Comentiolos

This article deals with the general under Maurikios. For the rebel against Herakleios see Komentiolos (brother of Phocas) .

Komentiolos ( ancient Greek Κομεντίολος , Latin Comentiolus or Comenciolus ; † 602 ) was an Eastern Roman general in late antiquity . Along with Priskos and Petros, Komentiolos was one of the three generals who operated as military leaders during Maurikios' Balkan campaigns .

Komentiolos ( Comenciolus ) is attested as magister militum Spaniae on this 589 stone inscription (ILS 835) from Cartagena.

Life

Almost nothing is known about the early years of Comentiolus, except that he came from Thrace . In 583 he took part in a delegation from Emperor Maurikios to the Avarenkhagan Baian . When an armistice with the Avars was reached in the following year, Komentiolus was commissioned to undertake a campaign against the Slavs in Thrace. He defeated a Slavic contingent on the river Erginia and took action again in 585 - this time in the rank of magister militum - against them.

In 586 he was appointed commander-in-chief in the war against the Avars after they broke the armistice. An attempt to capture the Avarenkhagan failed. 589 he is attested as magister militum Spaniae in Hispania , where he fought against "barbaric enemies" according to identification of an inscription from Cartagena (ILS 835); Since 552, the eastern Romans held a region called the Province of Spania in the south of the Visigothic Empire . In 589 at the latest, Komentiolos was awarded the high title of patricius .

In 589 he, who had evidently proven himself in Spain, was transferred to the supreme command of the Eastern Front in the fight against the Sassanids as the successor to Philippikos (→ Roman-Persian Wars ). The Persians were defeated at Nisibis while a siege ring was built around the city of Martyropolis. In 590 he received the Persian great king Chosrau II , who had fled from the usurper Bahram Chobin and sought refuge in the Eastern Roman Empire. Maurikios promised him his support. Komentiolos took part in the successful campaign against Ctesiphon . Chosrau II ascended the throne again and the Eastern Romans were rewarded with cedings of territory. During the remaining reign of Maurikios peace reigned in the east; after its overthrow, however, the last and greatest war broke out between Eastern and Persia.

In 598 and 599, Komentiolus waged war against the Avars, with varying degrees of success. When an uprising broke out among the troops on the Danube in 602 and the discontented soldiers proclaimed the military leader Phokas emperor, Maurikios fled from his troops to Constantinople and commissioned Komentiolos with the defense. Still, Phocas managed to take power. Maurikios and his entire family were murdered in a real bloodbath. As a result of the subsequent "purge", Komentiolus, who had apparently been loyal to the emperor, was also executed.

literature

• Arnold HM Jones, John R. Martindale, John Morris: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Volume 3: John R. Martindale: AD 527-641. Volume A: Abandanes - 'Iyād ibn Ghanm. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1992, ISBN 0-521-20160-8 , pp. 321-325.
• Michael Whitby : The Emperor Maurice and his Historian. Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare. Clarendon Press, Oxford et al. 1988, ISBN 0-19-822945-3 (Oxford, Phil. Dissertation, 1981: The "Historiae" of Theophylact Simocatta. ).