Terentius dux

Terentius was the name of one or two personalities who served as high staff officers in the late Roman army. As duces , they held under Emperor Valentinian I (364–375) and Valens (364–378) the military supreme command of the Pannonian province of Pannonia Valeria and the Roman troops in the Kingdom of Armenia located in Eastern Asia Minor and Transcaucasia .

research

The Pannonian dux Terentius is best known for its brick stamps, which emerged from the ground at various military sites; The contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus reports on the Armenian Terentius . There is also a fragment of a letter from Basil the Great addressed to this provincial commander. On the basis of archaeological finds from Hungary that can be dated, it is now largely assumed that Terentius, who was appointed Dux Valeriae ripensis in the Pannonia Valeria, transferred his office to his successor Frigeridus in 371 , while the officer of the same name working for Armenia demonstrably took over the military between 369 and 374 commanded this province. Since the date 371 was discussed again and again in the research despite all beliefs, a final assessment of the facts of whether the two commanders are two different people has not yet been made.

Terentius as dux Valeriae

The late antique Limes in the greater Danube Bend with the entry Burgi between Visegrád – Gizellamajor and Visegrád – Sibrik

In particular, the circumstances of the find at two Burgi located in Hungary between the forts Visegrád – Gizellamajor and Visegrád – Sibrik suggest that a match between the two well-known commanders of the same name is unlikely. The only way to reconcile the above-mentioned archaeological findings from the Danube Bend and the written sources is to assume that older bricks from Terentius, who was no longer in office at the time, were also used in the construction of the Burgus Visegrád quarry. This would leave room for the consideration of accepting a handover to Frigeridus for 369/370. Since the dating of a building inscription that names Terentius' probably immediate predecessor in office (Augustianus) dates back to 367 at the latest, Terentius can be expected to take up service during this period.

Terentius as comes et dux Armeniae

The Persian Great King Shapur II (309–379) invaded Armenia soon after the death of Emperor Jovian (364), which had been excluded from the Roman-Persian peace treaty of 363 . King Arshak II, who ruled there and was allied with the Romans, had to face him alone, since Jovian had committed himself in the Treaty of 363, which was very disadvantageous for Rome, not to intervene in Armenia in the event of a Persian invasion. The intruders succeeded in capturing Arshak II at 368, blinded and chained. But even after this success, Shapur did not have complete control of Armenia, as Queen Pharandzem and her son Pap (Pabak) claimed the capital Artogerassa against the Persians and only a part of the Armenian aristocrats sided with the Persians. Even when trying to put two Armenian nobles, Artabannes and Kylakes , on Pharandzem, Shapur failed because the queen succeeded in "turning them around" again. The result was the defeat of the Persian expeditionary army. Still, much of the country remained under the control of the Persians.

Fearing a campaign of revenge by the Persians, Pap fled to the new Eastern Roman emperor Valens. He was looking for an occasion for a new Persian War anyway, in order to be able to revise the Treaty of 363. As a Roman client king , the Armenian should therefore return to his homeland accompanied by Roman troops. The emperor assigned this task to Terentius , who was appointed an Armenian dux in 369 . Schapur saw this again - rightly - as a breach of contract, stormed Artogerassa that same year, cracked down on the Christians in the region and had Queen Pharandzem cruelly executed, while Pap temporarily fled to the mountains and later left Schapur to one the intrigue he had orchestrated. At the end of this, the Armenian had at least two of his most important loyal followers and apparently also the Armenian Catholicos killed.

According to Ammian’s reports, Terentius had already warned the emperor of Pop’s dubious character before he left for Armenia, but if the tradition is to be believed, Terentius, who always appeared devoted and level-headed, was said to have been a nasty troublemaker himself. In 370 Valens ordered the Gothic army master Arintheus to Armenia, Terentius with twelve legions to Iberia to the north . King Sauromaces II, who had been expelled from Shapur in 363, was to be reinstated there. The Persian great king had put his Persian-friendly cousin Aspacures II on the throne in place of this ruler . The Romans soon gained control of Iberia and divided the land between the two kings, which in the summer of 371, however, led again to war with the angry Shapur. However, the Persian troops suffered a severe defeat against Traianus, who was summoned from Egypt and appointed as a comes , and the former Alemannic king Vadomar, who was allied with Rome .

After the Romans had renewed their rule in Armenia in 372, questions about a reorganization of the Armenian Church came on the agenda. The term comes et dux Armeniae for Terentius is passed down from a fragment of a letter that has been sent to him by Basil the Great , who was appointed metropolitan . The influential Terentius, a staunch supporter of Nicene-influenced Christianity and a friend of Basil, had received an order from the emperor to inform the clergyman about his new office. In the received letter from Basil, in turn, he describes his subsequent efforts as a metropolitan to reorganize the church system of Armenia and to resolve internal church difficulties. Perhaps it was Terentius himself, whom Ammianus did not characterize very favorably, who during his time as commander-in-chief of the troops in Armenia stood up for his friend with Emperor Valens.

After Schapur had used the client king Pap as a tool for the intrigue he had instigated and an important church leader had died in the process, Emperor Valens asked the Armenian to come to him so that he could take him into honor. But Pap resisted and thus finally became an incalculable risk for the Romans for their interests in Armenia. In 373 Terentius, who is said to have urged Valens to appoint a new Armenian king, was therefore charged with the removal of Pop. It was possible to persuade Pap to appear at a banquet of Terentius' successor Traianus in the autumn of 374, where he was killed in an ambush. The Roman-Persian conflict over Armenia was then settled a few years later - probably in 387 - by a treaty that provided for the division of the country into a Roman and a Persian ( Persarmenia ) sphere of interest.

Well-known high commanders of the Valeria province

Surname	Official title	Time position	comment
Augustianus	viro clarissimo comite ordinis primi et duce Valeriae limitis	364 / 365-367	Mentioned in a building inscription from Esztergom . According to Sándor Soproni , it could have belonged to the Esztergom-Hideglelőskereszt castle .
Terentius	dux Valeriae	367/368 by 371 at the latest	The expansion of internal fortresses and Limes facilities can be determined archaeologically.
Frigeridus	vir perfectissimus, dux Valeriae	from 371 to 373/374 at the latest	Frigeridus is likely of Germanic descent. During his term of office, the expansion of inland fortresses and Limes facilities were vigorously advanced.
Marcellianus	dux Valeriae	from 373/374	Marcellianus is a native of Pannonia. Due to the turmoil of war 374–375 and the subsequent events against Germanic and Sarmatic enemies (including the collapse of the Limes Sarmatiae ), work on the Limes stalled and in some cases was completely abandoned.

literature

• Alexander Demandt : History of Late Antiquity. The Roman Empire from Diocletian to Justinian AD 284-565. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57241-8 , pp. 93-94.
• Gerhard May: Basil the Great and the Roman State. In: Bernd Möller, Gerhard Ruhbach (Hrsg.): Remaining in the change of church history. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1973, ISBN 3-16-135332-3 , pp. 47-70; here: pp. 59–60.

Remarks

1. ↑ Notitia Dignitatum, IN PARTIBUS OCCIDENTIS, XXXIII.
2. ↑ Endre Tóth : Roman watchtowers of Pilismarót. In: Communicationes archeologicae Hungariae. 1984, ISSN  0231-133X , pp. 67-79, here p. 77.
3. ↑ Limes between the Visegrád – Gizellamajor fort and the Visegrád – Sibrik fort
4. ^ Klaus Wachtel: Frigeridus dux. In: Chiron . Vol. 30, 2000, pp. 905-914, here: pp. 912f.
5. ↑ CIL 03, 10596 .
6. ↑ ^{a b} Gerhard May: Basil the Great and the Roman State. In: Bernd Möller, Gerhard Ruhbach (Hrsg.): Remaining in the change of church history. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1973, ISBN 3-16-135332-3 , p. 60.
7. ↑ Alexander Demandt: History of late antiquity. The Roman Empire from Diocletian to Justinian 284–565 AD. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57241-8 . P. 94.
8. ↑ Gerhard May: Basil the Great and the Roman State. In: Bernd Möller, Gerhard Ruhbach (Hrsg.): Remaining in the change of church history. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1973, ISBN 3-16-135332-3 , p. 59.
9. ↑ Gerhard Müller (Ed.): TRE. Real Theological Encyclopedia. Part 1: Aaron - Agende. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1993, ISBN 3-11-013898-0 , p. 364.
10. ^ Klaus Wachtel: Frigeridus dux. In: Chiron. Vol. 30 (2000), pp. 905-914, here: p. 913.
11. ↑ CIL 03, 10596 .
12. ↑ Zsolt Mráv : Archaeological research 2000–2001 in the area of ​​the late Roman fortress of Göd-Bócsaújtelep (preliminary report) 2002. In: Communicationes archeologicae Hungariae. 2003, pp. 83–114, here p. 101.