The (literally: "count of Strasbourg region") was in late antiquity commander of units of the mobile field army of the

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...

, operating along the Rhine frontier (

Danube–Iller–Rhine Limes The Danube–Iller–Rhine Limes (german: Donau-Iller-Rhein-Limes) or DIRL was a large-scale defensive system of the Roman Empire that was built after the project for the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes in the late 3rd century AD. In a narrower sense ...

) in the

Diocese of Gaul :''See '' Christianity in Gaul'' for the 4th-century ecclesiastical dioceses in Roman Gaul'' The Diocese of Gaul (Latin: Dioecesis Galliarum, "diocese of the Gaul rovince") was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, under the praetorian prefecture o ...

Definition

The title ''

Comes ''Comes'' ( ), plural ''comites'' ( ), was a Roman title or office, and the origin Latin form of the medieval and modern title "count". Before becoming a word for various types of title or office, the word originally meant "companion", either i ...

'' was usually awarded to members of the highest rank of the nobility (''vir spectabilis''), or to the closest confidants of the Emperor. In the late Roman army, it was then transferred to the commanders of mobile field armies (''

comitatenses The comitatenses and later the palatini were the units of the field armies of the late Roman Empire. They were the soldiers that replaced the legionaries, who had formed the backbone of the Roman military since the Marian reforms. Organizati ...

'') or to officers who were entrusted with temporary special commands (''Comes rei militaris'') . His direct superior was the '' magister peditum praesentalis'' of the West, the supreme commander of the infantry troops. His area of responsibility (''Tractus'') mainly included the region around the Legion camp

Argentoratum Argentoratum or Argentorate was the ancient name of the city of Strasbourg. The name was first mentioned in 12 BC, when it was a Roman military outpost established by Nero Claudius Drusus. From 90 AD the Legio VIII Augusta was permanently stati ...

(in the present day Strasbourg and

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

), in the province of Germania Prima. According to one source, the position was created around 408, following the barbarian occupation of most of Gaul, and lasted until Gaul was recovered in 416.

References

{{italic title Ancient Roman titles Argentoratensis, tractus Military ranks of ancient Rome