‘Gratulemur quod habemus principem senem’ (SHA Tac. 6, 7). Vieillesse et exercice du pouvoir dans l’Antiquité tardive

Starting from a passage in the Life of Tacitus (SHA) where Maecius Faltonius Nicomachus invites the colleagues to welcome the election of an elderly emperor, this paper examines how Late Antiquity perceived the relationship between mature age and good government. It analyses the debate between the candidate, reluctant to accept the office, and some colleagues who encourage him citing examples of capable though elderly rulers, while also contrasting the ideal emperor’s portrait found in the text to the image of Numa as seen in Roman Historiography. Besides the mature age-good government equation along with the child aversion emerging in another passage, perhaps related to real 4th century situations, it discusses the possibility that behind emperor Tacitus’ portrait might be the memory of Eugenius, the magister scrinii, so admired for his learning and nominated emperor despite his indifference to the purple.