Calocaerus (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
: Καλόκαιρος; –334 AD) was a
Roman usurper
Roman usurpers were individuals or groups of individuals who obtained or tried to obtain power by force and without legitimate legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during the Roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third centu ...
against Emperor
Constantine I
Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...
, who, in 334 AD, staged a short lived revolt in Cyprus. His revolt was quickly put down, and he was executed along with his commanders, by being burned alive.
History
Before the revolt, Calocaerus had served in the role of ''
Magister pecoris camelorum'' ("Master of the Flock and Camels") in
Cyprus
Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
according to the historian
Aurelius Victor
Sextus Aurelius Victor ( 320 – 390) was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a now-lost monumental history of imperial Rome covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II. Under the emperor Julian (361 ...
. Whether his unusual title implies some military command ("captain of the camel corps") or merely a servile position ("leading shepherd slave") is uncertain, though in any event there were no camels in Cyprus in that era.
[Hill 1940, p. 244] He had been assigned to this position by Emperor
Constantine I
Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...
in 330 AD. During the time period of the revolt, imperial power and legitimacy was based almost entirely upon military power. In order to become and remain emperor, a usurper needed a large and loyal army. Due to this, there were a large number of ephemeral revolts, which were either rapidly put down by the incumbent emperor, or else had their usurper killed by his own troops.
Calocaerus revolted in Cyprus in 334 AD, proclaiming himself emperor. He was swiftly defeated by
Flavius Dalmatius
:''This article deals with the censor. For the Caesar (335–337) Flavius Dalmatius, son of the censor, see Dalmatius.''
Flavius Dalmatius (died 337), also known as Dalmatius the Censor, was a censor (333), and a member of the Constantinian dyn ...
, the half-brother of Emperor Constantine I. After being defeated, he was taken to
Tarsus in
Cilicia
Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...
, and burned alive, along with his commanders. It is likely that Calocaerus' low status (that of a ''Magister pecoris camelorum''), had an influence in the low amount of support he received, leading to his quick demise. Dalmatius gathered evidence that a bastard son of
Licinius
Valerius Licinianus Licinius (; Ancient Greek, Greek: Λικίνιος; c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign, he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan that ...
, who had been emperor before Constantine I, was involved. This son had been legitimized by edict, and survived the downfall of his father, and still held a high, although unrecorded, rank in the Roman Empire. Dalmatius used this evidence to either execute or enslave the bastard son.
References
Ancient sources
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Theophanes 43B.
*
Jerome
Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome.
He is best known ...
Chron. 334.
Citations
Books
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Further reading
*
Arnold Hugh Martin Jones
Arnold Hugh Martin Jones Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (9 March 1904 – 9 April 1970), known also as A. H. M. Jones or Hugo Jones, was a prominent 20th-century British historian of classical antiquity, particularly of the later Roman Empire ...
, J. (EDT) Morris, J. R. (John Robert) Martindale, ''
The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'' (abbreviated as ''PLRE'') is a work of Roman prosopography published in a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date ...
'', Cambridge University Press, 1971, {{ISBN, 0-521-07233-6.
DiMaio, Michael, "Calocaerus (333/334 A.D.)", ''De Imperatoribus Romanis''
334 deaths
4th-century Roman usurpers
Year of birth unknown
Executed ancient Roman people
People executed by the Roman Empire
Roman Cyprus
People executed by burning
4th-century rebels