Wealth and Munificence in Roman Africa

Abstract

This paper utilises evidence for the size of public gifts in Roman Africa collected in a previous article to make a series of deductions about the classes from which the gifts came and about the gifts themselves. Because the questions asked here are for the most part different from those considered in the earlier paper, a reorganisation of the material has been necessary, and a table of African donations of known amount is given at the end of the article (pp. 173–5). The sample has been confined as far as possible to material from the period between the accession of Trajan and the death of Gordian III (A.D. 98–244), and gifts clearly belonging to other periods have been omitted.The topics discussed are, firstly, the distribution of wealth among the monied class; the conclusions are based on observations about the background and nature of Roman munificence, as well as on the tabulation of gift-sizes. Internal evidence suggests that it is, in most cases, legitimate to make rough comparisons between gifts from different points in the period without practical compensation for the effects of inflation. The second part of the paper contains estimates of the total number of donors in the period discussed; the frequency of donation among the decurial class (i.e. the members of the town-councils); the total sum subscribed in the form of public gifts in Africa within the period; and the fluctuations in the amount given from reign to reign. The series of estimates depends critically upon assessing the rate of inscription–survival with as much accuracy as possible, and this subject has been discussed in a separate Appendix (pp. 176–7).