Economic and Legal Minorization in the Late Roman Empire on the Example of Late Roman Colonate

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of the economic and legal minorization in Late Antiquity, or in another words, it deals with the processes of losing both the legal rights and economic wellbeing. The main focus of this paper is on the people under the Late Roman colonate. The coloni were among those, that were most definitely under the influence of minorization. The evidence presented in the paper suggest that in the Late Roman Empire the coloni were gradually losing their economic and legal status, often with the help of the powerful landlords, that sought to increase their own influence, sometimes even on the expense of other social groups, that lived in the Roman countryside.