Barbatio

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Barbatio († 359 in Sirmium ) was a Roman military and army master ( magister militum ) of late antiquity . He served under Emperor Constantius II (337–361).

Life

Ascent

Barbatio was initially - between 351 and 354 - comes domesticorum (commander of the bodyguard) under Caesar (lower emperor) Constantius Gallus at his court in Antioch (today Antakya ) in the east of the empire. During this time he made the acquaintance of the famous orator Libanios , whose intercession enabled him to move from Constantinople to Antioch. In return, Libanios taught a son or client of Barbatios.

Bust of Constantius II

Barbatio soon began to intrigue against Caesar Gallus. He seems to have turned Constantius II , the high emperor of Gallus, against him through a targeted information policy. Because of these disputes, Barbatio was first dismissed from the court of the lower emperor, where Lucillianus took over his office shortly afterwards, and transferred to the court of Constantius in Mediolanum ( Milan ). When Constantius finally lost patience with his Caesar Gallus and had him come to Milan, he sent Barbatio to meet him. This met Gallus in Poetovio in Noricum , where he arrested him at the behest of the emperor and brought him to Flanona on the peninsula of Istria . There Gallus was accused, convicted and finally executed.

As the successor to Silvanus , who had been proclaimed emperor in Cologne and was then killed, Barbatio became magister peditum , general of the infantry. As one of the few army masters ( magister militum ) he now held one of the most powerful positions in the Roman Empire. He was probably also given the property of Silvanus. In the following period Barbatio apparently stayed for some time at the court of the emperor, who at the time was residing in Italy, most of the time in Mediolanum. In 357 he was sent to Augusta Raurica (Kaiseraugst) to support Julian , the Caesar (lower emperor) of Constantius, with 25,000 soldiers against the Alemanni . However, he was not directly subordinate to this.

Military action and death

According to the historian Ammianus Marcellinus , Barbatio made mistakes at the beginning of the campaign, which led to a group of Germanic laetes who had penetrated and plundered the territory of the Romans, escaping. Barbatio managed, however, to shift the responsibility to two tribunes subordinate to him . A little later he initially appropriated a considerable part of the food that was actually intended for the soldiers. A short time later, the army he led was routed in a sudden attack by the Alamanni under Chnodomar . Barbatio then fled to Kaiseraugst and then returned to the court of Constantius, where he accused Julian of being responsible for his defeat.

In 358 Alemannic Juthung ravaged the Roman province of Raetia . Constantius sent Barbatio to meet them with a large force. This was evidently very successful against the Teutons, of whom only a few escaped. Ammian also reports on the end of Barbatio: his wife Assyria, “who could neither shut up nor had much brains”, had apparently come to the conviction that Barbatio would become emperor herself after the end of Constantius, as she assumed. Fearing that her husband might leave her as soon as he was emperor and instead marry Eusebia , Constantius' beautiful wife, she had him write him a letter in secret one night. Barbatio was on a campaign, and when he returned, news of his wife's activities had already reached the army master Arbitio , a competitor of Barbatio. He immediately passed the story on to the emperor, who - always fearing usurpation - felt betrayed and had the couple beheaded.

swell

The most important source for the life of Barbatio is the historical work of Ammianus Marcellinus . Ammian strives mostly for a balanced representation, but his work has a clear tendency not only in relation to Barbatio. The summarizing topical description of Barbatio, which he sends after the report of his death as a kind of obituary, is characteristic:

“The aforementioned Barbatio was a rude person, of an arrogant disposition, and hated by many because at the time he was in command of the bodyguards under Caesar Gallus, he was an unfaithful traitor and, after his death, appointed to a higher military post, engaged in similar intrigues also spun against Caesar Julian. Decent people often wished him the devil, for he whispered many terrible accusations into the emperor's open ears. "

- Ammianus Marcellinus : 18.4.6.

Barbatio's rejection is believed to have both personal and literary reasons. Ammian judged Emperor Constantius II negatively and admired Julian. Next to Julian, Ammian's second hero is the army master Ursicinus , whom he knew personally and to whom he was subordinate for a long time - a competitor of Barbatio, who finally succeeded him in the post of magister peditum . Ammian's testimony, which marks Barbatio extremely negatively, both in terms of his military achievements and skills as well as his personality, can therefore only be believed to a very limited extent. Unfortunately, apart from a few letters from Libanios, we have hardly any alternative sources to correct this picture.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ As comes domesticorum it is mentioned in Ammianus Marcellinus 14,11,19; 18.4.6.
  2. ↑ Libanios, epistula 1215. Further letters from Libanios to Barbatio, which prove the acquaintance of the two: 470; 492; 1032 (based on Seeck's count).
  3. ↑ Cf. Libanios, epistula 1032. In addition Scott Bradbury: Selected Letters of Libanius: From the Age of Constantius and Julian . Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2004, No. 29, pp. 58f. ( Translated Texts for Historians , Volume 41; online ).
  4. ↑ Ammian 14,11,24 speaks of "false accusations" (falsa crimina) ; see. also ibid. 18,3,6.
  5. ↑ Ammian 14:11, 14. See The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE) I p. 147; on Lucillianus, who also later became army master, ibid. pp. 517-518.
  6. ↑ Ammian 14.11, 19-23; Philostorgios 4.1.
  7. ↑ Ammian 16.11.2; 17.6.2; to Alexander Demandt : Master of the Soldiers. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplementary volume XII, Stuttgart 1970, Sp. 553-790, here Sp. 568f.
  8. ↑ At Ammian 18,3,2 Barbatio's wife owns a slave from Silvanus' possession. Seeck: Barbatio . In: RE , Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Sp. 2; PLRE I, p. 147.
  9. ↑ Ammian 16:11, 2.
  10. ↑ See Demandt: magister militum . In: RE . Supplementary volume XII, Stuttgart 1970, Col. 569.
  11. ↑ Ammian 16: 11, 6-8.
  12. ↑ Ammian 16:11, 12.
  13. ↑ Ammian 16: 11, 14-15; 16.12.6; 16.12.16.
  14. ↑ Ammian 17,6,2, who also tries to belittle Barbatio's achievement here and describes him as a "coward".
  15. ↑ Ammian 18,3,2. Quoted from Ammianus Marcellinus: Roman history . Latin and German and with a commentary by Wolfgang Seyfarth . Volume 2, Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1970, p. 15.
  16. ↑ Ammian 18: 3, 1-4; see. also 14,11,24.
  17. ↑ Quoted from Ammianus Marcellinus: Roman History . Latin and German and with a commentary by Wolfgang Seyfarth. Volume 2, Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1970, p. 17.
personal data
SURNAME Barbatio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman military and army master
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century or 4th century
DATE OF DEATH 359
Place of death Sirmium