Da Vincilezing: Who does the Emperor listen to? Lobbying in Romeinse Keizerrijk

In 2024, more than 13,000 lobby organizations are registered at the Europese Unie, ranging from small-scale NGOs to influential industrial interest groups. Although lobbying is often viewed with suspicion today, political scientists emphasize that it can also contribute to better-informed decision-making. This lecture poses a fundamental question from a historical perspective: who did the emperor listen to in the late Romeinse Rijk, and through which channels was he influenced? Although Ancient Greek and Latin do not have a direct term for “lobbying,” attempts to steer political decisions were ubiquitous. It is striking that in the Late Oudheid (4th–6th century AD), such influence often took place via letters. Thanks to the exceptionally rich corpus of surviving correspondence, this period offers a unique insight into the informal exercise of power within an ostensibly highly centralized imperial system. Using three case studies, this lecture analyzes how lobbying practices functioned. The petition of Orcistus to Emperor Constantine shows how local communities successfully responded to imperial priorities. The controversy surrounding the altar of the goddess of victory in Rome illustrates the importance of networks, speed of communication, and political strategy. Finally, the lobbying campaigns of Bishop Porphyrius van Gaza make it clear how implementation problems, imperial Realpolitik, and influential courtiers helped determine the decision-making process. These examples show that imperial power in the late Roman Empire was less monolithic than is often assumed: decision-making came about in a dynamic field of tension between information, interests, and access. At the same time, this analysis makes it clear that, despite the broad possibilities for participation in theory, the inequality in resources and networks determined even then who was truly heard.