The palatini (Latin for "palace troops") were elite units of the Late Roman army mostly attached to the comitatus praesentales,[citation needed] or imperial escort armies. In the elaborate hierarchy of troop-grades, the palatini ranked below the scholares (members of the elite cavalry regiments called the scholae), but above the comitatenses (regiments of the regional comitatus) and the limitanei (border troops).
The term derives from palatium ("palace") a reference to the fact that the regiments originally served in the imperial escort armies only. Later they were also found in the regional comitatus (mobile field armies). There, however, they continued to enjoy higher status and pay than the rest of the comitatus regiments. At the time the Notitia Dignitatum was written (ca. 395 for the Eastern Empire), 80% of the regiments in the eastern comitatus praesentales were graded palatini and 14% of those in the regional comitatus.
The palatini were created by Constantine I after he disbanded the long-standing Praetorian Guard in AD 312, and originally comprised former praetorians. As with all comitatus regiments, palatini cavalry regiments were called vexillationes (from vexillum = "military standard") and infantry regiments were either legiones or auxilia. Vexillationes palatinae are believed to have contained 400–600 men, legiones palatinae 800–1,200 and auxilia palatina either 800–1,000 or 400–600.
In the early 3rd century, the Roman military was organized into several provincial armies under the command of the provincial governors, a smaller reserve under the command of the emperor, guard units such as the Praetorian Guard, and the urban cohorts.[1][2] Field armies were temporary formations, usually composed of the reserve and/or of detachments drawn from the provincial armies.[3][4] In the later 3rd century, due to the frequent wars, field armies could remain together for several years, under the direct command of the emperor, and would require their own recruitment systems.[4][5]
By the mid 4th century, the Roman military was divided into frontier armies under the command of the provincial duces and permanent field armies under the command of the emperor, the magistri militum, magistri equitum, or comites.[6][7] The frontier armies would patrol the borders and oppose small-scale raids.[8][9] They may have driven off medium-scale attacks without the support of the field armies.[10] The frontier armies would later be known as limitanei or ripenses.[11] The field armies would respond to larger-scale attacks, would fight against rival emperors, and would conduct any large-scale attacks into neighbouring countries.[citation needed] The field armies would later be known as comitatenses or palatini.[12] The temporary field armies could be referred to as the sacer comitatus,[13] as could the imperial court.[14] The first known written reference to comitatenses was in 325, although there are possibilities from earlier and the first to palatini was not until 365.[15][16]
Historians disagree on whether the emperor Diocletian, or one of his successors, such as Constantine I, split the Roman military into frontier armies and field armies.[17][18]Theodor Mommsen, H.M.D. Parker, and more recently, Warren Treadgold and David S. Potter[19] attribute the reorganization to Diocletian.[20][21] E.C. Nischer, D. van Berchem, and more recently, M.C. Bishop and J.C.M. Coulston attribute mainly an expansion to Diocletian, and the reorganization to Constantine I and his successors.[22][23] Karl Strobel sees the reorganization as the culmination of trends going back well into the 3rd century, with Diocletian strengthening both the frontier and field armies.[24]
The Eastern field armies, including the palatini and comitatenses, eventually became the basis of the Eastern themes.[25]
The Western field armies, including the palatini and comitatenses, either disintegrated during the collapse of the western Roman Empire, or became part of the armies of the successor states.
Higher command
The field armies of the Tetrarchy were under the command of the emperors, with the assistance of the praetorian prefects. There were then four emperors, two Augusti, and two Caesares, who routinely commanded the field armies on campaign.
The field armies after Constantine I were under the command of the emperor, with the assistance of the magister peditum and magister equitum.
The eastern field armies after Theodosius I were under the overall command of the emperor, with one magister militum for each army. There was usually only one eastern emperor, who rarely commanded the field armies on campaign until Maurice's reappearance as the incumbent emperor in person on the battlefield.
Organization
The size of the army, and therefore of the palatini and comitatenses, remains controversial.[26] A.H.M. Jones and Warren Treadgold argue that the late Roman army was significantly larger than earlier Roman armies, and Treadgold estimates they had up to 645,000 troops.[27] Karl Strobel denies this, and Strobel estimates that the late Roman army had some 435,000 troops in the time of Diocletian and 450,000 in the time of Constantine I.[28]
M.C. Bishop and J.C.M. Coulston, in a major work on Roman military equipment, do not distinguish the equipment of the various branches of the Roman military.[29] It is doubtful whether there were any universal differences between the equipment of the palatini and of the other forces.
The late Roman empire had centralized fabricae, introduced by Diocletian, to provide arms and armor for the army.[29][30][31][32] The introduction of the centralized fabricae, where earlier armies had relied on legionary workshops, may reflect the needs of the field armies.[citation needed]
The 4th century palatini included both light and heavy infantry,[33] as well as light and heavy cavalry.[34][35]
↑ The reserve would include the Legio II Parthica. Although Septimius Severus may not have used it as a reserve, his successors did. Southern & Dixon 1996, pp. 5-9 and 9-11.
↑ Southern & Dixon, 1996, pp. 35-37. The earliest reference, from 325, distinguishes comitatenses, ripenses, and alares et cohortales, so certain lower-status frontier units were not counted as part of the ripenses though they would later be counted as part of the limitanei.
↑ D.S.Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay AD 180-395, pp. 451-453. Potter strongly doubts that the creation of ripenses could be attributed to a cooperation of Constantine with Licinius, therefore he dates it back to the reign of Diocletian. However he admits that there is no unequivocal evidence.
↑ Michel Feugère, 2002, Weapons of the Romans, pp. 185-193. He dates this to the time of Diocletian, based on John Malalas's quoting one of Lactantius's works.
Pat Southern and Karen R. Dixon, The Late Roman Army (Routledge, 1996).
Karl Strobel, "Strategy and Army Structure between Septimius Severus and Constantine the Great," in Paul Erdkamp, A Companion to the Roman Army (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).
Warren Treadgold, Byzantium and Its Army, 284-1081 (Stanford University Press, 1995).
Michael Whitby, "Army and Society in the Late Roman World" in Paul Erdkamp, A Companion to the Roman Army (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).
The Jovians and Herculians were the senior palatine imperial guard units under the rule of Roman Emperor Diocletian. They continued in existence thereafter as senior units in the field armies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires.
The Dominate, also known as the late Roman Empire, is the despotic form of imperial government of the late 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.
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.
Comes was a Roman title or office, and the origin Latin form of the medieval and modern title "count".
The limitanei, 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 comitatenses and later the palatini were the units of the field armies of the late Roman Empire. They were the soldiers that replaced the legionaries, who had formed the backbone of the Roman military since the late republic.
A vexillatio was a detachment of a Roman legion formed as a temporary task force created by the Roman army of the Principate. It was named from the standard carried by legionary detachments, the vexillum, which bore the emblem and name of the parent legion.
Auxilia palatina were infantry units of the Late Roman army, first raised by Constantine I as part of the new field army he created in about 325 AD.
Bucellarii were formations of escort troops used in the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. They were employed by high-ranking military figures or civil office-holders. Their name is derived from the type of bread rations eaten by these troops, so-called buccellatum. The term bucellarii came into common use during the reign of Emperor Honorius.
The Battle of the Margus or Battle of Margum was fought in July 285 for control of the Roman Empire between the armies of Diocletian and Carinus in the valley of the Margus River in Moesia, probably near the settlement of Margum. The battle proved to be the tipping point that led to the eventual resolution of the Crisis of the Third Century and the return of stability to the Empire.
The Scholae Palatinae were an elite military imperial guard unit, usually ascribed to the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great as a replacement for the equites singulares Augusti, the cavalry arm of the Praetorian Guard. The Scholae survived in Roman and later Byzantine service until they disappeared from the historical record in the late 11th century, during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos.
The structural history of the Roman military concerns the major transformations in the organization and constitution of ancient Rome's armed forces, "the most effective and long-lived military institution known to history." At the highest level of structure, the forces were split into the Roman army and the Roman navy, although these two branches were less distinct than in many modern national defense forces. Within the top levels of both army and navy, structural changes occurred as a result of both positive military reform and organic structural evolution. These changes can be divided into four distinct phases.
The magister officiorum was one of the most senior administrative officials in the Later Roman Empire and the early centuries of the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantium, the office was eventually transformed into a senior honorary rank, simply called magistros (μάγιστρος), until it disappeared in the 12th century.
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 Eastern Roman army refers to the army of the eastern section of the Roman Empire, from the empire's definitive split in 395 AD to the army's reorganization by themes after the permanent loss of Syria, Palestine and Egypt to the Arabs in the 7th century during the Byzantine-Arab Wars. The East Roman army was the continuation of the Late Roman army of the 4th century, until it gradually transformed into what is now called the Byzantine army from the 7th century onwards.
Pseudocomitatenses were a class of regiment in the Late Roman army. Although they were attached to the comitatus, they enjoyed lower status and pay to the comitatenses, the regular regiments of the comitatus. This is because their regiments had originally been classified as lower-grade limitanei, but at some point attached to a comitatus for a particular campaign and subsequently retained long-term. There is indication that at least some of the pseudocomitatenses were former auxiliary cohorts.
Equites cataphractarii, or simply cataphractarii, were the most heavily armoured type of Roman cavalry in the Imperial Roman army and Late Roman army. The term derives from a Greek word, κατάφρακτος kataphraktos, meaning "covered over" or "completely covered".
By the size of the Roman army is meant the changes in the number of its contingents: legions, auxiliaries, Praetorian cohorts, Urban cohorts, vigiles, and naval forces over the course of twelve centuries – from 753 BC to AD 476.
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.
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