PL
Tkis article is devoted to the curators of the Tiber who were honoured with the city prefecture at end of their carier. In the period of principate the city and the three "curae" (cura aquarum, cura Tiberis, cura aedium sacrarum et operum locorumque publicorum) belonged to the most important administrative officers in Rome. Both functions extremely rarely co-occurred in a senator's cursus honorum and so it was a kind od a precedence. The analysis of cursus honorum of P. Cornelius Anullinus and L. Caeosnius Lucillus Macer Rufinianus gives an answer to the question what criteria they had to fulfil to be awarded such honorus. It turns out that, apart from military and organization experience, an importanmt skill was the ability to recognize and support the side in the competition for the emperor's throne. The biographes of the two senators share one more element that deserves attention. P. Cornelius Anullinus, when supporting Septimus Severus, had already fulfilled the function of the curator of the Tiber. L. Caesonius Lucillus Macer Rufinianus, at the time when he supported the Gordians, was an ex-curator of the Tiber and of water. In such circumstances, the new rulers could reward their faithful senators only with the highest post possible - the city prefecture.