ローマ帝政初期における都市監督官curator rei publicaeとイタリア都市

抄録

Curatores rei publicae were officials appointed by the Roman imperial government to Italian cities to supervise local fiscal administration from the second century onward. Such appointments have been regarded as the largest scale intervention in municipal self-government throughout the history of the Principate. Historians currently hold the following views concerning this situation (1) curatores were employed only temporarily ; and (2) the range of their activities was confined to those duties assigned by the emperor (i.e., fiscal supervision). They conclude that curatores neither intervened in nor restricted municipal self-government. The problem here is that the research to date only focuses on the activities of curatores during their incumbencies and thus does not properly evaluate the significance of their appointments. M.Saltori has suggested that the above-mentioned views should be revised to (1)' curatores were active longer than the current research assumes ; and (2)' in practice, their activities sometimes went beyond the range of municipal public finance, extending to those of municipal patrons providing fiscal assistance. The argument presented here is that curatores fiscally assisted municipalities, and that such activity was not necessarily an extension of their formal duties, and thus should be understood as additional tasks of municipal patrons. Such curatores strengthened their relations with municipalities through prolonged incumbency or successive appointments and thereby were sometimes selected as municipal patrons during after their incumbencies. Consequently, it could be concluded that the appointment of curatores meant the introduction of municipal patrons to assist in local fiscal affairs of Italiancities under the Principate.