Victor (Army Master)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flavius ​​Victor was a Roman army master ( magister militum ) in the 4th century AD.

Life

Victor was a Sarmatian and was considered a devout Catholic . Under Emperor Constantius II he had served in the east, under his successor Julian , who preferred the traditional cults of gods, Victor held the office of comes and accompanied the emperor on his Persia campaign in the spring of 363. After initial successes - the Roman army pushed up to Persian capital Ctesiphon before - the Romans were pushed back by the Persians. Julian died on June 26th as a result of a combat injury, leaving the army without a command.

The choice of a successor fell to a college of officers, which in addition to Victor also included Dagalaifus (he had been in command of the rearguard together with Victor), Nevitta and Arintheus . Nevitta and Dagalaifus were pagans and professing supporters of Julian who had already served under him in Gaul , while Victor and Arintheus had both served as officers under Constantius and were also Christians. In a way, the four officers symbolized the division of the army that had become evident after Julian had brought larger contingents of the Gallic field army with him to the east in 361, and which the emperor had not been able to bridge in his short reign. Finally, however, an agreement was reached on the guard officer and Christian Jovian , for whom Victor had made a significant contribution.

Jovian had to make an inglorious peace with the Persian great king Shapur II , who granted the Persians extensive territories in Mesopotamia ; the new emperor died in 364, however. Victor subsequently served as magister peditum under Emperor Valens , on whose behalf he fought against the Persians and negotiated with the Goths in 369 . In the same year he also held the consulate .

Victor was present at the Battle of Adrianople , in which the Roman army suffered a crushing defeat against the Goths. Victor had tried in vain to save Emperor Valens, but got away with his life; he also informed Gratian , Valens' nephew and emperor in the west, of the defeat. Victor then spent the last years of his life together with his wife in the east of the empire, mostly in Antioch .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ So our best and most reliable source Ammianus Marcellinus (24,6,4); according to Zosimos , he was already an army master at that time. For the background and the course of the campaign cf. Rosen: Julian. 2006, p. 333 ff. With further literature. Special to Gerhard Wirth : Julian's Persian War. Criteria of a disaster. In: Richard Klein (ed.): Julian Apostata (= ways of research. Vol. 509). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-534-07315-0 , pp. 455-507, pointed out.
  2. ^ Noel Lenski: The Election of Jovian and the Role of the Late Imperial Guards. In: Klio . Vol. 82, No. 2, 2000, pp. 492–515 doi : 10.1524 / klio.2000.82.2.492 (currently not available) , as well as Evangelos Chrysos : evacuation and abandonment of imperial territories . The contract of 363. In: Bonner Jahrbücher. Vol. 193, 1993, ISSN  0938-9334 , pp. 165-202.
  3. ↑ Ammianus 27: 5, 9. On the Goth war of Valens cf. Noel Lenski: Failure of Empire. Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century AD (= The Transformation of the Classical Heritage. Vol. 34). University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2002, ISBN 0-520-23332-8 , p. 116 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Victor, Flavius ​​(full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman army master (magister militum)
DATE OF BIRTH before 363
DATE OF DEATH after 378