Researchers from the University of Warsaw have successfully identified 1500-year-old inscriptions on an ancient Anatolian wall that detail charges by local citizens of tax fraud by local officials and a rare Roman imperial death decree against those found perpetrating the crimes.
The study author said the lack of evidence of similarly harsh punishments for tax crimes in the same time period and region suggests the decree, which was discovered in the ancient city of Stratonicea in the Roman province of Caria, may have been intended as a ‘rhetorical’ warning about the severity of perpetrating rebellion, which could also be considered a direct insult to the emperor himself.
1500-Year-Old Inscriptions Allege Tax Fraud by Local Officials
According to a statement from the international team, which included Dr. Paweł Nowakowski from the university’s Faculty of History and Professor Mustafa Adak from Akdeniz University in Antalya, the newly deciphered fragments were part of a larger legal document known to archaeologists for centuries. However, archaeologists found new, untranslated inscriptions in 2024.
“Most of this text was already known thanks to a few copies that have been preserved both in Stratonikea, where our new fragments come from, and in two other cities: Mylas and Keramos,” Dr. Nowakowski explained.
Researchers initially thought the new fragments were rhyming text placed on a local dignitary’s tombstone. However, when Nowakowski and Adak gained access to images of the 1500-year-old inscriptions for closer study, they found it unlikely that the inscription was an honorary poem for the deceased. Instead, Dr. Nowakowski said, “It turned out that this is a completely different text.”
Because the images were high-resolution, the researcher and Professor Adak were able to read individual letters carved into the ancient stone. After converting the letters into digital form, the team entered them into specialized databases containing similar ancient texts. The result was an ancient tax fraud investigation and an imperial death decree.
Local Corrupt Officials Met with Rare Imperial Death Decree
As the research duo dug deeper into their translation, more details of the fraud and the resulting imperial intervention began to take shape. Dr. Kowalowski said the 1500-year-old inscription revealed that the local officials appointed by the regional government to collect taxes had “committed a very bad practice there.”
“They issued certificates of payment of tax dues (in money and in kind) without indicating the amount or tax unit that had been paid,” the researcher explained. “In practice, they probably showed other, lower amounts in documents transferred to Constantinople, and they collected much more money from the local population.”
The difference, Dr. Nowakowski explained, “went into their pockets.”
The ancient lettering indicates that the Roman authorities knew about the corruption and the growing frustrations of the local population as early as 465 AD. However, after no action was taken due to what the research team termed a “dishonest official” for 15 years and the problems and complaints continued, the regional government intervened. The result is the newly translated 480 written orders from the praetorium of the East, Flavius Illus Pusaeus Dionysius, which stonemasons inscribed on the walls for everyone to see.
According to the researchers, these orders contain details of a special envoy sent to the area, who himself was threatened with the loss of property if he did not resolve the matter within three months. Dr. Nowakowski said the 1500-year-old inscriptions also included a penalty of three pounds of gold for governors and local officials described as “defenders of cities,” if they continued to “turn a blind eye” to the corrupt tax practices.
Still, the researchers note, perhaps the most shocking detail discovered in the new translation was one unusually harsh penalty the empire planned to levy on any local official found guilty of the alleged tax corruption: death.
Was the Imperial Death Decree a Real Threat?
The research team said that such high penalties were extremely rare for tax law violations. Similar violations recorded during the same period showed no cases where tax crime violators received a death sentence.
Dr. Nowakowski said the best way to look at the imperial death decree is less about the gravity of the specific offense. Instead, the researcher explained, the crime’s added layer was likely due to the offense seemingly directly opposing imperial will or even committing an act of rebellion. Dr. Nowakowski also noted that the act could even be seen as a direct insult to the emperor himself.
“For this reason, we have such a severe punishment as the death penalty for people who practiced similar activities in the imperial family’s estate,” he explained.
Notably, Dr. Nowakowski said that the imperial death decree discovered in the 1500-year-old inscriptions could have served more as a warning than as an actual mortal threat intended to be carried out.
“Perhaps it was also a rhetorical tool to emphasize the importance of the matter,” the researcher explained. “Roman legal practice knows cases of laws and penalties that were never enforced but only emphasized the intention of the legislator.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org