[383]. Capitol. Antoninus Pius, 5.
[384]. 193 C.E. It was on this occasion that the Pretorians offered the imperial purple to the highest bidder.
[385]. Josephus, Ant. XIV. x.
[386]. The legend of Polycarp assumes a large and powerful Jewish community. In late Byzantine times, the Jews of Asia Minor were still a powerful factor. The emperor Michael II, a Phrygian, was suspected of Jewish leanings; Theophanes (Contin.), ii. 3 ff.
Chapter XXI
THE LEGAL POSITION OF THE JEWS IN THE LATER EMPIRE
[387]. The theory advanced by Wilcken-Mitteis (Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Pap. vol. I.) that all who paid a poll-tax were dediticii, and therefore excluded from the Const. Ant. is wholly gratuitous. There is no evidence whatever connecting the dediticii with the poll-tax.
[388]. There are few reliable statements in the extant texts for estimating the population. Beloch’s work on the subject puts all the data together, but nothing except uncertain conjectures can be offered.
[389]. Lanciani, Ancient Rome, pp. 50-51; Pelham, Essays on Roman History, pp. 268 seq.
[390]. Lampridius, Alex. 33: corpora omnium constituit vinariorum ... et omnino omnium artium.
[391]. These are the collegia, idcirco instituta ut necessariam operam publicis utilitatibus exhiberent (Dig. 50, 6, 6, 1). They are the transportation companies and others engaged in caring for and distributing the annona, the fire companies and the burial associations of the poor. Cf. C. I. L. vi. 85, 29691; x. 1642, xiv. 2112.