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The Early Career of the Magister Equitum Jacobus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

David Woods
David Woods
Affiliation:
The Queen's University of Belfast
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Extract

Claudian's carm. min. 50 which is addressed ‘In Jacobum Magistrum Equitum’ has recently been the subject of a detailed study by J. Vanderspoel. In it he reviews what little we know about the career of Jacobus using as his second source in this matter the letter of Vigilius, bishop of Tridentum, to John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, the heading of which reports that the relics of the martyrs Sisinnius, Alexander and Martyrius reached Constantinople ‘per Jacobum virum illustrem’. Whilst I am willing to accept the argument that the relics must have been delivered by about A.D. 400, if not earlier, and that Jacobus received the office of magister equitum subsequent to this, I have some misgivings about the treatment afforded the earlier career of Jacobus, and it is to this matter which I wish to draw attention here.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , December 1991 , pp. 571 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1991

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References

1 Vanderspoel, J., ‘Claudian, Christ and the Cult of the Saints’, CQ 36 (1986), 244–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Ruinart, T., Acta Martyrum (Ratisbony, 1859), pp. 626–30.Google Scholar

3 J. Vanderspoel, art. cit., p. 248.

4 1.2, ‘ne laceres versus, dux Iacobe, meos’, repeated again as 1.14. The matter is touched upon by Brummer, G., ‘Wer war Jacobus? Zur Deutung von Claudian C.M. 50’, BZ 65 (1972), 339–52, p. 349Google Scholar, but ignored by PLRE II, pp. 581–2. Barnes, T. D., ‘Late Roman Prosopography: between Theodosius and Justinian’, Phoenix 37 (1983), 248–70, p. 267CrossRefGoogle Scholar corrects PLRE II in the date it attributes to the translation of the relics by Jacobus but fails to tackle the more fundamental problems of Jacobus' rank and the exact nature of the role he played in this translation of relics.

5 J. Vanderspoel, art. cit., p. 254.

6 Notitia Dignitatum, Oc. V. 127; Oc. XXIV.

7 Notitia Dignitatum, Oc. V. 139; Oc. XXXV.

8 5–8: ‘sic ope sanctorum non barbarus inruat Alpes, / sic tibi det vires sancta Susanna suas / sic quicumque ferox gelidum transnaverit Histrum / mergatur volucres ceu Pharaonis equi.’

9 J. Vanderspoel, art. cit., p. 248.

10 G. Brummer, op. cit., passim; PLRE II, p. 581.

11 PLRE I, p. 527, Macedonius 8, ‘comes et dux Tripolitanae’; p. 570, Mauritius 2, ‘comes et dux Thebaidos’, a.d. 367/375; PLRE II, p. 779, Nestorius 3, ‘comes et dux Tripolitanae’, a.d. 406; p. 1101, Theodosius 10, ‘comes et dux Thebaidos’.

12 De Bell. Get. 278–403.

13 Ch. I, T. Ruinart, op. cit., p. 626.

14 Passio S. Sabae, ch. VI, T. Ruinart, op. cit., p. 619.

15 Basil, Ep. 165.

16 J. Vanderspoel, art. cit., p. 249.

17 T. D. Barnes, art. cit., p. 267, speculates even that Jacobus was really on a diplomatic mission of some sort.

18 Jerome, , Chron. a. 357; De Vir. Ill. 7.Google Scholar