Consuls of the Later Roman Empire PDF
Preview Consuls of the Later Roman Empire
CONSULS OF THE LATER ROMAN EMPIRE By Roger S. Bagnall Alan Cameron Seth R. Schwartz Klaas A. Worp Published for The American Philological Association by Scholars Press Atlanta, Georgia 1987 \ vi Consuls of the Later Roman Empire been at work, and our final camera-ready pages were produced on a Hewlett-Packard Laseijet Plus printer using Nota Bene on an IBM PC-AT computer; these facilities were made possible by an equipment grant from the IBM Corporation to Columbia University through Project Aurora and by funds from the Stanwood Cockey Lodge Foundation of Columbia University. The assistance of Steven Siebert and Jonathan Gumport of Dragonfly Software was essential in the final stages of our work. We also owe a debt of gratitude to many persons who have helped us in scholarly matters: Thomas Drew-Bear checked the reading of an inscription in Lyon for us; Werner Eck, Hermann Harrauer and Johannes Diethart provided us with references and copies of some items of documentation otherwise unavailable or unknown to us; Brian Croke and Steven Muhlberger read drafts of and commented usefully on Chapter 4. RA Coles sent us Oxyrhynchos material before publication; Richard W. Burgess sent us prepubÜcation copies of two articles and helped us in correspondence to clarify our views on several points; Diane Schauer helped us immeasurably with the collection of numismatic evidence; and Timothy Barnes, Werner Eck, Denis Feissel, and Antonio Ferrua, SJ., all read the work in various versions, offering numerous improvements. Barnes and Eck in addition read the penultimate version as readers for the American Philological Association and contributed many improvements at that stage. That even with the unselfish help of all of these this work is free of errors and omissions would be too much to hope, but it owes much of what it does contain to their generosity. May, 1987 Ϊ CONTENTS Preface........................................................ v Contents ................................................................................. vii Part I: Introduction.......................................................................................................................................be Chapter 1 History of the Consulate ............................................................................................................1 1. The Evolution of the Consulate...................................................................................... 1 2. The Consuls.................. 3. The End of the Consulate Chapter 2 Proclamation and Dissemination . 1. Proclamation ........................................... 2. Designation.............................................. 3. Duration of the Consulate....................... 4. Seniority................................................... 5. Imperial Consulates ................................ 6. Non-Recognition..................................... 7. Dissemination........................................... Chapter 3 Points of Nomenclature............... 1. Flavius................................................ 2. Junior ...................................................... Chapter 4 Chronicles and Consular Lists . . 1. Western Lists........................................... 2. Eastern Lists.............................................. 3. Varia Minora........................................... Chapter S Inscriptions................................... X. Quantity and Distribution....................... 2. The Character of the Evidence ............... 3. Formulas and Errors................................ Chapter 6 Papyri............................................ Chapter 7 The Imperial Laws....................... 1. The Sources and their Problems ............, 2. Proposita, Accepta, and Postconsulates . Chapter 8 Literary and Miscellaneous Sources 1. Council Acts.............................................., 2. Martyr Acts and Hagiography.............. . 3. Coins and Medallions 4. Consular Diptychs . 5. Papal Letters .... 6. literary Texts .... Biographical Data of Emperors ............................................................................................................91 Table of Indictions ....................................................................................................95 viii Consuls of the Later Roman Empire Part Π: The Evidence...............................................................................................................................97 Guide to the Evidence...............................................................................................................................99 The Evidence by Years.............................................................................................................................101 Part ΙΠ: Critical Appendix ................................................ 619 Part IV: Bibliography...................................................................................................................................697 Part V: Indices ..................................................................................................... 747 Index 1 Names of Consuls ............................................................................................... 749 Index 2 Reverse Index of Names......................................................................................................... 757 Index 3 Index of Subjects .............................................................................................................. 761 Index 4 Index of Texts Discussed ......................................................................................................767 PART I INTRODUCTION m m Chapter 1 History of the Consulate 1. The Evolution of the Consulate "At the end of a thousand years two consuls were created by the sovereigns of Rome and Constantinople for the sole purpose of giving a date to the year and a festival to the people...'1 It is true that the consulate of the late empire was, as one of the consuls of 362 observed, "honos sine labore* (Mamertinus, Grat. Actio 22), but it was nonetheless the supreme goal of any Roman citizen and the supreme mark of imperial favor. If anything, its prestige actually increased with the passage of the centuries. It is instructive to trace the evolution of the consulate from the early to the late empire. With the establishment of the prindpate, though formally still elected, consuls were in reality nominated by the princeps.2 Their original powers were drastically reduced, though they retained their (alternating) presidency of the senate and some judidal functions3—and acquired the expensive honor of providing games.4 The consulate was no longer sought for the powers it gave to the holder in office, but for the openings it gave for advancement in the imperial administration.3 It was less to satisfy ambition than to generate a larger pool of candidates for consular governorships that Augustus institutionalized the suffect consulate, thus making room for many more than the two ordinarii. There might be anything from two to ten suffects in one year, rising to an extraordinary high of 25 in 190.® Despite this proliferation of suffect consuls, many of them navi homines, the lustre of the ordinary consulate remained untarnished. It was the only office7 the emperor deigned to share with his subjects, and those openings left free by the imperial family8 were for the most part filled by patricians and descendants of consuls. In the second half of the third century some major changes took place in the senatorial career. In the first two centuries, the consulate had come to a man about halfway through his career, in the early 30’s for patricians, the early 40’s for most others.9 It determined whether or not he was going to advance to the ^E-Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Raman Empire, cd. J-B. Bury, IV (London 1909)285. ^Thifi much is agreed, though the exact means used by the emperor to make his preferences known are hotly disputed: see (for example) B. Levick, 'Imperial Control of the Elections under the Early Prindpate,* Historia 16 (1967) 207-30; R. Frei-Stolba, Untersuchungen zu den Wahlen in der römischen Kaiserteit (Zürich 1967). 3R-LA. Ihlbezt, The Senate of imperial Rome (Princeton 1964)21-22. "Consuls were not required to provide games during the Republic, and it was not perhaps till the fifth century that this became their main function. But as early as Augustus they were at least expected to contribute to the cost of games, at whatever time of the year they assumed office: Talbert, 60. 3 See R. Syme, Tacitus (Oxford 1958),passim; W. Eck, 'Beförderungskriterien innerhalb der se na torischen Laufbahn,* ANRWII. 1 (Berlin 1974) 158-228; G. Alföldy, 'Consuis and Consulare under the Antonine*,' Auctent Society 7 (1976) 263-99 and Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter den Antoninen (Bonn 1977), with the reservations of GJP. Burton, JRS 70 (I960) 204-06; K. Hopkins, Death and Rcneneal (Cambridge 1983); and for a useful recent summary of the position of the consulate in early imperial career patterns, see A.R. Biriey, The Fasti of Roman Britain (Oxford 1981) 24-32. "For the variation in number from reign to reign, see the brief account in Talbert, 21. (Unless we count the censorship and priesthoods. ^Fifteen emperors before the tetrarcha held the consulate tour os more times, six of them seven or more times. The general assumption, though there is still no satisfactory discussion. 2 Consuls of the Later Roman Empire more prestigious senior posts, the consular legateships and proconsulships of Asia and Africa, the major urban curatorships and the prefectship of the city of Rome. Those who continued to distinguish themselves might win a second or even (very rarely) a third consulate. Before the first (normally suffect) consulate a man would typically have served in the vigintivirate, the military tribunate, two or three of the old Republican offices (aedile, quaestor, tribunus plebis, praetor) and at least two praetorian posts. That is to say, a man of non-patridan birth would already have a substantial active career behind him before his first consulate. By the close of the third century, all pre-consular functions except for the quaestorship and praetorship disappeared from the senatorial career. Praetorian posts were taken over by equites, and senators disappear from military careers. This is not the place to explore the reasons for this change.10 11 But with nothing left for senators to do before the consulate, it was inevitable that it should be held earlier and (with the passage of time) valued less highly. Already by the last quarter of the third century it was sometimes omitted from cursus inscriptions, a dear sign of its decreasing importance. One consequence was that second consulates, always now ordinary, became commoner, while first consulates were normally suffect.11 From the beginning of the third century, praetorian prefects were occasionally allowed, on being appointed to the (ordinary) consulate, to count the earlier award of ornamenta consularia as a first consulate, so that they could style themselves cos. Π—a dear hint of the progressive devaluation of the first, suffect consulate.12 The award of the consulate to praetorian prefects in office was itself one of the more conspicuous signs of the assimilation of the equestrian and senatorial orders at this period. Senators had finally lost their monopoly on the consulate. As late as 289 we still find at least six suffects named in a fragmentary consular list from Cales (CIL X 4631). And a further twenty, of unknown date, are attested from the period covered by this book, but only five or six are later than the reign of Constantine.13 By the early decades of the fourth century the status of the suffect consulate had sunk so low that it was normally held in the 20’s and seldom even recorded on cursus inscriptions.14 A law of (probably) 329 implies that it might be held at the age of sixteen.15 The change in the nature and status of the office was formalized when the emperor transferred the election of suffects from himself to the senate. It was perhaps Constantine who did this, or at any rate Constantins Π.16 Early in 385 Symmachus sent to court the nominations of those 'subeundis fascibus destinatos' (ReL 45). These nominations were made at the meeting of the senate held on 9 January;17 the suffect consulate had become a munus, like the quaestorship and praetorship.18 We may guess that only two were elected for this purpose.19 10Bor which tee Dow M. Christoi, Tituli 4 (1982) 143-66 end Essai sur Involution da camries senatoriales dans la 2c moitU du Ule skcle ap. J.-C. (Paris 1986) 11R. Syme, Tacitus I (Orford 1958) £43-44; H.G. Pflaum, BEL 28 (1951) 47-48; A. Chastagnol, Revue historique 219 (1958) 221-31. 12In earlier times the award of ornaments consularia to praetorian prefects did not even confer active membership of the senate; see W. Ensslin, BE 22.2399; A. Chastagnol, Becherches sur 1'Histoirc Auguste (Bonn 1970) 40f.; B.Rfmy, REA 78/79 (1976/77716682. I3Since they cannot be assigned to particular years, there is no point in including them in a work such as ours. For the list, see PLRE11046-47; M.T.W. Arnheim, 7V Senatorial Aristocracy of the Later Roman Empire (Oxford 1972) 225-26; and (with fell discussion and bibliography) W. Kuhoff, Studien zur zivilen senalorischen Laufbahn im 4 JdL n Or. (Frankfurt 1983) 29-39; 279-91. 14Chastagnol argued that it was no longer held at all by aristocrats of the bluest blood, who often moved directly from the praetorship, held in the late teens, to the most junior senatorial governorship—with the title consularis·, see Revue historique 219 (1958) 231-37 and, in more detail, replying to the criticisms of Arnheim, 15f., in Atri deU' Accadentia Cossantiniana: 2o Convegno Internationale 1975 (Perugia 1975) 58-59; Kuhoff (p.37) could find no evidence for the sort of social distinctions alleged by □rastagnoL “C77i 6.4.1; on the date, Seeck, Regesten 60. 1°For recent discussions of this controversial issue, see Chastagnol, Ala Acc.Cost (n.14) 66-67 and D. Vera, Commento starke aOe Relationes di Q. AurdiqSimmaco (Pisa 1981) 330-32. 1 Tolera his Silvius, CIL l2 p.257; cf. Vera (above, n.16) 332. 18Ihe three are linked (for example) in CTh 64.1 of 329. 19And perhaps only one by the fifth century: see Cameron, *A Note on the Suffect Consulate in the Late Empire,* forthcoming On their duties (probably nothing mote than standing in for the ordinary consuls when the latter were absent) see below, ppJO-21.
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