Sguaitamatti

Fakultäten » Philosophische Fakultät » Historisches Seminar » Alte Geschichte, Fachbereich » Prof. Dr. Beat Näf » Sguaitamatti

Completed research project

Title / Titel	Studies on the consulate in late antiquity - on the social and political meaning of the highest magistracy
PDF	Abstract (PDF, 14 KB)
Original title / Originaltitel	Untersuchungen zum spätantiken Konsulat: Zur politischen und gesellschaftlichen Bedeutung der ranghöchsten Magistratur
Summary / Zusammenfassung	This dissertation project focuses on the consulate in late antiquity (4.- 6. centuries A. D.). During this period, the tenure of the ordinary cosulate was the peak in the career of a private citizen, as it had been in republican times, although the office itself was a mere honorary one almost without any of it’s republican powers. In the centre of my interest lays the question regarding status and duties of the office-bearers. Concerning the status of a consul, I will focus on his relationship with the emperor as well as on his privileges and insignia. As to the consul’s duties, they chiefly consisted in the expensive organization of public games. In a society in which hierarchic and formal elements of politics had a deep impact on the balance of power and on the stability of society, such privileges, insignia and duties, should not be underestimated. By investigating a single public office, this project may contribute to a wider research on ancient magistracies and to a deeper understanding of the society they are based on. Until now special emphasis had been given to the prosopographical research on this topic. A systematic evaluation of the consulate in late antiquity, which would allow a general judgement on this magistracy during those centuries is still lacking.
Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte	lic. phil. L. Sguaitamatti (Project Leader)
Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch	Forschungskredit der Universität Zürich
Duration of Project / Projektdauer	Oct 2003 to Oct 2009