"Ad nostram scientiam referatur": The Imperial Administrative Supervision of the Execution of Laws during the Constantinian Dinasty

Abstract

Constantine and his heirs, Constantius II, Constans, and later Julian, expressed their particular interest in the supervision of the application of certain imperial laws using the formula ad nostram scientiam referatur or another similar ones. Constantine was the prince who more often employed it, especially during the period of 313-324, apart from the interval of 315-316, when the confrontation with Licinius compelled him to give up the attention to administrative questions. The progressive decrease of the insertion of that clauses in the legal imperial texts from the unification of the Empire in 324 AD must be put in relation to the appearance of curiosi and later, the agentes in rebus, as officers put in charge of the observance of the acts in force.