Neuerscheinung

Soeben ist die Monographie Taxes and Authority in the Late Antique
Countryside von Matthias Stern in der Reihe Archiv für
Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete erschienen.

Das Werk ist mit Open Access publiziert und frei online zugänglich.

How did the late Roman Empire operate in rural areas, where most of
its subjects lived? The papyri from Egypt provide glimpses of state
activity at the local level, how the countryside responded to it, and
thus how "empire" looked on the ground.

Since a major motivator for state activity at the local level was tax
collection, Taxes and Authority in the Late Antique Countryside
homes in on the pagarchs: key fiscal actors at the intersection
between provincial, city, and village institutions from the fourth
through the seventh centuries CE. The book contextualizes the
pagarchs’ dealings, backgrounds, and networks from the imperial sphere
to the village level, exploring topics such as tax collection
procedures in the villages, central accounting and staffing in the
cities, the competition of local aristocrats over the countryside,
official careers, and local agency versus imperial policy.

The result is an analysis of the social mechanics of the fiscal regime
in a region of the imperial periphery. Exploring the abundant and
diverse papyrological source material, the book offers a uniquely
detailed insight into the dynamic relationship between the Roman
Empire and local communities in late antiquity.

Über den Autor:

Matthias Stern ist Juniorprofessor und wissenschaftlicher Referent für
Papyrologie an der Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik und
der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.