Comes stabuli

The Count of the Stable (Latin: comes stabuli; Greek: κόμης τοῦ σταύλου/στάβλου, komēs tou staulou/stablou) was a late Roman and Byzantine office responsible for the horses and pack animals intended for use by the army and the imperial court. From Byzantium, it was adopted by the Franks, and is the origin of the post and title of constable, via the Old French conestable.

The post first appears in the 4th century as the tribunus [sacri] stabuli ("tribune of the [sacred] stable"), initially responsible for the levying of horses from the provinces. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the holders of the post ranked equal to the tribunes of the Scholae Palatinae guard regiments. In the Notitia Dignitatum, they are listed as the praepositi gregum et stabulorum under the comes rerum privatarum. By the early 5th century, as attested in the Codex Theodosianus, they were raised to comites with the rank of vir clarissimus, but the older title of tribune remained in parallel use for some time (cf. Cod. Theod., 6.13.1).

Eight holders of the office are known from the 4th century, including Emperor Valens (r. 364–378) and his brothers-in-law Cerealis and Constantinianus. Evidently, the post was closely associated with the imperial family, as affirmed further when Stilicho was appointed to it on the occasion of his marriage to the adopted niece of Emperor Theodosius I (r. 378–395), Serena. However, holders are rarely mentioned thereafter. The distinguished general Flavius Aetius held the post in 451, and in the 6th century, the variant "Count of the Imperial Grooms" was conferred on leading generals such as Belisarius and Constantinianus, while Baduarius, a relative of Emperor Justin II (r. 565–578), is recorded by the 9th-century chronicler Theophanes the Confessor to have held the post of "Count of the Imperial Stables". The office reappears in the sources in the 820s, when the "prōtospatharios and komēs tou basilikou hippostasiou" Damian led an unsuccessful expedition against the Saracens in Crete.

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