PRIVATE PROPERTY

From the times of the Republic, the Roman State entrusted to private contractors (as in the case of Pont d’Aël) or publicani (government employees in charge of the management of public land) the organisation and care of operations in strategic sectors such as tax collecting, food supply and management of quarries. A huge variety of activities were managed by contractors, from shipbuilding to army supplies, and even the procurement of sacrificial animals. The policy of purchasing quarries which Augustus put into action, together with the high demand for marble in the emperor’s building programme, show quite clearly the role marble was assigned in the official ideology.