DEPORTAZIONE. – It is a penalty of the Roman imperial period, consisting in compulsory residence on an island or in an oasis, which, according to some, would have replaced the *aqua et igni interdictio*. It is considered by Mommsen as the maximum degree of *relegatio* and would have been introduced by Tiberius. Recent research, however, tends to link it with extraordinary repression, that is, with that which was exercised by the emperor and his delegates with a discretionary character and through informal trials.
Deportazione is a penalty proper to the *honestiores*, i.e., those belonging to the higher classes, and, given its severity, it could only be inflicted with particular precautions. In addition to being perpetual, it is always accompanied by confiscation of property (*ademptio bonorum*) and deprivation of *dignitas*; despite some assertions in the sources, it does not seem that it resulted, at least until the first half of the 3rd century, in the loss of citizenship. Confiscation of goods entailed the invalidation of the will; the effects of deportazione on family relations are debated, while it is generally held that the deported person lost the capacity to receive by will.
Deportazione was also inflicted on Christians during the persecutions. The case of Pope Pontian (v.) is to be recalled: he was deported to Sardinia and there, as the *Catalogo liberiano* attests, he resigned his office (*dilacentes est*); this can be explained both by the desire to avoid the Church having at its head a person condemned to a penalty involving deprivation of *dignitas* and by the difficulties arising from the, at least partial, patrimonial incapacity consequent upon the confiscation of goods.
The characteristics of deportazione in the 3rd century are essentially the same as those found later in the Theodosian and Justinianic codes.