Praetorian prefect

Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief aides.

In this role, praetorian prefects continued to be appointed by the Eastern Roman Empire (and the Ostrogothic Kingdom) until the reign of Heraclius in the 7th century AD, when wide-ranging reforms reduced their power and converted them to mere overseers of provincial administration.

The praetorian prefect became a major administrative figure in the later empire, when the post combined in one individual the duties of an imperial chief of staff with direct command over the guard also.

[citation needed] In addition to his military functions, the praetorian prefect came to acquire jurisdiction over criminal affairs, which he exercised not as the delegate but as the representative of the emperor.

Under Constantine I, the institution of the magister militum deprived the praetorian prefecture altogether of its military character but left it the highest civil office of the empire.

[3] With the fall of the western part of the Empire into the hands of warlords, these, in order to have support in their new domains, recognized the supremacy of the emperor of the eastern part, reuniting at least de iure the Empire under him, the prefectures were maintained as a way of delimiting the new viceroyalties: This recognition would be maintained until the rise of Justinian I, who ended the Ostrogothic and Vandal domains, but continued to recognize the Franks (as they were both Catholics) and the Visigoths (due to the lack of strength to continue the Recuperatio Imperii, but managing to establish a pro-Byzantine king, Athanagild, and the conquest of Spania).

[5] The list is presumed to be incomplete due to the lack of sources documenting the exact number of persons who held the post, what their names were and what the length of their tenure was.

The insignia of the praetorian prefect of Illyricum, as depicted in the Notitia Dignitatum : the ivory inkwell and pen case ( theca ), the codicil of appointment to the office on a blue cloth-covered table, and the state carriage . [ 4 ]