Inauguration of praefectus urbi in late antiquity

[Nathan Ross]

I meant 'fifth'/400s (technically 436).

Ah yes, that's more difficult! If consular diptychs are anything to go on, lavish spectacles probably still featured heavily in inaugurations of magistrates. So, after putting in some hours at the altar, it would be off to the circus for some chariots and beasts, some fawning acclamations and panegyrics, then a huge banquet - all paid for by the lucky man, of course...

You might want to read Peter Brown's enormous Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD. Aside from the stuff about Christianity, there's plenty of material about the Roman aristocracy in the 5th century. Brown's read all of Jerome and Augustine and everyone else writing at the time and picked out the anecdotal good bits, so you don't have to!