Praefectus gentis

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The Praefectus gentis or tribal prefect had been the holder of a higher administrative office since the early Roman Empire , whose task was to control the nomadic Berber tribes in North Africa (attested in Numidia and Africa proconsularis ), which could not be administered from larger permanent settlements ( civitas ). Apparently this office only occurred in North Africa; it is documented ten times epigraphically in the early imperial period - roughly from the 1st to the 3rd century - and also in literary form in late antiquity up to the 6th century. There is a lack of clarity regarding the occupation and organization of the function.

Organization of the office and recruitment

Cesare Letta and Philippe Leveau put the praefectus gentis with the z. B. in the Roman province of Illyria testified Praefectus civitatis the same. Leveau also assumes that the office was occupied in the early imperial era by the military, but with increasing pacification of the region in late antiquity by civilians who were recruited from the tribes to be controlled themselves.

Alexander Weiß from the University of Leipzig criticizes these assumptions as well as Marcel Bénabou's thesis , according to which the praefectus gentis replaced the head of these tribes with increasing colonization and - at the same time in a civil and military function - monitored their obligations towards the Roman state. In this context, Yves Modéran even speaks of an appointed princeps gentis ("tribal prince") as a symbol of a tribalist legitimation that continues despite colonization .

In contrast, white justifies the title, which differs in Africa, with the peculiarities of the control of nomadic tribes. B. in the conquered Illyria peoples could not be controlled from permanent settlements and gradually integrated into the Roman administration. He rejects the thesis of the military function of the praefectus gentis and shows that it was typically a middle career level of the Roman knighthood after a previous military career and on the way to imperial administration. He is unable to identify any indications for the recruitment of local prefects, but neither can he rule out any indications for the Romanized local upper classes in late antiquity .

literature

  • Stefano Baccolini, Le forme istituzionali (praefectus gentis, princeps gentis, praefectus nationis) nell 'ambito del controllo politico militare delle popolazioni indigene non romanizzate, Parma, 2007. ( Online ).
  • Marcel Bénabou: La résistance africaine à la romanisation. Maspero, Paris 1976.
  • Cesare Letta: I praefecti di tribù non urbanizzate in Africa e in Europe. In: L'Africa Romana. Vol. 14, 2000, pp. 2095-2109.
  • Philippe Leveau: L'aile II des Thraces, la tribu de Mazices et les praefecti gentis en Afrique du Nord. In: Antiquités africaines. Vol. 7, 1973, pp. 153-191 ( online ).
  • Alexander Weiß: The office of 'praefectus gentis' in the imperial North African provinces. In: Antiquités africaines. Vol. 42, 2006, pp. 101-116 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gabriel Camps : Rex Gentium Maurorum et Romanorum: Recherches sur les royames de Maurétanie des VI et VII siècles. In: Antiquités Africaines. Vol. 20, 1984, pp. 183-218.