Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando-Collins Read Free Book Online Page A

senatorial provinces, whose governors were appointed by the Senate.
    XXIV. SENIOR OFFICER RANK DISTINCTIONS
    Early Imperial Roman Army

    The fasces, bundles of wooden rods around an ax, signified the power of the Roman magistrate.
    XXV. SENIOR OFFICERS OF THE LATE EMPIRE
    Prefects, dukes and counts take command
    During the reign of co-emperor Diocletian ( AD 285–305), Rome’s original provinces were divided into more than a hundred smaller provinces, each with their own governor and military commander. Between AD 312 and 337 Constantine the Great took this reorganization further.
    With prefects commanding legions, senior tribunes continued to be second-in-command of legions, on the emperor’s direct appointment. A “second tribune” replaced the old enlisted rank of camp-prefect as third-in-command of a legion, and was given the appointment on merit after lengthy service. [Vege., II ]
    Thin-stripe tribunes were replaced as officer cadets by the candidati militares , the military candidates. Under Constantine, this officer training corps comprised two cohorts attached to the emperor’s bodyguard. Wearing white tunics and cloaks, candidatores , as they were called, were all young men chosen for their height and good looks. Candidati service prepared suitable trainee officers for promotion to tribune and unit commands. On several occasions in the fourth century, the candidates militares went into battle with their emperors, serving as independent fighting units within the imperial bodyguard.
    The fourth-century provincial governor was a civilian. Separate provincial military commanders held the rank of dux , or “leader,” the latter-day duke. The duke’s superior was a regional commander whose authority might extend across several provinces, or even in some cases the entire east or west of the empire, holding the rank of comes , literally meaning “companion” of the emperor, the latter-day count. Counts also had charge of areas of civil administration. Military comites also commanded the household guard. In the late fourth century there were always two military counts and thirteen dukes in the west of the Roman Empire, while in the east there were four military counts and twelve dukes.
    Both duke and count were distinguished when in armor by a golden cincticulus , the general’s waistband, as opposed to the scarlet cincticulus of legion legates of old. The duke and count received generous salaries as well as allowances that provided each with 190 personal servants and 158 personal horses. In place of the two praetorian prefects, Constantine introduced the posts of master ofinfantry and master of horse as the empire’s supreme military commanders. The post of praetorian prefect was retained, but in a civil administrative role, with several stationed throughout the empire as financial auditors reporting directly to their emperor. [Gibb., XVII ]
    Many fourth- and fifth-century Roman commanders had foreign blood, among them the counts Silvanus and Lutto, both Franks; Magnentius, a German; Ursicinus, who was probably an Alemanni German; and Stilicho, one of whose parents was a Vandal. The father of Count Bragatio, Master of Horse under Constantius II, was a Frank. Mallobaudes, who was a tribune with the armaturae , a heavy-armored element of the Roman household cavalry in the fourth century, was a Frank by birth, and went on to become king of the Franks. Victor, Master of Horse under the emperor Valens, was a Sarmatian.
    XXVI. AUXILIARIES
    The auxiliary was a foreign soldier who did not originally hold Roman citizenship. Most provinces and a number of allied states supplied men to fill auxiliary units of the Roman army. Some auxiliary units lived and fought alongside particular legions; others operated independently. In the AD 60s, for example, eight cohorts of Batavian light infantry were partnered with the 14th Gemina Legion.
    At least two wings of auxiliary cavalry would also march with a specific legion, so that a