13:55:22Z
dc.degree.disciplineHistory
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation argues that the inscriptions of honorific statues reveal a dynamic political culture in the cities of the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis in the first three centuries CE. Although the known regulations governing the public life of Roman municipia and coloniae formally restricted decision making on public matters (outside of the election of magistrates) to the ordo decurionum, the inscriptions show that the flexibility existed for the non-decurional members of the community, that is the populus, to express their opinion collectively and even, on occasion, to initiate actions. It is observed that previous studies tend to downplay or even ignore the participation of the populus in civic politics, and that they tend to present the picture of an ossified public life dominated by the decurions and leading families in the community. It is suggested that these previous studies focus too narrowly on a single dataset. In contrast, this dissertation employs a two-stage analysis. First, it studies the two political institutions of Roman cities: the ordo decurionum and the voting groups into which all adult male local citizens were distributed, the curiae. Moreover, it establishes as far as possible the formal procedures for erecting honorific statues. Second, both quantitative analyses and discourse analyses are applied to a catalogue of the 1080 published inscriptions of honorific statues from Africa Proconsularis. This second stage permits the comparison of the practices surrounding one important aspect of public life to the rules governing public life. The dissertation concludes by proposing that one important contributing factor to the dynamism of civic political culture in Africa Proconsularis was the intimacy of the communities. It is asserted that, despite the participation of the communities in the Roman Empire, people's most important political relationships remained within their community. The face-to-face nature of these small communities made it necessary for the magistrates and decurions to be responsive to the demands of the populus and to permit the populus the ability to initiate actions in the public realm, as long as those actions conformed to Roman standards of behaviour.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/32657
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectClassical studies
dc.subject.keywordsCuriae
dc.subject.keywordsPopulus
dc.subject.keywordsCives
dc.subject.keywordsOrdo decurionum
dc.subject.keywordsDecuriones
dc.subject.keywordsCivitas
dc.subject.keywordsMunicipium
dc.subject.keywordsColonia
dc.subject.keywordsRoman North Africa
dc.subject.keywordsAfrica Proconsularis
dc.subject.keywordsCities
dc.subject.keywordsCivic politics
dc.subject.keywordsContentus
dc.subject.keywordsCivic virtues
dc.subject.keywordsCivic values
dc.subject.keywordsPerformance
dc.subject.keywordsHonorific statues
dc.subject.keywordsInscriptions
dc.subject.keywordsEpigraphy
dc.subject.keywordsCarthage
dc.subject.keywordsLepcis Magna
dc.subject.keywordsThugga
dc.subject.keywordsBulla Regia
dc.subject.keywordsSimitthus
dc.subject.keywordsHippo Regius
dc.subject.keywordsSufetula
dc.subject.keywordsGigthis
dc.subject.keywordsSabratha
dc.subject.keywordsCalama
dc.subject.keywordsUchi Maius
dc.titleIntimate Communities. Honorific Statues and the Political Culture of the Cities of Africa Proconsularis in the First three Centuries CE
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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