Otázka důvery ve státní instituce v období pozdní antiky
| Title in English | The question of trust in state institutions in the late antiquity period |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | One of the signs of the crisis of Late Antiquity and the gradual transition of its administrative structures to these of Early Middle Ages is the disruption of the traditional ancient relationship between the citizen and the state. Distrust in state institutions, or their incompetence, increasingly supported the creation of a new bond – the bond of a citizen with a powerful and wealthy private individual. Here, in addition to the relationship between the great landowner and his colonus, the patrocinium is also an important institution. In the fi rst half of the 5th century, at the height of the so-called Great Migration of Peoples, we fi nd very interesting laws that focus on: elimination of injustice in the tax burden of the population, abuses in tax enforcement, restoring the belief that the state institutions protect the weak and the poor pearsons, that Roman citizenship is still valuable, and that try to reawaken in the citizen the soldier – the defender of the empire. Th e testimony of legislative sources on the social conditions of the Western Roman Empire in this period is also supported by narrative sources. Th e 86 Otázka důvěry ve státní instituce v období pozdní antiky rheto ric of the time sometimes returns to the republican one, emphasizing the connection: freedom, citizenship, defense of the empire. Many of the functions of the Roman state were gradually transferred to ecclesiastical institutions, and the “barbarian” kings also took over the new protection of the Romanesque population. In late antiquity, the state fails not only as a protector of the weaker members of society, but also in the struggle with powerful economic subjects. Evidence is presented that the deeds of individuals could have had a signifi cant infl uence on the transformation of antiquity into the Middle Ages. If necessary, the situation in the West of the empire is compared to the situation in the Eastern part of it. |
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