Dalmatius the Junior, a Nephew of Emperor Constantine I the Great and the Lower Danube frontier of the Roman Empire in 335–337: a military aspect of problem
Keywords:
Dalmatius the Junior, Constantine I, Thracia, Dalmatian cavalry, inscriptions, Illyricum, master of soldiers, expeditionary armyAbstract
The paper deals with a military career of Dalmatius the Junior, a nephew of Emperor Constantine I the Great. In 335, Constantine confered a title of Caesar on Dalmatius and gave him the Lower Danube regions – Thracia, Minor Scythia, Lower Moesia, Маcedonia, Dacia and Greece – for supervision. But two years later, in 337, Dalmatius the Junior was murdered as a result of a state plot held in Constantinople. Having based on narrative sources (an anonymous Epitoma de Caesaribus, the so-called Anonymus Valesianus, part I, and the works of Zosimus and Johannes Lydus), which contain very scarce evidence about Dalmatius the Junior’s military and political achievements, the author proposes an idea that the nephew of Constantine I held an office of master of soldiers (magister militum), a supreme commander of expeditionary (field) army comitatenses, which stood in Thracia. Therefore, the author suggests that Dalmatius the Junior was one of the two first masters of soldiers appointed by Constantine I. Presumably, Dalmatius the Junior received the office in 335 simultaneously with a title of Caesar. Having based on the newest epigraphical document, that is an inscription from Lower Moesia published just recently, in 2016, the author concludes that the basis of Dalmatius the Junior’s troops were detachments of the mobile Dalmatian cavalry.doi 10.17072/2219-3111-2018-2-5-14References
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References
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Chrysos, E. (2001), «Ripa Gothica and Litus Saxonicus», in Pohl, W. (ed.), The Transformation of Frontiers. From Late Antiquity to the Carolingians, Brill, Leiden, pp. 69–72.
Colombo, M. (2008), «Constantinus rerum novator: dal comitatus dioclezianeo ai palatini di Valentiniano I», Klio, 90, pp. 124–161.
Craig, H.C. (2007), Contesting Late Roman Illyricum: Invasions and Transformations in the Danubian-Balkan Provinces, PhD dissertation, University of Princeton, Princeton, USA, 278 p.
Demandt, A. (1970), «Magister militum», in RE, XII, Alfred Druckenmüller Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany, pp. 553–790.
Di Maio, M., Arnold, D. W.-H. & Fr. Arnold (1992), «Per Vim, per Caedem, per Bellum: A Study of Murders and Ecclesiastical Politics in the Year 337 A.D»., Byzantion, 62, pp. 158–211.
Enßlin, W. (1929), «Dalmatius Censor, der halbbruder Konstantins I», Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 78, pp. 199–212.
Enßlin, W. (1929), «Zum Heermeisteramt des spätrömischen Reiches I. Die Titulatur der magistri militum bis auf Theodosius I», Klio, 23/2, pp. 306–325.
Moreau, J. & V. Velkov (ed.), (1968), Excerpta Valesiana, B.G. Teubneri, Lipsiae, Germany, 33 p.
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Landelle, M. (2016), «À propos de la création des magistri militum par Constantin Ier», RÉA, 118/2, pp. 493–510.
Marcos, M. (2014), Constantine, Dalmatius Caesar, and the Summer of A.D. 337, Latomus, 73, pp. 748–774.
Mirković, M. (2012), Co-Regency: Constantine and Licinius and the Political Division of the Balkans, ZRVI, 49, pp. 7–18.
Pichlmayr, Fr. (ed.) (1970), Sexti Avrelii Victoris Liber de Caesaribus... subsequitur Epitome de Caesaribus, B.G. Teubner, Leipzig, 176 p.
Porena, P. (2007), ««À l’ombre de la pourpre»: l’évolution de la préfecture du prétoire entre le IIIe et le IVe siècle», Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz, 18, pp. 237–262.
Woods, D. (2011), «Numismatic Evidence and the Succession to Constantine I», The Numismatic Chronicle, 171, pp. 187–196.
