Hybrid Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 01 / online via Zoom
Organizer:
Fachbereich Alte Geschichte, Sabine Huebner
Family and Assets in the Greek Cities in the Principate: Conflict of Laws?
This talk aims to better understand the impact of the Roman presence on the property law of the Greek cities; and bring some new perspectives on the relationships between individuals, cities, and the Roman empire. Legal rules regarding land administration, possession, and property are indeed crucial in a world where agricultural yield was the first source of wealth, and where the development of one’s assets would go mainly through matrimonial strategies. In the Greek cities before the Roman era, property was indeed a right restricted to citizens, a situation which made matrimonial and inheritance strategies more complicated and more important. Without the existence of isopoliteia, foreigners needed to obtain local citizenship or specific privileges like the enktesis ges, or right to own land, before getting access to landed property. From the beginning of the Roman presence in the Eastern Mediterranean world, obtaining Roman citizenship had become a strategy for forging marriage alliances on a larger scale. Some scholars have argued that the Roman presence would have then fostered land concentration and the creation of large estates. Provincialization would have led to a diminution in importance of the cities’ political borders, favouring the emergence of a new provincial and super regional elite able to accumulate assets in several different cities. But was this strategy able to bypass restrictive property law, particularly in the case of succession?
Zoom-Link: https://unibas.zoom.us/j/67030432472?pwd=Y2JaeFM2OWJUL1ZjTXFGQUowaDBVUT09
Meeting-ID: 670 3043 2472
Kenncode: KollHS21
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