Dr. Mirkovi, professor of Ancient History at Belgrade University analyzes the colonate of the Later Roman Empire as a historical phenomenon. The status of coloni (tenant farmers who were legally free) represents as much a legal as a sociological problem; although they were free, coloni were tied to another's land-often for a large portion of their lives. Rejecting the most widely accepted theory today that imperial fiscal policy that began with the emperor Diocletian in the 290s created the bound colonate & limited the right of the coloni to leave the land they cultivated, the author traces the development of this institution to the economic condition of the Early Empire. Using the legal, literary & papyrological evidence, she stresses two facts as significant in limiting the freedom of coloni: a) the relation of the colonus to the landlord, b) the fiscal obligations he endures. Mirkovi_ cites extensively the law of Constantine, C.Th. V 17,1 as the crucial text in discussions of the dependent colonate. She emphasizes continuity in the development of the colonate & that the general principle of binding to the soil can be applied to the agricultural population at large.