Proconsuls of Africa, 337-392

DURING THE REIGNS of Diocletian and Constantine, and again between 392 and 415, proconsulate of Africa was an annual office, renewable and not infrequently renewed, but with each tenure lasting in theory approximately a twelvemonth. Moreover, both under Constantine and at very end of fourth century, proconsular appears to have begun and ended in April.1 The same pattern ought also to exist between 337 and 392, and a recent analysis of careers of western senators in later fourth century speaks of the normal period of about a year for proconsulates of Africa, Asia, and Achaea.2 The present investigation seeks to demonstrate that, with a single deviation from rule, principle of strictly annual proconsulates beginning in April holds between deaths of Constantine (22 May 337) and Valentinian II (15 May 392). A preliminary question must be raised. If tenure is annual, then attestation on a single day implies a proconsul's presence in Africa for a whole year. But does issue of an imperial constitution to a named proconsul on a given day always entail that man named was proconsul on that day? Not necessarily. Constitutions were issued at Milan on 17 March 397 (CTh 12.5.3) and at Ravenna on 5 March 405 (CTh 16.12.2) to proconsuls of Africa for 397/8 and 405/6 before they left Italy-presumably instructions equivalent to mandata which early imperial proconsuls received from emperor before they set out for their province.3 The evidence for younger Nicomachus Flavianus' proconsulate of Asia is equally suggestive. Symmachus records Flavianus' arrival in Rome on 28 February in preparation for his departure to Asia (Epp. 2.24), and Flavianus is attested as proconsul by imperial constitutions dated 27 February 383 (CTh 7.18.8 + 9.29.2, styling him praetorian prefect in error) and 10 May 383 (CTh 12.6.18). The date of Symmachus' letter is surely not 382 (as has sometimes been assumed),4 but 383: Flavianus will have left Rome in March 383, with constitution of 27 February being issued in anticipation of his journey to Asia

Geography · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Studies and Legal History

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