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The praefectus urbanus, also called praefectus urbi or urban prefect in English, was prefect of the city of Rome, and later also of Constantinople. The office originated under the Roman kings, continued during the Republic and Empire, and held high importance in late Antiquity. The office survived the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and the last urban prefect of Rome, named Iohannes, is attested in 599.Lançon (2000), p. 45 In the East, in Constantinople, the office survived until the 13th century.
Under the kings, only three men held the position. The first king Romulus appointed Denter Romulius to serve as the first custos urbis, the third king Tullus Hostilius appointed Numa Marcius, and the seventh king Tarquinius Superbus appointed Spurius Lucretius.
The first major change to the office occurred in 487 BC, when the office became an elective magistracy, elected by the Comitia Curiata. The office was only open to former consuls. Around 450 BC, with the coming of the Decemviri, the office of the custos urbis was renamed the praefectus urbi (Prefect of the City of Rome), and was stripped of most of its powers and responsibilities, becoming a merely ceremonial post. Most of the office's powers and responsibilities had been transferred to the urban praetor ( praetor urbanus). The praefectus urbi was appointed each year for the sole purpose of allowing the consuls to celebrate the Latin Festival, which required them to leave Rome. The praefectus urbi no longer held the power to convoke the Senate, or the right of speaking in it, and was appointed by the Consuls instead of being elected.
To enable the Prefect to exercise his authority, the cohortes urbanae, Rome's police force, and the nightwatchmen ( vigiles) under their prefect ( praefectus vigilum), were placed under his command.Lançon (2000), p. 46 The Prefect also had the duty of publishing the laws promulgated by the Emperor, and as such acquired a legal jurisdiction. This extended to legal cases between slaves and their masters, patrons and their freedmen, and over sons who had violated the pietas towards their parents. Gradually, the judicial powers of the Prefect expanded, as the Prefect's office began to re-assume its old powers from the praetor urbanus. Eventually there was no appeal from the Prefect's sentencing, except to that of the Roman Emperor, unlike the sentencing of other officials. Even the Roman governor of the were subject to the Prefect's jurisdiction. The Prefect also possessed judicial powers over criminal matters. Originally these powers were exercised in conjunction with those of the , but by the 3rd century, they were exercised alone.
In late Antiquity, the office gained in effective power, as the imperial court was removed from the city, meaning that the prefects were no longer under the emperor's direct supervision. The office was usually held by leading members of Italy's senatorial aristocracy, who remained largely pagan even after Emperor Constantine the Great's conversion to Christianity. Over the following thirty years, Christian holders were few.Kazhdan (1991), p. 2144 In such a capacity, Quintus Aurelius Symmachus played a prominent role in the controversy over the Altar of Victory in the late 4th century.
The urban prefecture survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and remained active under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and well after the Byzantine reconquest. The last mention of the Roman urban prefect occurs as late as 879.
The prefect was solely responsible for the administration of the city of Constantinople and its immediate area. His tasks were manifold, ranging from the maintenance of order to the regulation and supervision of all guilds, corporations and public institutions. The city police, the ταξιῶται ( taxiōtai), came under the prefect's authority,Evans (1996), p. 43 and the city jail was located at the basement of his official residence, the praetorium, located before the Forum of Constantine.Evans (1996), p. 25 As with the Prefect of Rome, the night watch came under a subordinate prefect, the νυκτέπαρχος ( nykteparchos, "night prefect"). In the 530s, however, some authority for the policing and regulation of the city passed to two new offices, created by Justinian I (r. 527–565). In 535 the praitor of the demoi (πραίτωρ τῶν δήμων; praetor plebis in Latin), who commanded 20 soldiers and 30 firemen, was put in charge of policing and firefighting, while in 539, the office of the quaesitor (κοιαισίτωρ) was established and tasked with limiting the uncontrolled immigration to the city from the provinces, with supervising public mores, and with prosecuting sexual offenders and heretics.Bury (1911), p. 70
In the middle Byzantine period (7th–12th centuries), the prefect was regarded as the supreme judge in the capital, after the emperor himself.Kazhdan (1991), p. 705 His role in the economical life of the city was also of principal importance. The 10th-century Book of the Prefect stipulates the various rules for the various guilds that fell under the prefect's authority. The prefect was also responsible for the appointment of the teachers to the University of Constantinople, and for the distribution of the grain dole to the city.Evans (1996), pp. 27, 32 According to the late 9th-century Kletorologion, his two principal aides were the symponos and the logothetēs tou praitōriou. In addition, there were the heads (γειτονιάρχαι, geitoniarchai, the old curatores regionum) and judges ( kritai) of the city's districts (Latin regiones, in Greek ρεγεῶναι, regeōnai), the parathalassites (παραθαλασσίτης), an official responsible for the capital's seashore and ports, as well as their tolls, and several inspectors ( epoptai), the heads of the guilds ( exarchoi) and the boullōtai, whose function was to check and append the seal of the eparch on weights and scales as well as merchandise.Bury (1911), pp. 70–73
The office continued until the early 13th century with its functions and authority relatively intact, and may possibly have survived into the Latin Empire following the capture of the city in the Fourth Crusade in 1204, being equated in Latin with the castellanus of the city.Van Tricht (2011), pp. 114–115 After the reconquest of the city by the Byzantines, however, the office of the Eparch was replaced throughout the Palaiologan period (1261–1453) by several kephalatikeuontes (sing. kephalatikeuōn, κεφαλατικεύων, "headsman"), who each oversaw a district in the now much less populous capital.
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