348 The Gazr Mezuar domain 



already posted up on a bronze tablet. It had been disregarded: and 

 now it was an obvious precaution to record that the emperor had 

 ordered those regulations to be observed in future. How long the 

 effect of this rescript lasted we are left to guess. Officials changed, 

 and reaffirmation of principles could not guarantee permanent reform 

 of practice. Still, the policy of the central bureau, when not warped 

 by corrupt influence, was consistent and clear. To keep these imperial 

 * peculiars ' on such a footing as to insure steady returns was an un- 

 doubted need : and, after the extreme strain on the resources of the 

 empire imposed by the calamitous times of Marcus, it was in the reign 

 of Commodus a greater need than ever. 



(3) The Gazr Mezuar inscription 1 , very fragmentary and in some 

 points variously interpreted, belongs to the same period (181 AD). A 

 few details seem sufficiently certain to be of use here. The estate in 

 question is imperial property, apparently one of the domanial units 

 revealed to us by these African documents. It seems to record another 

 case of appeal against unlawful exaction of operae, probably by a 

 conductor or conductores. It also was successful. But it is notable that 

 the lawful amount of operae to be rendered by coloni on this estate 

 was just double of that fixed in the other cases four at each of the 

 seasons of pressure, twelve in all. We can only infer that the task- 

 scale varied on various estates for reasons unknown to us. One frag- 

 ment, if a probable restoration 2 is to be accepted, conveys the impres- 

 sion of a despairing threat on the part of the appellants. It suggests 

 that on failure of redress they may be driven to return to their homes 

 where they can make their abode in freedom. On the face of it, this 

 is an assertion of freedom of movement, a valuable piece of evidence, 

 if it can be trusted. We may safely go so far as to note that it is at 

 least not inconsistent with other indications pointing to the same 

 conclusion. We may even remark that the suggestion of going home 

 in search of freedom agrees better with the notion that these coloni 

 were African natives than with the supposition of their Italian origin. 

 The Roman citizens on the Burunitan estate will not support the 

 latter view, for they are mentioned as exceptional. Seeck (rightly, I 

 think,) urges that Italy was in sore need of men and had none to spare 

 for populous Africa. I would add that the emigration of Italians to 

 the Provinces as working farmers seems to require more proof than 

 has yet been produced. As officials, as traders, as financiers and petty 

 usurers, as exploiters of other men's labour, they abounded in the 

 subject countries; but, so far as I can learn, not as labourers. Many 

 of them no doubt held landed estates, for instance in the southern 

 parts of Spain and Gaul. But when we meet with loose general ex- 



1 CIL VIII 14428. 2 \domumrev\ej-tamurubiliberemoraripossimus. 



