Dux (, : ducēs) is Latin for "leader" (from the noun dux, ducis, "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, dux could refer to anyone who commanded troops, both Roman generals and foreign leaders, but was not a formal military rank.
Roman Empire
Original usage
Until the 3rd century,
dux was not a formal expression of rank within the Roman military or administrative hierarchy.
In the Roman army, a dux would be a general in charge of two or more legions. While the title of dux could refer to a Roman Consul or imperator, it usually refers to the Roman governor of the Roman province.
In writing his commentaries on the Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar uses the term only for generals, with one exception for a Roman commander who held no official rank.[Thomas Wiedemann, “The Fetiales: A Reconsideration,” Classical Quarterly 36 (1986), p. 483. The Roman called dux is Publius Crassus, who was too young to hold a commission; see discussion of his rank.]
Change in usage
By the mid-3rd century AD, it had acquired a more precise connotation defining the commander of an expeditionary force, usually made up of detachments (i.e.,
Vexillatio) from one or more of the regular military formations. Such appointments were made to deal with specific military situations when the threat to be countered seemed beyond the capabilities of the province-based military command structure that had characterised the Roman army of the High Empire.
From the time of Gallienus onwards for more than a century they were invariably Viri Perfectissimi, i.e., members of the second class of the Equites.
Duces differed from praeses who were the supreme civil as well as military authority within their provinces in that the function of the former was purely military. However, the military authority of a dux was not necessarily confined to a single province and they do not seem to have been subject to the authority of the governor of the province in which they happened to be operating. It was not until the end of the 3rd century that the term dux emerged as a regular military rank held by a senior officer of limitanei – i.e. frontier troops as opposed those attached to an Imperial field-army ( comitatenses) – with a defined geographic area of responsibility.
Diocletian's reforms
Under Diocletian, during the
Tetrarchy, a new office called
dux was created with powers split from the role of the governor of a province. The dux was the highest military office within the province and commanded the legions, but the governor had to authorise the use of his powers after which the
dux could act independently and handle all military matters. The
Dux Belgicae secundae ("commander of the second Belgic province") is an example.
Also the provinces were reorganised into Roman diocese with each diocese administered by a vicarius. As with the governors, the vicarius was assisted by a dux. This dux was superior to all other duces within the dioceses; when the vicarius called the legions of the dioceses into action, all of the legions were at the command of the dux. The office of dux was, in turn, made subject to the magister militum of his respective praetorian prefecture, and above him to the Roman Emperor. The Dux per Gallias of the diocese of Gaul is an example of this office.
Later developments
In the
Byzantine Empire era of the Roman Empire, the position of dux survived (
Medieval Greek: "δούξ",
doux, plural "δούκες",
doukes) as a rank equivalent to a general (
strategos). In the late 10th and early 11th centuries, a
doux or
katepano was in charge of large circumscriptions consisting of several smaller
themata and of the professional regiments (
tagmata) of the
Byzantine army (as opposed to the largely militia-like forces of most
themata). In the
Komnenian period, the title of
doux replaced altogether the
strategos in designating the military official in charge of a
thema. In the
Byzantine navy,
doukes of the fleet appear in the 1070s, and the office of
megas doux ("grand duke") was created in the 1090s as the commander-in-chief of the entire
Byzantine navy.
The title also gave rise to a family name, the aristocratic Doukas clan, which in the 9th–11th centuries provided several Byzantine emperors and generals, while later bearers of the name (maternally descended from the original family) founded the Despotate of Epirus in northwestern Greece.
After the Western Roman Empire
King Arthur, in one of his earliest literary appearances, is described as
dux bellorum ("
dux of battles") among the kings of the
Romano-British in their wars against the
Anglo-Saxons. A chronicle from St Martin's monastery in
Cologne states that the monastery had been pillaged by the
Saxons in 778, but that it was rebuilt by an "Olgerus, dux Daniæ" (who may have been the historical person around whom the myth of Ogier the Dane formed), with the help of
Charlemagne.
Dux is also the root of various high feudal noble titles of peerage rank, such as the English duke, the French and Catalan duc, the Spanish and Portuguese duque, the Venetian doge, the Italian duca and duce, and the Byzantine Greek dukas or doukas (Gr. δούκας) (see Doukas).
Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini used the title of dux (and duce in Italian) to represent his leadership. One fascist motto was "DVX MEA LVX", Latin for "The Duce is my light" or "The Leader is my light".
In pre-revolutionary Russia, the Dux Factory built , and aircraft in Moscow.
Education
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In Hong Kong, Scotland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand dux is a modern title given to the highest-ranking student in academic, arts or sporting achievement ( valedictorian, Dux Artium and Dux Ludorum respectively) in each graduating year.
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In Portugal universities the Dux is the most senior of students, usually in charge of overseeing the praxe (initiation for the freshman).
Popular culture
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In RuneScape 3, "Dux" is offered to players as a choice of title alongside "Duke" and "Duchess".
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In Light Bringer of Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga, "Dux" is a rank and title given to those who speak with the authority of their liege, as in the character of Holiday ti Nakamura.
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft ( Pauly–Wissowa)
External links
