An Afterthought on the Names Flavius and Aurelius

It has been ten years since publication in zpe (11 [1973] 33-63; 13 [1974] 283-304) of the long article on "The Names Flavius and Aurelius as Status Designations in Later Roman Egypt." During the past decade, papyrological colleagues seem to have approved, by word and in print, the article's theses; at the same time they have been kind enough not to throw too glaring a light on the occasional anomaly that requires attention or the occasional modification in detail that must be made. The general system by which the name Flavius was restricted to definite categories of Egypt's population, with the name Aurelius being available for the rest, remains clear enough. Yet a further illustration of the system's uniformity is offered by a small gathering of references which, when brought to bear so as to exploit an angle not taken up in the earlier article, tends to show how deeply ingrained the Flavius Aurelius pattern was in Byzantine Egyptian notarial and bureaucratic practice.