Abstract
The aim of this paper is to reexamme the policy of Constantius II on the Constantinopolitan senate, which made the Greek city on Bosporus a "capital" of the eastern half of the Roman empire, and to clarify its impact over the eastern mediterranean world First, we examine the thesis of an obligation on the newly recruited senators to reside in the city of Constantinople This thesis was an influential one, proposed by P Petit whose primary concern was to interpret the use of the Greek word "polites" in Libamus' letters, and accepted by other scholars in explaining some individual cases, as a result of which it emphasised the independence of the capital from the other cities of the East, not consistent with the thesis of local senators "honorati" To reexamine its validity, we pick up three representative cases of Constantinopolitan senators, one of which is a basis of Petit's interpretation and the rest of which are principal models treated by later scholars, that is, Olympius, Themistius and Caesarius In Libanius' letters on him, we can find references to Olympius' expenditure of different grades, which implies his nomination as a praetor Considering the information which can be obtained from legal texts in the Theodosian code, we an find the summon of Olympius is not of senators but of praetors Themistius' and Caesanus' cases also need to be set in the context Though the imperial letter in which the former is recommended as a senatorial candidate mentions "ananke" to reside in the city, it doesn't mean any obligation of residence but an economic condition under which a poor teacher was forced to migrate into the capital Alike Caesarius, though represented as an "oiketor" of the city in a Gregorian oration, is found "archiatros" whose place of activity is in the imperial palace From these considerations, we can get a conclusion that none of these typical cases prove the existence of the obligation and that we should reconstruct an interpretation of the imperial policy Secondly, we aim to reconsider the senatorial policy of Constantius II Taking into consideration the information drawn from the Theodosian code, we cannot accept the imperial motives presented by scholars that the emperor aimed to populate and enlarge his capital Rather, a prosopographical examination confirms that many cases are concomitant with holdings of imperial offices and that some receive provincial governorships shortly after their senatorial nominations, while an association of office holdings with senatorial recruitment can be confirmed in other sources In sum, Constantius' policy isn't primarily concerned to the enlargement of the eastern capital, but to the implantation into the eastern half of the empire of senatorial rank that is some reward of imperial office holdings, which doesn't prevent appearance of local elites with senatorial rank
