Sabinianus (army master)

Sabinianus was an army master ( magister militum ) of late antiquity . He served in the east of the Roman Empire under Constantius II in 359 .

Life

Sabinianus, who had not come to the fore before or at least is not mentioned in the sources, was appointed magister equitum per Orientem in 359 as the successor to the influential army master Ursicinus , commander of the troops in the eastern part of the empire. The educated and wealthy Sabinianus, a pious Christian, was already old at this time and - according to the historian Ammianus Marcellinus , the main source for this time - was appointed army master as a result of a court intrigue against his predecessor Ursicinus, which was mainly launched by the court eunuchs , above all from the influential eunuch Eusebius . Ammian judges Sabinianus as "non-warlike and cowardly" and therefore not really suitable for the important military post. However, this could also be related to Ammian's appreciation for Ursicinus, with whom the historian was personally known and friends. His image of Sabinianus, who is described negatively at every opportunity that arises, is therefore probably tendentious, and the description of the events that now follow is also personally shaped.

According to Ammian, Sabinianus entered his office with some arrogance, precisely because it had come so unexpectedly for him. When the attack of the Persian Sassanids , which had been threatening for a long time, finally took place, Sabinianus justified the distrust that was placed in him. While the Persians were besieging the Roman fortress of Amida , Sabinianus prayed at the martyrs' graves in Edessa . Ursicinus, who was meanwhile under his command, had repeatedly admonished him to relieve Amida, but Sabinianus remained inactive until the Sassanids finally succeeded in taking and destroying the city. When the case was later investigated, however, the judges Arbitio and Florentius did not blame Sabinianus for the loss of the fortress, but rather Ursicinus, who then had to retire from the army. Sabinianus then disappears from the sources.

It is questionable whether he was actually so incompetent and whether his appointment was only the result of court intrigue against Ursicinus. On the other hand, it was argued that a thoughtful emperor like Constantius II would not appoint a new master for no reason. According to the ancient historian Pedro Barceló , Constantius pursued a defensive strategy with the appointment of Sabinianus that he perhaps did not trust Ursicinus alone. In fact, it can be stated that Sabinianus followed a tactic of defensive waiting. The outcome of the investigation later at court indicates that Ursicinus may have actually made strategic mistakes that could have led to the loss of Amida. A passage in Ammianus also suggests that the Roman defector Antoninus, who passed on important information to the Persians, had a relationship of trust with Ursicinus. The subordination of Ursicinus to Sabinianus therefore seems to have been a precautionary measure of the emperor.

literature

• Roger C. Blockley : Ammianus Marcellinus on the Persian Invasion of AD 359 . In: Phoenix . Volume 42, 1988, pp. 244-260.
• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Sabinianus 3. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 789.
• Otto Seeck : Sabinianus 7) . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IA, 2, Stuttgart 1920, col. 1585.

Remarks

1. ↑ Ammian 18.5.5; 18.6.1; 19,3,1-2. On the sequence of the magistri militum in late antiquity, cf. also the list of Roman military masters .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ammian 18,5,5.
3. ↑ Ammian 18,7,7. So does Alexander Demandt : magister militum. In: RE Suppl. XII, Stuttgart 1970, Sp. 553-790, here Sp. 572.
4. ↑ Ammian 18,5,4.
5. ↑ Ammian 18.6.1; 18.6.7.
6. ↑ Ammian 18,7,7. For example, the commentary by Wolfgang Seyfarth in: Ammianus Marcellinus: Roman History , Latin and German and with a commentary by Wolfgang Seyfarth, Volume 2, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1970, p. 183 (note 147).
7. ↑ Ammian 19.3.1. In addition Wilhelm Enßlin : The magistri militum of the 4th century. In: Klio . Volume 24, 1931, pp. 102-147, here p. 110; Demandt: magister militum. In: RE Suppl. XII, Sp. 572.
8. ↑ Ammian 19: 3, 1-3.
9. ↑ Ammian 20: 2, 1-3.
10. ↑ Barceló: Constantius II and his time. The beginnings of the state church. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2004, p. 162 f. Similar to Blockley: Ammianus. Pp. 255–259, which accuses both commanders of mistakes.
11. ↑ Ammian 18.8.5.
12. ↑ Blockley: Ammianus. P. 252.