Some remarks on the chronology of Laterculus Veronensis – a special case of the diocese of Pontus
Some remarks on the chronology of Laterculus Veronensis – a special case of the diocese of Pontus

Author(s): Łukasz Smorczewski
Subject(s): Archaeology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Pontus; Verona List; Roman Anatolia; diocese; Paphlagonia; Diocletian; Armenia Maior
Summary/Abstract: Chronology of introducing diocese as a territorial department in the Later Roman Empire is still a subject of discussions among scholars. The main source that describes early stages of diocesan structures establishment is an Incipit eiusdem nomina provinciarum omnium, also called the Laterculus Veronensis or the Verona List. Document from the seventh century is a part of manuscripts collection located in Biblioteca Capitolare in Verona. Laterculus shows partition of the Roman Empire on twelve administrative units which had assembled lesser provincials. The first critical edition of the Verona List was composed by Theodor Mommsen in 1863. German scholar proposed as the chronological framework of list’s origin a reign of Diocletian. In his view manuscript showed Roman Empire at about 297 AD. Nowadays modern historian dated information’s contained in the Verona List more accurately to 314 AD. However, some parts of the Verona List are still controversial in dating. In the case of diocese of Pontus, two gloss from the Laterculus Veronensis were dated as interpolation from 5th or 6th century AD. In Mommsen’s interpretation the first one informed about division of Paphlagonia as well as the second one shows annexation of Armenian Kingdom. So far the question of Pontus diocese in the Verona List wasn’t actually evaluated in much broader context of epigraphic sources. Analysis of governors inscriptions from Pontic region allows us to reconsider chronology of the Verona List once again.

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