granted only to military occupants, who held them by a kind of feudal tenure in return for their service on the frontier.[1] Every important station was guarded by from 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers; and in the Eastern Empire the division of the army to which such duties were assigned may have amounted to over 200,000 men of all arms.[2] These forces were called the Limitanei Milites, or Border Soldiers, and in each province of the exterior range were under the command collectively of a Count or Duke.[3] Such were the stationary forces of the Empire, of whose services the frontiers could not be depleted should a mobile army be required to meet the exigences of strategic warfare. Large bodies of troops were, therefore, quartered in the interior of the country, which could be concentrated in any particular locality under the immediate disposition of the Masters of the Forces. This portion of the army was organized in two divisions to which were given the names of Palatines and Comitatenses. The former, which held the first rank, were stationed in or near the capital under the two Masters[4] at head-quarters; and, in accordance with their designation, were identified most nearly with the conception of defending the Imperial Palace or heart of the state. The latter were distributed throughout the provinces under the three Masters
- [Footnote: have been exhaustively described. The camps are represented as military
cities. See Bruce's Handbook to the Roman Wall, 1885, etc.]
- ↑ Cod. Theod., VII, xv, etc.
- ↑ Arrian, Peripl. Pont. Eux. This force was reduced by Constantine; Zosimus, ii, 34.
- ↑ In the Notitia Or., there are two Counts and thirteen Dukes. All of the latter, however, were Counts of the First Order, as evidenced by their insignia. In rank they were Spectabiles, that is, a step higher than the Rectors and ordinary Senators.
- ↑ Evidently from the Notitia.
