The epigraphic road landscape of Via Augusta. Considerations of the jurisdiction of the conventus iuridici and the military epigraphy

Abstract

Generally, studies in Roman milestones has always been linked to path analysis as a secondary proof of them. However, a detailed study of an epigraphic landscape through the main axis of the Roman province of Baetica such as the via Augusta could give us another information. Examining presences and absences of this kind of epigraphy in dispersion maps provide a rich information about territorial administration.

The study of this epigraphic ensemble from I and II centuries, that has pronounced differentiations compared with later ones, shows us traces of an administrative function of the conventus iuridici in road plan matters. This view was explored in the NW part of the Iberian Peninsula. Notwithstanding, this function not explored before for the southern part could be added to this abstract and fuzzy institution.