King's College London

The project develops a new approach to the study of Late Antiquity by treating consular dating – the Roman system of naming years after the annually appointed consuls – not only as a chronological marker, but as a proxy in historical analysis. The distribution, survival, accuracy, delay, regional variation and gradual disappearance of consular dates can be used to reconstruct less directly visible processes: how administrative information circulated, how Roman chronological and documentary culture persisted or changed, the extent to which political authority was recognised across different regions, and how far those regions continued to participate in Roman systems of time and institutional practice. In this sense, and by analogy with methods such as dendrochronology or isotopic analysis, consular dating allows historical information to be extracted from fragmentary traces whose wider significance has often remained underexplored. Combining traditional historical inquiry with digital humanities, data science and geospatial modelling, the project provides a new basis for analysing the societal, administrative and political cohesion – and fragmentation – of the late Roman and post-Roman Mediterranean between the third and seventh centuries CE.

One of the project’s central outputs is the Digital Database of Late Roman Consular Dates (DataCons), an open-access online geodatabase that brings together consular-dated evidence from papyri, inscriptions and other material evidence. The platform is designed to cover the period from 284 to 641 CE, with the current development phase focusing on 400 to 541 CE.

By centralising this material, DataCons enables researchers to access, search and compare a substantial corpus through a web application designed to support both detailed inquiry and broader patterns of analysis. The platform will allow users to examine consular formulae alongside document types, archaeological objects, places and dates, and to explore their spatial and chronological distribution through maps and charts. A dedicated prosopographical section will help identify and contextualise individuals associated with the production, transmission and use of these documents. Beyond the current development phase, the project also aims to refine a prototype geospatial model to support future analysis of how consular information circulated across regions of the Roman Empire.

This digital approach addresses some of the limitations of traditional paper corpora by providing a scalable resource that can be updated as new evidence emerges in epigraphy, papyrology and archaeology. DataCons is intended to support both advanced research and teaching, with applications across ancient history, classics and the digital humanities.

Developed with the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and King’s College London’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the project is grounded in open science and interdisciplinary collaboration. While its current research focus is Late Antiquity, its long-term ambition is to build a comprehensive collection of consular-dated materials from the 1st century BCE to the 7th century CE. At its core is the study of the consulship’s dual role: as a prestigious Roman office and as an evolving dating system deeply embedded in Mediterranean life. In doing so, DataCons supports new forms of quantitative and qualitative analysis of the socio-political structures, administrative systems and communication networks of the ancient world.