Page 52 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

38 Historical Review

exile. This decree was annulled only when he bribed the emperor – another indication of the unbridled avarice
of the emperor, in Procopius’s opinion. Faustinus’ previous rank (clarissimus) was restored, and he was again
recognized as a friend of the emperor and appointed inspector (epitropos) of the imperial domains in Palaestina
and Phoenicia (Anecdote 27.8–10).

A third person apparently belonging to the Caesarea city council (even though Procopius does not say so
specifically) is Mamilianus, a member of a distinguished family of Caesarea, who married the daughter of Anatolius,
the foremost member of the city council of Ascalon. The two had but one daughter – the only heir of her father
Mamilianus who had died (according to Novel 38 of Justinian, enacted in 536, a female heir received only one-
fourth of the property; the remainder was divided between the imperial treasury and the senate. Previously, a
female heir of the curial class who had not married a member of her class of the city, had to allocate one quarter
of the inheritance to the curia [the city council]; the imperial treasure was not supposed to receive anything). In
time, the daughter also passed away (probably in Caesarea, the city of her father, Mamilianus), childless, while her
elderly mother, daughter of Anatolius, was still living. Justinian immediately took hold of all the property, leaving
the old woman an income of just one gold coin (solidus) a day as long as she lived (Anecdota 29). If the emperor
made the effort to expropriate the inheritance, it probably involved a very tidy sum.

Fig. 41
Cache of 99 gold coins
(solidi) from the end of the
fourth century–early fifth
century which was hidden
in a makeshift “box” placed
beneath the floor. The
treasure trove was found in
a house in the northern part
of the city. The “box” is a
fragment of a basalt grinder