La statio. Archéologie d'un lieu de pouvoir dans l'empire romain

This volume, the result of a collaboration between specialists from different areas (archaeology, history, papyrology, philology, epigraphy), attempts to define and present, from a focal point fixed on the concept of the statio and its physical composition, the functional spaces within which took place contacts between representatives of authority and local populations throughout the Roman Empire. The questions asked and the topics covered illustrate clearly the diversity and range of the subject: to what type of edifice is a custom’s officer referring when he describes himself as operating in a statio, or a soldier dedicating a votive monument to the Genius of his statio, or the Tyrians installed in Rome or in Pozzuoli when they write to their mother city to describe the difficulties involved in assuring the up-keep of their statio? How much do we know about the context and the installation of networks of stationes in the provinces of the Empire, about their organisation and the contacts between the authorities and local inhabitants? To what extent are these military and customs out-posts comparable to the mansiones and mutationes set up throughout the road system? This study, the first attempt to offer a comprehensive study of these matters and to consider very recent archaeological discoveries, invites readers to investigate numerous aspects of the organisation and administration of the Roman State.