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[German version] Comes rei militaris of Valentinianus I, fought the Saxons in 370 AD. In 378, together with the comes domesticorum Mallobaudes in the service of Gratianus [2], he defeated the Alamanni (Lentienses) at Argentaria (near Colmar; Amm. Marc. 31,10,6f.). Because he was of the same rank ( pari potestate) as Mallobaudes, he may have been comes utriusque Germaniae. He is probably identical with the magister militum Nanninus who in 388, together with Quintinus, as Magnus Maximus's [7] general took over the guardianship of the latter's son Victor, defeated the Franks in the silva …

[German version] [1] Second wife of the emperor Gratianus [2] from AD 383 on Second wife of the emperor Gratianus [2], whom she married in AD 383. Following his death shortly afterwards, L. lived on as a widow at Rome, where she used her own funds to help alleviate the famine during Alaricus' [2] siege in 409 (Zos. 5,39,4). PLRE 1,492 (L. 1). Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main) [German version] [2] Clarissima femina, addressee of Jerome's epist. 107 Clarissima femina, daughter of one Albinus, wife of Toxotius, daughter-in-law of the elder Paula, sister-in-law of E…

[German version] was magister equitum per Gallias under Magnus Maximus [7], who entrusted his son Victor to him in AD 387. Q. was killed in 388 during an advance east of the Rhine near Neuss against the advice of Nannienus. Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography PLRE 1, 760  P. Richardot, Un désastre romain peu connu sur le Rhin, in: Riv. storica dell' antichità 25, 1995, 111-130.

[German version] (or vir spectabilis, Greek períbleptos, also spektabílios). Senatorial title, coined in Late Antiquity, for officials ranking second to the illustres (Illustris vir), originally used in the sense of admirabilis ('admirable'), from the middle of the 2nd cent. also to describe prominent persons. The title is first recorded in AD 365 (Cod. Theod. 7,6,1); the usage initially fluctuated considerably between illustres, spectabiles and clarissimi (Vir clarissimus) and seems not to have been unequivocally fixed until c. 400. The first to be given the title were the p rocon…

[German version] M. O. Adventus. Born before AD 160, he came from very humble circumstances and according to Cassius Dio could not read (79,14,1). Under Septimius Severus, O. rose through lowly military positions to the position of princeps peregrinorum and then transferred to the administrative service. In 205-207 p rocurator of Britain under L. Alfen(i)us [2] Senecio [1. no. 1234]. Under Caracalla he was praefectus praetorio together with M. Opellius Macrinus (Herodian. 4,14,2; Cod. Just. Epit. 9,51,1). He went to Mesopotamia with Caracal…

[German version] [1] M. Severa Mother of the emperor Gratianus, around AD 370 First wife of Valentinianus I, mother of the emperor Gratianus [2], whose elevation to Augustus she helped effect; removed from the court and divorced before AD 370 because of some fraud, in 375 called back to the court by Gratianus. PLRE I, 828, 2. Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main) [German version] [2] Youngest daughter of Arcadius and Eudoxia, AD 403-449 Youngest daughter of Arcadius and Eudoxia [1], born 403, died AD 449; built a palace in Constantinople; following the example…

[German version] Born around AD 327, sister of Basilius [1] the Great, Petrus of Sebaste and Gregorius [2] of Nyssa. Daughter of the rhetor Basilius and Emmelia, granddaughter of M. the Elder ( c. 270- c. 340). After the death of her bridegroom, M. lived an ascetic life on a family estate on the Iris in Pontus; died around 380. Her brother Gregorius wrote a biography of M. ( Vita M. iunioris; Greg. Nyss. Opera ascetica 8,1, p. 370-414) and had her answer his theological questions as a teacher in his work De anima et resurrectione (PG 46, 12-160). Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main)

[German version] Officials on the staff of the comes sacrarum largitionum and the comes rerum privatarum ( comes ), therefore belonging to the palatini . Their principal task was to act as messengers in the provinces. They are first attested under Theodosius I, who stipulated their conditions of rank and salaries (Cod. Theod. 6,30,2; table in [1. 124]), but they probably existed before that. The advancement rota consisted initially of two years and in the 5th cent. AD of one year. A schola mittendariorum of the praefectus praetorio Africae existed in the 6th cent (Cod. Iust. 1,2…

[German version] Roman titular officials (like honorarii), i.e. they bore an official title without holding or having held the corresponding office. They usually received the title when retiring from active service and were entitled to wear the sash ( cingulum), which was not granted to  honorarii. They ranked after the actual holders of the office. Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main)

[German version] (literally: 'chairman/president') initially used in 2nd and 3rd cents. AD as a special honorific Latin title for governors, later becoming established in official usage for an equestrian procurator . Subsequently, in the wake of the administrative reorganization under Diocletian and Constantine [1] I, it became a special title for the lowest group of provincial governors after the consularis and corrector , esp. in the many newly created small provinces. The ranking hierarchy, however, was subject to changes. In the Notitia dignitatum , 40 praesides are mentio…

[German version] [1] Mother of Theodosius [II 2] I, 4th cent. AD Mother of Theodosius [II 2] I; died before AD 389/391. PLRE 1, 909 no. 1. Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main) [German version] [2] Niece of Theodosius [II 2] I, c. AD 400 Granddaughter of T. [1], adopted, with her sister Serena, into the family of her uncle Theodosius [II 2] the Great before AD 384 and treated as an adopted daughter (Claud., Laus Serenae 105-109; 118; 187; Aur. Vict. Epit. Caes. 48,1); married to a high-ranking officer. PLRE 1, 909 no. 2. Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main) [German version] [3…

[German version] Aelia Flavia F. First wife of the emperor Theodosius I; three children were born of the marriage contracted in c. AD 376: the later emperors  Arcadius and  Honorius as well as  Pulcheria. In 379 F. was appointed Augusta. The committed supporter of Nicene Christianity (Sozom. Hist. eccl. 7,6; Theod. Hist. eccl. 5,19) was considered pious and charitable. When she died in 386 in Skotumis (Thrace), Gregorius [2] of Nyssa held the funerary oration (PG 46, 877-892). Her statue was erected in the Senate building (Them. Or. 19,228b). PLRE 1, 341f. Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Fr…

[German version] [1] Vicarius urbis Romae, 321-324 AD In AD 321-324 vicarius urbis Romae (Cod. Theod. 2,8,1; 16,2,5; 13,5,4; Cod. Iust. 8,10,6 calls him agens vicem praefectorum praetorio). In 329 he was still the recipient of laws (Cod. Theod. 9,21,4; 13,5,4); as such a long period in office as a vicarius would have been unusual, we should assume that he held a higher office in the meantime, perhaps that he was praefectus praetorio Italiae. PLRE 1, 413 (H. 1). Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main) [German version] [2] Claudius H. Praefectus praetorio Orientis 360-361 AD Paphlagon…

[German version] The term 'palatini' was used since the 4th cent. AD as a designation for those serving in a military or civil capacity at court ( palatium) or in close association with it. Among the palatini of the militia armata were the soldiers of the scholae palatinae and also those of the elite troops first attested in 365, but probably already separated from the comitatenses around 320. We know from the notitia dignitatum of 157 units of palatini, most of whom came under the jurisdiction of the magistri militum praesentales ( magister militum ); however, in the…

[German version] A. Origin of the office An office of late antiquity created by Constantinus [1] I, which was among the highest in the Roman empire (Not. Dign. Or. 11; Not. Dign. Occ. 9), attested for the first time in AD 320 (Cod. Theod. 16,10,1). The great imperial chancelleries ( scrinium ) of the magister memoriae, magister epistularum and magister libellorum and lesser palace officials, such as admissionales, interpretes, mensores ( mensor ), decani ( decanius ), stratores, cursores, lampadarii , and notarii ( notarius ) were first of all probably mandated to the magister officiorum …

[German version] [1] Consul before AD 370/1 Consular before AD 370/1; at this time a member of a Senate deputation to the court of Valentinianus I, protesting against the use of torture on senators; possibly the M. of Trier mentioned by Symmachus (ep. 4,30) ( Augusta Treverorum). PLRE 1, 603, 1. Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main) [German version] [2] Official, around AD 395 Possibly a son of M. [1]. probably magister epistularum in AD 394/5, thereafter active in Gaul; comes rerum privatarum in 397/8, comes sacrarum largitionum in 398/9; addressee of several letters of S…

[German version] Flavius P., possibly comes Africae before AD 386, magister militum 386-391; defeated the Greuthungi in the lower reaches of the Danube as magister peditum per Thracias in 386; magister equitum 388-391. P. led the cavalry against Magnus Maximus [II 7] in 388, became consul in 389 and extricated Theodosius I [II 2] from a difficult military position in 391. A fierce conflict with Rufinus [II 3] led to fighting in the consistorium and, in 391, probably also to P.' death in Thrace in an ambush allegedly instigated by Rufinus. His tw…

[German version] PC peregrinorum or princeps peregrinorum was the designation of the highest-ranking centurio in the frumentarii stationed at Rome in the castra peregrina. Until the late 2nd cent. AD, the PC had no further opportunity for promotion, but from the 3rd cent. on, he could attain the highest offices of state (governor, praefectus praetorio ) (Cass. Dio 78,14; CIL VIII 2529; ILS 1372). Groß-Albenhausen, Kirsten (Frankfurt/Main) Bibliography A. von Domaszewski, Die Rangordnung des römischen Heeres, 21967.

[German version] Roman empress, married in a second marriage to  Valentinianus I, mother of Valentinianus II. Other children: Iusta, Grata, Galla [2]. She supported the Arian line of belief and is said to have backed the Milan ecclesiastical conflict with  Ambrosius of AD 385/86. This concerned the use of a church by the Arians, but it seems unlikely that she would have been able to pursue this alone [1. 170-173]. In any case this episode has resulted up to the present day in a negative image of I…

[German version] Late antique collective term for those provincial governors who held the title of v ir clarissimus (Cod. Theod. 1,10,8 et passim), similar to rector or iudex. It was Justinian who in AD 535 first used moderator as a genuine official title for the governors of particular provinces with the rank of spectabilis (Court titles; Moderator Iustinianus Helenoponti, Nov. 28, Phoniciae ad Libanum, Edict. 4, Arabiae, Nov. 102). This last had civil and military authority. Occasionally moderator is also found as the title of officials who were not governors, includin…