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Rome, Asia and Aphrodisias in the Third Century

1981; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 71; Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/299501

1753-528X

Charlotte Roueché,

Archaeology and Historical Studies

In 1913 J. B. Bury wrote of Diocletian's administrative reforms: ‘It is becoming clear that (Diocletian) was not the initiator, but was only extending and systematizing changes which had already been begun’; and subsequent research in many areas has tended to support this contention. Bury was particularly concerned with the subdivision of the provinces; yet that particular reform has continued to be ascribed almost wholly to Diocletian, on the authority of Lactantius' famous phrase, provinciae quoque in frusta concisae , and in the absence of firm evidence to the contrary. It is the purpose of this article to present new material from Aphrodisias in Caria which seems to indicate that a new imperial province of Phrygia and Caria, whose creation has hitherto been ascribed to Diocletian or his successors, had been separated from proconsular Asia before A.D. 259. If this is so, it may well prove fruitful to re-examine material from other parts of the empire, in order to determine whether similar developments, at such a date, can be identified elsewhere.