08-06-2014, 05:50 PM
Quote:The Protectores Domestici was still a unit for rising politicians and commanders: Aetius was a Protectoris when he was only 14 (AD 405)
Aha - thanks! I was probably taking AHM Jones (LRE II, p.642) a bit too literally... But he was perhaps referring more to mid 5th century developments.
Quote:the Ducenarius command was part of the command structure of new-style Auxilia Palatina units, such as the Placidi, raised in 419
The earliest known junior officer ducenarius served with the numerus Ioviorum Cornutorum seniorum in AD356 (AE 1977, 806). So clearly the rank was being used by the new auxilia from the mid fourth century. Ducenarii are known much earlier as protectores through - an inscription of AD269 mentions ducenarii protectores along with praepositi of a large force of vexillations operating in Gallia Narbonensis (ILS 546). In this case they were surely not commanders of 200 men each! The use of ducenarius as a title of high rank at this earlier date seems secure - how they came to be downgraded to commanders in the ranks by a century later is less certain...
Quote:...the Ordinarii were senior centurions, hence why they appear in Comitatenses or Palatina units more than Limitanei.
Funnily enough, as far as I know they don't seem to appear at all in the comitatenses or palatini! Ordinarii are only known in the old-style frontier legions, and some very late limitanei units in Egypt. Could be this is just lack of epigraphic evidence, but perhaps more likely that the standard 'centurion' in all field army units was the centenarius. Whether ordinarius was itself a senior rank in the old-style centurionate, or just a new term for a standard centurion, is cloudy.
Interestingly, the appearance of the ordinarius (along with other older titles) on the Perge Fragments might indicate that this is a list of troops in the limitanei garrison, not the palatini as Fatih Onur believes.
Nathan Ross
