The PECUNIA project investigates an aspect of political and social life in the ancient Roman world that has received limited systematic attention: the ways in which participation in public life was connected to material and economic benefits. While historical research has traditionally highlighted the benefactions that wealthy elites offered to their communities — most visibly attested in inscriptions praising their generosity —, PECUNIA shifts the perspective. It examines the circulation of public and private wealth in public contexts from the point of view of the beneficiaries, aiming to identify patterns and places of accumulation associated with public roles and positions. Founded on a scrutiny of the stratification of the elites, PECUNIA considers not only elected magistrates but also senators, members of privileged civic groups, and other individuals whose public status shaped their access to specific benefits. Such benefits were variegated and ranged, following civic contexts and institutional ranks, from compensations, immunities and material and monetary perks, to access to and capture of public resources.
The project spans the period from the late Republic (around 70 BCE) to the reign of the emperor Diocletian (late 3rd–early 4th century CE) and addresses the diverse communities that formed the basis of local self-government. Across the empire, hundreds of cities developed their own political cultures, including electoral processes by citizen bodies, legal norms governing civic administration, and cultural norms surrounding participation in public life. PECUNIA therefore asks how the fulfilment, over a life time, of positions temporary or permanent in local institutions, which were officially unpaid roles, and the commitment to public good, also materialized through private gifts to the community, could be structurally linked with private opportunities, how such links were perceived by different social groups, and how they were regulated within cities and by the imperial administration.
To answer these questions and build systematic evidence, PECUNIA conducts an empire-wide survey of written sources. Methodologically, the project combines historical research with analytical concepts from political science and sociology — e.g. on the definition and oversight of public integrity — and develops a digital knowledge base to organize and analyze complex data systematically. This approach enables meaningful large-scale comparative analysis across different regions, periods, and institutional contexts, as well as smaller-scale analysis at the local level.
By shedding new light on the intersection of power and private interests in Roman cities, PECUNIA contributes to broader scholarly debates on the oligarchical nature of civic communities, their social fabric, the economic interests of elites, and wider discourses of power in ancient political systems and beyond.
