What is "legatus"

A legatus ( anglicised as legate) was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the Proconsul (provincial governor), and he outranked all military tribunes. In order to command an army independently of the Proconsul, legates were required to be of praetorian rank or higher; a legate could be invested with propraetorian imperium (legatus pro praetore) in his own right. Legates received large shares of the army's booty at the end of a successful campaign, which made the position a lucrative one, so it could often attract even distinguished consuls (e.g., the consul Lucius Julius Caesar volunteered late in the Gallic Wars as a legate under his first cousin once removed, Gaius Julius Caesar).