152 The Imperial Government
ate—whichcouldenabletheassuredcomparisonofonecareerwithanother.
But, where there is enough evidence, patterns which are not explicit and
obviousmaystillbesought.O.Hirschfeld,DieKaiserlichenVerwaltungsbeamten
bis auf Diocletian^2 (Berlin, 1905), 410–11, discussed theprocuratorial career
withtypicaleleganceandcaution,butfoundthatnofirmresultscouldbe
achieved.Pflaum’struepredecessorwasA.VonDomaszewski,Die Rangord-
nung des Römischen Heeres(Bonn,1908;rev.ed.B.Dobson,1967).Onpp.141–
42heproducedabriefschemaofgradesofprocuratorialposts,basedonthe
militaryranksfromwhichpromotiontoeachgradefollowed.Theresults,
thoughcompressedandachievedwithoutmuchregardtochronologicalde-
velopment,arefarfromunconvincing.
ThefulltreatmentofthesubjecthasbeenlefttoPflaum,whohasdevoted
toitanimmenselearningandalargepartofhislife.Theresultswereshown
first in hisProcurateurs équestres sous le Haut-Empire romain(1950); the three
admirablyproducedvolumesunderreviewformthepromised‘‘thèsecom-
plémentaire’’ofthatbookandaretheculminationofhiswork.Thefirsttwo
volumes deal in separate entries with some 350 individual careers (i.e.,on
Pflaum’sdefinition,acasewhereatleasttwoequestrianpostsareattestedfor
aman,otherthanthefourmajorprefectures);ineachentrythedocumentary
andliteraryevidenceissetoutinfullandisfollowedbyadetaileddiscus-
sion.Thethirdvolumegivesaddendaandthensomethingofenormousvalue
in itself, the lists (fasti) of all thevarious equestrian procuratorial posts in
Rome,Italy,andtheprovinces,andfinallyimmenselydetailedindicescover-
ingpersons,places,posts,andsourcesofevidence,andrelatingbothtothis
workandtheProcurateurs.The‘‘tableauxd’avancement’’giveatabularanaly-
sisofallthecareersdiscusseddividedbytypeandperiod.Itcanthusbeseen
that,ifitwerenothingelse,thiswouldbeareferenceworkonaconsiderable
scaleandoflastingvalue.
Itis,however,essentiallynotaworkofreferencealone,butaninstrument
inthedemonstrationofPflaum’sthesesabouttheequestriancareer(cursus).
This dual function of thework must be reflected in any full reviewof it.
Inthischapter,therefore,IwillconsiderPflaum’sviewsandthevalueofhis
contributionasawhole—whichwillinvolvesomereferencetotheProcura-
teurs,withwhichthisworkissointimatelylinked.Adetailedreviewofthe
individualentrieswillnotbeincluded.
Pflaum’sprimarythesisisthattheappellationstrecenarius,ducenarius,cen-
tenarius,andsexagenarius(indicating an annual salary of 300,000, 200,000,
100,000and60,000sestercesrespectively),whichareattachedsometimesto
thetitlesofequestrianpostsandsometimestothenamesoftheirholders,
relatetoestablishedgradeswhichgavetheessentialstructureoftheeques-