The decay of evergetic epigraphy in the Municipium Florentinum Iliberitanum and the change of mentality in the urban elite

Abstract

We study the disappearance of epigraphic habit and evergetism in the Roman municipium of Iliberis (Granada, Spain) at the beginning of the third century. We use archaeological, written and epigraphic evidences in order to approach the particular reality of this city and its elites. Our aim is to prove that the two main interests which justify evergetism (the interest of urban elites to legitimate their power and the structural necessities of the Roman slavish economy) don’t change substantially in the moment we study. Therefore the disappearance of evergetism should be due to mentality changes among these elites, whose causes we can identify closer to Roman institutional identity than to Christianism.