INTRODUCTION

Early in his speech to the Roman emperor Maximian, probably delivered in Trier in the spring of AD 289, a Gallic orator catalogued the duties of imperial office.¹ Maximian had been appointed co-emperor by Diocletian four years earlier, and in keeping with the conventions of the genre of panegyrical oratory, is said to have fulfilled his responsibilities with distinction.

admittere in animum tantae rei publicae curam et totius orbis fata suscipere et oblitum quodammodo sui gentibus vivere et in tam arduo humanarum rerum stare fastigio, ex quo veluti terras omnes et maria despicias vicissimque oculis ac mente conlustres ubi sit certa serenitas, ubi dubia tempestas, qui iustitiam vestram iudices aemulentur, qui virtutis vestrae gloriam duces servent, accipere innumera­biles undique nuntios, totidem mandata dimittere, de tot urbibus et nationibus et provinciis cogitare, noctes omnes diesque perpeti sollicitudine pro omnium salute transigere

to admit into your mind concern for so great a state, to assume responsibility for the destiny of the whole world, to forget yourself somehow and live for the people, to stand at the lofty pinnacle of human affairs, from where it is as if you look down on all land and sea, and you survey with eyes and mind in turn where calm is assured, where storms threaten, which judges copy your justice, which generals maintain the glory of your virtue, to receive countless messengers from everywhere, to issue as many commands, to give thought to so many cities, nations and provinces, to spend all night and day in endless concern for the wellbeing of all (Panegyrici Latini X(2) 3.3-3.4).

Catalogue was not unusual in panegyric, and an aretology - a list of virtues - was a particularly popular type. In most cases the catalogue was a rhetorical elaboration of the canon of virtues (typically numbering four), identified in

* ’With thanks to Paul du Plessis and delegates at the conference, especially Jill Harries and John Richardson.

1 For full text, with introduction, translation and historical commentary see C E V Nixon and B S Rodgers, In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini (1994). ancient kingship theory and in turn appropriated by treatises offering instruc­tion on how to compose epideictic (“showpiece”) oratory.^[207]

One interesting feature of this anonymous orator's version of the estab­lished form is his selection of iustitia (“justice”) for special mention. By 289 Maximian's most notable achievements as Diocletian's co-emperor were less to do with the law than the military, such as his overwhelming suppression of the Bagaudae in Gaul at the beginning of his reign. The mention of iustitia is worth dwelling on, therefore, although not necessarily believing, since the genre of panegyric had its own idiosyncratic economy of truth. The refer­ence to the judges who copied imperial justice should neither be dismissed as a vacuous textbook formula nor be accepted as a reliable picture of the judiciary in the late third century.

Delivered before the emperor and local Gallic dignitaries, the orator's terms reveal what we can assume would have been considered an ideal if not a reality of contemporary law - the measure of a good judge, according to this aristocratic elite, is the extent to which he copies imperial justice. That is, a good judge narrows the gap between state and judiciary; judges are not only not independent, but their very dependence on the imperial centre is presented as a virtue.^[208] The speech does not expand on how imita­tion of imperial justice would be ensured in the first place, or how it could be supervised. Diocletian and his colleagues were famously itinerant emperors, so there would be perhaps unprecedented opportunity to enforce a policy of imitation, but of course there would be many calls on their time.

B.