magister militum

Establishment and development of the command

The office of magister militum was created in the early 4th century, most likely when the Western Roman emperor Constantine the Great defeated all other contemporary Roman emperors, which gave him control over their respective armies. Because the Praetorian Guards and their leaders, the Praetorian Prefects, had supported Constantine's enemy, Maxentius, he disbanded the Guard and deprived the Prefects of their military functions, reducing them to a purely civil office. To replace them, he created two posts: a commander of the infantry, the magister peditum ("master of foot"), and a more prestigious cavalry commander, the magister equitum ("master of horse"). These offices had precedents in the immediate imperial past, both in function and idea; the latter title had existed since republican times, as the second-in-command to a Roman dictator.

Under Constantine's successors, the titles were also established at a territorial level: magistri peditum and magistri equitum were appointed for every praetorian prefecture (per Gallias, per Italiam, per Illyricum, per Orientem), and, in addition, for Thrace and, sometimes, Africa. On occasion, the offices would be combined in a single person, then styled magister equitum et peditum or magister utriusque militiae ("master of both forces"). Overall, lower-level magistri were assigned according to circumstances, with varying numbers employed in a given area. Some were directly in command of the local mobile field army of the comitatenses, which acted as a rapid reaction force. Other magistri remained at the immediate disposal of the emperors, and by the late fourth century or early fifth century were termed in praesenti ("in the presence" of the emperor).

Over the course of the fourth century in the Western Roman Empire, the system of two imperial magistri remained largely intact, with usually one magister having paramount authority (such as Bauto or Merobaudes, the main power behind the appointment of emperor Valentinian II.) This tendency culminated in Arbogast, who inherited the position of western magister militum and used it to functionally usurp emperor Valentinian II, either killing him or driving him to suicide before appointing his own puppet emperor, Eugenius. In the west, the position (often under the title of magister utriusque militiae or MVM) remained very powerful until the formal end of the empire, and was held by Stilicho, Aetius, Ricimer, and others.

In the east, emperor Theodosius I (379–395) expanded the system of two magistri militum to include an additional three magistri. For a long time these generals were used in an ad hoc manner, being employed wherever they were needed. Eventually in the fifth century their positions became more firmly established, and there were two senior generals, who were each appointed to the office of magister militum praesentalis.

Continuation and evolution in the Byzantine Empire

The office of magister militum consequently evolved in nature and scope during the early Byzantine period.

During the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527–565), with increasing military threats and the expansion of the Byzantine Empire, the posts of the eastern generals were overhauled: the magister militum per Armeniam in the Armenian and Caucasian provinces, formerly part of the jurisdiction of the magister militum per Orientem, the magister militum per Africam in the reconquered African provinces (534), with a subordinate magister peditum, and the magister militum Spaniae (c. 562).

In the course of the 6th century, internal and external crises in the provinces often necessitated the temporary union of the supreme regional civil authority with the office of the magister militum. In the establishment of the exarchates of Ravenna and Carthage in 584, this practice found its first permanent expression. In various provinces of the Exarchate of Ravena, from Venetia to Naples, magistri militum were appointed both as local military commanders and provincial governors. For example, such was Mauricius, who was magister militum of Byzantine Venetia in 639.

After the loss of the eastern provinces to the Muslim conquest in the 640s, the surviving field armies and their commanders formed the first themata.

Later, less formal use of the term

In later periods, various military commanders sometimes also took this title in medieval Italy, for example in the Papal States and in the Republic of Venice, whose Doge claimed to be the successor to the Exarch of Ravenna.

The term is referred to by Emperor Constantine VII in his De Administrando Imperio in a digression on 6th century Italian history, where he refers to mastromilis meaning 'captain-general of the army' in the 'Roman tongue'. By the time of writing in the mid-10th century working knowledge of Latin was mostly absent in the Byzantine imperial court.

By the 12th century, the term was being used to describe a man who organized the military force of a political or feudal leader on his behalf. In the Gesta Herwardi, the hero is several times described as magister militum by the man who translated the original Old English account into Medieval Latin. It seems possible that the writer of the original version, now lost, thought of him as the hereward' (Old English: here, lit. 'army' and no: weard, lit. 'guard') – the supervisor of the military force. That this later use of these terms was based on the classical concept seems clear.

List of magistri militum

Unspecified commands

383–385/8: Bauto, magister militum under Valentinian II

385/8–394: Arbogast, magister militum under Valentinian II and Eugenius

383–388: Andragathius

?–480: Ovida

Comes et magister utriusque militiae

392–408: Stilicho

409–410: Alaric

411–421: Constantius (III)

422–425: Castinus

425–430: Felix

431–432: Bonifacius

432–433: Sebastianus

433–454: Aetius

456: Remistus

456: Messianus

456–472: Ricimer

472–473: Gundobad

474–475: Ecdicius

475–476: Orestes

Per Gallias

352–355: Claudius Silvanus

362–364: Jovinus, magister equitum under Julian and Jovian

?–419: Gaudentius

425–430: Aetius

435–439: Litorius

452–458: Agrippinus

458–461: Aegidius

461/462: Agrippinus

462-473: Gundioc

?–472: Bilimer

Per Hispanias

441–442: Astyrius

443: Merobaudes

446: Vitus

Per Ilyricum

?–350: Vetranio, magister peditum under Constans

361: Iovinus, magister equitum under Julian

365–375: Equitius, magister utriusquae militiae under Valentinian I

395–? Alaric I

448/9 Agintheus (known from Priscus to have held office as the latter's embassy proceeded towards the court of Attila).

468–474: Julius Nepos

477–479: Onoulphus

479–481: Sabinianus Magnus

528: Ascum

529–530/1: Mundus (1st time)

532–536: Mundus (2nd time)

c. 538: Justin

c. 544: Vitalius

c. 550: John

568–569/70: Bonus

581–582: Theognis

Per Orientem

c. 347: Flavius Eusebius, magister utriusquae militiae

349–359: Ursicinus, magister equitum under Constantius

359–360: Sabinianus, magister equitum under Constantius II

363–367: Lupicinus, magister equitum under Jovian and Valens

371–378: Iulius, magister equitum et Peditum under Valens

383: Richomeres, magister equitum et peditum

383–388: Ellebichus, magister equitum et peditum

392: Eutherius, magister equitum et peditum

393–396: Addaeus, magister equitum et peditum

?~399: Gainas

395/400: Fravitta

433–446: Anatolius

447–451: Zeno

460s: Ardabur Aspar

–469: Iordanes

469–471: Zeno

483–498: Ioannes Scytha

c. 503–505: Areobindus Dagalaiphus Areobindus

505–506: Pharesmanes

?516–?518: Hypatius

?518–529: Diogenianus

520–525/526: Hypatius

Per Armeniam

Sittas

Dorotheus (530–532)

Peter, direct predecessor of John Tzibus

John Tzibus (?–541)

Valerian

Dagisthaeus (?–550)

Bessas (550–554)

Martin

Justin

John Mystacon

Heraclius the Elder (c. 595)

Per Thracias

377–378: Saturninus, magister equitum under Valens

377–378: Traianus, magister peditum under Valens

378: Sebastianus, magister peditum under Valens

380–383: Saturninus, magister peditum under Theodosius I

392–393: Stilicho, magister equitum et peditum

412–414: Constans

441: Ioannes the Vandal, magister utriusque militiae

464–467/468: Basiliscus

468–474: Armatus

474: Heraclius of Edessa

511: Hypatius

512–c. 513: Cyrillus

c. 513–c. 515: Alathar

515: Vitalian

525-c. 530: Germanus

530–533: Chilbudius

550–c. 554: Artabanes

588: Priscus (1st time)

593: Priscus (2nd time)

593–594: Peter (1st time)

594–c. 598: Priscus (2nd time)

598–601: Comentiolus

601–602: Peter (2nd time)

Praesentalis

351–361: Arbitio, magister equitum under Constantius II

361–363: Nevitta, magister equitum under Julian

363–379: Victor, magister equitum under Valens

366–378: Arinthaeus, magister peditum under Valens

364–369: Iovinus, magister equitum under Valentinian I

364–366: Dagalaifus, magister peditum under Valentinian I

367–372: Severus, magister peditum under Valentinian I

369–373: Theodosius, magister equitum under Valentinian I

375–388: Merobaudes, magister peditum under Valentinian I, Gratian and Magnus Maximus

388–395: Timasius

394–408: Stilicho, magister equitum et peditum

399–400: Gainas

400: Fravitta

409: Varanes and Arsacius

419–: Plinta

434–449: Areobindus?

443–451: Apollonius

450–451: Anatolius

475–477/478: Armatus

485–: Longinus

492–499: John the Hunchback

Per Africam

373–375: Theodosius, magister equitum

386–398: Gildo, magister equitum et peditum

534–536: Solomon

536–539: Germanus

539–544: Solomon

544–546: Sergius

545–546: Areobindus

546: Artabanes

546–552: John Troglita

578–590: Gennadius

In Byzantine Italy

Mauricius (639)

8th century: Marcellus

737: Domenico Leoni under Leo III

738: Felice Cornicola under Leo III

739: Theodatus Hypatus under Leo III

741: Ioannes Fabriacius under Leo III

764–787: Mauricius Galba