Lex portorii provinciae lyciae: The Customs law of province lycia

SUMMARYThe customs inscription was found in 1999 by the research team of the AnadoluUniversity investigating the settlement pattern throughout the Byzantine Age in the Lycianharbor town Andriace, c. 10 km southwest of Myra. The inscription, which has a length of 87lines, is only partly preserved. The first 39 lines are hardly legible because of the weatheringof the stone. The content of this inscription concern a very complex subject matter related tothe history of the Roman provincial administration, the history of law and the history ofeconomy, which should be studied in close connection with the economic and administrativehistory of Lycia during the Roman Imperial period.A basis for the dating of this inscription is provided by the mention of C. LiciniusMucianus (L. 3), who was already known as governor of Lycia under Nero. Taking intoaccount the informations about the governorship of C. Licinius Mucianus in Lycia theinscription should be dated between 60 and 62/3. Such a dating can also be confirmed by thefact that the content of the inscription corresponds exactly to the tax reform of Nero, which ismentioned by Tacitus (Tac. Ann. 13.51) together with other events of the year 58.The reform edict of Nero concerning the levying of vectigalAs can be inferred from the above mentioned passage in the Annales of Tacitus, he doesnot give the full content of the edict (alia admodum aequa), but limits himself only to theclauses, which according to his opinion were the most important. Four of the five clauseswhich were given by Tacitus, are also mentioned in the inscription from Andriake. These arelisted below as in the order given by Tacitus: a) the obligation to publish the tax regulations;b) time restriction for complaints of the publicani; c) the introduction of the extraordinariacognitio for lawsuits of publicani; d) the abolition of unlawful surcharges and charges.The organisation of customs in Lycia in the Roman Imperial periodInformation concerning the organization of customs in Lycia is provided by theinscriptions of Myra and Caunus; the customs inscription from Andriace now makes thisinformation clearer. According to the customs inscription from Myra Rome left the levying ofcustoms up to the Lycian Koinon. The Koinon, on one hand levied the export dues itself, onthe other hand left the levying of a part of these revenues up to the cities and was satisfied forthis with a flat rate. The evidence obtained from the customs inscription of Caunus, which hasrecently been interpreted by Marek, is in accordance with this procedure.The regulations concerning the levying of customs dues in were organized by thedemosionikos nomos which is mentioned in both inscriptions from Myra and Caunus.According to Wörrle, this was the customs law of the Lycian Koinon, which must have beencomposed most probably in Rome. The inscription from Andriace now provides the evidencefor such a customs law of the Lycian Koinon which was legislated by Rome. According tothis evidence, the Koinon was obliged to settle the revenues with Rome, which it profited bothfrom the export dues levied by itself and from the fees paid by the member cities for the rightof levying import dues on their own markets, and paid annually 100.000 denaria to theimperial fiscus. In addition to this, these three documents (from Myra, Caunus and Andriace)show, that the Lycian Koinon collected the customs for its own treasury directly and with itsown instruments. However, this picture does not correspond to the general organization ofportorium within the Roman Empire. This particular form of collecting customs dues in Lyciacan only be understood when one accept that a predecessor customs system going back to theHellenistic period was taken over by Rome.