An equestrian procurator’s ‘unequal colleague’? Reinterpreting the career of the imperial freedman Ulpius Paean

The role of freedman procurators in Roman administration of the principate period is still unclear. While the division into equestrian and freedman procuratorships is well documented and studied (particularly by H.-G. Pflaum and P.R.C. Weaver), neither the explanation behind it nor adopting the criterion of less important (freedman) or more important (equestrian) procuratorships is entirely convincing. Reducing the work of freedman procurators (having the same titles as equites) to merely assisting equestrian procurators (under ‘unequal collegiality’) can be disputed as well. By re-interpreting the career of the imperial freedman Ulpius Paean and calling upon other careers, the article argues that some imperial freedmen could have held equestrian procuratorships as their superiors.