“Fossils of political institutions. Rome and Tripolitanian marginal areas during Late Antiquity”

This paper examines some political-institutional, cultural, and religious dynamics in the border areas of Roman Tripolitania. The site of Ghirza, in particular, offers insights into the forms and content of intercultural exchange between the native groups and the Romano-Byzantines. The settlement was also crucial for the territorial political control of the Roman administration in those marginal areas. Some of the reliefs on the local mausolea show ceremonial scenes concerning the investiture of certain chiefs. Scholars have suggested that the depiction may refer to a Roman magistrate, such as praefectus or princeps gentis. This paper aims to better define the powers related to the tribal chief of Ghirza. It also attempts to distinguish the earliest legal-institutional basis on which this office may have been rooted. The Roman government in the borderlands acted as a guarantee of political legitimacy in the management of the confederations of tribes that gravitated on the Roman limes. In this sense, this research is supposed to identify the residual “fossils” of the Etruscan-Italic magistracies which in frontier contexts were much more suitable than the Roman magistracies for indirect political management.