Nectaridus was an early

Count of the Saxon Shore The Count of the Saxon Shore for Britain ( la, comes littoris Saxonici per Britanniam) was the head of the Saxon Shore military command of the later Roman Empire. The post was possibly created during the reign of Constantine I, and was probably ...

, a military leader in

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...

in the later fourth century AD. His command may have been an ''ad hoc'' creation, possibly during the reign of

Valentinian I Valentinian I ( la, Valentinianus; 32117 November 375), sometimes called Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor, he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces. Val ...

or Julian during the early 360s, in response to growing pirate raiding. His military command probably extended beyond Britain to include maritime forces protecting both sides of the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

Ammianus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gest ...

records that he was killed in 367 AD during the

Great Conspiracy The Great Conspiracy was a year-long state of war and disorder that occurred near the end of Roman Britain. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus described it as a ''barbarica conspiratio'', which capitalised on a depleted military force in the p ...

, and the loss of such a high-ranking official would have been a blow to Roman prestige. His replacement is not known, and the post may have been only a proto-version of the later office of Count.

References

Further reading