Legionary Officers and NCOs - Late Roman Army (284 - 565 AD)

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Richard,

Draconarii. I'd gathered there were two, one for each cohort. But that these were secondary "signa". That is, there was a vexillum representing the legion. Is that correct? I'm assuming Eagles and old-style signa disappeared about the same period other distinguishing marks of the erstwhile legions did.

The Roman army was never so standard that we could say that. The draconarius is not mentioned in the list of Late Roman ranks and grades, so we can't really tell much about it. Yes, a Late Roman unit would have a draconarius for each cohort, but (as I've written here) we are not sure how this was organised. A unit could have a draconarius, but maybe that one outranked the vexillarius. Maybe when a cohort operated alone it had a draco, but maybe a 'secondary cohort' only had a vexillum? Besides that, the rank as such is not clearly defined either. By the fifth century, as may be deduced from inscriptions from Perge and Prusias/Üskübü, Turkey, as well as a poem by Prudentius, there was a rank called magister draconum. This officer was the superior of the draconarii in a unit, ranking immediately below the tribune. However, we don't know if he directed the draconarii in battle, or may just have been the head of the standard bearers' club or scholae. The magister draconum probably replaced the optio signiferorum, whose function unfortunately is equally vague. Other ranks are less clear: from Cagliari/Sardinia we know an optio draconarius, while the bearcus draconarius seems to have been an unusually high-ranking draconarius.
By the 6th century there was a scholae draconariorum, a non-military office staff of 10 clercs attached to a civilian praefectus praetorio. After the 6th century, the draconarius disappeared from the Byzantine army.
How this translated into the actual number of dracos for each unit is therefore equally vague.

To make matters worse, next to the 'new model army' that was developed from the time of Diocletian and Constantine onwards, the 'old style army' was noty converted or phased out. It's unclear in what manner the draco was added to or perhaps replaced to old-style vexilla in these units.