Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

Glossary 275
trade in the border provinces, the comes foederatorum for the supervision
of the allied non-Roman units, who were mostly commanded by generals
appointed from their own tribes and peoples. The comes (sacrarum) largitionum,
who was a court official, was in charge of the imperial finances;
among other things he supervised the collection of taxes and customs duties,
controlled all mints and the yields of the mines and was responsible for the
budgets of civil and military service. The titles and exact duties of the
individual comites varied considerably in the course of late antiquity.
Constantinian revolution
This is an expression coined by modern scholarship to express the new
relationship between the Roman state and Christianity after the reign of
Constantine the Great (306–37), when the persecutions of the Christians
were finally abandoned. Constantine’s conversion to the Christian faith
and the fact that pagan cults were increasingly undermined in state and
society certainly entailed tremendous historical consequences. At the end
of the fourth century Theodosius the Great declared Christianity as the
only orthodox religion in the Roman Empire.
dux
Aside from the general meaning ‘leader’, in particular the leader of an
army or a military unit, from the third century ad onwards the term also
described a military rank. When Diocletian reorganised the administration
of the Roman Empire he separated civil and military functions. From then
on, the dux was in charge of the troops positioned in the border provinces.
He was essentially the military official responsible for the protection of the
frontiers.
foedus
Originally, the term foedus described an obligation under oath and therefore
pertained to religious law. Later, this formal aspect gave way to the emphasis
on a ‘treaty’ or ‘alliance’. Increasingly, the term defined an official treaty
between states. By concluding such a formal treaty, a foedus, the armed
confrontations between rivalling powers were ended and precise terms of
peace established. A foedus aequum was based on the equal status of both
empires. In the case of a foedus iniquum one empire had to acknowledge
the rule of the other. Prior to the conclusion of a foedus ambassadors had
to be exchanged. The terms of the treaty were written down and came into
effect only when the two sides had formally signed them.