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Dux (/dʌks,dʊks/,pl.:ducēs) isLatin for "leader" (from the noundux, ducis, "leader, general") and later forduke and its variant forms (doge,duce, etc.). During theRoman Republic and for the first centuries of theRoman Empire,dux could refer to anyone who commanded troops, both Roman generals and foreign leaders, but was not a formal military rank.
Until the 3rd century,dux was not a formal expression of rank within the Roman military or administrative hierarchy.[1]
In theRoman army, adux would be a general in charge of two or more legions. While the title ofdux could refer to aconsul orimperator, it usually refers to theRoman governor of theprovinces.
In writing hiscommentaries on theGallic Wars,Julius Caesar uses the term only forCeltic generals, with one exception for a Roman commander who held no official rank.[2]
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.,vexillationes) 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.[3]
From the time ofGallienus onwards for more than a century they were invariablyViri Perfectissimi, i.e., members of the second class of theequestrian order.[4] Thus, they would have out-ranked the commanders of provincial legions, who were usuallyViri Egregii – equestrians of the third class.[5]
Duces differed frompraesides 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 adux 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 termdux emerged as a regular military rank held by a senior officer oflimitanei – i.e. frontier troops as opposed those attached to an Imperial field-army (comitatenses) – with a defined geographic area of responsibility.[note 1]
Under Diocletian, during theTetrarchy, a new office calleddux 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 thedux could act independently and handle all military matters.[citation needed] TheDux Belgicae secundae ("commander of the second Belgic province") is an example.
Also the provinces were reorganised intodioceses with each diocese administered by avicarius. As with the governors, the vicarius was assisted by adux. Thisdux was superior to all otherduces within the dioceses; when the vicarius called the legions of the dioceses into action, all of the legions were at the command of thedux.[citation needed] The office ofdux was, in turn, made subject to themagister militum of his respectivepraetorian prefecture, and above him to theemperor. TheDux per Gallias of the diocese ofGaul is an example of this office.
In theByzantine era of the Roman Empire, the position of dux survived (Byzantine Greek: "δούξ",doux, plural "δούκες",doukes) as a rank equivalent to a general (strategos). In the late 10th and early 11th centuries, adoux orkatepano was in charge of large circumscriptions consisting of several smallerthemata and of the professional regiments (tagmata) of theByzantine army (as opposed to the largely militia-like forces of mostthemata). In theKomnenian period, the title ofdoux replaced altogether thestrategos in designating the military official in charge of athema. In theByzantine navy,doukes of the fleet appear in the 1070s, and the office ofmegas doux ("grand duke") was created in the 1090s as the commander-in-chief of the entirenavy.
The title also gave rise to a family name, the aristocraticDoukas 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 theDespotate of Epirus in northwestern Greece.
King Arthur, in one of his earliest literary appearances, is described asdux bellorum ("dux of battles") among the kings of theRomano-Britons in their wars against theAnglo-Saxons. A chronicle from St Martin's monastery inCologne states that the monastery had been pillaged by theSaxons in 778, but that it was rebuilt by an "Olgerus, dux Daniæ" (who may have been the historical person around whom the myth ofOgier the Dane formed), with the help ofCharlemagne.
Dux is also the root of various high feudal noble titles of peerage rank, such as the Englishduke, the French and Catalanduc, the Spanish and Portugueseduque, theVenetiandoge, the Italianduca andduce, and theByzantine Greekdukas ordoukas (Gr. δούκας) (seeDoukas).
Italian Fascist dictatorBenito Mussolini used the title ofdux (andduce 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".[7]
In pre-revolutionary Russia, theDux Factory builtbicycles,automobiles andaircraft inMoscow.[8]
The dictionary definition ofdux at Wiktionary
