I COLLEGI PROFESSIONALI E LA LORO VALENZA ECONOMICA: IL CASO DEI FIGULI

Abstract

The collegia and their economic importance: the case of the collegium figulorum

The tendency to form associations is a peculiarity of the Roman society and this is particularly visible when we think of Roman collegia, both professional collegia and those in the other categories. Maybe the economic role of the collegium institution became important from late republican age until late empire; through professional colleges, craftsman came to obtain a public acknowledgement and a role in civic institutes. The collegia had their own financial autonomy and could be customers, productors or distributors of goods. These activities gave them such a great economic importance that they could take part to economic and social life as associations or as single members. A very interesting problem concerns the collegium of figuli, whose administrative existence in Rome and than in all the empire is recorded by literary sources. However, there is no epigraphic document that we can ascribe to this collegium, as instead is possible for other associations. Thanks to the examination of  archaeological, epigraphical and literary sources we can conclude that the collegium figulorum was included in the collegium of the fabri.