Contributo para o estudo da Economia na Lusitânia romana

Abstract

In this paper we present some refl ections on the role of one of the most enigmatic families of the equestrian class of the Roman Lusitania, the Cornelli Bocchi, and on their probable involvement in the Atlantic trade. Directly related to this issue, we report the existence of a phenomenon of complementarity and of imitation of the Lusitanian products in relation to the Baetic ones (regarding the "early" productions recently documented in Lusitania) We also question the absence of interpretative models regarding the economy and the Atlantic trade in the Roman Lusitania although there is information from the written sources and from the data provided by the archaeology. In this way, we put forward the idea that there was a system of hybrid market, in charge of private people, together with a true anonary system of state nature, directed to the supply of the armies and of the gold mining nuclei directly exploited by the state.