The Valentinian Enigma

[Nathan Ross]

it seems Sozomenos says that Valentinian was a suntagmatarches of the Jovian katalogos/oi.

It seems he does. The problem here, as with the other excerpts, is that we don't know whether or to what extent these later Greek writers are accurately translating 4th century Latin military terms into their own language, or whether they are using terms from their own era to stand in for earlier ones.

In the case of the Ioviani, we have contemporary evidence (the ND, Ammianus, Vegetius) that this was a palatine legion, and therefore commanded by a tribune. But apparently it could also, like other military units of the day, be called a numerus (CIL 03, 10232 - numero Iovianorum - unless this refers to the auxilia unit of the Iovii?).

Rance's paper is very interesting, and rewards a second read. His discussion, on the first page, of Maurikios's division of the arithmos into two subunits, and the possible connection with the 300 and 500-strong select detachments mentioned occasionally by Ammianus (note 3) is intriguing. It's tempting to imagine that this sort of split might have some relevance to the seniores/iuniores division - although that's a whole other question!