Law and Imperial Power: Agents of Transformation of the Territorial and Urban Landscapes in Roman Hispania 29.10.2019

"Law and Imperial Power: Agents of Transformation of the Territorial and Urban Landscapes in Roman Hispania" workshop, 29 October 2019, room 522, Fabianinkatu 24, 00101 Helsinki

In the workshop the implantation of the imperial power in Hispania in the high Roman Empire will be analysed. The systematic establishment of the Roman administration in the Iberian Peninsula occurred especially thanks to the creation of numerous municipalities by Caesar and Augustus. During that period, Hispania becomes a relatively urbanized territory, which is especially emphasized in the Flavian era with the municipal promotion of numerous stipendiariae communities. The extension of ius Latii resulted in the gradual and widespread expansion of the Roman administrative system. The Roman city becomes a legal and institutional construction, the core of social, political, religious and economic life.

These new municipalities developed ambitious urban transformation programs, seeking to equate civic monumentality and legal status. The city becomes the axis of the legal, administrative, sacred and economic system and the main element of dissemination of imperial ideology. On the commercial level, the establishment of an important distribution network of agricultural products, mainly olive oil and wine, makes Hispania one of the main producers of the empire. To articulate the territory, a wide network of infrastructures was developed that allowed the terrestrial and commercial communication inside the peninsula.

In these lectures, several current cases of historical, archaeological and epigraphic study will be presented with several experts from the universities of Seville (Spain) and Helsinki. The workshop is co-organized by the research project Law, Governance and Space: Questioning the Foundations of the Republican Tradition (SpaceLaw) together with Dr. Diego Romero Vera from University of Sevilla. For inquiries about the workshop, please contact antonio.lopezgarcia@helsinki.fi.

13:30 Introduction
Prof. Kaius Tuori, SpaceLaw Project, University of Helsinki

13:45 ‘Ius Latii: Its Granting and its consequences in some Western provinces of the Roman Empire’
Prof. Anthony Álvarez Melero, University of Seville

14:30 Discussion

14:45 ‘Blurred boundaries and terrestrial connections between Hispania Baetica and Hispania Carthaginensis: A landscape overview of the Accitania’
Dr. Antonio Lopez-Garcia, University of Helsinki

15:30 Discussion

15:45 Coffee break

16:00 ‘And what happened then? an approach to the development of municipia Flavia in the second century AD’
Dr. Diego Romero Vera, University of Seville

16:45 Discussion

17:00 ‘Distribution Management, Punishment and Protection in public Works in the Roman Empire. On Dressel 20 and beyond’
Dr. Emilia Mataix Ferrándiz, Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki

17:45–18:00 Discussion and final remarks