Preface

The project of a prosopographical dictionary of the Later Roman Empire was originated by Theodor Mommsen but, unlike the companion dictionary, the Prosopographia Imperii Romani (now in its second edition as far as the letter ‘L’), it failed of fruition, largely through the intervention of the two World Wars. The bulky archives representing the work of many German scholars lay in Berlin during the second war when they were damaged and in part destroyed, together with essential records, during an Allied bombing raid. Consequently when the project was taken up in England after the war, the work had to be restarted from the very beginning. The present volume therefore represents the first stage of fulfilment of Mommsen’s original project.

The order of the names on the title page is alphabetic. The parts played by each author are as follows. Jones launched the Prosopography in 1950 by an appeal to scholars throughout the world to read the sources and send in slips. This appeal was generously answered, as the appended list of scholars shows. The remaining sources were read by the authors themselves, Morris contributing largely to Latin epigraphy. Jones also raised finance. Morris also gave invaluable aid by his experience in the Prosopographia Imperii Romani in method, technique and layout. Our first task was to extract all relevant material from Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, Real- Encyclop ä die der classischen Altertumswissenschaft , a work performed by Mrs M. Shields. We then collated slips as they came in. At this stage valuable work in arranging the material and in compiling detailed preliminary lists was done by Dr J. Mann, who also contributed to the reading of sources by undertaking the Codex Theodosianus.

We have worked throughout in friendly co-operation with Professor Marrou’s Prosopographie Chrétienne , which provided slips from some ecclesiastical sources. Morris made several trips to Paris to extract the slips from the files. Morris also persuaded the Berlin Academy to lend us their surviving archives, which we have used to check our final result. We are deeply grateful to the Berlin Academy. Their most valuable contribution was a large number of names from the Acta Sanctorum. We are also indebted to Professor A. Chastagnol for his advice and criticism on matters concerning Roman senators.

In 1964 we began writing the biographies. Jones made drafts of most illustres (PPO, PVR, PVC, MVM, QSP, Mag. Off., CSL, CRP); Martindale contributed some difficult ones, particularly the praetorian prefects of Constantine. Martindale wrote nearly all the other entries, and also checked and revised, and in some cases substantially improved Jones’s drafts of the major characters. Jones also checked Martindale’s drafts and occasionally improved them. We also owe most of the biographies of literary persons to Mr Alan Cameron of Bedford College, London, and the biographies of most Germans are due to Professor E. A. Thompson of the University of Nottingham.

We have endeavoured to include for the relevant period (a. 260-395) all senators (illustres, spectabiles, clarissimi), equestrians (perfectissimi, ducenarii, centenarii, egregii), comites and holders of honores or dignitates down to provincial governors and tribunes, praefecti and praepositi of military units; also officials of the palatine ministries and of PPOs, PVRs and MVMs, assessors of magistrates, lawyers, doctors, rhetors, grammarians and poets. We have excluded private soldiers and NCOs (circitores, biarchi, centenarii, ducenarii, senatores, primicerii, centurions and decurions), and decurions of cities (whom we have in our files). We have endeavoured to include all information on the provenance, religion, wealth and family relationships of all characters; the work includes wives and children of the men listed. Persons are entered under their last name, which they commonly used, but cross-references are given under their other names. At the beginning we have included all persons attested to have held posts or been senators or equestrians from 260, and at the end similar persons attested before 395. There will thus be an overlap at both ends, at the beginning with the Prosopographia Imperii Romani and at the other end with volume II in which some biographies will be repeated.

At the end of the volume are Fasti, i.e. chronological lists of office holders. These should be consulted when an article assigns an approximate date to an office, which has often to be obtained by elimination. At the end will also be found stemmata, i.e. family trees of the families of the emperors and a number of other prominent figures; these are adapted from Seeck (articles in P-W and ed. Symm. pp. i-cci) and from Chastagnol, Fastes , pp. 291-6, and are so printed that certain and putative relationships are distinguished by continuous and pecked lines respectively.

Throughout we have given the evidence in full, and our interpretation of it without discussion of other possible reconstructions. We do not usually give secondary sources, but have made use not only of the articles in P-W but also of the following works:

O. Seeck, Regesten der Kaiser und Päpste (Stuttgart, 1919).

O. Seeck, Die Briefe des Libanius (Leipzig, 1906).

O. Seeck, Symmachus (MGH, AA VI1, Berlin, 1883).

A. Chastagnol, Les Fastes de la Préfecture de Rome au Bas-Empire (Paris, 1962).

H.-G. Pflaum, Les Carrières Procuratoriennes Équestres sous le Haut-Empire romain (Paris, 1960-1).

L. Robert, Hellenica IV (1948).

E. Groag, Die Reichsbeamten von Achaia in spätrömischer Zeit (Budapest, 1946).

Marie-Madeleine Hauser-Meury, Prosopographie zu den Schriften Gregors von Nazianz (Bonn, 1960).

H.-G. Kolbe, ‘Die Statthalter Numidiens von Gallien bis Konstantin (268-320)’, in Vestigia IV (1962).

Our thanks go to the following scholars who helped by reading the sources and sending in slips: Sir Η. I. Bell, Prof. R. Browning, Prof. A. E. R. Boak, Prof. Glanville Downey, Prof. A. E. Gordon, Prof. J. A. McGeachy, Prof. A. F. Norman, P. Parsons, Prof. B. R. Rees, L. F. Smith, F. D. Thomas, Prof. E. A. Thompson, Prof. E. G. Turner, B. H. Warmington, H. Zilliacus, and others.

Finally we would like to thank the British Academy, the Faculty of Classics in the University of Cambridge, and All Souls College, Oxford, for the generous support which has made the work possible.

A. H. M. J.

J. R. M.

The Prosopography has suffered a heavy loss by the untimely death of Professor A. H. M. Jones. It was through his energy and initiative that the project of a Late Roman Prosopography was resumed after the war, and with his incomparable knowledge of the period he had guided it ever since. It is sad that he did not live to see the first volume in print, but he did see and check the final proofs.

The future of the Prosopography is assured. Volumes II (A.D. 395-527) and III (A.D. 527-640) are in active preparation, and will appear in the next few years. The British Academy, which has largely financed it in the past, has, with the agreement of the Faculty of Classics of Cambridge University, now adopted the project; and Professor E. A. Thompson of Nottingham University has been appointed Chairman of a small supervisory Committee.

E. A. T.

J. R. M.

J. M.