Comes Britanniarum
The Comes Britanniarum ("Count of Britannia") was a high officer (comes rei milites) in the late Roman army of the West and held one of the highest command posts in late ancient Britain from the 4th to 5th centuries AD.
At the imperial court, as vir spectabilis, he counted among the highest rank of the imperial nobility. His direct superiors were the Magister peditum (infantry) and the Magister equitum (cavalry).
Incumbents known by name:
- Gratianus the Elder (from 340 AD)
- Magnus Maximus (late 4th century)
- Constantine (around 410)
His area of command ( comitativa ) extended, in contrast to his colleagues, the
over the entire territory of the Dioecesis Britanniae , a total of five provinces:
It also included the supreme command of the mobile field army ( Comitatenses ) stationed there , the border troops ( Limitanei ) and the naval units ( Classis Britannica ). In the Notitia Dignitatum (ND) the surveillance area of the Comes Britanniarum is not referred to as several cities or forts , but as 'Castrum Britannia', i.e. H. the whole diocese , represented.
development
At first it does not seem to have been a fixed office and was probably not permanently occupied before 368. Possibly it was established under Constantius Chlorus , after the reconquest of Northern Gaul and Britain by Carausius . In the early 4th century, Gratianus the Elder, the grandfather of the later Emperor Gratian , is mentioned as incumbent.
Magnus Maximus served as early as 368–369 under Flavius Theodosius in Britain. Soon after, he was promoted to commander in chief of the provincial army. When they felt abandoned by Emperor Gratian because their soldiers were involved in constant, loss-making small wars with Picts, Scots and Irish, they elevated their Comes Maximus to Emperor in the spring of 383 . Maximus' subsequent Galli campaign had but certainly the consequence that most of the Roman troops left the island to them in the loss-making civil war against the regent in the east of the kingdom, I. Theodosius use. He was probably also responsible for the withdrawal of the Roman garrisons from Wales . Much of his army was no longer to return to Britain. After his defeat and execution, in 388, many of the Romano-British soldiers settled in Brittany .
Up to the year 402 numerous units had been pulled out of the British provincial army in order to defend the heartland of the empire, Italy, against Alaric's army of Goths ; Among the remaining soldiers, who presumably were no longer paid regularly by the government in Ravenna, displeasure about this grew more and more. In contrast to the time of the early and middle empire, their loyalty was no longer to the army and the ruling emperor, but mainly to their home province. Many of them were born and raised on the island. Since the army reforms of late antiquity often gave them a small piece of land on which they could run their farms tax-free, they were primarily interested in defending their families and their property.
407 was Constantine III. proclaimed emperor by the soldiers and the nobility. Probably before his usurpation he had already held the post of chief military officer of the provincial armed forces. But he probably received his new dignity only to support the British border troops with his small but powerful field army against the increasing attacks of the northern Pict tribes , as well as Irish, Scottish and Anglo-Saxon pirates. His empire was supposed to be limited to Britain and the tax revenues he received were supposed to be used exclusively for the maintenance of his armed forces. However, Constantine soon had other plans. Either he followed a call for help from the Gallic nobility or the local anarchy aroused in him the ambition to exploit the emperor's obvious weakness in action in Ravenna and to further expand his sphere of influence (like Carausius once did ). It is also possible that he feared that he would not be able to stay in Britain long without controlling the Gallic coastal countries and their ports. He therefore crossed the English Channel and landed his troops at Bononia ( Boulogne ). This event marks the end of Roman rule over Britain. Constantine's army probably only consisted of the mobile units ( Comitatenses ) (probably already sworn to him personally ) and (if at all) of a few border soldiers ( Limitanei ) . Possibly he withdrew the last regular garrisons from the forts in Wales for his campaign, so that the island was only defended by the garrison troops on Hadrian's Wall in the north and those on the Saxon coast in the southeast. The commander of the northern border, the Dux Britanniarum and his colleague in the south-east, the Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam , probably refused to weaken their garrisons even further because of the continental adventure of their - already nominally - superior colleague and soon went their own way .
Administrative staff
The Officium (administrative staff) of the Comes comprised the following offices:
- Principem ex officiis magistrorum militum praesentalium alternis annis. (Head of the office, is newly appointed every year by the army master)
- Numerarios ex utrisque officiis omni anno (two paymasters from the army master's staff, are newly appointed every year)
- Adiutorem (assistant)
- Commentariensem ut supra (= as above, bookkeeper and legal expert from the army)
- Subadiuuam (assistant)
- Regrendarium (administrator)
- Exceptores (lawyers)
- Singulares et reliquos officiales (bodyguards and other officials)
troops
The origin of the infantry units of the Comes is in most cases unclear. This also applies to his cavalry units. The British field army was set up relatively late. Their units were probably completely withdrawn from the Gallic army. Many of them were under the command of the Magister Equitum and had previously been assigned to the Limitanei des Dux Britanniarum on the northern border or to the Commander of the Canal or Saxon Coast Defense (Litus saxonicum) to the Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam . Then the soldiers of the field army of the Comes Britanniarum were incorporated as pseudocomitatenses and then later - because of the militarily precarious situation there - were reclassified into the Gallic army. The service in the British field army could also have been a kind of test for a later upgrade to Comitatenses . Presumably between the period when the Notitia was first compiled - that is, in the early 390s - and when it was last updated around 425.
Distributio Numerorum
The following list of troops can be found in the ND Occ. in Chapter VII (Magister peditum) :
cavalry
| unit | comment | Illustration |
|---|---|---|
| Comitatenses (indefinite) | ||
| Equites Catafractarii iuniores | These Panzerreiter are in the ND occ. not included in the list of the Magister Equitum . In the army of the Dux Britanniarum , however, one finds a prefect of the Equites catafractarii in Morbio Fort (possibly Piercebridge, County Durham) in command. These are likely to have been assigned to the British field army later. | |
| Equites Scutarii Aureliaci | Probably the same unit as that of the Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum . However, these were among the Limitanei , commanded by a Praefectus under the Dux Britanniarum . The unit is also known from another source: an inscription from the Aballava castle (Burgh by Sans) (253-258) names a numerus Maur (o) rum Aur (elionorum) Valeriani Gallienia (ue) . The term “number” does not differentiate between legionaries or auxiliaries, or on foot or on horseback; it just means a group of soldiers. Gallienus released the legionary cavalry from the frontier army in the 250s and set up new mobile units with them, this apparently one of them. | |
| Equites Honoriani Seniors | The cavalry unit was originally in the army of the Magister Equitum per Gallias ( Atecotti Honoriani seniores ). A total of six Honoriani units are listed in the Notitia, which led the name of Flavius Honorius , from 384-423 Western Roman emperor, as an honorary designation. The origin of the other five units is indefinite. | |
| Equites Stablesiani | There are two units of the Guard Service, both originally under the command of the Magister Equitum , stationed in Africa, in the ND Occ. be recorded. The
The British Equites stablisiani may have come from one of the two above. from. However, it is more likely that their relatives were commanded by the Praepositus equitum stablesianorum Gariannonensium , that is, originally under the command of the Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam . |
|
| Equites Syri | The Syrian horsemen are also a problem in their assignment, since they are also not to be found in the army of the Magister Equitum . The text from a now lost consecration altar from Barboniaco ( Kirkby Thore ) contains a. the abbreviation "NMSS". In research they are interpreted as N [umerus] M [ilitum] S [yorum] S [agittariorum]. Mounted archers would also go well with an oriental unit. The copyists in the Middle Ages could have confused the province of Syria with sagittarii . In that case, they could also have ridden one of the Ala units that were previously under the command of the Dux Britanniarum . | |
| Equites Taifali | The typhals are first mentioned in the sources in the middle of the 3rd century AD. Whether they belonged to the Germanic or Sarmatian ethnic group is controversial. They fought in many conflicts either for or against Rome in the 4th century. In addition to the various Taifali units given in the Notitia, there was also a prefectus Sarmatarum and Taifalorum gentilium Pictavis in Galia . Their tribal name lives on in the community of Tiffauges in the Pays de la Loire region in France. He may have been the godfather of a village in Lincolnshire called Tealby, formerly Teflesbi .
The typhals are probably identical to the unit that is also recorded under the Dux Britanniarum . There is no other written evidence of any other typhoon force in Britain. Perhaps they were pulled out of the Equites Honoriani iunores under the command of the Magister Equitum in Gaul. The shield sign shows a white background with a purple or white shield boss, which is surrounded by a red band, together with a purple or blue Draco motif and a kind of disk. Dragon standards were used by the Roman armed forces since the 2nd century AD, as a result of the Dacian Wars of Trajan. The heads of such dracones are often reminiscent of a wolf or a snake. It is possible that the red band that surrounds the shield boss represented a victory wreath in the original Notitia, as in the shield sign of the Felices Arcadiani seniores under the Magister Militum per Orientem (Eastern Empire). |
infantry
| unit | comment | Illustration |
|---|---|---|
| Comitatenses - Auxilia palatina | ||
| Victores luniores Britanniciani |
Victores means victorious; This title is also associated with Emperor Constantine I, who took the honorary name Victor instead of " Invictus " after decisively defeating his rival in the east, Licinius . The latter was a very common nickname for late Roman military units. Research puts them on a par with the Victores iuniores of that of a cohort in Spain under which Comes Hispaniarum served. Ammianus Marcellinus mentions Victores who accompanied the Comes Flavius Theodosius on his British campaign in 368. However, it is not clear which of the Victores units given in the Notitia was meant. Arnold HM Jones suspected that this was the Victores iuniores Britanniciani , who were left behind as reinforcements for the British field army after the campaign was over. Four more Victores units are given in the Notitia:
|
|
| Comitatenses - Legiones comitatenses | ||
| Primani luniores | The origin of the Primani iuniores is difficult to determine. The two western Primani units known from Notitia were in Gaul:
Maybe they were originally a vexillation of a Legio great. The Primani iuniores may have been left to secure the island sometime in the 4th century. Regardless of their origin, there must also have been a Primani seniores unit. The Notitia, however, does not record such a unit. Perhaps the Primani in the army of the Magister Militum Praesentalis II (Eastern Empire) are to be equated with the Primani seniores . |
|
| Secundani luniores | The troupe appears as Secunda Britannica , both in the list of the Magister Peditum and in Gaul as Secundani Britones . The term Secunda in their name suggests that they all came from the same legion. This unit could have been a vexillation of the British legion Legio II Augusta . In the 4th century she was in the army of the Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam and was garrisoned in the port city of Rutupiae (Richborough). |
literature
- Arnold Hugh Martin Jones : The Later Roman Empire, 284–602. A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey . 1964. Reprint, 2 vols., Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1986, ISBN 0-8018-3285-3 , p. 1424.
- Ralf Scharf: The Dux Mogontiacensis and the Notitia Dignitatum. A study of late antique border defense . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2005, ISBN 3-11-018835-X ( Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Supplementary volumes, Volume 48. Limited preview in the Google book search).
- Fran & Geoff Doel, Terry Lloyd: King Arthur and his world , translated from the English by Christof Köhler. Sutton, Erfurt 2000, ISBN 3-89702-191-9 .
- Michael Grant : The Roman Emperors. From Augustus to the end of the empire. A chronicle , Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-901-6 .
- Michael S. DuBois: Auxillae: A Compendium of Non-Legionary Units of the Roman Empire. Lulu Press 2015, ISBN 978-1-329-63758-0 .
- Thomas Green: Tealby, the Taifali, and the end of Roman Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire History and Archeology, Vol. 46, 2011.
Web links
Remarks
- RIB = Roman inscriptions in Britain
- ^ AHM Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284-602 , p. 1424; Ammianus Marcellinus 28.8 I.
- ↑ Michael Grant 1997, p. 346, Doel / Lloyd 2000, p.
- ↑ Doel / Lloyd, 2000, p. 22
- ^ Officium autem habet idem vir spectabilis comites Britanniarum
- ^ Intra Britannias cum uiro spectabili comite Britanniarum
- ^ [1] RIB 764
- ↑ Thomas Green 2011, pp. 5–10.
- ^ ND Occ. VII
Comes Britanniarum | Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam | Dux Britanniarum | Dux Belgicae secundae | Dux tractus Armoricani et Nervicani | Comes tractus Argentoratensis | Dux Mogontiacensis | Dux Germaniae primae | Dux provinciae Sequanicae | Comes Italiae | Comes Illyrici | Dux Raetiae primae et secundae | Dux Pannoniae Primae et Norici Ripensis | Dux Valeriae ripensis | Dux Pannoniae secundae ripariensis et Saviae | Dux provinciae Tripolitanae | Comes Africae | Dux et praeses provinciae Mauritaniae et Caesariensis | Comes Tingitaniae | Comes Hispaniarum