PRAETORIAN PREFECTURE OF ITALY

The 'Praetorian Prefecture of Italy' (Latin: ''Praefectura Praetorio Italiae'', in its full form ''Praefectura Praetorio Italiae, Illyrici et Africae'') was one of four large Praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided. It comprised the Italian peninsula, the Western Balkans, the Danubian provinces and parts of North Africa. The Prefecture's seat moved from Rome to Mediolanum and finally, Ravenna.

Contents

Structure and history

Prefects

Structure and history

The Prefecture was established by Constantine the Great in 318, and was divided into dioceses. Initially these were the Diocese of Africa, the Diocese of Italy and the Dioceses of Pannonia, Dacia, and Macedonia. Eventually the Diocese of Italy was split in two, the Diocese of Italia suburbicaria and the Diocese of Italia annonaria.
In 356, the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum was established, comprising the Dioceses of Pannonia, Dacia and Macedonia. The new Prefecture was abolished in 361 and reestablished in 375. Its territory was contested between the two halves of the Empire, until the final partition in 395, when the Diocese of Pannonia was split off from the Illyricum and joined to the Western Empire and the Prefecture of Italy as the Diocese of Illyricum.
Despite the end of the Western Empire in 476, the Germanic successor states under Odoacer and Theodoric the Great continued to use the Roman administrative machinery, as well as being nominal subjects of the Eastern emperor at Constantinople. The Prefecture thus survived, and came again into Roman hands after Justinian's Gothic War. However, with the Lombard invasion in 568, Roman rule became reduced to fragmented and isolated territories, and the Prefecture gave its place to the Exarchate of Ravenna, established by the emperor Maurice.

Prefects

★ Flavius Taurus (355-361)

★ Petronius Probus (ca. 368-375)

★ Flavius Afranius Syagrius (382-?)

★ Rufus Synesius Hadrianus (400-405)

★ Flavius Macrobius Longinianus (406-408)

★ Caecilianus (409)

★ Jovius (409)

★ Rufus Synesius Hadrianus (413-416)

★ Anicius Acilius Glabrio Faustus (ca. 438)

★ Flavius Caecina Decius Maximus Basilius iunior (483)

★ Caecina Mavortius Basilius Decius iunior (486-493)

★ Liberius (494-500)

★ Cassiodorus the Elder (500-?)

★ Faustus (507-512)

★ Cassiodorus the Younger (533-ca. 537)