Entre o poder imperial romano e as elites sociais provinciais: estudo sobre os Iulius, Aemilius e Cornelius em Augusta Emérita (I séc. a.C. ao II séc. d.C.)

Abstract

The present work aims to analyze the practice of epigraphic production linked to the social elites of Emerita as a habit introduced in the provincial region after the contact with the Roman Empire, in the establishment of exchange networks, cultural and social confrontations that shaped the social and memorial space of Augusta Emérita as the provincial capital of Lusitânia. Between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD, we have the progressive growth of epigraphic production linked to specific groups of the provincial elite who, in some way, are involved in the provincial dynamics, have Latin citizenship and are located in the midst of reproduction and adaptation of cultural practices that shape Emérita's relations with the Empire through the consumption and production of the epigraphic habit. In this way, we propose the analysis of the Emeritus epigraphic set linked to the gens of Iulius, Cornelius and Aemilius, among the votive, funerary and, to a lesser extent, imperial epigraphs, to understand and problematize new ways of understanding the Imperium as a historical construction, in that epigraphic literature serves as an indicator of how networks of customs shared by the Empire's elites fill memory spaces and constitute a living culture of social representation and preservation of family genealogy, in the face of negotiations with Roman domination. To this end, we intend, methodologically, to analyze the epigraphy from two emphases: (1) as a factor linked to the new management of space and the introduction of Latin law as a regulator of the integration process; therefore (2) in a conjunctural context of global practices – in the sense of being and existing in the Empire – in which the epigraphic monument assumes itself as a counter-power, evoking the image of a memory of an identity that does not want to be lost, that does not hesitate to be present, in an artificially created environment, as an external decision.