Vol 16, No 3 (2024): Legal and social life of ancient societies

The relevance of this study is due to the lack of works in Russian historiography that would examine in detail the phenomenon of locatio as an act of creating a possession. Using a comprehensive method of historical research, the author comprehensively studies both the legal component of the mentioned phenomenon and its practical component: we are talking about arcifinius as a technical expression of locus. The author’s goal is to, having comprehensively studied the procedure of simple locatio, give a legal assessment of the phenomenon itself, as well as determine its place in the system of Roman agrimensura and in Roman land law. The work uses the works of outstanding Roman agrimensors, such as Hyginus the Elder and Agennius Urbicus (Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum), as well as extensive historiography, both domestic and foreign. As a result of the undertaken research, the author comes to the following conclusions: firstly, locus and arcifinius in the archaic period of Roman history symbolized the category ager publicus; secondly, the possession that arose in the public field as a result of locatio was secured by the ancient law of ius Quiritium and retained its significance until the era of the Empire; thirdly, during the Empire, land provided to citizens as possessions on a lease basis began to be allocated in a similar way. Thus, the ancient locatio retains its significance throughout the history of the Roman state.

The article examines the nature and significance of the various numerical and statistical data used in the “Achievements of the Divine Augustus” ( Res gestae Divi Augusti ), and seeks to demonstrate what reality and how they describe, what impression they are designed to produce. It is concluded that the numerical data of the “Achievements” contain important, in many cases unique and quite reliable information, showing the grandeur of the princeps’ achievements. There is the conscious focus on the exceptionally abundant use of numerals, which both in dating formulas and in the actual statistical information give the narrative a businesslike, concrete character, allowing to avoid excessive and unfounded pathos, but at the same time, with irresistible obviousness, show the unconditional superiority of Augustus as a benefactor, military and state leader in comparison with both contemporaries and predecessors, turning an autobiographical account into a political testament addressed to the “City and the World” and establishing the key ideological parameters of an ideal ruler.

The purpose of the study is to present the functions of the archon in the process of organizing the lease of sacred lands (temenos) in Attica in the second half of the V - IV centuries B.C. basing on the study of epigraphic material. The study of this problem seems relevant as far as there are presented works in historiography concerning the powers of this official in the socio-political life of Athens, but is not considered the issue of the impact of his activities on the polis’ economy. Having analyzed the content of the temenos lease agreements, the author characterized the functions of the archon in determining the composition of the participants as well as the terms of transaction. Basing on the text of the inscriptions, it was carried out a comparison of the powers of the archons in the organization of the lease of sacred lands in Attica in the second half of the 5th century B.C. and in the 4th century B.C. Finally, the author comes to the following conclusions. Firstly, the cancellation of lease agreements of sacred lands in Attica was not carried out without the archon’s verdict. Secondly, a comparative analysis of the content of the inscriptions of the second half of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. gives an idea that through the time the role of the archon in the lease of temenos becomes less significant. It apparently can be explained by the increasing role of officials of individual collectives (for example, demarchs, phratryarchs or epimeletes).

The area of responsibility of the governor of the province was to perform both commanding, judicial and fiscal duties. The latter had to replenish the treasury with tax revenues from the provinces. The governors needed funds to maintain the military troops accommodated in the province. Besides that, at least by the beginning of the 2nd century ensuring the financial stability of the provincial communities themselves became an important area. It was controlled by the governor. Tendance about the welfare of provincial cities is reflected, in particular, in the correspondence of Pliny the Younger with Trajan, the speeches of Dion Chrysostom as well as epigraphic documents of a legal nature. This and a number of other sources reflect various ways to maintain the financial well-being of communities by reducing the local taxes, lump-sum contributions and various unproductive expenses. In this regard, the Antonins’ is marked by a turn in the financial strategy of the Roman state towards the “humanization” of the provincial policy. Monitoring of city finances was an aspect that required the constant attention to the state of income and expenditure of provincial communities. At the same time, the viceroy was not limited to the personnel resources of his staff but tried to involve the local aristocracy, endowing its representatives with control and judicial powers, acting, however, in the context of the customs and practices evolved in each individual community.

The article is devoted to the study of the military-tactical aspect of four wars late 3rd - first half of the 4th century. During this wars the Chersonesos polis participated on the side of Rome. Information about them is presented in chapter 53 of the of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus tractate «De Administrando Imperio». This passage is an organic part of the treatise and was placed in it deliberately, as an example of Chersonesites valor, cunning and loyalty to Rome, which was useful for the addressee of the narrative - the young Emperor Romanus II. It has been established, that the use of a mobile detachment of carts armed with light throwing artillery for ambush operations during the « Battle at Bosporus » in 291 was an innovation in military affairs, which attracted the attention of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Other aspects of this battle correlate with the instructions of the treatise «De re militari» by Vegetius Flavius. The victorious participation of the Chersonesos troops in the next two battles - on the Danube and «At Kafa» - gave Chersonesos confidence in their abilities and made it possible for the first time in history to expand the possessions of their state to the borders of the Kerch Peninsula. The duel between the Archon of Chersonesos, Pharnaces, and the Bosporan king, which decided the outcome of the confrontation in the fourth war, is not fiction and has numerous analogies in both previous Greco-Roman and subsequent Byzantine history.

The purpose of the study is to find out how the Greek pentathlon was organized at the Panhellenic Games as well as what was the sequence of competitions in it, whether the rules of its organization differed at the Panhellenic and the local Games, how the judges determined the winner, and which path the pentathlete had to go to victory. Basing on the written sources and epigraphic data, the author demonstrates that the basic principle of the pentathlon organizing was developed at the Olympic Games, but deviations from it were possible at the local Games. The sequence of pentathlon competitions and the determination of the absolute winner is one of the most difficult tasks in the scientific literature but it is directly related to the question of which competitions the athlete should have won on the path to victory. Statistical analysis of data on the athletes’ victories in the pentathlon as well as on the pentathletes’ victories in special disciplines allow the author to assume that pentathletes more often won due to competitions in running rather than in wrestling, and that a track and field athlete had good chances of winning rather than a martial artist.

The emergence of the state was one of the crucial moments in human history. Ancient Mesoamerica was one of two main areas of the state formation in the New World in pre-Columbian epoch. Archaeological projects in the Maya Lowlands during last decades shed new light on the early stages of the Maya politogenesis in the Preclassic period. Recent trend in the study of Mesoamerican complex polities consists in defining them just as ‘kingdoms’ without specifying whether they were chiefdoms or states. At the same time some scholars suggest that urbanism and statehood could be identified already in the Middle Preclassic (1000-350 BCE). In the present paper basic traits of the evolution of the Preclassic Maya society will be outlined based on different types of data (settlement patterns, economy, social stratification, ritual and ideology). Archaeological data demonstrate that in beginning of the Late Preclassic (350/300 BCE - 200 CE) Maya societies transformed from chiefdoms with three-tiered settlement system, monumental architecture, and incipient urbanization to more complex polities characterized by four-tiered settlement hierarchies, early urban settlements with massive monumental architecture, and complex intensive agriculture. Analysis of the retrospective Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Classic period (200-900 CE) shows that in the Maya historical memory this time was remembered as the period of the foundation of the most ancient dynasties and polities, and the epoch of the establishing of the political order. The beginning of the process of the formation of the Maya early states could be dated between 350 and 200 BCE.

Since the middle of the 5th century AD, the territory of the archaeological site of Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico) was the capital of the Baakal state, the city of Lakamha’. A large number of monumental texts have been discovered here, which are of particular interest for the study of the organization and functioning of the royal court of the ancient Maya. The main objective of this work was to examine in detail the royal lists preserved in the monumental texts in order to reconstruct the kinship ties between the Palenque rulers and to reveal the peculiarities of the local political system. One of the main features to be considered about these written sources is a retrospective character, which in theory could give the rulers who created them wide opportunities for manipulation. The lack of detailed information about the rulers of the 5th-7th centuries, which is mainly limited to the dates of accession and death, is no less difficult. Although in the written tradition the royal dynasty is presented as a continuous one, the analysis of the texts reveals several lineages. Study also shows certain peculiarities of the system of power transmission in Baakal. In general, ancient Maya used patrilineal tradition, but the history of Palenque records cases different from this pattern. The throne there was once occupied by a woman, other cases show successive rule of several siblings. These data reveal the flexibility of the political system of the ancient Maya.