LUCI E OMBRE, PASSI E SALTI. LA PROGRESSIONE NELLE CARRIERE PUBBLICHE ROMANE NEL TARDOANTICO: PROFILI DI DIRITTO CRIMINALE
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS, STEPS AND LEAPS: MOVING UP IN ROMAN PUBLIC CAREERS IN LATE ANTIQUITY (CRIMINAL LAW ASPECTS)

Summary/Abstract: In the period from 4th to 6th century AD, imperial constitutiones provided detailed description of steps in the development of civil and military career. In the period of the Republic, Romans seemed to be persuaded that, for the best management of the res publica, the magistrates should run for each of his offices in the order prescribed by the cursus honorum, and that one's powers and responsibilities would increase by reason of his administrative experiences and his personal qualities; thus, the principle of meritocracy was evidently built up. This idea came back under the deeply different bureaucracy of the Late Roman Empire. The metaphors that can be found in the juridical and literary sources of this period refer to the violation of the rules on the cursus honorum as belonging to the Dark World, comparing it to the "bright" careers, or showing such violation as a ‘leap' that is opposite to a correctly and properly timed order. This paper considers specifically how the Roman criminal law of Late Antiquity combated irregular career promotions, while examining attentively the crimen ambitus and the crimen sacrilegii.

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