African Coloni: Resilience, Self-determination and Religious Coercion (4th -5th Centuries)

Abstract

The historiography on the coloni of the Later Roman Empire has resulted in different conflicting perspectives. In particular, the researchers discuss the resilience of at least certain groups of coloni against the advancement of the landlords’ prerogatives based on the advance of private powers in front of the Imperial State. However, it is very likely that the conditions of resistence or exploitation of coloni could have had different degrees, nuances and balances in different regions of the Roman Empire. I will study these conditions through some letters of Augustine of Hippo at the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth century, related to a greater or lesser extent with the repression of Donatist groups. I will try to analyze in particular the scope of the capacities of collective agency and religious self-determination of African coloni as an important aspect in the context of the loss of freedom traditionally suggested by historiography on the colonate