Landownership and Power in the Senate of Constantinople

This article delineates the close relationship between landed property and membership in the Senate of Constantinople in the mid-fourth century AD. I argue that despite the senatorial surtaxes, a seat in the senate was highly attractive to large landowners, for it allowed maintaining their property against the financial demands of the empire. The first section examines the fiscal obligations imposed on senatorial landed property as well as the fiscal privileges senators had obtained from the emperor as they are revealed in a comprehensive ruling from 361. Following some general remarks about the (fragmented) nature of landownership in this period, the discussion then turns to examining some of the senators (and their landholding) who were able to profit from this legislation. Finally, a case study of the family of the praetorian prefect Thalassius illustrates the size of some senatorial property portfolios as well as the possible dangers of (long-term) absentee landownership that many senators sought to avoid.