Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 2 - Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire

Condemnation to Hard Labour 143

ofmutilation]condemnedtothecopperminesoftheprovincenotsomuch
forserviceasforthesakeof ill-treatmentandhardship.’’Thiscombination
does,however,seemtohavebeenuniquetotheChristianpersecutionsof
thesefewyears.AfewyearslaterConstantinewastodecreeamputationof
afootasanalternativetometallumforslavescaughtescapingad barbaricum(CJ
6,1,3).
NoevidencesurvivestoilluminatethefateoftheManicheessentfrom
AfricatoProconnesus,thoughthePassio IV CoronatorumrepresentsProcon-
nesian marble being used for building projects in Rome in the Tetrarchic
period.Butthissamenarrative,ofuncertainauthenticity,doesalsorecord
Christianconfessors,inchainsandsubjecttomanylashes,workinginquar-
riesinPannonia.^35
That seems to complete the erratic and unsatisfactory evidence for the
locationofminesorquarrieswhereconvictlabourisspecificallyattested.By
contrast,thetwomajordocumentsrelatingtotheminingdistrictofVipasca
inLusitania(FIRA^2 I,nos.104–5)containnohintofthepresenceofconvict
labour;nordoestheevidencefortheimperialgoldminesinDacia,where
itiscertainthatatleastsomeoftheworkforcewasemployedundercon-
tract,^36 orthatfromthefamousimperialquarriesatSynnada/Dokimaionin
Phrygia.^37
7.Though it would be useful to carry out a careful re-examination of
miningandquarryingundertheEmpire,withoutpresuppositionsastowhat
‘‘imperial’’propertieswereorwhateconomicorfinancialfunctionstheyper-
formed,forthemomentonlyaveryfewtentativegeneralisationsarepos-
sible.Imperialofficialsconcernedwithminesareattestedinvariousprov-
inces.^38 But, thoughTertullian clearly implies (text to n. 3 above) that the
material forcult statues typicallycame frommetalla Caesarum, it is certain
thattheownershipofminesandquarrieswasneverformallyorcompletely
monopolisedbytheemperor.^39 Thelawyersthereforerecordspecificpenal-
tiesforthetheftofgoldorsilverfrommetallaCaesariana,orofanythingfrom

35.Passio Sanctorum IV Coronatorum,ed.W.Wattenbach,inM.Büdinger,Untersuchungen
zur römischen KaisergeschichteIII(1870),321.SeeTäckholm(n.4),136–37;RESupp.IX,674,
s.v.‘‘Pannonia’’(A.Mócsy);A.Mócsy,Pannonia and Upper Moesia(1974),326.

36. SeethefullstudybyH.-C.Noeske,‘‘StudienzurVerwaltungundBevölkerungder
    dakischenGoldbergwerkeinrömischerZeit,’’Bonn. Jahrb.177(1977):271.


37. SeeL.Robert,JournaldesSavants(1962):13–14,withrefs.,andcf.M.Waelkens,Doki-
    meion: die Werkstatt der repräsentativen kleinasiatischen Sarkophage(1982),esp.124–25.


38. See,e.g.,Pflaum,CarrièresIII,1053,1061,1063,1065.


39. SeeJones,LRE,837–39.