La scelta tra iterazione e durata delle cariche nei «cursus honorum» epigrafici dei senatori tardoromani in Occidente

In the 1981 Rome Conference entitled “Epigrafia e ordine senatorio” André Chastagnol gave a paper dealing with the evolution of the senatorial career of the Late Empire (IIIrd-Vth century). Thanks to his essay, we can note that in some inscriptions of late Roman senators-office holders the iteration or the duration of a task represents a primacy, a ‘record’, at a given time, to the glory of the dignitary celebrated in the monument. But the economy of epigraphic language was such that it was not always possible to celebrate both the iteration and the duration of a special warrant in the inscription itself. A case-analysis of the use of the iteration, or the long-term overall duration of one or more offices, or of the youngest age of the holder of the glorious dignity, is hereby proposed. This case study deals with the inscriptions of C. Ceionius Rufius Volusianus, Iunius Bassus, Sex. Petronius Probus, Petronius Maximus, Anicius Achilius Glabrio Faustus, Nicomachus Flavianus senior and iunior. Dedicators and readers of the inscriptions on the monuments in honor of the late Roman senators - located almost entirely in Rome and in Italy - were well aware of the rhythms and the ‘records’ of the careers of their times and those of the past. But such sensitivity varied over time: the continuous succession of senators-office holders was such that dedicators were required to take into consideration the obsolete nature of certain ‘records’ at any given period of time.