Procurator di[oecesis]? Reinterpretation of CIL VIII 14727 = ILPBardo 229 and the Beginnings of the Administration of Imperial Domains ofAfrica Proconsularis

Abstract

Summary Descriptions of the administration of imperial domains in Africa Proconsularis share much common ground in their interpretations. The literature features a widespread emphasis on the special role of the governments of Trajan and Hadrian in reorganising the imperial domains in this province – and especially in the Bagradas Valley, which has furnished us with exceptional epigraphic material in the form of agrarian inscriptions. While the 2nd-century administrative operations of imperial domains are fairly well understood – mainly due to this category of inscriptions – the 1st century remains something of a mystery. Researchers have dated the beginning of fundamental changes to how domain administration was organised to the times of the Flavians, after the great confiscations of Nero. However, a re-interpretation of a procuratorial title from CIL VIII 14727 = ILPBardo 229 and a broader analysis of the epigraphic material shed new light on the beginnings of the administration of imperial domains in Africa Proconsularis, and especially in the grain-growing region of Byzacium; there, perhaps even in the mid-1st century, there was an imperial administration and a domain district (diocese) modelled after another grain province of Egypt.