Flavius Saturninus was a politician and a military man of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

.

Life

Saturninus was probably a Christian: it is known that he hosted a bishop, that he donated to a monastery and that was in touch for a short time with Gregory of Nazianzus

Gregory of Nazianzus

Gregory of Nazianzus was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age...

.

He followed the military career, and in 377/378 he fought against the Goths. After the inconclusive Battle of the Willows

Battle of the Willows

The Battle of the Willows took place at a place called ad Salices , or according to Roman records, a road way-station called Ad Salices ; probably located within 15 kilometres of Marcianople , although its exact location is unknown...

, the Eastern Emperor Valens

Valens

Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...

, who was in the Eastern frontier, appointed Saturninus magister equitum and sent him to Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

 with a cavalry unit, to support the magister peditum Traianus

Traianus (magister peditum)

Traianus was a Roman general under Emperor Valens with whom he died in the battle of Adrianople.- Life :...

. Saturninus and Traianus blocked the Goths near the passes of the Haemus

Haemus Mons

In earlier times the Balkan mountains were known as the Haemus Mons. It is believed that the name is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge', which is unattested but conjectured as the original Thracian form of Greek Haimos....

, building a line of fortifications that repulsed the Gothic attacks. The aim of the two generals was to force the Goths to suffer through the cold winter and the scarcity of food in order to force them into submission; alternatively, the two generals planned to call back the sentinels, luring the Goths of Fritigern

Fritigern

Fritigern or Fritigernus was a Tervingian Gothic chieftain whose decisive victory at Adrinaople the Gothic War extracted favourable terms for the Goths when peace was made with Gratian in 382.-War against Athanaric:...

 into an open-field battle in the plans between the Haemus and the Danube, where they were confident of winning. However, Fritigern did not accept battle, but enlisted Hunnic

Huns

The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...

 and Alan

Alans

The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...

 reinforcements. Saturninus realised that he could no longer fight the enemy with his troops, lifted the block on the mountain passes and retired.

As magister militum per Thracias, Emperor Theodosius I

Theodosius I

Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...

, who had succeeded Valens after his death in the battle of Adrianople (378), entrusted him with the negotiation of the peace with the Goths: in October 382 he signed a treaty according to which the Goths were to live in the Low Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 as foederati

Foederati

Foederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...

. This successful negotiation guaranteed Saturninus the imperial favour, and he was appointed Roman consul

Roman consul

A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...

 for the year 383. Themistius

Themistius

Themistius , named , was a statesman, rhetorician, and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian, and Theodosius I; and he enjoyed the favour of all those emperors, notwithstanding their many differences, and the fact that he himself was not a...

 dedicated him a panegyric.

In 400 he was under the Eastern Emperor Arcadius

Arcadius

Arcadius was the Byzantine Emperor from 395 to his death. He was the eldest son of Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the Western Emperor Honorius...

, when the magister militum Gainas

Gainas

Gainas was an ambitious Gothic leader who served the Eastern Roman Empire as Magister Militum during the reigns of Theodosius I and Arcadius....

 deposed and exiled him.

Sources

• Hartmut Leppin, Theodosius der Große, Darmstadt 2003, p. 275.
• Adolf Lippold, "Saturninus 4", in Der Kleine Pauly, Volume 4, p. 1570.