A.H.M. Jones - The Date and Value of Verona List

The Date and Value of the Verona List Author(s): A. H. M. Jones Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 44 (1954), pp. 21-29 Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/297552 . Accessed: 12/07/2013 08:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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THE

DATE

AND

VALUE

OF THE

VERONA

LIST

By A. H. M. JONES

Since Bury's magistral article in this JIournal over thirty years ago (xiii, I923, I27 ff.) no scholar has attempted a comprehensive study of the date and value of the Laterculus Veronensis. Various historians have in passing expressed a preference for this date or that. Ernst Stein argued for 293-305 in Rheinisches Museum LXXVII (I925), 367, but in his Geschichte des spdtromischen Reiches i, Io2, preferred 304-306. E. Schwartz in a rather fuller treatment (Abh. Bayer. Akad., phil.-hist. Ki., I937, 79-82) argued for a much later date, between 325 and 337 for the eastern dioceses, and under Valentinian I for the western dioceses. Others have more modestly confined themselves to certain areas. H. Nesselhauf has maintained a relatively early date (305-306) for Gaul (Abh. Preuss. Akad., phil.-hist. Ki., 1938, 8 ff.), while W. Seston has argued for a date after 306 for Africa (Dioclitien et la Titrarchie, I, 327-8). It may be timely to reassess the problem, particularly as some new evidence has recently emerged. It is common ground that the Verona list contains elements which cannot be later than the early decades of the fourth century. The name of the province Diospontus is last recorded in 325 in the signatures of the Council of Nicaea 1 (and shortly before that on a milestone 2 of the latter part of Licinius' reign, 3I7-324); it had already been superseded by the name Helenopontus in the last years of Constantine, 333-337, as another milestone 3 witnesses. The diocese of the Moesias is elsewhere recorded only in the inscription of C. Caelius Saturninus,4 who was its vicar some time in Constantine's reign: the later division into two, Dacia and Macedonia, was probably in force as early as 327, when Constantine addressed a constitution 5 to Acacius, comes Macedoniae, for all other known comites provinciarum ruled over dioceses. In Africa the list records a division of Numidia into two provinces, Cirtensis and Militiana, which appears to have existed only in the first two decades of the fourth century. The history of the African provinces at this period is obscure and complex, but for the present purpose it will suffice to say that Numidia appears to have been undivided in 303, when Valerius Florus is styled p(raeses) p(rovinciae) N(umidiae) and was active in both halves of the province,6 and Aurelius Quintianus still ruled p(rovinciam) N(umidiam) in November; 7 that Florus was p(raeses) p(rovinciae) N(umidiae) M(ilitianae) under the tetrarchy, 293_305,8 and Valerius Antoninus p(raeses) p(rovinciae) N(umidiae) C(irtensis) in 306; 9 that there were still two Numidias in 312-3, when Constantine directed that subsidies be granted to the clergy in all the provinces of Kil Tras Nouvpiias icl Tas Mavperavias; 10 but that before Africa, t't TEAypmas 320, when Zenophilus was consularis 11 (of Numidia), lallius Antiochus was praeses prov. Numid.12 A few years later Aradius Proculus enumerates the provinces of Africa as ' proconsularem et Numidiam Byzacium ac Tripolim itemque Mauretaniam Sitifensem et Caesariensem '.13 It would seem that there were two Numidias from 304-5 to 3I4-320. Finally the Verona list records the division of Aegyptus into two provinces, Iovia and Herculia. J. Lallemand has recently established by an acute analysis of the papyrological evidence supplemented by inscriptions and ecclesiastical documents, that this division cannot have been made earlier than 312, and cannot have lasted later than 324; Aegyptus Herculia is actually attested between 315 and 322.14 1 I quote here and elsewhere from Gelzer, Patr. Nic. Nom., lx-lxiv. 2 CIL iII, 14I8431 CIL iII, 14184

4 ILS 12I4. 5 Cod. Theod. xi, iii, 2. 6 CIL VIII, 6700; Optatus, iII, 8; Augustine, c. Cresc. iII, xxvii, 30; AE 1942/3, 8I. 7 ILS 644. 8 ILS 631-3. 9 ILS 651, CIL VIII, 5526, 7965, I8700. It may be noted that CIL VIII, 7067, 'Valer . . . . nus v. p. . . . diar . . . ret . . .' does not (pace Anderson, JRS XXII, I932, 30-I) prove that the Numidias were

reunited

immediately

Antonijnus. The inscription probably records his promotion to be [rationalis Numi]diar[um et Mau]ret[aniarum], and shows that two Numidias continued to exist (contrast ILS 69I 'rat. Numidiae et Mau[reta-] niarum under Constantine). 10 Eusebius, HE x, 6, i. I take it that the Africas are Proconsularis, Byzacium, and Tripolitania, the three subdivisions of the old proconsular Africa. See Addendum, p. 29. "I Optatus, App. I. 12

CIL VIII,

7005

(cf. 7006).

ILS 1240. Bull. Ac. Roy. Belg. (Classe des lettres et sciences mor. et pol.), 5 S6rie, xxxvi (I950), 387-395. 13 14

under the same Valer[ius

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A. H.

22

M.

JONES

This last fact eliminates the very early datings of the list which some scholars have favoured. If the document is homogeneous in date,15 it cannot be earlier than 312, the earliest possible date for the creation of Aegyptus Herculia, nor later than 320, the latest possible date for the amalgamation of Numidia Cirtensis and Militiana. There is nothing in the document which requires an earlier date than 312, and this terminus a quo may be accepted. On the other hand there are features which may be thought to point to a laterin some cases a considerably later-date than 320, and on the strength of these it has been argued that the list or parts of it have been subjected to a later revision or revisions. If this were so the list would lose most of its value as an historical document, since no individual item would be securely dated except by external evidence. The strongest evidence for later revision is in the diocese of Viennensis, where two provinces (Prima and Secunda) of Narbonensis and of Aquitania are recorded. In both cases there is indubitable evidence that in the middle years of the fourth century there was only one province. Saturninius Secundus was praeses provinciae Aquitaniae about the middle of the century,16 and a synodical letter cited by Hilary and dated 358 recognizes only one Aquitania; 17 so also does Ammianus in his survey of Gaul.18 For Narbonensis the evidence is similar; again there is the synodical letter of 358,19 while Ammianus mentions a rector Narbonensis in 359 and 36I, and ignores Narbonensis II in his survey.20 Aquitania II is first attested in the provincial list of Festus,21 which is to be dated shortly before 369, and Narbonensis II in an ecclesiastical document of 381.22 The examples of Numidia and Aegyptus, however, show that provinces which had been divided were sometimes reunited. The same may have happened in Gaul, and there is, as Mommsen pointed out,23 and Nesselhauf has recently emphasized,24 good reason to believe in the case of Narbonensis that it did. It appears from the Notitia Galliarum that Narbonensis I occupied the western part of the province of that name, Viennensis the centre, and Narbonensis II the extreme east. Narbonensis II must in fact have been carved out of Viennensis in the latter part of the fourth century. Why then was it not called Viennensis II ? The only explanation seems to be that the original Narbonensis was first bisected into Prima, the western half, and Secunda, the eastern, and that subsequently Viennensis was formed out of the western half of Secunda. Later, Narbonensis II was merged in Viennensis, the stage we find in the mid-fourth century, and finally in the late fourth century was revived under its old name. The other evidence for a later revision lies in the Nicene signatures for the dioceses of Asiana and Oriens. There is no good reason for doubting that the provincial arrangement of the Nicene signatures is original and follows the secular boundaries.25 The use of the name Diospontus proves an early date, for, as noted above, this name was replaced by Helenopontus before the end of Constantine's reign-and probably within a very few years of the Council, while Helena was still alive. That the bishops strictly observed the contemporary secular arrangements cannot be proved, but they certainly took account of relatively recent administrative changes, dating from the latter part of Diocletian's reign, and if they modified ecclesiastical provinces according to the official reorganization thus far, there seems no reason why they should not have continued the process. 15 I ignore the two overt glosses ' Paphlagonia [nunc in duas divisa] ' and 'Armenia minor [nunc et maior addita] '.

16

ILS

I255.

De Synodis, proem (Migne, PL x, 479), ' dilectissimis et beatissimis fratribus et coepiscopis provinciae Germaniae Primae et Germaniae Secundae et Primae Belgicae et Belgicae Secundae et Lugdunensis Primae et Lugdunensis Secundae et provinciae Aquitanicae et provinciae Novempopulanae et ex Narbonensi plebibus et clericis Tolosanis et provinciarum Britanniarum episcopis.' 17

18 xv, Xi, I 3. 19 See note I7.

20 XVIII, 21

I,

4 ; XXII,

Breviarium, 6.

i, 2 ; XV, Xi, I4.

22 Mansi, Conc. III, 6I5, ' dilectissimis fratribus et episcopis provinciae Viennensium et Narbonensium Primae et Secundae.' 23 Ges. Schr. V, 583. 24 Abh. Preuss. Ak. (phil.-hist. Kl.), I938, 9 ff. 25 Sir William Ramsay (Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, 8o ff.) threw doubt on their value, basing his argument on Gelasius II, 28 and 38. This is a select list of Nicene signatures in which a few bishops sign each for a group of provinces, and amongst these appear Phrygia I and II (also Hellespont). But this list is clearly a late compilation containing many anachronisms, though it incorporates some old material (e.g. the name Diospontus) taken from the

genuine

signatures.

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THE DATE AND VALUE OF THE VERONA LIST

23

The Nicene list recognizes only one Phrygia, instead of the Phrygia I and II of the Verona list, and does not admit the existence of the province of Hellespontus, placing two of its cities, Ilium and Cyzicus, in Asia. In Oriens the Verona list records ' Arabia item Arabia Augusta Libanensis Palestina Fenice Syria Coele Augusta Eup(hr)atensis '. It thus depicts Syria as divided into three coastal provinces, Coele Syria, Phoenice, and Palestine, and three or four provinces facing on the desert, Augusta Euphratensis, Augusta Libanensis, Arabia, and probably a second Arabia. This corresponds with the arrangements known in the late fourth century, though the titles of the inland provinces differ. The Nicene signatures recognize only the old third-century provinces of Coele Syria (which includes Hierapolis and other cities of the later Euphratensis), Phoenice (which also includes cities of the later Libanensis, Emesa and Palmyra), Arabia and Palestine (which last includes Aelia, which in the Principate had been in Arabia). They also ignore Osrhoene, putting its capital, Edessa, in Mesopotamia. Sundry documents connected with the council of Sardica 26 (343-4) give the same Coele Syria, Phoenice, Palestine, Arabia-but in arrangement for Oriens-Mesopotamia, Asiana record a separate province of Hellespont and (in some cases) two Phrygias. Ammianus in his survey of Oriens 27 (inserted in the narrative under the year 353) distinguishes Osrhoene from Mesopotamia, and Euphratensis from Syria, but still makes Phoenice one province, including both the coastal cities and Damascus and Emesa, and for the rest speaks only of Palestine and Arabia. We know from a letter of Libanius 28 that Euphratensis already existed in 358, and from another group of letters 29 that Palestine was divided in 357-8, the area which had been the southern half of Arabia becoming a separate province, known (as appears from later sources 30) as Palestina Salutaris. The Verona list for Asia Minor might then be dated between 325 (when Hellespont was still part of Asia, and Phrygia was undivided) and 337 (when Diospontus had become Helenopontus). For Oriens the date would have to be later than 343-4 (when the Nicene arrangement still stood), but earlier than 357-8 (when Palestine was divided). The Nicene list, however, recognizes only one Aegyptus, and in this case we happen to know that the two provinces of Jovia and Herculia were united in 324, and that Herculia was revived in 34I under the name of Augustamnica.31 It is at least possible that the same happened in other cases, and the fact that the provinces of the Verona list mostly bear different names from those of the late fourth century is slightly in favour of this view. in ecclesiastical documents, never again Euphratensis, though called AV'you0V0oEuppVRpccriaa officially bears the title Augusta.32 Augusta Libanensis is replaced by Phoenice Libanensis. The second Arabia, having been joined in the interval to Palestine, becomes Palestina Salutaris. Phrygia Secunda reappears as Phrygia Salutaris (first attested under that name in 36I 33). Only Osrhoene and Hellespontus keep their old names: in the last case an inscription 34 recording Anicius Paulinus as '[pr]oconsuli prov. Asiae et Hellesponti' (before he became prefect of the city in 33I) shows clearly that Asia and Hellespont had been two provinces and were reunited under Constantine. Thus far there would seem to be no cogent reason against accepting the Verona list as a homogeneous document drawn up in the second decade of the fourth century. There remains one possible objection. Mommsen 35 observed that, while in the eastern dioceses 26 Hilary, de Synodis, 33 (Migne, PL x, 506-7), Opera iv (CSEL), 49, 68, Athanasius, Apol. c. Ar. I, 37, Hist. Ar. 28, Theodoret, HE II, 8, Vigilius Tapsensis, c. Eutychem, v, 3 (Migne, PL LXII, I36), collated by Feder in Sb. Ak. Wien. CLXVI (I9I0), 5,

64-70,

94-I00. Viii, 7-I3. Ep. 2I.

27XIV, 28

Ep. 334-5 (cf. 3I5, 32I, 563). Not. Dig. Or. I, 87, II, i6, XXII, 24; Jerome, Quaest. ad Gen. XVII, 30. 31 Index to the Festal Letters of St. Athanasius, I3 ; cf. Cod. Theod. XII, i, 34 (342). 32 The title Augusta Euphratensis is recorded in the Acta SS. Sergii et Bacchi (Anal. Bolland., XIV 29

30

these (I895), 375 ff.), whose dramatic date is 303-5: Acta, though rhetorically embellished, seem to rest on a genuine narrative. It is used in the Acta of The Constantinople (38I) and Chalcedon (45i). province is called Euphratensis in Polemius, the Notitia Dignitatum, Hierocles, Georgius Cyprius, and Just. Nov. viii, Notitia: also in Cod. Theod. vii, xi, 2; xv, xi, 2; Cod. Just. viii, x, io. Augusta Euphratensis, which evidently survived in popular usage, reappears officially in Cod. Yust. xii, lix, io under Leo. 33 Cod. Theod. i, vi, I. 34 35

ILS

I220.

Ges. Schr. v, 58o ff.

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24

A. H. M. JONES

the order of the provinces is geographical, in the western it is official, consular provinces preceding praesidial. If this observation is true, it raises the presumption that different authors produced the two halves of the list at different dates. It would have the further effect, not noted by Mommsen, that the western half could not be as early as he dated it, 297, seeing that consular provinces did not exist at that time. It would also throw some doubt on a date earlier than 320, for the rank of consularis seems to have been very recently established at this time, and very few provinces had governors of that rank. As the point is of interest not only for the present argument, but on general grounds, it will be as well to set out the evidence. No province which is praesidial in the Notitia Dignitatum is known to have had a governor of higher rank since the tetrarchy, and as the tendency after Diocletian was always to upgrade provinces, and never to downgrade them, it is very unlikely that any had. We can leave out of account the Italian provinces and Sicily, governed under Diocletian by correctores, most of whom were later upgraded to consulares. We thus need only consider the remaining consular provinces, which number fifteen in the East, and thirteen (excluding the later creation of Valentia) in the West. Of these nine and ten respectively can be proved to have been praesidial at one time, and in two more eastern provinces there is evidence which suggests, though it does not prove, that they were governed by equestrian praesides. The doubt arises from the ambiguity in the use of the term praeses, which was certainly still used at the beginning of Diocletian's reign in its old vague sense of ' governor ' (of any grade), and does not seem to become a technical term for the lowest grade of governor (as opposed to corrector, consularis and proconsul), till the latter part of Constantine's reign. PALESTINE.

Eusebius speaks of

Pal., 4, 8) and PHOENICE.

COELE SYRIA.

CILICIA.

PAMPHYLIA.

BITHYNIA.

TO TTEpi TOV TjyEpoVc oTparTlcoTIKOV rr?So (Mart. TT1&Tl'jyE[0V1KTSTUyXaVCOV OIKETcaS (Mart. Pal., I I, 24),

but the literary usage of iYE[C,Ovat this date is probably not technical. P. Ryl. IV, page I04, 'domino suo Achillio y. (3 I7-23) LOIVVE'iKTS' is perhaps not technical, but is confirmed by Cod. )lust., ii, lvii, I, ' Marcellino praesidi Foenice' (342); GIL III, 666i, from Palmyra, probably refers to the governor of Augusta Libanensis. In ILS I2II, 'L. Aelio Helvio Dionysio c.v. iudici sacrarum cognitionum totius Orien., praesidi Syriae Coele[s], correctori utriusque Italiae,' praeses is clearly used untechnically, since the man was a senator; he was later in 298 proconsul of Africa (frag. Vat. 4I), and in 30I praefectus urbi. Cod. Just., ix, xli, 9, 'ad Charisium praesidem Syriae ' (290), is doubtful, but a tiny fragment from Aradus, CIL III, I85, 'in]victis A[ugg ... v.p. pr.... . settles the matter. GIL III, 223, 'Aimilius Marcianus v.p. praes. Ciliciae ' (under the tetrarchy). Cf. also GIL iii, I36I9-2I, Cod. Theod. XI, XXX, 24 (348), II, Xxi, I (358). Cod. Theod. XIII, X, 2, 'ad Eusebium v.p. praesidem Lyciae et Pamphyliae' (3II ; see Seeck, Regesten, 52) and IGR III, 434, TOV8taoiThOTarTovfIYEI2va AvidaS UalppvUaS TEP?VTiOVMapKiavoV. Lactantius, de Mort. Pers. i6, ' Hieroclem ex vicario praesidem' (of Bithynia in 303) is doubtful. Hierocles was a v.p. when praeses (of Augusta Libanensis ?) in GIL III, 666i, and presumably as vicarius, since all known vicarii under Diocletian were perfectissimi.

EUROPA.

IGR I, 789-92, (tetrarchy).

THRACE. CRETE.

ILS 8944, Palladio v.p. praesi[de p]rovinciae Thraciae' (c. 340). M&PKO&AUPiAIO&BiCPS O 5lcaflMTaTro 1YEWAW Tfl IGR I, I 5 I-2,

MACEDONIA.

'Aur. Nestor v.p. praes. prov. Maced.' (Carinus); AE I939, I9I. Acta Agapae, Irenae, Chionae; Studi e testi, IX (I902), 15, AOdAKiTiOs

f"YEIOVEVOVTOS TO

U flhIOTaTOJ

AOMITIOU AoIWEivoJ

KpirTfs (tetrarchy).

ifyEpc$v

at Thessalonica

in

304.

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THE DATE AND VALUE OF THE VERONALIST

25

DACIA MEDITERRANEA.

Cod. Theod. ii, xix, 2, 'ad Claudium praesidem Daciae ' was at this time apparently re-united.

PANNONIA II.

Acta Irenaei, Knopf-Kriiger, Ausgewdhlte Mdrtyrerakten3, 103, Probus praeses Pannoniae at Sirmium in 303-5. ILS I253,' Clodio Octavian[o], v.c., pontifici maiori, consuli Pannoniarum secundae post presides primo.' He was later proconsul of Africa under Julian and Jovian (Amm. Marc. XXIX, iii, 4, ILS 756), and perhaps the immediate predecessor of Africanus, consular of Pannonia, who was executed in 354 (Amm. Marc., xv, iii, 7 ; XVI, Viii, 3). AE I908, I97, '[V]arius Flavia[nu]s, v.p. p.p. Val. [Byz.]' (tetrarchy); ILS 6iii (32I), I240. This is a test case for the technical use of praeses, for Aradius Proculus is described as ' praesidi provinciae Byzacenae, consulari provinciae Europae et Thraciae, consulari provinciae Siciliae ', and this though he was a senator by birth: that is, praeses is the title of a particular grade of governorship, normally held by a v.p. but on occasion by a v.c. See, above, p. 2I, notes 6-9 and I2. CIL II, 2204, 'Octavius Rufus p. provinc. Baet[ic]' (Constantine), 2205, '. . . s Faustinus v.p. [praese]s prov. Baet.' (Constantine); Cod. Theod. XI, ix, 2, 'ad Egnatium Faustinum praesidem Baeticae ' (337). Caeciliani p.v ... . praes. Lusitaniae'; CIL II, 5140, Aur. ILSI2I8, Ursinus v.p. p. provinc. Lusitaniae' (tetrarchy); 48I, 'C. Sulpicius .s v.p. p.p. L.' (316); ILS 5699, 'Numeri Albani v.c.p.p. L.' (336). This is another case of a senator holding the rank of praeses. Acta Marcelli, Anal. Boll. XLI (I 923), 260, Fortunatus praeses at Legio. CIL II, 49II, 'Antoninus Maximinus a nova provincia [C]al[laecia] primus consularis [ant]e praeses' (under Maximus). CIL XII, I852, 'M. Alfius Apronianus v.p. p.p. Fl. Vienn.' (Constantine). Cod. Theod. XI, iii, i, ad Antonium Marcellinum praesidem provinciae Lugdunensis primae ' (3I9). The governor is addressed as ' vir perfectissime ' in 297 by Eumenius (Pan. Vet., IX, I, 4, 6). CIL VI, I64I,' praeses [provi]nciae Germaniae superioris v.p.' (Diocletian ?). Cod. Theod. VII, xx, i and 2. This depends on Seeck's plausible theory (Regesten, p. 6o) that law i, addressed ' Floriano praesidi', is the covering letter of law 2, an edict, and that both were posted ' in civitate Velovocorum' in 326.

BYZACIUM.

NUMIDIA. BAETICA.

LUSITANIA.

CALLAECIA.

VIENNENSIS.

LUGDUNENSISI.

GERMANIA I. BELGICA II.

(32I);

Dacia

I can find no evidence for Cyprus, Hellespontus, Lydia, Galatia I, Germania II, Belgica I, and Maxima Caesariensis. It may be convenient also to set out the evidence for early praesides of other provinces ruled under the principate by legati Augusti pro praetore or proconsuls. ILS 5435, v.p. pr. [prov. Brit. pr.] '; JRS xIx (I929), 214 (tetrarchy). CIL II 404, 'v. perf. praes. prov. Hisp. Cit.' (288-9), 4I05, 'V.p. [p.p.] H. Tarrac.' (3I2), 4I06, 4I08 (Constantine). RAETIA. CIL III, 5785, 5862; ILS 6i8 (290), 'v.p.p.p.R.' NORICUM. ILS 4I97 (3II); CIL III, 5326 (Constantine), 'v.p.p.p.N. Mt.' PANNONIA I. ILS 704, 'v.p.pr. p. P. super.' (Constantine). DALMATIA. ILS 5695, v.p. praes. prov. Del.' (280). ARABIA. CIL III, I4149,' praeses provinciae Arabiae' (tetrarchy), I4I57, 'v. p. praes. provinc. Arabiae'; C. H. Kraeling, Gerasa, nos. I05-6, 'v. p. praeses provinciae Arabiae' (tetrarchy), i6o-i. I know of no evidence for the Moesias and Narbonensis and Aquitania. BRITAIN. TARRACONENSIS.

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A. H.

:26

M.

JONES

To return to Mommsen's views, which still appear to receive very wide acceptance among scholars, it is true that no official order is perceptible in the eastern dioceses, and that in Asiana it is obviously ignored, the proconsular province of Asia coming fourth. It is also true that a number of geographical sequences can be traced. But it is difficult to see any rational order, geographical or otherwise, in the opening of the Pontic list (Bithynia, Cappadocia, Galatia) or in the end of the Asianic (Caria, Insulae, Pisidia, Hellespontus), and many minor irregularities occur. The order is in fact arbitrary with a geographical bias. In the western dioceses it is impossible to make an official order fit any given date. Mommsen evidently based his hypothesis on the list of consular provinces in the Notitia, but was obliged, in order to make it work, to assume that at the time of the Verona list some of these provinces were still praesidial. Thus in Britain the only consular province (ignoring Valentia), Maxima Caesariensis, comes third on the Verona list: Mommsen has therefore to conjecture that all four provinces were praesidial-which reduces an ' official ' to a purely arbitrary order. Similarly in Gaul Lugdunensis I (consular) comes after Sequania (praesidial): therefore, it is inferred, it was still praesidial, as in fact it is recorded to be in 3 I9. But Belgica II, second on the list, seems still to have been praesidial in 326; so that the Verona list must be more recent than that date. Viennensis, which heads the list of that diocese, was still praesidial under Constantine. In Spain Gallaecia (consular) is below Carthaginiensis (praesidial). The solution here is simple, for Gallaecia was apparently promoted by the usurper Maximus. But Lusitania, second on the list, was still praesidial in 336, and Baetica, the first, in 337: the Verona list must be brought down below that date if the official order is to be preserved at all. In the diocese of Pannonia Clodius Octavianus, later to be proconsul of Africa in 363, was ' consuli Pannoniarum secundae post presides primo'. The order of the Verona list, where Pannonia II comes first, is therefore only official after the middle of the fourth century. In Africa, however, the first four provinces are proconsularis, Byzacium, Numidia Cirtensis, Numidia Militiana. Byzacium was still praesidial in 32I, whereas Numidia had been united under a consular by 320. Here the official order is only possible before 320, and even so is reduced to putting the proconsular province first. Any attempt to read an official order into these lists leads to confusion. Their order is in fact not much more arbitrary than that of the eastern lists. Pannonia, as Bury observed,36 can be read equally well geographically as officially. Here and elsewhere the author shows a tendency to begin a diocese with a province of the same name (Britannia, Viennensis, (Africa) proconsularis), and where there were two provinces, Prima and Secunda, to place them together in that order (even if, like the two Narbonenses, they were not contiguous). He also tends to relegate outlying or marginal provinces to the end. Thus Tingitana comes at the end of Spain, and the Alpine provinces at the end of Gaul, Viennensis and Italy. Making allowances for these tendencies a rough geographical order is observed. Thus in Italy he goes from north to south in Italy proper, and throws in the islands and Alpine provinces at the end. In Africa he goes from east to west, in Gaul he sweeps round clockwise, in Viennensis he moves eastwards, in Spain northwards. If the above arguments are correct, some important historical conclusions follow. Diocletian and his immediate successors pursued a very drastic policy of splitting up provinces. The Verona list represents almost the maximum of that policy. The Nicene signatures seem to indicate an advance, in that they separate Lycia from Pamphylia, whereas the Verona list has only Pamphylia. The name may represent the doub leprovince, which was still undivided in 3II.37 But it is more likely that Lycia has dropped from the text owing to its resemblance to Lydia. There is another case where the Verona list may be presumed to have once contained a name which has disappeared. The province of Tripolitania certainly existed under Maxentius (306-I3) 38 and probably in the early part 36 7

JRS 1923, 136. Cod. Theod.xiii,

38

X, 2

(Seeck, Regesten,52, for

IRT 465.

date).

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THE DATE AND VALUE OF THE VERONA LIST

27

of his reign, if not earlier; 39 the name has presumably vanished in the corruption of the text at the end of the diocese of Africa. It may be noted, moreover, that as Bury 40 suggested, the words ' Moesia superior Margensis ' are not likely to be the cumbrous title of one province, but to represent two, Moesia Superior, and an otherwise unknown Margensis; just as ' Arabia item Arabia Augusta Libanensis ' probably represents three provinces, two Arabias and Augusta Libanensis. It may also well be that ' Dacias ' is not a mere scribal error but means two Dacias, for there were two under Carus.41 It also appears that Diocletian and his immediate successors had very little use for senators. The two senior proconsulates of Africa and Asia were allowed to survive, though drastically reduced in area, especially the latter. Some other proconsuls existed early in Diocletian's reign, in Crete 42 for instance, but by the early fourth century all seem to have vanished. Most were replaced by praesides, two by correctores; Sicily 43 was no doubt regarded as virtually a part of Italy, and Achaea 44 received special treatment, as so often, for sentimental reasons. The recorded correctoresof these provinces are all senators, but in principle viri perfectissimi were eligible for such posts, as the record of Italian correctores shows.45 A further reason for the change of title was no doubt that all proconsuls were deemed to be exempt, as the proconsuls of Africa and Asia were later,46 from the authority of the praetorian prefects and their vicars. Diocletian was doubtless anxious to reduce this administrative inconvenience to a minimum, and therefore, even if he often allowed senators to govern Sicily and Achaea, gave them a rank which brought them under the control of his prefects and vicars. A few legati also existed in the early part of Diocletian's reign: one for instance is recorded in Phoenice,47 and another in Moesia Inferior,48 and Dionysius, the senator who is styled ' praeses Syriae Coeles ', probably was a legatus.49 Later the title disappears, and the provinces once ruled by legati all come under equestrian praesides. Senators were left with the two proconsulates of Africa and Asia, and the chance of being corrector of Sicily, Achaea, or one of the new Italian provinces. Constantine, it would appear, reversed both these policies fairly sharply, reuniting divided provinces, and employing senators more freely. In the West it was certainly he who amalgamated the two Numidias, and probably the two Dacias.50 In the East he certainly reunited Aegyptus and added Hellespontus to Asia, and, if the Nicene signatures are trustworthy, also reversed the division of Phrygia, Mesopotamia, Coele Syria, and Phoenice, and amalgamated the southern half of Arabia, made into a separate province by Diocletian, with Palestine. He also, immediately after the defeat of Licinius, appointed Aradius Proculus consular of the province of Europe and Thrace.51 In the light of this evidence it is plausible to attribute to him the recreation of a single Aquitania and the absorption of Narbonensis II into Viennensis, and the suppression of Margensis. 39 ILS 9352 shows that Aur. Quintianus, praeses of Numidia in 303 (ILS 644), was praeses of Tripolitania before or after that date. It also mentions his predecessor as praeses of Tripolitania, Val. Vivianus (cf. also IRT 577; CIL VIII, 22763). In view of these facts I do not favour Seston's hypothesis (Diocleitien et la Titrarchie, I, 327-3 I) that Numidia Militiana was the southern half of Numidia plus Tripolitania. There was a province officially called Tripolitania in the very early years of the fourth century. Seston's province would be a very awkward geographical unit. And a province the main part of which was Tripolitania would surely have been called Africa not Numidia: for although the legate of Numidia had long been responsible for policing the desert behind the three cities (IRT 88o), the proconsul of Africa still ruled the cities under Carus (IRT 461 ). Moreover in 3I4 Tripolitania and two Numidias existed at the same time: Optatus, App. III. 40 41

JRS

1923, 135-6.

cf. Bury, YRS I923, I35. Klio, I9I2, 234-9: 42 AE I933, 101 ; 1934, 259. 43 Acta S. Eupli, Studi e Testi, XLIX (I 928), 47; ILS cf. ILS 8843. 677; Eus. HE x, 5, 23; CIL X, 7204;

44 CIL III, 6IO3; cf. BSA XXIX, 53, no. 8o, and IG V, i, 538. 45 Clarissimi are recorded in ILS 6I4 (cf. Cod.Just. Ix, ii, 9), I2II, I2I2, I2I3 (cf. CIL x, I655), 294I (cf. CIL VI, I4I9, AE I9I4, 249); Frag. Vat., 292; CIL x, 4785; XI, I594; perfectissimi in ILS I2I8; CIL Ix, 687. Perfectissimi are still found sporadically among the Italian correctores throughout the fourth century,e.g. AE I937, II9; ILS 734, 749, 755, 780; CIL X, 4755. 46 As appears from the omission of Asia in Not. Dig. Or. II and xxiv, and of Africa in Not. Dig. Occ. II and xx. 47 AE I939, 8. 48 Baavco appears at Durostorum in the AosyaTos Acta Dasii (Anal. Boll., xvi (I897), ii). The story is dated only to Diocletian and Maximian, and may fall early in the reign, as it is a military case having no connection with the Great Persecution. 49 See above p. 24. 50 Klio, I9I2, 234-9 (two Dacias in 283); Cod. Theod.II, Xix, 2 (one in 32I). 51 ILS 1240.

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28

A. H.

M.

JONES

Constantine promoted Achaea to be a third proconsulate; this he seems to have done directly he gained control of the province in 3I3, for C. Vettius Cossinius Rufinus, who is recorded to have been ' proconsuli provinciae Achaea sortito ' (a curious archaism), rose to be prefect of the city in 3I5.52 It is, however, noteworthy that the revived proconsulate was not accorded the constitutional privilege of the old proconsulates of Africa and Asia, but was subject to the praetorian prefects 53 (and probably to the vicar of Macedonia). It was probably also Constantine who created a fourth proconsulate, attested only after his death. In 355 and 356 Justinus and Araxius, proconsuls, read imperial messages to the Senate of Constantinople,54 and soon after 343 a proconsul Donatus was instructed to arrest Olympius, Bishop of Aenus (in the province of Rhodope).55 The post was evidently created to lend dignity to Constantinople, and probably therefore by its founder. It has generally been taken to be the proconsulate of the city only, but what we are told about Donatus suggests that Rhodope was under his authority, and that these men were proconsuls of the united province of Europe and Rhodope, with their seat at Constantinople. Constantine also appointed senators as praesides. The earliest attested instance is Aradius Proculus, who was praeses of Byzacium in 32I.56 Later we find Aco Catullinus, vir consularis, praeses of Gallaecia, and at the end of the reign Numerius Albinus, v.c., is recorded as praeses of Lusitania.57 But it was no doubt felt that the title of praeses, which had by now come to mean the lowest grade of governor, as opposed to proconsul or corrector, and was normally borne by men of equestrian rank, was inadequate for the dignity of a senator. Constantine created or revived the title of consularis. The title was in some sense a revival, for ' legati Augusti pro praetore ' had been known, semi-officially at any rate, as consulares: but the unanimity of the legal and epigraphical texts shows that the style consularis was now fully official. The first recorded instance of the title is Zenophilus, consular of Numidia in 320.58 Some correctorial provinces were also early promoted. We find consulars of Aemilia and Liguria 59 as early as 32I, of Campania 60 before 325, and of In the East the amalgamated provinces of Europe and Thrace 62 Sicily 61 soon after 32I. were placed under a consular probably soon after 324, and late in Constantine's reign L. Crepereius Madalianus is styled ' consulari Ponti et Bithyniae' 63: the title is probably an archaism for Bithynia. Castrius Constans,64 recorded in two south Phrygian inscriptions as TrYEI.&V UTraUGTt(s or AaIxTrp6TaTo'i yEiicPv, was also probably consular of reunited Phrygia in Constantine's reign, and the anonymous cvTrarIKO[V] yyp6va Opuy[iaS K?] Kapias, who with grandiloquent archaism styles himself [rrp]]cEUPErr?vK? cavTicYTp[aTryyov]T&SV may perhaps be dated to the opening years of the joint reign of 2EPaUTCOV UTrorra6V, Constantine's three sons.65 The alternative dating to the middle years of Diocletian's reign, suggested by Anderson, is also possible ; the inscription would then mark an early stage in the dismemberment of Asia instead of a temporary reunion of Diocletianic provinces. The use of the old title ' legatus Augusti pro praetore consularis ' may be thought to favour the earlier date, but on the other hand it seems unlikely that Diocletian, who consistently suppressed old legati, would have created a new one. Constantine's policy of building up larger provinces was not carried on by his sons, and in the East Constantius II soon set about reversing it, reviving Aegyptus Herculia as 52

ILS

61 ILS I240;

I2I7.

Achaea appears among the- provinces ' sub dispositione v. ill. PPO per Illyricum' in Not. Dig. Or. iii: the page on the vicar of Macedonia is 53

missing.

Is Themistius, Or. (ed. Dindorf) VI, iv, 8, 9. 5 Athanasius, Apol. de fuga, 3. 5 6 ILS I1240 ; 57 ILS 5699;

cf. 6

I II.

CIL

II,

2635.

502;

Under Constans a

senatoris praesesof Dalmatia(CIL III, 8710). 58 Optatus, App. 59 Cod. Theod. iv, 60 AE 1939, I5I; Cod. Theod. I, ii, 6.

Cod. Theod.

I982-3,

2771,

I, cf. Cod. Theod. XVI, ii, 7. xiii, I ; XI, XVi, 2; cf. ILS 2942. 2942; cf. ILS 12I6, 1223-5,

62 63 64

ILS 1240. ILS i228. AE I940,

cf. I2I6, 2227. I87 (-

MAMA

VI, 94);

ILS

888i.

The first inscription was found at Heraclea ad Salbacum (later in the province of Caria), the second at Eumeneia. 65 JRS I932, 24 (from Hierapolis and Laodicea). The area which he governed need not have comprised the whole of Phrygia and Caria; for Phrygia (Pacatiana) included some Carian cities, and was officially known under Valens as Kapoppuyia Castrius Constans' (Theodoret, HE Iv, 8, 9). province included a Carian city (see note 64).

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THE DATE AND

VALUE

OF THE VERONA

LIST

29

Augustamnica as early as 341. By the end of his reign most of the provinces of the Verona list had been reconstituted in the East. The other process of upgrading provinces seems to have gone on with little, if any, interruption.66 Owing to the inadequacy of the evidence it is difficult to say how far Constantine had carried the policy before he died, and therefore how far his sons continued his policy. The corrector of Flaminia and Picenum was promoted to a consular about 350,67 as was the praeses of Pannonia JJ,68 and Baetica, still under a praeses in 337, was under a consular in 357.69 Coele Syria was also a consular province in 344,70 but may well have been so already under Constantine. Many provinces are first attested as consular in the 360's, and while a few, like Tuscia and Umbria, and Venetia and Histria,71 can be proved to have been promoted in that period: for most there is no evidence. The proconsul whose seat was at Constantinople disappeared when in 359 the city received its first prefect.72 No more proconsulates were created till the early 380's, when three appear more or less simultaneously, Palestine 73 in the East, Campania 7 in Italy, and a third in Spain; 75 all three were suppressed after a very few years. 66 The consular governors of Phrygia or Phrygia and Caria (see notes 64 and 65) disappear in favour of praesides of the two Phrygias and Caria ; here no doubt the break-up of the complex governed by a consular carried with it the disappearance of the consularitas. A doubtful case is Phoenice, which was under a praesesin 342 (Cod.Just. ii, lvii, i). Socrates (HE I, 29) speaks of Archelaus the O-TmaTIK6s as arresting Arsenius at Tyre, but his terminology cannot be pressed. Seeck (Regesten 39-40) argues that the Dionysius who received two constitutions (Cod. Theod. Ix, xxxiv, 4; VIII, xviii, 4 ; Cod. Just. VI, ix, 8) at Tyre and Heliopolis in 328-9 is identical with the Dionysius exTr6hTraT1Kc5Vwho presided at the Council of Tyre in 335 (Eus. Vita Const. IV, 42) and had been consular of Phoenice in 328-9. This is plausible, but not conclusive; for Dionysius is a

cqmmon name; and even if the same man is meant in both cases, he might have been praeses of Phoenice, consular of some other province, and then president at Tyre. 67 Contrast CIL vi, 1772; XI, 62I8-9 ; xiv, 3582-3, with AE 1904, 52. 68 ILS 1253 ; see above p. 25. 69 Cod. Theod. Ix, xlii, 3. 70 Cod. Theod. xi, xxxvi, 7; cf. 8 and x, i, 6. 71 Contrast Cod. Theod. ix, i, 8 with xii, i, 72; CIL v, 8658, 8987, with Cod. Theod. viii, viii, i; XI, vii, I0. 72 Soc., HE II, 41 ; Chron.Min. I, 239. 73 Cod. Theod.xi, XXXVi, 28; XXX, 42; X, XVi, 4. CIL ix, 1568-9 74ILS 1262-3, 8984; 5702,

X, 3843. 75 Sulp. Sev. Chron. II, 49.

ADDENDUM par. 2, 1. 5 from the end, after the word MaUpETavias: and in the first half of 3I4, when Constantine instructed Aelafius to despatch to Arles not only Coecilian (from Proconsularis) but others 'de Byzacenae, Tripolitanae Numidiarum et Mauretaniarum provinciis'. Optatus, App. III. P. 2i,

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