Ehrensachen. Ranggesetzgebung, Elitenkonkurrenz und die Funktionen des Rechts in der Spätantike

Abstract

More than 80 late antique imperial constitutions survive which deal with the hierarchical position of imperial dignitaries, with their privileges and with questions of precedence amongst them. The article argues that the primary purpose of these texts was not to legally define the hierarchy of the imperial army and administration; to this end, there were other and much better suited forms of legal enactments. The peculiarities of these texts are rather to be explained by their function as a medium of communication which enabled late Roman emperors to maintain concord with and superiority over an imperial elite that, for a number of reasons, was difficult to control. The legislation on rank and hierarchy thus challenges widespread views on the function of imperial ‹legislation› in Late Antiquity in general.