Official Correspondence and Administrative Reports in the Roman Empire (27 B.C. – A.D. 476)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36602/faj.2025.n20.17Keywords:
Official correspondence, administrative reports, Roman Empire, imperial postal systemAbstract
This research presents a comprehensive study of official correspondence and reports in the Roman Empire, considering them one of the fundamental pillars upon which state administration and the unity of decision-making between the capital and the far-flung provinces were built. The significance of the study lies in its focus on an advanced administrative and communication mechanism that enabled Rome to maintain its political and military cohesion over centuries, highlighting the role of writing and documentation in formulating decisions, monitoring their implementation, and the material and technical means that ensured the rapid and accurate transfer of information. The research aims to achieve several objectives, most notably: analyzing the administrative structure of official correspondence and reports, identifying their types and functions, studying the material media and documentation tools, highlighting the role of the imperial postal system in information flow, and clarifying the mechanisms of interaction between the central authority and the provinces. The research problem emerges from the central question: How was the Roman Empire able to build an effective system of correspondence and reports that connected the center with the peripheries and coordinated work between administrative, military, and legal levels amid complex geographical and political challenges? The study adopted the historical method, which relies on narrating events and analyzing them wherever possible. The research concluded with results confirming that this correspondence formed an integrated communication network that contributed to the stability and prosperity of the empire.
References
بن صلاح، محمد عبد القادر (2025). أوضاع الإمبراطورية الرومانية زمن الآباطرة الصالحين. مجلة البحوث الأكاديمية 29(1) ,43–54.. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21608/jso.2025.347862.1366
- محسن، مهدي صالح. (2022). الإمبراطور تيبيريوس (14–37م): دراسة في سيرته وإنجازاته [رسالة ماجستير غير منشورة]. جامعة بغداد، كلية الآداب، قسم التاريخ، بغداد، العراق.
الناصري، سيد. (1991). تاريخ الإمبراطورية الرومانية السياسي الحضاري (ط2). دار النهضة العربية.
مراجع باللغة الانجليزية
Ando, C. (2010). The Roman Emperor and the local community. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Boatwright, M. T. (2000). Hadrian and the cities of the Roman Empire (pp. 102–104). Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691187211
Bryce, J. (1911). The Holy Roman Empire (New ed.). The Macmillan Company.
Caballero Casado, C. (2016). Roman roads: The backbone of the empire. In A. Cámara Muñoz & B. Revuelta Pol (Eds.), Roman engineering (pp. 69–86). Fundación Juanelo Turriano.
Capes, W. W. (1911). The Roman Empire of the second century. Charles Scribner's Sons.
Corcoran, S. (2014). State correspondence in the Roman Empire: Imperial communication from Augustus to Justinian. In State correspondence in the ancient world (pp. 172–206). Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199354771.003.0008
Horváth, A. T. (1999). Some aspects of the Roman Empire’s correspondence in Latin in the A.D. fourth and fifth centuries. Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis, 34–35.
Eck, W. (2007). The age of Augustus (2nd ed.). Blackwell Publishing.
Luke, T. S. (2010). A healing touch for empire: Vespasian’s wonders in Domitianic Rome. Greece & Rome, 57(1), 1–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383509990295
Millar, F. (1999). State correspondence in the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press.
Morley, N. (2010). The Roman Empire. Pluto Press.
Suetonius. (1913). The Lives of the Caesars (J. C. Rolfe, Trans.). Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.suetonius-lives_caesars_book_iii_tiberius.1914
Scarre, C. (1995). Chronicle of the Roman emperors: The reign-by-reign record of the rulers of Imperial Rome. Thames & Hudson.
Schipp, O. (2011). Die Adoptivkaiser. WBG.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 محمد عبدالقادر بن صلاح

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All works published in this journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, and redistribution for any purpose, including commercial ones, provided that proper credit is given to the original author and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.









