DEPORTAZIONE. — This was a punishment of the Roman imperial period, consisting in compulsory residence on an island or in an oasis, which, according to some, replaced the aqua et igni interdictio. Mommsen considers it the highest degree of relegatio and believes that it was introduced by Tiberius. Recent research, however, tends to associate it with extraordinary repression, that is, with the repression exercised by the emperor and his delegates on a discretionary basis and through proceedings free of formal constraints.
Deportazione was a punishment reserved for the honestiores, that is, those belonging to the higher classes, and, given its severity, could be imposed only with particular safeguards. Besides being perpetual, it was always accompanied by confiscation of property (ademptio bonorum) and deprivation of dignitas; despite certain statements in the sources, it does not appear to have entailed, at least until the first half of the third century, loss of citizenship. Confiscation of property resulted in the invalidation of the will; the effects of deportazione with regard to family relationships are disputed, whereas it is held that the deportee lost the capacity to receive by testament.
Deportazione was also imposed on Christians during the persecutions. PONZIO (v.) should be recalled: he was deported to Sardinia and there, as the Catalogo liberiano attests, renounced his office (discinctus est). This may be explained both by the desire to prevent the Church from having at its head a person condemned to a punishment entailing deprivation of dignitas, and by the difficulties arising from the loss of property rights, at least in part, resulting from the confiscation of his goods.
The characteristics of deportazione in the third century are, substantially, also those of the punishment subsequently described in the Theodosian and Justinian Codes.