Titles of the emperors of the late Roman Empire (late III–mid V centuries)

In recent years, a number of researchers have paid increased attention to the phenomena directly related to the sociocultural mode of ruling. However, in the domestic historiography only the Middle Ages (e.g. Boitsov, Polskaya, Voskoboynikov, Khachaturyan) are closely studied in this aspect, while antiquity remains without researchers’ attention, although it is the basis of the formation of medieval monarchies. Moreover, modern historians developing the concept of «Late Antiquity» originally focused their attention on the cultural, religious and social spheres of Late Antique society, while they were little interested in the political and institutional history of the Late Roman Empire, and accordingly there was a lack of research on these issues. Consideration of the titles of the Roman emperor allows us to bridge the mentioned gaps observed in historiography.

Based on the analysis of a set of numismatic and epigraphic sources dating from the 3rd to 5th centuries, the author shows changes in the titles of Roman emperors during this period. In particular, a conclusion is made about the gradual disappearance of the title imperator, which already under the heirs of Constantine almost ceased to be used. At the same time the main title becomes dominus noster, which was gradually included in the official name since the emperors of the III c. There is also a gradual disappearance of victory acclamations, epithets pius felix invictus, references to republican posts, and the title Caesar. However, we observe the appearance of the word victor et triumphator and the addition of the epithets semper or perpetuus to the title augustus.

These changes in the titles are explained by the shift in emphasis from the exaltation of the emperor’s personality with the help of specific epithets to emphasizing the impersonal and absolute character of imperial power, expressed in the theatrical rituals of Late Antiquity.

1. Abramzon M.G. Monety kak sredstvo propagandy ofitsial’noi politiki Rimskoi imperii (Coins as a means of propaganda of the official policy of the Roman Empire). Moscow: Moskva, 1995. 656 p. (In Russian).

2. Villems P. Rimskoe gosudarstvennoe parvo (Roman law). Kiev: Printing House of University named after St. Vladimir, 1890. 434 p. (In Russian).

3. Gibbon E. Istoriya upadka i razrusheniya Rimskoi imperii: V 7 t. T. 1 (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire). Moscow: TERRA, 2008. 640 p. (In Russian).

4. Egorov A.B. Problemy titulatury rimskikh imperatorov (Issues of Titles of Roman Emperors) // Vestnik drevnej istorii. 1998. No. 2. P.161 – 172. (In Russian).

5. Egorov A.B. Rimskoe gosudarstvo i pravo. Epokha imperii: Uchebnoe posobie (The Roman State and Law: The Age of Empire). St.Petesburg: SpbSU publ., 2013. 248 p. (In Russian).

6. Knyaz’kii I.O. Imperator Diokletian i konets antichnogo mira (Emperor Diocletian and the end of the antiquity). St.Petesburg: Aleteiya, 2010. 144 p. (In Russian).

7. Koptev A.V. Princeps et dominus: k voprosu ob evolyutsii printsipata v nachala pozdneantichnoi epokhi (Princeps et dominus: on the Evolution of the Principate to the Beginning of the Late Antiquity) // Drevnee pravo. 1996. No. 1. P.182– 190. (In Russian).

8. Mashkin N. A. Printsipat Avgusta. Proiskhozhdenie i sotsial’naya sushchnost’ (August Principate. Origins and Social Essence). Moscow-Lenigrad: SA of USSR publ., 1949. 688 p. (In Russian).

9. Mirolyubov I.A. Dinasticheskaya politika imperatora Konstantina Velikogo (The Dynastic Policy of Emperor Constantine the Great). St.Petesburg: Aleteiya, 2021. 224 p. (In Russian).

10. Mommzen T. Istoriya rimskikh imperatorov. Po konspektam Sebast’yana i Paulya Khenzelei 1882–1886 gg. (History of the Roman Emperors. According to Sebastian and Paul Hensel’s outline, 1882-1886). St.Petesburg: Yuventa, 2002. 632 p. (In Russian).

11. Pokrovskii A.A. Istoriya rimskogo prava (History of the roman law). Petrograd: Izdanie yuridicheskogo knizhnogo sklada «Pravo», 1917. 430 p. (In Russian).

12. Pokrovskii, I.A. Istoriya rimskogo prava (History of the roman law). St.Petesburg: Izdatel’sko-torgovyi dom «Letnii Sad», 1998. 560 p. (In Russian).

13. Fedorova E.V. Latinskaya epigrafika (Latin Epigraphy). Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, 1969. 373 p.(In Russian).

14. Khachaturyan N.A. Sakral’noe v chelovecheskom soznanii. Zagadki i poiski real’nosti (The sacred in human consciousness. Riddles and the search for reality) // Svyashchennoe telo korolya: ritualy i mifologiya vlasti / ed by N.A. Khachaturyan. Moscow: Nauka, 2006. P. 162 – 177. (In Russian).

15. Shtaerman E. M. Ot grazhdanina k poddannomu (From citizen to subject) // Kul’tura Drevnego Rima. Vol.1. / ed by E. S. Go- lubtsov. Moscow: Nauka, 1985. P.22 – 105. (In Russian).

16. Barnes T.D. The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine. Harvard: Harvard university press, 1982. 328 p.

17. Biletsky N. The Roman Model of Titulature: the process of formation // Ukranian studies. 2017. No. 4. P. 94–108.

18. Börm H. Born to be Emperor: The Pninciple of Succession and the Roman Monarchy // Contested Monarchy: Integrating the Roman Empire in the Fourth Century AD. / Ed. J. Wienand. New-York: Oxford University Press, 2014. P. 239–264.

19. Bowersock G.W. Julian the Apostate. London: Duckworth, 1978. 152 p.

20. Brown P. Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome and the Making of Christianity in the West 350–550 AD. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. 792 p.

21. Cameron Av. The Later Roman Empire, AD 284 – 430. London: Fontana press, 1993. 238 p.

22. Cameron Al. The Last Pagans of Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. 578 p.

23. Cooley A.E. The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 2012. 554 p.

24. Corcoran, S. 2006: Galerius, Maximinus and the titulature // Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. 2006. № 49. P. 231–240.

25. Demandt A. Die Spaetantike. Roemische geschichte von Diocletian bis Justinian 284-565 n. Chr. Muenchen: C.H. Beck, 1989. 612 s.

26. Dickey E. Latin forms of address. From Plautus to Apuleius. New-York: Oxford university press, 2002. 428 p.

27. Eich P. The Common Denominator. Late Roman Imperial Bureacracy from a Comparative Perspective // State power in Ancient China and Rome / Ed. W. Scheidel. Oxfrod: Oxford University Press, 2015. P. 90 – 149.

28. Heather P. Senatores and Senates // In: Av. Cameron, P. Garnsey (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History. vol. 13: The Late Empire, AD 337 – 425 / Eds. Av. Cameron, P. Garnsey. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. P.184 – 210.

29. Heather P. The Fall of the Roman Empire. A New History. London: Pan Books, 2005. 592 p.

30. Hebblewhite M. The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire, AD 235–395. London: Routledge, 2017. 256 p.

31. Humphries M. From Usurper to Emperor: The Politics of Legitimation in the Age of Constantine // Journal of Late Antiquity. 2008. №1. P. 82–100.

32. Jones A.H.M. The Later Roman Empire 284 – 602. A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey. London: Basil Blackwell, 1964. 1515 p.

33. Kelly C. M. Ruling the Later Roman Empire. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2004. 352 p.

34. Kelly, C.M. Bureaucracy and Government // The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine / Ed. Lenski N. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2006. P. 183–204.

35. Kelly, C.M. Pliny and Pacatus: Past and Present in Imperial Panegyric. // Contested Monarchy: Integrating the Roman Empire in the Fourth Century AD. / Ed. J. Wienand. New-York: Oxford University Press, 2014. P. 215 – 239.

36. Kienast, D., Eck, W., Matthaeus, H. Roemische Kaisertabelle. Grundzuege einer roemichen Kaiserchronologie. 6., ueberarb. Aufl. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2017. 428 s.

37. Kneissl P. Die Siegestitulatur der romischen Kaiser: Untersuchungen zu den Siegerbeinamen des ersten und zweiten Jahrhunderts. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969. 253 s.

38. Kolb F. Diocletian und die erste Tetrarchie: Improvisation oder Experiment in der Organisation monarchischer Herrschaft. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1987. 213 s.

39. Lee A.D. War in Late Antiquity. A Social History. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. 308 p.

40. Lendon J.E. Empire of Honour: The Art of Government in the Roman World. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. 336 p.

41. Liebeschuetz J. H. W. East and West in Late Antiquity: Invasion, Settlement, Ethnogenesis and Conflicts of Religion. Leiden: Brill, 2015. 477 p.

42. MacCormack S. Art and ceremony in late antiquity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. 417 p.

43. Manders E. Coining Images of Power. Patterns in the Representation of Roman Emperors on Imperial Coinage, a.a. 193– 284. Leiden: Brill, 2012. 363 p.

44. McCormick M. Eternal Victory: Triumphal rulership in late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1987. 472 p.

45. Millar F. The Emperor in the Roman World (31 BC–AD 337). London: NCROL, 1977. 657 p.

46. Mitchell S. A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD. 284 – 641. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. 568 p.

47. Moser M. Emperor and Senators in the Reign of Constantius II. Maintaining Imperial Rule Between Rome and Constantinople in the Fourth Century AD. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 434 p.

48. Omissi A. Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire. Civil war, Panegyric, and the Construction of Legitimacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. 368 p.

49. Peachin M. Roman imperial titulature and chronology, a.d. 235 – 284. Amsterdam: Brill, 1990. 515 p.

50. Potter D.S. The Roman Empire at Bay AD 180 – 395. New-York: Routledge, 2004. 792 p.

51. Rees R. Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. 220 p.

52. Weisweiler J. Domescticating the Senatorial Elite: Universal Monarchy and Transregional Ariscocracy in the Fourth Centure AD. // Contested Monarchy: Integrating the Roman Empire in the Fourth Century AD. / Ed. J. Wienand. New-York: Oxford University Press, 2014. P. 17 – 42.

53. Whitby M. Emperors and Armies, AD 235 – 395 // Approaching late Antiquity: The Transformation from Early to Late empire / Eds. Swain S., Edwards M. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. P. 156 – 186.

54. Wiemer H.U., Rebenich S. A Companion to Julian the Apostate. Leiden: Brill, 2020. 481 p.