war booty

The article examines the distribution and use of war booty in the Roman Republic. In spite of quite extensive historiography on this question, scholars as a rule focused their interest on the role of the commander in the process of dividing the loot, and the collective of citizens of the Roman state, which also claimed part of the loot, unreasonably remained without required attention. Therefore the article analyzes the parts of the Roman civitas, among which the spoils of war were distributed, namely, the commander, the soldiers and the treasury.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the term “manubiae” in the context of the construction activity of magistrates in ancient Rome. The author's arguments show that neither ancient sources nor historiography can resolve the dispute about war booty and manubial construction.