Conceptions and Sources
sequenceitispossibletocollectandanalysethesurvivingtextsofmunicipal
decrees.^107 Themostvividevidenceforlocalself-governmentcomesfrom
thewell-knownleges(charters?)ofDomitian’sreignfromBaeticainSpain.
Thesedocuments,whichpreserveextensive,andpartlyoverlapping,extracts
fromtheconstitutionalcodesofseveralmunicipia(citieswithRoman-style
constitutions),sufferfromalackofcomparativematerial,andleaveunan-
swered fundamental questions about the authorship or legal source of the
codes (delivered by the emperor or the governor of Baetica or generated
locally?),thedegreeof innovationintended(sincebothplaceshadmagis-
trates in office already), and the relation of the production of these codes
tothetwotowns’statusasmunicipia—atermwhosedefinitioniscontrover-
sial—andtotheirpossessionof‘‘Latinrights.’’^108 Thetwotexts,whichhave
not been re-studied in detail for some time,would deserve an epigraphi-
cal and historical re-examination. At the moment, granted that we know
thatthereweremanyPunictownsinthewesternMediterranean(ofwhich
Malacahadbeenone,accordingtothegeographerStrabo),whichmustalso
intheirPunicphasehavehad‘‘constitutions,’’andthatwecanfindalsocom-
munities,liketheVanaciniinCorsica,^109 withtheinstitutionsoflocalself-
government but without either of the specifically Roman statuses ofmu-
nicipiumorcolonia,thewholequestionofthe‘‘Romanisation’’ofcommunal
institutionsintheWestremainsinastateofconceptualconfusion.
However,itispreciselyintheRomanEmpirethatthedetailedstudyof
the formal types of information which inscriptions are designed to reveal
hasbeenmostsuccessfullypursued.Thegenreofthehonorificinscription,
immortalisingtherecordofaman’soffices,statuses,and(sometimes)bene-
factions,continuedtobeverycommonintheEast,andalsospreadtothe
West.Ontheonehandthecarefullygradedcursusor‘‘career’’laiddownfor
Roman senators in the Republic and expanded by a large number of new
functions under the Empire, comes to be illustrated by literally hundreds,
perhapsthousands,ofinscriptionsgivingtheofficesheldbyindividuals.On
theotherhandthehonorificinscriptionsfromtownsinItalyandtheprov-
inces, both Greek- and Latin-speaking, reveal the major historical devel-
opment that people from many (though not all) of these places served as
. R.K.Sherk,MunicipalDecreesoftheRomanWest(Buffalo,).Thenumberoftexts
foundbySherk()isstrikinglysmall.
. Fortheessentialdocumentation,includingthelongnewtextfromIrniinBaetica,
seeJ.González,‘‘TheLexIrnitana:ANewCopyoftheFlavianMunicipalityLaw,’’JRS
():.
.CILX,;F.F.AbbottandA.C.Johnson,Municipal Administration in the Roman
Empire(Princeton,),no..