Suffectum

Suffectum is a Latin term meaning substitute or replacement, used to designate a person who temporarily fills an office for a limited period. In classical and late Latin, the form suffectus (adjective) and suffectum (neuter noun) appear in inscriptions and texts to indicate a substitute who serves in place of a regular officeholder.

In Roman practice, the most common use was for the office of consul suffectus, a magistrate elected to replace an ordinary consul who vacated the office before the end of the year. A suffect consul held the office for the remainder of that year and exercised the same formal powers as the ordinary consul for the duration of his term. This arrangement allowed the magistracy to continue within a calendar year and provided a mechanism to honor competent individuals without altering the year’s original magistrates. The practice continued from the late Republic into the Imperial period and is frequently encountered in epigraphic and literary sources.

In ecclesiastical Latin, suffectus or suffectum can denote a cleric appointed to exercise episcopal functions temporarily, for example a suffect bishop who acts in a diocese during a vacancy or until a successor is installed. The precise usage and titles vary across periods and jurisdictions, and the term is less common in modern English-language scholarship than more specialized terms such as coadjutor or suffragan.

Etymology: derived from sufficere “to supply” or “to furnish,” with suffectus as a participial adjective and suffectum as a noun form.