The Elites from the Western and Danubian Provinces of the Roman Empire and Their Role in the Administrative and Social-economic Development of Moesia

In this article, we will pay attention to the visible examples of the influence of some families of "western" origin according to the epigraphic documentation in the lands of the two Moesian provinces, Upper and Lower Moesia, focusing mainly on the regions where the inscriptions show us a more stable picture of established family networks of influence, as well as the changing circumstances in which these families (especially that of T. Iulius Saturninus) lost their importance in these lands. The study, made on the basis of epigraphic data and based above all on a prosopographic method, shows that the families involved in the purchase of the collection of customs fees (portorium) had serious client and family ties with wealthy families from Italy, Spain and the Danube provinces of the empire. In the article is offered a chronological sequence of the involvement and dominance of different families in the affairs of the tax-lease system in Moesia and, on the basis of a new reading of an inscription from the region of Storgozia shows the involvement of elites from the eminent North-Italian city of Aquileia in the administrative regulation of tax and customs organization in the province of Lower Moesia. The re-reading of the inscription provides an additional glimpse to the emergence of the elevated strata from this city coincided in time with the distribution of territories to the legion camps and the municipal territories and with the entrustment of the collection of these fees to the central administration, so it can be assumed that the two phenomena are connected.