Claudius Postumus Dardanus

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The street de Saint-Geniez today. The inscription of Dardanus carved into the rock is in the front right.

Claudius Postumus Dardanus was a Western Roman , Late Antique lived lawyer and statesman who in the early 5th century. There are no records that could conclusively indicate the year of birth or death, social origin and education. He completed a remarkable career under the young Western Roman Emperor Flavius ​​Honorius and helped him to organize and consolidate the chaotic conditions after the Germanic invasions in Gaul , in particular the legal conditions there. The extraordinary career of the loyal public servant who was an avowed Christian was set in stone in the western Alps, in what is now France. The rock is said to have flanked the access to a refuge he founded at the end of his professional career or to another refuge called Theopolis ( City of God ).

Life

A solidus from AD 402 with the profile of Honorius
Siliqua of Jovinus
Siliqua of Sebastianus

It is possible that Dardanus managed to study law from a humble background in order to work as a lawyer. The first known office of Dardanus is that of governor in the province of Gallia Viennensis on the Rhone . After he had then taken on the management of the Caesarian Libell Chancellery , he had risen to an imperial quaestor sacri palatii . Several laws have come down to us from the year 407, which were most likely worked out and written by Dardanus.

In the turmoil that began with the usurpation of Constantine III. who had occupied Gaul and moved into his residence in Arles , Dardanus was probably appointed prefect of Gaul by Honorius in the late year 408 . At first he only nominally succeeded Limenius, who fled Gaul from Constantine and was murdered on August 13, 408 in Pavia as a follower of Stilicho . After the usurper Constantine was defeated in 411, Dardanus was officially confirmed as prefect of Gaul by Emperor Honorius and entrusted with the proper administration of office.

In the same year there was another uprising in northern Gaul under Jovinus , who had proclaimed himself Emperor of the West. By the year 413 Dardanus had finally succeeded through clever interventions in defeating the most important ally for Jovinus, namely the Visigoth king Athaulf . He delivered Jovinus and two of his brothers, one of whom was Jovinus' co-emperor Sebastianus , to the prefect. Dardanus beheaded Jovinus with his own hands and brought him and the heads of his brothers to the 29-year-old regent Honorius at the imperial court in Ravenna , to solemnly lay the heads at his feet. The prefect also had the well-known Gallic supporters of the usurper, who belonged to the senatorial nobility, seized and executed. This prompted Sidonius , the later bishop of Clermont and grandson of the Praetorian prefect Apollinaris, who initially served under Constantine, to write down Dardigenanus in 477 to his friend Aquilinius, who in turn was a grandson of the later prefect Decimus Rusticus, who was executed in 413. Because of his proven loyalty to Honorius, Dardanus was awarded the honorary title of patricius at the end of his career . Immediately after these events, probably around the year 415, Dardanus resigned from the service and withdrew into his private life.

He dealt intensively with studies on Christianity and maintained a lively correspondence with the church fathers Jerome and Augustine .

Theopolis

The alpine mountains through which the access road leads to the small, remote commune of Saint-Geniez . The location of Theopolis is said to be localized here.

According to the inscription on the rock, Dardanus founded the city of God Theopolis together with his wife Naevia Galla and his brother Claudius Lepidus. Research assumes that he was inspired by the writings of Augustine - "On the State of God" ( De civitate Dei ) - after his second, actual prefecture. The location selected due to its natural location - a fortress-like property - is located about 11 kilometers east-northeast of Sisteron , above the upper reaches of the Durance , at an altitude of about 1000 meters and is said to have extended over an area of ​​several square kilometers. The area owned or owned by Dardanus is said to have served as a refuge and as a new community for the surrounding population, based on basic Christian values.

Research also takes into account that, due to the lack of archaeological evidence at Theopolis, it could only have been a structurally easily perishable object, a kind of shelter. This thesis is countered by another side that the complex road construction work, the godly meaning of the name and the claim to a Christian community, which point to a religiously motivated, large-scale foundation of the founder, must have presupposed more significant buildings.

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 12, 1524
  2. ↑ Detlef Liebs , Constitutional, legal and social historical peculiarities of late antiquity , reprints from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, original article published in: Cosimo Cascione (ed.): Fides humanitas ius: studi in onore di Luigi Labruna. Napoli: Editore Scientifica. Vol. 5 (2007), pp. 2857-2877
  3. ↑ Olympiodoros of Thebes , Frg. 19, p. 61 d.
  4. ↑ Detlef Liebs, Constitutional, legal and social historical peculiarities of late antiquity , reprints from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, original article published in: Cosimo Cascione (ed.): Fides humanitas ius: studi in onore di Luigi Labruna. Napoli: Editore Scientifica. Vol. 5 (2007), pp. 2857-2877
  5. ^ Martin Heinzelmann , Bishops' rule in Gaul. On the continuity of the Roman ruling classes from the 4th to the 7th century. Social, prosopographical and educational history aspects (supplements of Francia, 5) , Munich / Zurich (Artemis) 1976, ISBN 3-7608-4655-6 , pp. 73, 74 (digitized version)
  6. ↑ Sidonius, Apollo. epist. 5, 9, 1
  7. ^ Martin Heinzelmann, Bishops' rule in Gaul. On the continuity of the Roman ruling classes from the 4th to the 7th century. Social, prosopographical and educational history aspects (supplements of the Francia, 5) , pp. 204, 205 (digitized version)
  8. ^ Jerome, epist. 129
  9. ↑ Augustine, epist. 187
  10. ^ Stefan Rebenich , Hieronymus und seine Kreis, Prosopographische und Sozialgeschichtliche Studien , Stuttgart, Steiner 1992, ISBN 3-515-06086-3 , (excerpt from Googlebook)
  11. ^ Tassilo Schmitt , The Conversion of Synesius of Cyrene, Politics and Philosophy , Munich a. Stuttgart, Saur 2001, ISBN 3-598-77695-0 , (excerpt from Googlebook)
  12. ↑ Detlef Liebs, Constitutional, legal and social historical peculiarities of late antiquity , reprints from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, original article published in: Cosimo Cascione (ed.): Fides humanitas ius: studi in onore di Luigi Labruna. Napoli: Editore Scientifica. Vol. 5 (2007), pp. 2857-2877

literature


personal data
SURNAME Postumus Dardanus, Claudius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Postumus Dardanus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Senator, Roman jurist, Roman prefect
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century
DATE OF DEATH 5th century