Études sur la propriété impériale et l’économie dans l’Asie Mineure romaine

This volume brings together eight contributions from various thematic workshops organised around the theme of the economic repercussions of the inclusion of Asia Minor in the political space of the Roman Empire. Asia Minor was one of the economic engines of the Roman Empire, thanks to its high urban density in the west and the large agricultural areas of the central plateau. This integration had far-reaching consequences for several aspects of the region’s productive landscape and for the management of local finances. This volume focuses on two aspects in particular. The first section shows how the establishment and spread of imperial domains helped to increase the extraction of agricultural resources by the Roman authorities, especially in regions with a low level of urbanisation. An overall review of the documentation helps us to understand that the concentration of imperial properties in certain geographical areas was not casual, but corresponded to a specific policy of the imperial administration, which knew how to adapt the extraction of the productive surplus to the context of each region. The presence of imperial estates also helped to improve territorial control, thanks to the constant action of imperial procurators, and was also a vehicle for the spread of Roman law in this Greek-speaking region of the Empire. The second part focuses on the local economy and how the arrival of new individual and institutional players had a major impact on finances and production. Roman taxation played a major political role in the relationship between central government and civic communities. Supplying the army also played an important role in the long-term development of productive specialisations, revitalising and integrating into the vast Empire regions that had previously been on the periphery of trade.