From Procopius of Gaza to the silentiarius Aeneas: Short Notes on costitutio incerti imperatoris de aquaeductu

Abstract

The work treats the Constitutio incerti imperatoris de aquaeductu, an epigraphic source found in the area of Bethlehem in Palestine about 1925, traditionally ascribed to the Emperor Justinian. The law hard punishes who infringes the duty to keep clean and free fifteen foots near the matrices of the leading water to Jerusalem aqueduct. A recent hypothesis tries to ascribe the law to the Emperor Anastasius I. Presumptive evidences are here taken into consideration (the panegyric of Anastasius I by Procopius of Gaza; the figure of silentiarius Aeneas; hydrogeological and archeological peculiarities of the area), as well as the comparison with the previous laws treating the same theme: in this way an hypothesis about the date and the content of the law will be proposed.