The later Roman empire, 284-602 : a social economic and administrative survey. Volume II

551 Pages·1964·29.71 MB·English

by  Jones

THE LATER
ROMAN EMPIRE
284-602
A SOCIAL ECONOMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE
SURVEY
By A. H. M. JONES
PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
VOLUME H
BASIL BLACKWELL
OXFORD
1964
VICE CANCELLARIIS ET MAGISTRIS ET SCHOLARIBUS UNIVERSITATUM
OXONIENSIS, BABYLONIENSIS, LONDINIENSIS, CANTABRIGIENSIS;
CUSTODI SOCIIS SCHOLARIBUS CLERICIS ET CHORISTIS COLLEGII
B. V. MARIAE "WINTON. IN OXONIA, COMMUNITER NUNCUPATI
NEW COLLEGE, CUSTODI ET SOCIIS COLLEGII OMNIUM
ANIMARUM FIDELIUM DEFUNCTORUM, PRAEPOSITO ET SOCIIS
COLLEGII UNIVERSITATIS APUD LONDINIUM, MAGISTRO ET
SOCIIS COLLEGII B. V. MARIAE, SC. JOHANNIS EVANGELISTAE
ET GLORIOSAE VIRGINIS SC. RADEGUNDAE COMMUNITER
NUNCUPATI JESUS COLLEGE.
© Basil Biacfovell and Moti Ltd. igSj.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
BILLING AND SONS LIMITED. GUILDFORD AND LONDON
AND BOUND AT THE KEMP HALL BINDERY. OXFORD
TABLE OF CONTENTS
/- VOLUME II
(xVy/SENATORS AND HONORATI—the aristocratic ideal, 523-4;
ordo equester, comitiva and senate, 525-30; admission and prece-
dence, 530-5; privileges and burdens, 535-42; the value of rank,
543-5; the social composition of the senate, 545-52; the geo-
graphical distribution of senators, 552-4; the wealth of senators,
554-7; otium senator is> 557-62.
XVI. THE CIVIL SERVICE—the origins of the service, 563-6; the
sacred bedchamber, 566-72; the palatine ministries, 572-86; the
praetorian prefecture, 586-91; vkariani and cohortales, 592-6;
military and minor offices, 597-601; the character of the service,
601-6.
XVII. THE ARMY—the army of the fourth century, 607-11; foederati,
611-13; the scholae^ 613-14; recruitment of citizens, 614-19; recruit-
ment of barbarians, 619-23; pay and equipment, 623-6; rations,
626-30; conditions of service, 630-3; promotion and discharge,
633-6;protectores, 636-40; officers, 640-6; morale and discipline,
646-9; the limtanei, 649-54; the army of the sixth century, 654-7;
categories of troops, 657-68; recruitment and conditions of
service, 668-79; numbers, 679-86.
XVIII. ROME AND CONSTANTINOPLE—the two capitals, 687-9;
administration, 689-92; police and fire, 692-5; food supply,
695-705; amenities, 705-8; public works and finance, 708-11.
XIX. THE CITIES—number and size, 712-18; new foundations and old
cities, 718-22; the people, 722-4; the council and magistrates,
724-31; civic finance, 732-4; civic services, 734-7; the curiales,
737-57; the decline of the councils, 757-63; provincial assem-
©blies, 763-6.
THE LAND—land use, 767-9; the importance of agriculture,
769-73; the peasant freeholder, 773-81; estates, 781-8; estate
management, 788-92; hired labour and slaves, 792-5; coloni,
795-803; rents and services, 803-8; the condition of the peasantry,
808-12; agri deserti, 812-23.
/ XXI) INDUSTRY, TRADE AND TRANSPORT—conditions of
\ trade, 824-7; fhe navicularii 827-30; the cursus pubUcus> 830-4;
i
factories, quarries and mines, 834-9; the role of the state, 839-41;
private transport, 841-4; objects of trade, 844-50; the slave trade,
V
Vl CONTENTS
851-5; the pattern of trade, 855-8; labourers • and craftsmen,
858-64; merchants, 864-72.
XXII. THE CHURCH—ancient custom, 873-4; bishoprics, 874-9;
provinces, 880-3; patriarchates, 883-94; church finances, 894-
904; the wealth of the church, 904-10; the lower clergy, 910-14;
episcopal elections, 915-20; the social origins of the clergy,
920-9; monks and hermits, 929-33; church and state, 933-7.
XXIII. RELIGION AND MORALS—pagans, 938-43; Jews and
Samaritans, 944-50; heretics, 950-6; the growth of superstition,
957-64; doctrinal controversies, 964-70; pagan and Christian
morals, 970-9; the church's failure, 979-85.
XXIV. EDUCATION AND CULTURE—Latin and Greek, 986-91;
native languages, 991-7; schools and teachers, 997-1002; the
syllabus, 1002-4; Christianity and education, 1005-7; literary
culture, 1007-12; doctors, architects and artists, 1012-16; public
entertainments, 1016-21; the unity of the empire, 1021-4.
XXV) THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE—East and West, 1025-7;
v y the barbarians, 1027-31; political weaknesses, 1031-5; military
defects, 1035-8; economic decline, 1038-40; depopulation,
1040-5; idle mouths, 1045-8; social weaknesses, 1049-53;
administrative abuses, 1053-8; decline of morale, 1058-64; East
and West, 1064-68.
CHAPTER XV
SENATORS AND HONORATI
IDEALLY the senatorial order comprised 'the better part of the
human race', or, as a Gallic orator more emphatically put it,
'the flower of the whole world\ The traditional criteria of
excellence were noble birth, distinction in the public service, moral
character, intellectual culture, and sufficient wealth. Symmachus'
speeches and letters on behalf of candidates for the Roman senate
well illustrate the conventional view. All the traditional qualifica-
tions could hardly be demanded from every aspirant to the order,
and Symmachus naturally stresses the strong points of his clients.
But it was evidently felt that candidates should satisfy as many as
possible of the standard tests, and Symmachus feels constrained
to make as good a case as he can on the weaker aspects of his
clients, claims, even if this involves some evasiveness and special
pleading.1
Birth came very high on the list. In one case it is almost the only
plea. Valerius Fortunatus was a young man who had held no
public office and was apparently in no way distinguished. He came
of an impoverished senatorial family, so impoverished that his
mother had renounced his rank on his behalf when he was a boy.
Symmachus can stress only his birth, and, as evidence of character,
'the impulse of noble blood, which always asserts itself, whereby he
had despite his poverty (which was only relative, since he was
prepared to face the expenses of quaestorian games) resolved to
reclaim his hereditary rank.2
Even more significant of the importance attached to birth are the
evasive tactics adopted by Symmachus when recommending a
low-born candidate. He thus introduces Flavius Severus. 'But
of what avail is it to boast of any man's family before the noblest of
the human race? Every light is overpowered by the sun's rays.
Still you should remember that this is due not to diffidence but to
reverence. A new colleague lays down the ornaments of his
ancestors before the doors of the senate house, and enters attended
only by his virtues, which by themselves can indicate that breeding
b 5*3
SENATORS AND HONORATI
which I have foreborn to praise/ In Flavins Severus' case Sym-
machus dwells mainly on his distinguished public career: he had
governed a province and served as judicial assessor to Theodosius
the magister militum. But to round off his case he calls Severus
"a master of eloquence'—he was a barrister by profession—and
among his moral excellencies stresses his remarkable modesty in
having waited so long before aspiring to senatorial rank.3
In the case of Celsus, an Athenian philosopher who had opened
a school at Rome, the main emphasis is naturally on his intellectual
attainments. But Symmachus feels that it strengthens his case to
recall that Celsus' father was also a distinguished philosopher. He
also urges 'that we reward with the prize of rank a soul free from
the vice of avarice'—Celsus, he explains, charged no fees. He is
thus able to sum up his client's claims as 'birth, learning and
character'.4
Synesius was the son of a senator, but his father Julianus was a
new man. Symmachus pays the tribute to merit which was
conventional in such cases. 'This young man's father has long been
admitted to the senate, which was due to merit: hereditary rank
is the gift of fortune, acquired rank that of virtue.' He. is evidently
not anxious to enlarge on Julian's family, and the fact that he was a
senator already enables him to dodge the issue neatly: 'His other
more remote ancestors were approved by you on the occasion when
he was himself elected.' Synesius' case, he urges, is stronger.
'One might rightly say that Synesius brings more credit to the
House than his father did, because he has the additional claim that he
is the second person to be admitted from the same family: for a
family tree rises higher to nobility the further it grows from new
men.' Of young Synesius himself there was little to say. Sym-
machus chiefly emphasises the fact that being (owing to his
brother's recent decease) an only son, he will inherit a fortune
adequate for a senator, and that his frugal habits will conserve his
wealth. 'Nature has given Synesius a good character,' he sums up,
'his father an excellent education, fortune adequate wealth.'5
The form of these speeches was no doubt dictated by the con-
ventional pattern of the panegyric, as laid down in the rhetorical
textbooks. But this conventional pattern corresponded broadly
with the scale of values prevalent in Roman society. Moral rectitude
was perhaps, as in all ages, more highly honoured in theory than in
practice, but birth, public office, wealth and culture were in varying
combinations the normal qualification for admission to the imperial
aristocracy.
ORDO EQUESTER, COM1TIVA AND SENATE 525
The senatorial order always remained the highest class in the
state in dignity, but its numbers, composition and recruitment
varied greatly in the three centuries which followed Diocletian's
reign, and so also did its political power. Under Diocletian the
senate was still a select body, probably numbering only about six
hundred members. New members were regularly adlected to it by
the emperors, but it was a predominantly hereditary body, strongly
aristocratic in tone and comprising families which claimed very
long pedigrees, sometimes reaching back to the Republic. Most
senators were rich men and many senatorial families had accumu-
lated vast fortunes. Though recruited from all parts of the empire,
they gravitated to Rome and the majority were probably Italian by
domicile. They owned land in every province, but the bulk of their
estates was concentrated in Italy and the adjacent Western pro-
vinces.
In the second century senators had played an active part in
the administration of the empire and the command of the armies,
but in the middle of the third they were excluded, especially
from military posts. Diocletian in his reorganisation of the empire
carried this process further and by the end of his reign senators
were eligible for very few posts, and these exclusively civilian and
of minor importance. The senate retained great social prestige, but
politically it counted for little. Diocletian could bestow no higher
honour oh his praetorian prefects than the ordinary consulship,
which made them senators. But a senator by birth could only hope
to hold some minor office, such as curator of the aqueducts, at
Rome; be corrector of an Italian province, or Sicily or Achaea;
serve as proconsul of Africa or Asia, and finally rise to be prefect
of the city.6
The minor military commands and many administrative, and
especially financial, posts had from the beginning of the Principate
been entrusted to men of equestrian rank. [The equestrian service
had steadily expanded, and its members had come to constitute a
second aristocracy, inferior in dignity to the senate, but of greater
practical importance? / Membership of the equestrian order was not
hereditary, but depended on office, bestowed by the empemrTand
the grades of the order—the egregii or sexagenarii, the centemni and
the ducenariiy who earned salaries of 60,000, 100,000 and 200,000
sesterces, theperfectissimi, who earned 300,000, and the eminentissmi
y
the praetorian prefects—were likewise determined by office. Dio-
cletian's reorganisation of the empire not only enhanced the
importance of the equestrian order at the expense of the senate,
526 SENATORS AND HONORATI
but greatly increased its numbers, particularly in the higher grades.
Not only were there twice as many provincial governors, now
almost all perfectissimi, but at diocesan level there were vicars,
rationales and magistri^ who held the same rank, as well as the new
military commanders, the duees. An increasing number of the
higher posts in the civil service were also upgraded to equestrian
rank. The order comprised not only actual officers: past holders of
offices retained their rank and privileges for life. Honorary rank
was also conferred apart from office, or in the form of a fictive past
tenure of an office.7
Constantine created in the imperial 'companions* or comites a
third order of nobility which overlapped the other two. For the
comitiva was bestowed on senators and men of equestrian rank as
well as on those who were members of neither order. The comitiva
might be an office or an honour. It might carry specific duties;
there were comites intra consistorium who served on the imperial
council, comites provinciarum who supervised the civil administration
of dioceses, and comites rei militaris who commanded groups of the
field army. But the comitiva might also be conferred as an additional
honour on the holder of an existing office; it was .regularly so
conferred on the principal ministers of the comitatus. A comes held
his office during the emperor's pleasure, but retained a privileged
status for life. The order of comites was, like the equestrian,
swelled by honorary grants of the rank of former comes (ex
comitibus).8
Both the equestrian order and the comitiva became grossly
inflated during the first half of the fourth century. The main
cause of the increase was, it would seem, the lavish grant of
honorary rank to decurions who wished thereby to evade their
curial duties; many laws prohibit such grants, but they were
nevertheless frequently obtained by corrupt means. At the same
time equestrian rank came to be given as a reward for good service
to persons of increasingly lowly rank. In 362 numerarii of pro-
vincial governors were accorded the highest equestrian grade, the
perfectissimate, after five years' blameless service, and in 365
actuarii of regiments were similarly rewarded. The natural result
was that the prestige of the equestrian order sank. The lowest
grade, the egregiatus, is last recorded in 324; the overcrowded
perfectissimate had to be divided into three classes.9
While, to judge by the series of laws denouncing illicit grants of
honorary rank, it was the equestrian order and the comitiva
which expanded most rapidly down to the third quarter of the
fourth century, the senate also began to grow during this period.
It was Constantine who began the process. Not only was he more
ORDO EQUESTER,„ COMITIVA AND SENATE 527
lavish in grants of senatorial rank but he employed senators more
freely in the administration of the empire. He and his sons ap-
pointed senators to posts hitherto reserved for members of the
equestrian order ; we find senators serving as praesides of provinces,
as vicars and as praetorian prefects. They also increased the number
of posts reserved for senators, in particular by converting the
governors of many provinces from praesides (normally an equestrian
post carrying the rank of perjectissimus) to consulates (who must be
clarissimi). These changes had the effect of bringing more senators
into the imperial service; but they also provided the means of
creating more senators, for an outsider appointed a consularis
thereby became a senator, and it became normal to confer senatorial
rank on all holders of such offices as the vicariate, which senators
customarily held. The military offices, to which senators did not
aspire or from which they were excluded, lagged behind. Under
Constantius II duces were still all perjectissimi^ and it was not until
the reign of Valentinian and Valens that they began to be granted
the clarissimate on promotion.10
By the end of the fourth century the senatorial order had under-
gone a vast expansion, more particularly in the East, where
Constantius II founded a second senate of Constantinople to rival
that of Rome, then under his younger brother's rule. The Con-
stantinopolitan senate began as a small and select body: in 357
according to Themistius it numbered scarcely 300 members.
Within thirty years it had swelled to 2,000. This prodigious rate of
increase was partly the result of emulation; the senate of the New
Rome had to catch up with that of old Rome. But it implies that at
Rome too numbers must have risen, no doubt more gradually,
to a comparable figure. The increase was due to a number of
causes. As more and more offices came to carry senatorial rank, the
appointment of outsiders to these posts steadily created more
senators, and as the normal tenure of offices was short, the annual
intake of new members by the order was large. An increasing
number of the higher palatine officials were accorded senatorial
rank either during service or on retirement. But the main increase
came from honorary grants. As senatorial rank became cheapened
it was bestowed more liberally; under Valens decurions could
lawfully achieve it by holding the high-priesthood of their pro-
vince. Other wealthy men naturally aspired to the same rank, and
many of them by influence or corruption obtained it. The influx of
decurions into the senate became from the last years of Constantius
II a serious problem.11
The expansion of the senate completed the degradation of the
other honorati. The equestrian order faded into insignificance.
(52$ SENATORS AND HONORATI
Even the lowest grade of provincial governor, the praesides, had
by the early years of the fifth century, if not before, become
clarissimi) and the tribunes of regiments attained the same rank.
The equestrian grades of honour were preserved only for senior
civil servants in some palatine ministries. In these circumstances the
pressure of applicants for honorary equestrian rank was relaxed;
after 358 there are no more laws denouncing decurions who have
secured the perfectissimate by corrupt means. The comitiva also
lost most of its importance. The rank of comes primi ordinis still
had some value. Bestowed on the holders of various offices, it
enhanced their precedence within the senatorial order and, if
granted to outsiders, it carried with it senatorial rank. The third
class of the comitiva was still conferred, but on persons of very
humble degree, decurions who had completed their obligations to
their cities, and the patrons of the guilds of bakers and butchers at
Rome. From the beginning of the fifth century, if not earlier, the
^enlarged senatorial order was the sole aristocracy of the. empire.12
As senatorial rank was more widely diffused it was inevitably
cheapened and the once proud title of clarissimus ceased to carry
much distinction. Grades were formed within the order, and the
higher grades acquired new and grander titles. The new senatorial
hierarchy, whose basic structure was laid down by Valentinian I,
f was in the main determined by the tenure, actual or honorary, of
^imperial offices. There were some exceptions to this principle.
The ordinary consulate was still the highest honour that could be
conferred on a subject, and former consuls took precedence of all
other senators. They were followed by patricians, an ancient title
revived by Constantine, no longer as a hereditary but as a personal
distinction. At the bottom end of the scale there were still senators
Pby birth, who ranked as clarissimi although they held no imperial
Voffice, and newcomers to the order could still be admitted by codi-
cils of the clarissimate. Otherwise rank was determined- by^office.13-
The highest class of senators, aTtef' cbnsuTs and patricians, was
formed by those who had held the praetorian or urban prefecture or
the mastership of the soldiers; to this group were later (in 422)
added former praepositi sacri cubiculi. Next came the principal
palatine ministers—quaestors, masters of the offices, comites
of the largitiones and res privata and of the domestici. All these were
accorded, at first by courtesy, before the end of the fourth century
officially, the title of illustris. Next followed two groups which
acquired the title of spectabilis. They consisted of proconsuls and
of vicars, with whom were equated the military officers of the
second grade, the comites rei militaris and duces^ various lesser
palatine ministers, such as the magistri scriniorum and the second
i