The Economic Strategy of the Roman Empire in the Provinces – with Particular Regard to the Administrative Conditions

Abstract

In my research, I examine the financial economy of the Roman Empire, with particular regard to the economic strategies used in the case of occupied provinces and the construction of the necessary administrative system. I am looking for an answer to the question of how the empire built its own economic scheme in the occupied territories, and how the local economic and political leadership adapted. For this, I analyze the construction of the administrative system of the two important provinces of the Roman Empire, Judea, and Egypt, and then compare them based on the criteria I have set up. In the case of some provinces, the motivation of the Romans was the economic exploitation of the territory, with maximum efficiency and minimum investment of power. Thus, after minor modifications, the existing legal order was accepted, respecting the governance structures that had existed before in the occupied territory, as long as the legal order was effective and its members were willing to cooperate with the Roman Empire. In general, there was little similarity between the administrations of the provinces, since Rome mostly respected the local political– economic structure established decades or centuries before the arrival of the Romans. At the same time, a methodological pattern can be observed, which emerges both in the case of Judea and Egypt; on the one hand, before the adoption of the new laws, the natural resources and wealth of the area were assessed, the applicable legal system was indicated, and taxes were determined, and on the other hand, negotiations were conducted with the local elite. In my research, I intend to present the different effects of the Roman mechanism on the local economies.