De his qui suscipiunt alienos agricolas. Intorno a edict. praef. praet. XXV

FABIO BOTTA

2017-01-01

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Abstract

The paper concerns the analysis of one of the praefecti praetorio edicts (n. 25) present in ms. Marcianus 179 and in ms. Oxford Bodleianus Roe 18 (already collected by Zachariae von Lingenthal in Anekdota III). This edict is a forma of p.p. Zoticus related to the susceptio of coloni iuris alieni. It probably represents an implementing measure of the so-called Anastasiana Lex on the status of the coloni, concerning the punitive consequence and the liability arising from the breach of their statutory duty to remain on the estate. This lex is just quoted in a few words by the Justinian constitution C. 11.48.23, guided by the aim that pursues the validity renewal of that lex. Issue of the paper is to find out the possibility to state the functional equation of agricultural slaves and coloni adscripticii in the late antiquity mode of production, and therefore to state the similitude between the rule described in the edict of Zoticus and the rule of the servi fugitivi susceptio. Then the paper compares these results in order to understand why in this period both crimes are assimilated to theft and why the serious pecuniary penalty envisaged for the suscipiens in the edict of Zoticus protects both a private (of the previous landowner) and a public interest (of the imperial fiscus).