location
A distinctive Roman procedure for the blank" >target="_blank" >letting of contracts. This needs some stressing because it blank" >always remained one of the main/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="362f32153953633cbd06030bf0ceac5a" blank" >target="_blank" >main governmental activities of Roman administrators, and because it was blank" >target="_blank" >through this that so much of the civil blank" >target="_blank" >glossary/engineering/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="51d4e292df2547b72f529a164eb6302a" blank" >target="_blank" >engineering which is so eloquent a testimony of Roman rule was carried on. It was also for a very long blank" >target="_blank" >period the blank" >target="_blank" >glossary/principal/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="40fd02afc71e6b8649d599547d392b10" blank" >target="_blank" >principal mode, blank" >target="_blank" >through tax-farming, of collecting public revenues, that basic blank" >target="_blank" >glossary/activity/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="f4d36629cd16c55ad0658bb9c16109de" blank" >target="_blank" >activity of ancient governments. Moreover it was unique to Rome in its developed form, and appeared to Polybius (6. 117) one of the most blank" >target="_blank" >striking and blank" >target="_blank" >glossary/effective/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="fc8e24670012984c43720737a7c641d8" blank" >target="_blank" >effective aspects of Roman state blank" >target="_blank" >glossary/activity/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="f4d36629cd16c55ad0658bb9c16109de" blank" >target="_blank" >activity, embracing all activities from the blank" >target="_blank" >contract for feeding the blank" >sacred geese of Juno (blank" >always let first) to the taxes of the provinces or the resurfacing of main/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="362f32153953633cbd06030bf0ceac5a" blank" >target="_blank" >main roads. Polybius saw this blank" >target="_blank" >glossary/practice/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="4ddd1c4c5169067f3991b80a64e94fb4" blank" >target="_blank" >practice as a democratic blank" >target="_blank" >aspect of Roman public life, no doubt because it involved in state business some prominent plebeians. For our purposes it is doubly important. First it encouraged the formation of semi-public corporate organizations, blank" >target="_blank" >glossary/collegia/" class="glossaryLink" data-cmtooltip="ae79d546869e38ad06e663d84fbc0c6c" blank" >target="_blank" >collegia and societates, the blank" >target="_blank" >spirit of which contributed to Roman notions of how to form administrative institutions-and indeed it is from this world that the important late-Roman official title blank" >target="_blank" >magister derives. Second, and even more importantly, we see again here the unwillingness of Roman magistrates to undertake themselves the direct overseeing of the activities which they sponsored. The wish to limit the public blank" >sphere and privatize official actions is again apparent. (Boardman, 1986)