Comes Illyrici

Army leaders of the Comitatenses and Limitanei in the 5th century AD.

The Illyrian Provinces around AD 400

Late Roman officer's helmet of the Berkasovo II type, 4th century

Solidus of Flavius ​​Constantius from 421. On the lapel the emperor is depicted as a military leader

A Comes Illyrici (sometimes also Comes per Illyricum ; literally: " Count of Illyricum ") was deployed in the 4th and 5th centuries AD in the event of a crisis as the commander of the late Roman mobile intervention troops ( Comitatenses ) on the upper and middle Danube.

Known comites by name:

• Varronianus (4th century, the father of the later Emperor Iovian ),
• Aegidius (around 364 AD),
• Vitalian (around 380 AD),
• Romulus (around 488 AD)

In late antiquity, the Roman official and honorary title Comes usually denoted the highest class of the nobility (vir spectabilis) or members of the Privy Council at the imperial court. In the military, this title was usually given to the commanders of the mobile field armies in the provinces or to high officers for temporary special commands.

His area of ​​responsibility ( comitativa ) essentially extended to the provinces of the so-called " Illyricum occidentale ":

• Raetia I and II,
• Shore and inland Noricum,
• Pannoniae I and II,
• Valeria ripensis,
• Savia,
• Dalmatia and
• Dacia .

development

The military leader Decius was marched in the year 249 by the emperor Philip Arabs as Dux of the Illyrian army (i.e. the Pannonian and Mösian troops) against the Goths on the Balkan peninsula, where he was proclaimed emperor in the summer of the same year. After the murder of Constans (337-350), Constantius II had a field army set up for Illyricum. Their further development can only be traced by comparing them with the lists of troops in the Eastern Notitia (created before 395 AD) and the Western Roman listing in the distributio numerorum (created around 420 AD). As a permanent institution, the office of the Illyrian Comes probably never existed. In the Notitia Dignitatum Occidentum it is not found in the list of the other comites of the western army, but only appears under the Magister Peditum . Theodor Mommsen was of the opinion that he was only appointed by him when necessary, e.g. B. as a special command for special tasks or in times of extreme crisis. The Magister Peditum could not award this title, but could temporarily appoint an officer with the powers of a Comes. Ammian writes that in AD 364 a Comes Aegidius led the Illyrian contingent, later he was raised to the rank of magister armorum per Illyricum . According to a report by Zosimos , around 409 AD a man named Generidus was in command of the troops on the Danube, and he is also known as the magister militum .

The fact that the Comes Illyrici does not appear in the index of the other Comites limitium in the Notitia Dignitatum and - as usual - there are no images of cities or forts that it controlled is also an argument in favor of a temporary establishment of this office . In addition, it does not appear to have had its own administrative staff. There is no evidence that a Comes commanded mobile troops in Illyricum for an extended period of time. Research believes that this could be an indication that the Illyrian field army was not set up until later, around 420, under Flavius ​​Constantius (Incidentally, Illyricum was part of the Eastern Empire before 399 and, during this time, also of the Gothic federates occupied by Alaric ).

The formation of the Illyrian army was probably the reaction to the final collapse of the border security on the upper and middle Danube Limes . Around 420 AD, Flavius ​​Constantius had to gather all the troops still available in order to compensate for the heavy losses of the western Roman army, which it suffered in the fighting after the barbarian invasions of 406 . Since no new soldiers could be recruited for lack of money, most of the units required for this were pulled out of the Limitanei and unceremoniously promoted to Comitatenses . In the ranks of the new field army were u. a. two units of lance throwers previously stationed in Lauriacum and Comagena . Despite the later cession of the Pannonian provinces to Attila by Aetius , the office of Comes Illyrici probably still existed in the middle of the 5th century. The ancient chronicler Priscos mentions a man named Romulus from Poetovio , who was sent as a member of a delegation of high-ranking dignitaries in 448 AD, on behalf of Aetius, to negotiate at the court of the Hun king. Since Priscus also mentions that embassies were predominantly accompanied by the military leaders of the regions bordering on the Hun Empire, it is possible that Romulus held the office of the Illyrian Comes.

Under Theodosius I , the organization of the army no longer corresponded to the traditional system of Diocletian . Most of the military offices as well as the individual section commands of the palace and mobile field armies disappeared, perhaps including the office of Comes Illyrici . As a security measure for the cut of the Huns Dalmatia Aetius addressed (along with perhaps some time continuing comititiva Illyrici ) the office of comes Dalmatiarum one that first held his confidant Marcellinus. One of his successors was later the Gothic troop leader of the province of Dalmatia , a "comes primi ordinis" with the rank of vir illustris . A man named Oswin is known by name under Athanaric in AD 526 a. a. the troops of the province of Savia were subordinate. In addition, we know of a certain Comes Colosseus, a novel who headed the military and civil administration in Pannonia Sirmienses in personal union.

troops

A total of 22 units are listed in the Notitia Dignitatum under the command of the Comes , which in turn were under the command of the Magister Peditum.

Distributio Numerorum

According to the ND Occ. the following units may have been available to the comes :

units	comment	Illustration
	Palace troops (auxilia palatini)
Sagittarii Tungri		Shield sign unknown
Iovii iuniores		Shield sign unknown
Sequani		Shield sign unknown
Raeti	This unit is believed to have been the remnants of several Rhaetian frontier units from the middle imperial period and were eventually combined as the Cohors Raetorum under one commander.	Shield sign unknown
Sagittarii venatores		Shield sign unknown
Latini	The troop probably came from Britain. In the list of the Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam there is a Praepositus militum Tungrecanorum in Dubris (Dover). It appears to be the same unit as a British cohort named equitata millaria civium Latinorum alongside the cohors II Tungrorum . Its last datable mention comes from the year 241 and gives the fort Castleheads (Camboglana) on Hadrian's Wall as the stationing place . It looks as though the Latini were also transferred to Illyricum and were soon promoted to Palatine status there. The addition " civium Latinorum " is also unusual; the common name for cohorts of Roman citizens is civium Romanorum .	Shield sign unknown
Valentinianenses felices	They are probably the Valentinianenses iuniores , a unit of the auxilia Palatina (Guard). Other vexillations of the Valentinianenses are also recorded under the Magister Equitum in Gaul , from which it is assumed that they also emerged from the Valentinianenses iuniores . Their position in the list suggests a rank as pseudocomitatenses or a completely reorganized unit that had just been incorporated into the army at the time. With a status as Palatinii , however, it would be rather unlikely that they were originally assigned by the Limitanei . In this case, this would have to be an innovation, which only after the death of Valentinian III. was introduced.	Shield sign unknown
Honoriani victores	Presumably identical to the Honoriani victores iuniores .	Shield sign unknown
Seguntienses	The unit originally comes from Segontium (Caernarvon in Wales, Great Britain), but is no longer specified in the list of the Dux Britanniarum in the final version of the Notitia . There is archaeological evidence of the occupation of this Welsh fort dating back to around 390.	Shield sign unknown
Tungri	This unit is most likely also from Britain. In the troop list of the Dux Britanniarum a Tribunus Tungrorum cohortis primae is given, stationed at Borcovicio (also Vercovicium , today Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall ). In the previous centuries it was still called cohors millaria (1000 strong). As a result, she seems to have been raised to the status of Palatinae (Guard) under the Illyrian Comes . Incidentally, it is also a noticeable feature in the notitia that no auxilia units are given for the comitatenses . They are listed there either as pseudocomitatenses or palatinae . If these troops were transferred to Illyricum in the aftermath of Stilicho's death , there would have been ample time for them to defend themselves in battle and to be promoted to Palatine status . They also became part of the Italian field army, which is considered to be the most powerful of the decade.	Shield sign unknown
Mauri Honoriani seniores		Shield sign unknown
Mattiarii Honoriani Gallicani		Shield sign unknown
	Legiones Comitatenses
Tertiani	This troop is obviously a vexillation of the Legio III Italica under the Dux Raetiae .	Shield sign of the Tertiani
Tertia Herculea		Shield sign of the Tertia Herculea
Pacatianenses	Presumably the soldiers under the Praefectus numeri Pacensium in the list of the Dux Britanniarum . They must have stood in Britain for a long time before they were finally given to the Comes Illyrici .	Shield sign unknown
Mauri Cetrati		Shield sign unknown
Propugnatores iuniores		Shield sign unknown
	Pseudocomitatenses
Lanciarii Lauriacenses	The lance throwers from Lauriacum (today Enns in Upper Austria) were probably originally members of the Legio II Italica , stationed in the province of Noricum ripense . This unit was probably included in the Illyrian field army between 395 and 420. The title of lanciarii (or lancearii ) was given to elite units from the late 3rd century onwards. On the grave inscription of the soldier Gaius Aurelius, he is called " ippeus lankiaris ". A number of Lanciarii units are cited in the Notitia, some of which are obviously such elite units, while others, such as the Lanciarii Lauriacenses , are not listed as such.	Shield sign of the Lanciarii Lauriacenses
Lanciarii Comaginenses	The lance thrower from Comagena (today Tulln on the Danube / Lower Austria) was probably a vexillation of the legio I Noricorum , stationed in the province of Noricum ripense .	Shield sign of the Lanciarii Comaginenses
Secunda Iulia	Ident with the Secunda Iulia Alpina . A legion that was originally raised from the hill tribes in the Italian part of the western Alps. Their continued existence is evidenced in the Notitia by a chapter heading of the Italian army of Magister Peditum . The chapter gives the area of ​​command, but neither officers, castles nor cities.	Sign of the Legio Secunda Iulia Alpina
Catarienses	Probably a unit of the Pseudocomitatenses . They probably only achieved this status in the 5th century. It is almost certainly the same unit that was commanded by a Tribunus cohortis Caratensis under the Dux Pannoniae Primae et Norici Ripensis .	Shield sign unknown

literature

• Theodor Mommsen : The Roman military system since Diocletian . In: Hermes , Volume 24 (1889), pp. 195-279, ISSN  0018-0777 ( online , on comes Illyrici p. 264).
• Displacement of peoples in the Eastern Alps-Central Danube area between antiquity and the Middle Ages (375–600) . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 39, Walter de Gruyter, 2003, ISBN 3-11-017855-9 , pp. 10, 17, 18 and 28.
• Robert Grosse : Roman military history from Gallienus to the beginning of the Byzantine thematic constitution Weidmann, Berlin 1920; Reprint Ayer Publishing, 1975, ISBN 0-405-07083-7 , pp. 170-171,
• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones : The Later Roman Empire. 284-602. A social, economic and administrative survey . Johns Hopkins Univ. Pr., Baltimore, Md. 1986 (2 volumes)

1. 1986, ISBN 0-8018-3353-1
2. 1986, ISBN 0-8018-3354-X

• Peter J. Heather : The fall of the Roman Empire . Macmillan, London 2005, ISBN 0-333-98914-7 .
  • German: The fall of the Roman Empire . Rowohlt TB Verlag, Reinbek b. Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-499-62665-4 .
• Michael S. DuBois: Auxillae: A Compendium of Non-Legionary Units of the Roman Empire. Lulu Press 2015, ISBN 978-1-329-63758-0 .
• Klaus Wachtel: A milestone of Decius from latrus (Moesia inferior). In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Year 149, Linz 2004, pp. 141–147 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).

Remarks

1. ↑ 26, 5, 3.
2. ↑ Amm. 29, 6, 3.
3. ↑ Klaus Wachtel p. 146.
4. ↑ Peter Heather: The Fall of the Western Roman Empire . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-499-62665-4 , p. 472.
5. ↑ sub dispositions
6. ↑ Peter Heather: 2011, p. 570, note 48
7. ↑ AE 1981, 777
8. ↑ ND Occ. V 109, 110; 259; VII 58, 59
9. ↑ VII.  Qui numeri ex praedictis per infrascriptas provincias habeantur / Intra Italiam
10. ↑ Reprinted in: Collected Writings . Part 6, Volume 3. 1910; 3rd edition (reprint) Olms, Hildesheim, 1994, ISBN 3-615-14646-8 , pp. 206-283 (p. 270).

Web links

• The Comes per Illyricum in the Notitia dignitatum