Dioecesis

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Dioikesis ( ancient Greek διοίκησις dioíkēsis , German " Diocese ") referred to in the ancient original management and in particular the State Tax Service. The Latinized term dioecesis later developed to designate the middle instance in the Roman administrative system of late antiquity .

Greece

In Athens in the 2nd half of the 4th century BC Chr. Epi tei dioikesei ("above the administration") as an official title. This could have been a single “chief administrative officer” or a body.

Map overview of the Dioeceses around 400 AD ( late antiquity )

Roman Empire

In the Roman Empire the term was occasionally used in the sense of an administrative district, for example by Marcus Tullius Cicero for some districts in Asia Minor. The term only became more widespread in late antiquity : the Roman Empire was initially divided into 46 provinces , which Diocletian essentially increased to 101 provinces by dividing around the year 300, which in turn were combined into dioceses. The head of the dioceses (and provinces) was the vicarius , deputy of the civil officer who emerged from the military praetorian prefect after 312 .

Empire structure

The Veronese directory ( Laterculus Veronensis ), which goes back to the Diocletian division, names the following twelve dioceses:

After the division of the empire in 395, the structure for four prefectures, 15 dioceses and 119 provinces was as follows:

The changes: "Oriens" had been split into "Oriens" and "Aegyptus", "Moesia" into "Macedonia" and "Dacia", and "Italia" into "Italia Annonariae" and "Italia Suburbicariae"; “Viennensis” was renamed “Septem Provinciae”. In the Eastern Roman Empire , the late antique diocesan structure was only abandoned in view of the Islamic expansion (from 630 onwards) in favor of the thematic constitution ; in the West this was earlier.

Further sources for the division of the empire into dioceses are the Laterculus of Polemius Silvius , the Notitia Dignitatum and the Synekdemos of Hierocles .

Function of the diocese

The diocese has the position of a central authority in the division of the Roman Empire into prefecture - diocese - province. Their functions are therefore:

  • court of first instance in cases that are too important for a decision at provincial level
  • Supervision and control over the provinces
  • Complaints Authority

See also

literature