The literary sources that survive from the Roman Principate are so defective that any chronology that exists anywhere else is worth the effort of analysis. If extensive enough, documentary time-series usually embody some reality of the period from which they come. Stimuli that they reveal may include dynastic, fiscal and economic change.

The available sources include inscriptions, papyri and coins. All three survive in abundance, and all three contain obvious dated series. Inscriptions are in some ways the most useful, because they typically represent significant expenditures, in other words, discrete economic events. In themselves, dated papyri and coins primarily show the functioning of government machinery which existed at all times, but they still have great interest as sources of chronological data. Examined by category, dated papyri can yield specific evidence about economic change, and changes in coin-output can potentially mirror changes in government spending.

Building-series

Approaches to the evidence

Public inscriptions on stone from the Roman world provide some index of building activity, whether they refer to the construction of statues or to complete buildings. Different ways of interpreting this evidence can be considered.

(1) One approach would regard town building activity as essentially an expression of political and social tendencies. Within the Roman empire, local populations sought to equip their towns with public buildings and statues in imitation of Rome and of each other, and members of local aristocracies aided that process by competitive spending, usually linked to local office.