History, membership and activity of the Roman collegia dendrophorum. Outline of the problem.

The aim of this article is to outline the research problem of reconstructing the history, social structure and functions of one of the most popular private associations in ancient Rome, namely collegia dendrophorum. The article consists of two parts. The first presents the main directions of research on Roman private colleges, with particular emphasis on the dendrophori; the state of research on the colleges of interest to us was discussed and research possibilities in this area were indicated. In the second part, the methodology of research on Roman colleges is the subject of analysis. The current state of the source database and research limitations resulting from its specificity were presented.