Colon edict of Anastasius
The Colon Edict of Anastasius is an edict issued by the Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius I , which fell in a transitional phase in the development from a free peasant to a land-bound colonist . Until then, the people who worked the land were often tied to their land while their property belonged to their master, but after three decades in this legal status others could take their mobile property or their property into their own possession. But they too were forced to cultivate the land and to pay tribute.
In contrast to the later legislation under Emperor Justinian I , a distinction is still made between free and unfree colonies. This distinction disappears in the course of the 6th century, so that colons and unfree people were used identically to describe arable farmers who were tied to the clod and no longer owned free property. At the same time, Anastasius made a thirty year lease binding.
The names coloni adscriptii or coloni originarii appear in the sources for the clod-bound cultivators of the soil .
Emperor Constantine the Great tightened the enforcement of the clod binding by allowing the gentlemen to put volatile colonies in chains - but only if they had fled less than 30 years ago ( Codex Theodosianus 5, 18, 1). Still, mobility in society is likely to have remained very high. Since 365 the colonies have been forbidden to dispose of their real property, their peculium , which may have mainly included tools. Since 371 the gentlemen were allowed to collect the taxes from the colonies themselves. Finally in 396 the farmers also lost the right to sue their master.
Thus, imperial laws, presumably on the initiative of the large landowners, created the prerequisites for handing over almost unlimited power of disposition and police power to local masters, whose growing economic units were increasingly isolated from state influence. By virtue of their economic power and self-sufficiency, but above all by appropriating state rights over land and people, they were able to become independent to an extent previously unknown.
The text of the edict reads:
- “Emperor Anastasius Augustus. Agricolarum alii adscripticii sunt, quorum peculia ad: dominos pertinent, alii triginta annorum tempore coloni fiunt, liberi tamen cum rebus: suis manent: at enim hi quoque et terram colere et tributum solvere coguntur. hoc autem: tam domino quam agricolis expedit. "
- . “Emperor Anastasius Augustus. Some of the farmers are tied to the land: (adscripti), their possessions belong to the masters; after thirty years others become: Colons and keep their property freely, but they too are forced to: develop the land and pay taxes. This is just as beneficial for the: Lord as it is for the arable farmer. "
literature
- Oliver Schipp: The Western Roman Colonate from Constantine to the Carolingians (332 to 861) , Kovač, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8300-4575-5 .
Remarks
- ^ Elisabeth Herrmann-Otto : The structure of society in late antiquity , in: Alexander Demandt, Josef Engemann (ed.): Konstantin der Große. Imperator Caesar Flavius Constantinus , Zabern, Mainz 2007, p. 188.
- ↑ Peter Sarris: Empires of Faith. The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam, 500-700 , Oxford University Press, Oxford 2011, p. 31.
- ↑ Hans-Georg Beck : The Byzantine Millennium , CH Beck, Munich 1994, p. 47.
- ↑ Quoted from: Ludolf Kuchenbuch : Grundherrschaft im alten Mittelalter , Idstein 1991, p. 63.