Appointment
Archaeologists Timothy W. Potter and Catherine Johns believe that the Comes Britanniarum led an ad hoc force created to deal with a particular situation. [2] They seem to have been appointed during times of crisis. It appears the title was temporary and did not remain for long, and certainly did not have the permanence of the Dux Britanniarum and the Comes litoris Saxonici, but for the duration of the crisis the Comes Britannarum had chief command of Roman military forces in Britain.
The first "Count" in Britain was Gratianus Funarius, the father of emperor Valentinian I. He may have commanded a task force of comitatenses under emperor Constans during his campaign on the island in the winter of 342–3. [3]
During the Great Conspiracy, Count Theodosius, the father of emperor Theodosius I, also served as "Count" in Britain. [4] A permanent office was created later in the fourth or early fifth century, perhaps by Stilicho who withdrew troops from Britain to defend Italy in 402.
According to the Notitia Dignitatum , there was a unit called the Equites Taifali established by Honorius under the Comes Britanniarum in Britannia. [5] This unit may have been the same unit as the Equites Honoriani seniores mentioned around the same time.
According to the List of Offices the count commanded six cavalry and three infantry units, probably a force of no more than 6,000 troops. This small force was charged with supporting the frontier troops in fending off the increasing number of barbarian raids during the period. Some units seem to have been transferred from the Duke of Britain's or Count of the Saxon Shore's armies. The office presumably was extinguished with the Roman withdrawal from Britain by 410.
Gratian was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and was raised to the rank of Augustus in 367. Upon the death of Valentinian in 375, Gratian took over government of the west while his half-brother Valentinian II was also acclaimed emperor in Pannonia. Gratian governed the western provinces of the empire, while his uncle Valens was already the emperor over the east.
Valentinian I, sometimes called Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor along with his brother Valens from 364 to 375. During his reign, he fought successfully against the Alamanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians, strengthening the border fortifications and conducting campaigns across the Rhine and Danube. His general Theodosius defeated a revolt in Africa and the Great Conspiracy, a coordinated assault on Roman Britain by Picts, Scoti, and Saxons. Valentinian founded the Valentinianic dynasty, with his sons Gratian and Valentinian II succeeding him in the western half of the empire.
Līmes is a modern term used primarily for the Germanic border defence or delimiting system of Ancient Rome marking the borders of the Roman Empire, but it was not used by the Romans for that purpose. The term has been extended to refer to the frontier defences in other parts of the empire, such as in the east and in Africa.
Flavius Theodosius, also known as Count Theodosius or Theodosius the Elder, was a senior military officer serving Valentinian I and the western Roman empire during Late Antiquity. Under his command the Roman army defeated numerous threats, incursions, and usurpations. Theodosius was patriarch of the imperial Theodosian dynasty and father of the emperor Theodosius the Great.
The Dominate, also known as the late Roman Empire, is the name sometimes given to the "despotic" later phase of imperial government in the ancient Roman Empire. It followed the earlier period known as the "Principate". Until the empire was reunited in 313, this phase is more often called the Tetrarchy.
The Count of the Saxon Shore for Britain was the head of the Saxon Shore military command of the later Roman Empire.
Marcus was a Roman usurper who was proclaimed emperor in 406 in Roman Britain. He was killed later that same year in a subsequent mutiny.
Gratian or Gratianus was a Roman usurper in Roman Britain from 406-407.
Dux Britanniarum was a military post in Roman Britain, probably created by Emperor Diocletian or Constantine I during the late third or early fourth century. The Dux (literally, " leader" was a senior officer in the late Roman army of the West in Britain. It is listed in the Notitia Dignitatum as being one of the three commands in Britain, along with the Comes Britanniarum and Count of the Saxon Shore.
Gratianus "Funarius" was an Illyrian soldier of the Roman Empire who flourished in the 4th century. He was the father of Roman emperors, Valentinian I and Valens, founders of the Valentinianic dynasty.
The Great Conspiracy was a year-long state of war and disorder that occurred near the end of Roman Britain. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus described it as a barbarica conspiratio, which capitalised on a depleted military force in the province that had been brought about by Magnentius' losses at the Battle of Mursa Major in Pannonia after his unsuccessful bid to become emperor.
Comes, plural comites, was a Roman title or office, and the origin Latin form of the medieval and modern title "count".
The līmitāneī, meaning respectively "the soldiers in frontier districts" or "the soldiers on the riverbank", were an important part of the late Roman and early Byzantine army after the reorganizations of the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. The limitanei, unlike the comitātēnsēs, palātīnī, and scholæ, garrisoned fortifications along the borders of the Roman Empire and were not normally expected to fight far from their fortifications.
The Valentinianic or Valentinian dynasty was a ruling house of five generations of dynasts, including five Roman emperors during Late Antiquity, lasting nearly a hundred years from the mid fourth to the mid fifth century. They succeeded the Constantinian dynasty and reigned over the Roman Empire from 364 to 392 and from 425 to 455, with an interregnum (392–423), during which the Theodosian dynasty ruled and eventually succeeded them. The Theodosians, who intermarried into the Valentinian house, ruled concurrently in the east after 379.
Arbogastes or Arbogast was a Roman army officer of Frankish origin.
The Saxon Shore was a military command of the late Roman Empire, consisting of a series of fortifications on both sides of the Channel. It was established in the late 3rd century and was led by the "Count of the Saxon Shore". In the late 4th century, his functions were limited to Britain, while the fortifications in Gaul were established as separate commands. Several Saxon Shore forts survive in east and south-east England.
In modern scholarship, the "late" period of the Roman army begins with the accession of the Emperor Diocletian in AD 284, and ends in 480 with the death of Julius Nepos, being roughly coterminous with the Dominate. During the period 395–476, the army of the Roman Empire's western half progressively disintegrated, while its counterpart in the East, known as the East Roman army remained largely intact in size and structure until the reign of Justinian I.
The palatini were elite units of the Late Roman army mostly attached to the comitatus praesentales, or imperial escort armies. In the elaborate hierarchy of troop-grades, the palatini ranked below the scholares, but above the comitatenses and the limitanei.
The Dux Belgicae secundae was a senior officer in the army of the Late Roman Empire who was the commander of the limitanei and of a naval squadron on the so-called Saxon Shore in Gaul.
