The two Vegetii

[Michael Kerr]

Nathan Ross wtote:

 So it seems like the position was principally a military one, perhaps a sort of senior staff officer or quartermaster-general, rather than a civilian post having to do with horses!

I agree with your point that there is no source material which mentions that Vegetius was a comes Stabuli and he was not a military man just a handful of modern authors like Goffart seem to think that due to him writing a book on horse treatments. I tend to agree with S.H.Rosenbaum that he may have been more involved as a high ranking bureaucrat or official in the state transport and communication apparatus, the cursus publicus. Of course that is if we assume that the two Vegetii are the same person which is by no means certain.

But just on the comes stabuli, military men often filled this position yes but at various times it seems that family connections and nepotism was prevalent when filling these positions. Noel Lenski wrote in his book Failure of Empire that in the fourth century there were eight tribuni or Comites stabuli which are securely attested. Four of these were under the Valentiniani and three of these were somehow connected with the imperial family.

 Firstly Valens, followed by Cerealis and Constantianus who were both brothers of Valentinian’s second wife Justina so Cerealis was Valentinian II’s uncle. His brother Constantianus was comes stabuli when he was ambushed and slain in Gaul by brigands according to Ammianus and Cerealis assumed the position after that. Even though Stilicho was a soldier it seems he was appointed comes stabuli around the same time he married Theodosius’s niece Serena. Lenski goes on to add that this position carried great responsibilities. They ranked with the tribunes of the Scholae Palatinae and had regular contact with these. They were charged with the collection of horses not only for the imperial court but also the cavalry so the comes stabuli had to know something about horses which is probably why Goffart and Scharf seem sure Vegetius filled this position. As to  Ptolemaeus, Alan Cameron in his book on Claudian, preferred to identify him as a comes stabuli on the grounds that Claudian terms him “better known” among the slave Eutropius’s owners and discusses him at length in his work  In Eutropium.

 Both Valentinian and Valens spent time overhauling the levying of horses from the provinces so the comes stabuli was an important function and they probably trusted only family members and capable men from Pannonia. Valentinian in particular was trying to stamp out corruption by agents collecting extravagant sums of money to buy quality horses but then proceed to buy cheap nags and pocket the difference, he even had one agent stoned in Sardinia for the corrupt practice while Valens re-organised the province of Cappadocia into two provinces so that he could better manage the horse ranches there and instituted laws to pay horse ranch farners  a fixed rate of 23 solidi for a good horse, quite generous so it is easy to see that under these two emperors the comes stabuli being a person you could trust would have been essential to reign in corruption.

Regards

Michael Kerr