Government Centralization in Late Second and Third Century A.D. Asia Minor: A Working Hypothesis

Abstract

This paper offers the working hypothesis that increased central government intervention in civic and provincial affairs in the late second-and third-century A.D. Roman Empire can be partly explained by the effects of the demographic contraction following the Antonine Plague pandemic. The sharp reduction in the number of people who could work and pay rents and taxes posed a direct threat to government revenues and elite incomes. The result, growing central government attempts at direct control of local surpluses and increased exploitation of the non-elite population, is then tentatively documented for Roman Asia Minor.