100 Marazzi
the new state of affairs in late antique cities. Local curiae remained responsible
for tax collection in their territories, while the central government determined
the fiscal assessment for which each city was annually responsible. At the same
time the administrative subdivision of imperial territories, which included
transforming the old regiones of the Italian peninsula into provinces, almost
automatically selected which cities would receive the primary attention of the
central government and which would be capable of making substantial invest-
ments in public works.5 Cities that hosted imperial residences, the seats of
praetorian prefects and their deputies, and eventually the chief towns of each
province would become the only places (together with Rome) that remained
the focus of imperial attention and could hope for subventions for the main-
tenance of buildings and public spaces. The other cities and their councils
could basically rely only on the good will of locals (potentes and patroni) who
had enough influence with the central government to act as representatives of
local communities for the purpose of securing tax reductions or funds assigned
to specific projects, such as the restoration of damaged or decayed buildings
and spaces. These people usually had held high-ranking offices in the imperial
administration and were tied to a given town either as native citizens or as
new landowners with economic interests in a town’s territory, and who would
be personally inclined to advocate on behalf of the local community.6 Various
Italian cities have yielded statues, inscribed statue bases or inscriptions cele-
brating these benefactors who in Late Antiquity (as opposed to earlier periods)
did not derive from the ranks of the local curia. Sometimes these potentes can
be identified with provincial governors who occasionally assisted cities within
their competence, often following some serious natural disaster such as a flood
or earthquake, in order to restore a public building, road or bridge.7 It should
also be added that a number of Italian cities during the 3rd century, although
mostly limited to the northern part of the peninsula, looked to their defence
by erecting walls that enclosed some portion of their built areas. This, too,
affected both the availability of resources previously allocated to the mainte-
nance of civil infrastructure and the survival of buildings left outside the walls.
During the 5th century things began to deteriorate seriously owing to grow-
ing political instability in the western empire, the direct impact of barbarian
military expeditions, and the economic crisis caused by the progressive loss
5 Cecconi, La città e l’impero, pp. 354–58 and 365–6.
6 Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall, 104–36.
7 Complete references to these types of artifacts found in Italy can be obtained by browsing
through the database provided by the “Last Statues of Antiquity” project, created by the
University of Oxford (http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk/).