Abstract

Summary Descriptions of the administration of imperial domains in Africa Proconsularis share much common ground in their interpretations. The literature features a widespread emphasis on the special role of the governments of Trajan and Hadrian in reorganising the imperial domains in this province – and especially in the Bagradas Valley, which has furnished us with exceptional epigraphic material in the form of agrarian inscriptions. While the 2nd-century administrative operations of imperial domains are fairly well understood – mainly due to this category of inscriptions – the 1st century remains something of a mystery. Researchers have dated the beginning of fundamental changes to how domain administration was organised to the times of the Flavians, after the great confiscations of Nero. However, a re-interpretation of a procuratorial title from CIL VIII 14727 = ILPBardo 229 and a broader analysis of the epigraphic material shed new light on the beginnings of the administration of imperial domains in Africa Proconsularis, and especially in the grain-growing region of Byzacium; there, perhaps even in the mid-1st century, there was an imperial administration and a domain district modelled after another grain province of Egypt.