Scholae Palatinae
Encyclopedia
Imperial Guard
The Imperial Guard was originally a small group of elite soldiers of the French Army under the direct command of Napoleon I, but grew considerably over time. It acted as his bodyguard and tactical reserve, and he was careful of its use in battle...
unit, usually ascribed to the Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Constantine the Great as a replacement for the equites singulares Augusti
Equites singulares Augusti
The equites singulares Augusti during the Principate period of imperial Rome. Based in Rome, they escorted the Roman emperor whenever he left the City on campaign or on tours of the provinces.The regiment was reconstituted in the late 1st century AD as a milliary ala, under the command of a...
, the cavalry arm of the Praetorian Guard
Praetorian Guard
The Praetorian Guard was a force of bodyguards used by Roman Emperors. The title was already used during the Roman Republic for the guards of Roman generals, at least since the rise to prominence of the Scipio family around 275 BC...
. The Scholae survived in Roman and later Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
service until they disappear in the late 11th century, during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power. The title 'Nobilissimus' was given to senior army commanders,...
.
Origins
During the civil wars of the late TetrarchyTetrarchy
The term Tetrarchy describes any system of government where power is divided among four individuals, but usually refers to the tetrarchy instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293, marking the end of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire...
, Caesar
Caesar (title)
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
Flavius Valerius Severus
Flavius Valerius Severus
Severus , sometimes known as Severus II, was a Western Roman Emperor from 306 to 307.- Officer in the Roman army :Severus was of humble birth, born in the Illyrian provinces around the middle of the third century AD...
, following the orders of Galerius
Galerius
Galerius , was Roman Emperor from 305 to 311. During his reign he campaigned, aided by Diocletian, against the Sassanid Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across the Danube against the Carpi, defeating them in 297 and 300...
, attempted to disband the Praetorian Guard
Praetorian Guard
The Praetorian Guard was a force of bodyguards used by Roman Emperors. The title was already used during the Roman Republic for the guards of Roman generals, at least since the rise to prominence of the Scipio family around 275 BC...
but only managed to lead the rest of them in revolting and joining Maxentius
Maxentius
Maxentius was a Roman Emperor from 306 to 312. He was the son of former Emperor Maximian, and the son-in-law of Emperor Galerius.-Birth and early life:Maxentius' exact date of birth is unknown; it was probably around 278...
. When Constantine the Great, launching an invasion of Italy in 312, forced a final confrontation at the Milvian Bridge
Battle of Milvian Bridge
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge took place between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius on 28 October 312. It takes its name from the Milvian Bridge, an important route over the Tiber. Constantine won the battle and started on the path that led him to end the Tetrarchy and become the...
, the Praetorian cohorts made up the most prominent element of Maxentius
Maxentius
Maxentius was a Roman Emperor from 306 to 312. He was the son of former Emperor Maximian, and the son-in-law of Emperor Galerius.-Birth and early life:Maxentius' exact date of birth is unknown; it was probably around 278...
' army. Later, in Rome, the victorious Constantine definitively disbanded the Praetorian Guard. Although there is no direct evidence that Constantine established the Scholae Palatinae, the lack of a bodyguard unit would have become immediately apparent, and he is commonly regarded as their founder. Nevertheless, some units, such as the schola gentilium ("school of tribesmen") are attested much earlier than 312, and may have their origins in the reign of Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
.
The Late Roman scholae
The term "schola" was commonly used in the early 4th century to refer to organized corps of the imperial retinue, both civil and military, and derives from the fact that they occupied specific rooms or chambers in the palace. Each schola was formed into an elite cavalry regiment of around 500 troops. Many scholarians were recruited from among Germanic tribes. In the West, these were Franks
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
and Alamanni
Alamanni
The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...
, while in the East, Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
were employed. In the East, under the impact of anti-Gothic policies, from the mid-5th century they were largely replaced with Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
and Isaurians. However, evidence of the scholarians mentioned in primary sources indicates that the presence of native Romans in the scholae was not negligible. Of the recorded and named scholarians in the fourth century, ten are definitely Roman, forty one probably Roman; whilst only five are definitely barbarian and eleven probably barbarian.
Each schola was commanded by a tribunus who ranked as a comes
Comes
Comes , plural comites , is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus, especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" +...
of the first class, and who were discharged with a rank equal to that of a provincial dux
Dux
Dux is Latin for leader and later for Duke and its variant forms ....
. The tribunus had a number of senior officers called domestici or protectores directly under him. Unlike the Praetorians, there was no overall military commander of the scholae, and the Emperor retained direct control over them; however, for administrative purposes, the scholae were eventually placed under the direction of the magister officiorum
Magister officiorum
The magister officiorum was one of the most senior administrative officials in the late Roman Empire and the early centuries of the Byzantine Empire...
. In the Notitia Dignitatum
Notitia Dignitatum
The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western empires, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial...
of the late 4th century, seven scholae are listed for the Eastern Empire and five for the Western half
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....
. In Justinian's time, but also possibly in earlier times, the scholae were billeted in the wider neighbourhood of Constantinople, in the towns of Bithynia
Bithynia
Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine .-Description:...
and Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
, serving in the palace by rotation.
As befitted their guards status, the scholares received higher pay and enjoyed more privileges than the regular army: they received extra rations (annonae civicae), were exempt from the recruitment tax (privilegiis scholarum) and were often used by the Emperors on civilian missions inside the Empire. Gradually however, the ease of palace life, and lack of actual campaigning as the Emperors ceased to take the field themselves, lessened their combat abilities. In the East, they were eventually replaced as the main imperial bodyguard by the Excubitors
Excubitors
The Excubitors were founded in circa 460 AD as the imperial guards of the early Byzantine emperors. Their commanders soon acquired great influence and provided a series of emperors in the 6th century...
, founded by Emperor Leo I the Thracian, while in the West, they were permanently disbanded by Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great
Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...
. Under Zeno
Zeno (emperor)
Zeno , originally named Tarasis, was Byzantine Emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues...
, they degenerated to parade-ground display troops: as it became possible to buy an appointment into the ranks of the scholae, and the social status and benefits this entailed, the units were increasingly filled with by the capital's well-connected young nobility. Emperor Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
is said to have caused panic amongst their members by proposing that they be sent on an expedition. Justinian also raised four "supernumerary" scholae of 2,000 men purely in order to raise money from the sale of the appointments. It seems that this increase was reverted by the same emperor later.
Forty scholares, named candidati for their bright white tunics, were selected to form the Emperor's personal bodyguard, and although by the 6th century they too fulfilled a purely ceremonial role, in the 4th century they accompanied the emperors on campaign, as for example Julian in Persia.
In the Western Empire (note that the Western part of the Notitia refers to the 420s)
- Scola scutariorum prima
- Scola scutariorum secunda
- Scola armaturarum seniorum
- Scola gentilium seniorum
- Scola scutatorum tertia
In the Eastern Empire (note that the Eastern part of the Notitia refers to the 390s)
- Scola scutariorum prima
- Scola scutariorum secunda
- Scola gentilium seniorum
- Scola scutariorum sagittariorum, a unit of horse archers.
- Scola scutariorum clibanariorum, a unit of clibanariiClibanariiThe Clibanarii or Klibanophoroi were a Sassanid Persian, late Roman and Byzantine military unit of heavy armored horsemen. Similar to the cataphracti, the horsemen themselves and their horses were fully armoured...
. - Scola armaturarum iuniorum
- Scola gentilium iuniorum
Note: The suffixes "seniorum" and "iuniorum" refer to units of the same ancestry, now commonly held to have been created from the division of the Roman army in 364 between emperors Valens
Valens
Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...
and Valentinian I
Valentinian I
Valentinian I , also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces while Valentinian retained the west....
. The seniores are the "senior" Western units, while iuniores their "junior" Eastern counterparts.
Notable scholares
- Saints Sergius and BacchusSaints Sergius and BacchusSaints Sergius and Bacchus , were third century Roman soldiers who are commemorated as martyrs by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches...
were officers in Emperor MaximianMaximianMaximian was Roman Emperor from 286 to 305. He was Caesar from 285 to 286, then Augustus from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn. Maximian established his residence at Trier but spent...
's schola gentilium. - Saint Martin of Tours, an officer in the scholae of Caesar JulianJulian the ApostateJulian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
. - MallobaudesMallobaudesMallobaudes or Mellobaudes was a 4th-century Frankish king who also held the Roman title of comes domesticorum.In 354 he was a tribunus armaturarum in the Roman army in Gaul, where he served under Silvanus, who usurped power in 355. Malobaudes tried unsuccessfully to intervene on his behalf...
, a Frankish king, tribunus armaturarum, later magister militumMagister militumMagister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine. Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire...
. - Claudius SilvanusClaudius SilvanusClaudius Silvanus was a Roman general of Frankish descent, usurper in Gaul against Emperor Constantius II for 28 days in 355.- Origin and career :...
, a Frankish tribune and later usurper. - Bacurius, prince of Caucasian IberiaCaucasian IberiaIberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...
, tribunus sagittariorum at the Battle of AdrianopleBattle of AdrianopleThe Battle of Adrianople , sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between a Roman army led by the Roman Emperor Valens and Gothic rebels led by Fritigern...
. - Cassio, tribunus scutariorum (likely of the elite first schola) at the Battle of AdrianopleBattle of AdrianopleThe Battle of Adrianople , sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between a Roman army led by the Roman Emperor Valens and Gothic rebels led by Fritigern...
. - Justinian IJustinian IJustinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
served as a candidatus in 518, at the time of the death of Emperor AnastasiusAnastasius I (emperor)Anastasius I was Byzantine Emperor from 491 to 518. During his reign the Roman eastern frontier underwent extensive re-fortification, including the construction of Dara, a stronghold intended to counter the Persian fortress of Nisibis....
and the accession of his uncle Justin IJustin IJustin I was Byzantine Emperor from 518 to 527. He rose through the ranks of the army and ultimately became its Emperor, in spite of the fact he was illiterate and almost 70 years old at the time of accession...
.
The scholae as one of the tagmata
The scholae, along with the excubitores, continued to exist in the 7th and early 8th centuries, although diminished in size, as purely ceremonial units. However, in ca. 743, after putting down a major rebellion of thematic troops, Emperor Constantine VConstantine V
Constantine V was Byzantine emperor from 741 to 775; ); .-Early life:...
reformed the old guard units of Constantinople into the new tagmata regiments, which were meant to provide the emperor with a core of professional and loyal troops. The tagmata were professional heavy cavalry units, garrisoned in and around Constantinople, forming the central reserve of the Byzantine military system and the core of the imperial expeditionary forces. In addition, like their Late Roman ancestors, they were an important stage in a military career for young aristocrats, which could lead to major field commands or state offices.
The exact size of the tagmata is a subject of debate. Estimates range from 1,000 to 4,000 men. The various tagmata had a uniform structure, differing only in the nomenclature used for certain titles, which reflected their different ancestries. The scholai were headed by the domestikos tōn scholōn ' onMouseout='HidePop("98794")' href="/topics/Domestic_of_the_Schools">Domestic of the Schools
Domestic of the Schools
The Domestic of the Schools was a senior Byzantine military office, extant from the 8th century until at least the early 14th century. Originally simply the commander of the Scholai, the senior of the elite tagmata regiments, the Domestic quickly rose in prominence: by the mid-9th century, its...
"), first attested in 767. As the old office of the magister officiorum was transformed into the more or less ceremonial post of magistros, the domestikos was established as the independent commander of the scholai. In contemporary histories, he holds the rank of patrikios, and is considered as one of the senior-most generals, surpassed only by the strategos
Strategos
Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...
of the Anatolic Theme
Anatolic Theme
The Anatolic Theme , more properly known as the Theme of the Anatolics was a Byzantine theme in central Asia Minor...
. By the 10th century, he had risen to be was the senior officer of the entire army, effectively a commander-in-chief under the Emperor. In ca. 959, the post and the unit itself were divided into two separate commands, one for the East (domestikos [tōn scholōn tēs] anatolēs) and one for the West (domestikos [tōn scholōn tēs] dysēs).
The domestikos
Domestikos
Domestikos , in English sometimes [the] Domestic, was a civil, ecclesiastic and military office in the late Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire.-Military usage:...
was assisted by two officers called topotērētēs (τοποτηρητής, lit. "placeholder", "lieutenant"), who each commanded half of the unit, a chartoularios
Chartoularios
The chartoularios or chartularius , Anglicized as chartulary, was a late Roman and Byzantine administrative official, entrusted with administrative and fiscal duties, either as a subaltern official of a department or province or at the head of various independent bureaus.-History:The title derives...
(χαρτουλάριος, "secretary") and the proexēmos or proximos (head messenger). The tagma was further divided into smaller units (banda, sing. bandon) commanded by a komēs . In the late 10th century, there were 30 such banda, of unknown size. Each komēs commanded 5 domestikoi, the equivalent of regular army kentarchoi ("centurion
Centurion
A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army .Centurion may also refer to:-Military:* Centurion tank, British battle tank* HMS Centurion, name of several ships and a shore base of the British Royal Navy...
s"). There were also 40 standard-bearers (bandophoroi), who were grouped in four different categories. In the scholai, these were: protiktores (προτίκτορες, "protectors", deriving from the older protectores
Protectores Augusti Nostri
Protector Augusti Nostri was a title given to individual officers of the Roman Army. The term first appears in the joint-reign of Valerian and Gallienus. The term Protector Divini Lateris also appears around this time. L...
), eutychophoroi ' onMouseout='HidePop("59477")' href="/topics/Fortuna">Fortune
Fortuna
Fortuna can mean:*Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck -Geographical:*19 Fortuna, asteroid*Fortuna, California, town located on the north coast of California*Fortuna, United States Virgin Islands...
and Victory
Victoria (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Victoria was the personified goddess of victory. She is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike, and was associated with Bellona. She was adapted from the Sabine agricultural goddess Vacuna and had a temple on the Palatine Hill...
), skēptrophoroi ("bearers of sceptres", i.e. staves with images on top) and axiōmatikoi ("officers").
The kandidatoi are still mentioned in the 10th-century work De Ceremoniis
De Ceremoniis
De Ceremoniis is the Latin title of a description of ceremonial protocol at the court of the Eastern Roman emperor in Constantinople. It is sometimes called De ceremoniis aulae byzantinae...
, but the title had become nothing more than a palace dignity, fulfilling a purely ceremonial role and entirely separate from the tagma of the scholai.
Sources
- Haldon, John F.: Strategies of Defence, Problems of Security: the Garrisons of Constantinople in the Middle Byzantine Period, published in Constantinople and its Hinterland: Papers from the Twenty-Seventh Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993, edited by Cyril Mango and Gilbert Dagron (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1995)
- Treadgold, Warren T.: Notes on the Numbers and Organisation of the Ninth-Century Byzantine Army, published in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 21 (Oxford, 1980)