Urban Prefects in Bronze

A small number of inscribed bronze tesserae from the fifth and sixth centuries are an essential source for the history of the urban prefecture and the praetorian prefecture. This article presents a complete catalogue of these objects, both certainly attested and genuine and uncertainly attested or false, including two previously unknown examples. It considers the various, inconclusive hypotheses for the function of the tesserae. It then considers the prosopographical novelties and revisions to PLRE required by this category of evidence.