Definition: Magister militum 'Master of the Soldiers' was the commander of the soldiers in the Roman army, an office dating from the reign of Constantine. In How Rome Fell, Adrian Goldsworthy says the Magister militum was the most senior military officer under the emperor from the 4th century on. There was one Magister militum for each praetorian prefecture.
Earlier, Rome had had a commander of the horse soldiers (equites), called a Magister equitum, and a commander of the infantry (pedites), called a Magister peditum. A commander in charge of both was known as the Magister utriusquae militiae. Magister...praesentalis was a commander in the presence of the emperor.
For information on civil and military titles, see Notitia Dignitatum and "The Roman Magistri in the Civil and Military Service of the Empire," by A. E. R. Boak. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 26, (1915), pp. 73-164.
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Stilicho was a Magister utriusquae militiae.
