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Magister militum

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The original command structure of thelate Roman army,with a separatemagister equitumand amagister peditumin place of the later overallmagister militumin the command structure of the army of theWestern Roman Empire.
The high command structure of the West Roman armyc. 410–425,based on theNotitia Dignitatum

Magister militum(Latinfor "master of soldiers";pl.:magistri militum) was a top-level military command used in thelate Roman Empire,dating from the reign ofConstantine the Great.The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, the emperor remaining the supreme commander) of the empire. InGreeksources, the term is translated either asstrategosor asstratelates(although these terms were also used non-technically to refer to commanders of different ranks).

Establishment and development of the command

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Further information:Late Roman army
Iovinuswasmagister equitumfrom 361 to 369 under several Roman emperors, fromJuliantoValentinian I.Accordingly, he had himself depicted on his richly decoratedmarble sarcophagusas a fightingequestriangeneral (centre).Musée Saint-Remi,Reims.

The office ofmagister militumwas created in the early 4th century, most likely when the Western Roman emperorConstantine the Greatdefeated all other contemporary Roman emperors, which gave him control over their respective armies. Because thePraetorian Guardsand their leaders, thePraetorian Prefects,had supported Constantine's enemy, Maxentius, he disbanded the Guard and deprived the Prefects of their military functions, reducing them to a purely civil office. To replace them, he created two posts: a commander of theinfantry,themagister peditum( "master of foot" ), and a more prestigiouscavalrycommander, themagister equitum( "master of horse" ). These offices had precedents in the immediate imperial past, both in function and idea;[1]the latter title had existed sincerepublican times,as the second-in-command to aRomandictator.

Under Constantine's successors, the titles were also established at a territorial level:magistri peditumandmagistri equitumwere appointed for everypraetorian prefecture(perGallias,perItaliam,perIllyricum,perOrientem), and, in addition, forThraceand, sometimes,Africa.On occasion, the offices would be combined in a single person, then styledmagister equitum et peditumormagister utriusque militiae( "master of both forces" ). Overall, lower-levelmagistriwere assigned according to circumstances, with varying numbers employed in a given area.[2]Some were directly in command of the local mobile field army of thecomitatenses,which acted as arapid reaction force.Othermagistriremained at the immediate disposal of the emperors, and by the late fourth century or early fifth century were termedin praesenti( "in the presence" of the emperor).

Over the course of the fourth century in theWestern Roman Empire,the system of two imperialmagistriremained largely intact, with usually onemagisterhaving paramount authority (such as Bauto or Merobaudes, the main power behind the appointment of emperor Valentinian II.) This tendency culminated inArbogast,who inherited the position of westernmagister militumand used it to functionally usurp emperor Valentinian II, either killing him or driving him to suicide before appointing his own puppet emperor, Eugenius. In the west, the position (often under the title ofmagister utriusque militiaeor MVM) remained very powerful until the formal end of the empire, and was held byStilicho,Aetius,Ricimer,and others.

In the east, emperor Theodosius I (379-395) expanded the system of twomagistri militumto include an additional threemagistri.For a long time these generals were used in an ad hoc manner, being employed wherever they were needed. Eventually in the fifth century their positions became more firmly established, and there were two senior generals, who were each appointed to the office ofmagister militum praesentalis.

During the reign of EmperorJustinian I,with increasing military threats and the expansion of the Eastern Empire, the posts of the eastern generals were overhauled: themagister militum per Armeniamin the Armenian and Caucasian provinces, formerly part of the jurisdiction of themagister militum per Orientem,themagister militum per Africamin the reconqueredAfrican provinces(534), with a subordinatemagister peditum,and themagister militumSpaniae(c. 562).

In the course of the 6th century, internal and external crises in the provinces often necessitated the temporary union of the supreme regional civil authority with the office of themagister militum.In the establishment of theexarchatesofRavennaandCarthagein 584, this practice found its first permanent expression. Indeed, after the loss of the eastern provinces to theMuslim conquestin the 640s, the surviving field armies and their commanders formed the firstthemata.

Supreme military commanders sometimes also took this title in early medieval Italy, for example in thePapal Statesand inVenice,whoseDogeclaimed to be the successor to theExarch of Ravenna.

List ofmagistri militum

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Unspecified commands

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Comes et magister utriusque militiae

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Per Gallias

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Per Hispanias

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Per Ilyricum

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Per Orientem

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Per Armeniam

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Per Thracias

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Praesentalis

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Per Africam

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Western Empire

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  • 373–375: Theodosius,magister equitum[9]
  • 386–398:Gildo,magister equitum et peditum[26]

Eastern Empire

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Magister militaein Byzantine and medieval Italy

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Venice

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Later, less formal use of the term

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The term is referred to by EmperorConstantine VIIin hisDe Administrando Imperioin a digression on 6th century Italian history, where he refers tomastromilismeaning 'captain-general of the army' in the 'Roman tongue'. By the time of writing in the mid-10th century working knowledge of Latin was mostly absent in the Byzantine imperial court.

By the 12th century, the term was being used to describe a man who organized the military force of a political or feudal leader on his behalf. In theGesta Herwardi,the hero is several times described asmagister militumby the man who translated the originalOld Englishaccount intoMedieval Latin.It seems possible that the writer of the original version, now lost, thought of him as thehereward' (Old English:here,lit. 'army' and no:weard,lit. 'guard') – the supervisor of the military force. That this later use of these terms was based on the classical concept seems clear.[27]

See also

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^Bendle, Christopher (2024).The office of "Magister Militum" in the 4th century CE: a study into the impact of political and military leadership on the later Roman Empire.Studies in ancient monarchies. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 31.ISBN978-3-515-13614-3.
  2. ^Bendle, 2024. 31.
  3. ^abcdefghijkPLRE I, p. 1114
  4. ^PLRE I, p. 62
  5. ^Hughes, Ian: Aetius: Attila's Nemesis, p. 74
  6. ^Hughes, Ian: Aetius: Attila's Nemesis, p. 75
  7. ^Hughes, Ian: Aetius: Attila's Nemesis, p. 85
  8. ^Hughes, Ian: Aetius: Attila's Nemesis, p. 87, Heather, Peter: The Fall of the Roman Empire, pp. 262, 491
  9. ^abcdefghijklmPLRE I, p. 1113
  10. ^Hydatius, Chronica Hispania, 122
  11. ^Hydatius, Chronica Hispania, 128
  12. ^Hydatius, Chronica Hispania, 134
  13. ^abcdPLRE I, p. 1112
  14. ^PLRE I, p. 125
  15. ^PLRE I, p. 307
  16. ^Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin; Martindale, J. R.; Morris, J. (1980).The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume 2, AD 395–527.Cambridge University Press. p. 228.ISBN9780521201599.
  17. ^Martindale, J. R. (1992).The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire 2 Part Set: Volume 3, AD 527–641.Cambridge University Press. p. 845.ISBN978-0-521-20160-5.
  18. ^Greatrex, Geoffrey; Lieu, Samuel N. C. (2005).The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars AD 363–628.Routledge.ISBN978-1-134-75645-2.
  19. ^Kaegi, Walter Emil (2003).Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium.Cambridge University Press. p.22.ISBN978-0521814591.
  20. ^PLRE II, p. 597
  21. ^PLRE II, p. 211
  22. ^PLRE I, pp. 1113–1114
  23. ^PLRE I, p. 152
  24. ^John Moorhead,Justinian(London, 1994), p. 16.
  25. ^John Moorhead,Justinian(London, 1994), p. 17.
  26. ^PLRE I, p. 395
  27. ^Gesta HerwardiArchived2011-01-21 at theWayback MachineThe term is used in chapters XII, XIV, XXII and XXIII. SeeThe Name, Herewardfor details.

Sources

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