Evaluation of agentes in rebus in narrative sources
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The bloated administrative apparatus and the corruption of both central and provincial administration were among the internal problems of the Roman Empire in late antiquity. After all, we are informed about this not only by legal sources, but also by a number of contemporary authors who often express their disgust with the current situation. These authors express themselves no differently about the officials agentes in rebus who performed various tasks for the imperial court. Here, Ammianus Marcellinus draws attention to their avarice (16.5.11) and snitching (15.3.7-9), while at other times Libanius points to their excessive number of members (Or. 2.58) and their omnipresence and curiosity (Or. 18.135-140), or Aurelius Victor to their fabricated accusations and robbery of the provinces (39.44). However, can we truly claim that the ancient sources describe agentes solely in a negative way, or perhaps even positively? Was not the image of their reputation mainly influenced by the aforementioned passages (and others) that portray the agentes in a very negative light, which has earned them comparisons with modern secret service or security police force by many historians (Sinnigen 1961; Blum 1969)? The main focus of this paper lies in the analysis of the description of how agentes were perceived and what reputation they acquired during the performance of their service in ancient narrative sources. |
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