The Roman Army: Papers 1929-1986 9050630022, 9789050630023

Citation preview

MAVORS ROMAN

ARMY

RESEARCHES

EDITED

BY

M.P. SPEIDEL UNIVERSITY

OF HAWAII

VOLUME ERIC THE

IV

BIRLEY

ROMAN

ARMY

THE ROMAN ARMY PAPERS 1929-1986

by

ERIC JVRLEY

J.C. GIEBEN,

PUBLISHER

AMSTERDAM

1988

ISBN 90 5063 007 J

Printtd in Tht Ntthtrlands

FOREWORD

Roman army studies have a long lifespan. Works written almost a hundred years ago, such as those by Domaszewski and Ritterling, are even today essential research tools. Though our sources now flow more richly, and new viewpoints are taken, the truths found by the great masters of old are still true, their sharpness of vision is still inspiring, their dedication to the sources is still our Genius. Eric Birley, more than anyone else, has carried on and refined their grand tradition with such skill and steadfastness, that today scholars throughout the world look to him as their Altmeister, now in his eighty-second year, - and like those of the giants of the past, his papers are sure to teach and to inspire readers for a long time to come. The need to reprint his army papers in book form was felt long ago. When in 1952, at the Second International Congress for Greek and Latin Epigraphy in Paris, Eric Birley gave his farsighted report on "The Epigraphy of the Roman Army.,, which serves as the introductory piece here, Herbert Nesselhauf put in words everyone's wish that his papers be brought together and thus be made accessible to scholars. The following year, Roman Britain and the Roman Army, a first collection of papers, was published and has since been widely read. The present harvest of studies, more than twice as many as in the earlier book, includes the main army papers of that volume in an expanded form, as well as papers published before and since, some only last year. Several of them have been reset to include additions and corrections. The chapters on senators, knights, and centurions, by themselves, would make a well-rounded book on the officers of the Roman army: but all together, these forty-five studies reflecting Eric Birley's lifetime work, are a true Epitoma rei militaris. The index is the keen work of Anne Kolb, Heidelberg. M.P. Speidel University of Hawaii

V

INTRODUCTION

My interest in the Roman army began when I was still at school, and then in Oxford I discovered the fascination of epigraphy, the most copious source for that subject, and the attractiveness of Roman nomenclature, hence also the study of prosopography. But from Oxford I was sent by R.G. Collingwood to work on Hadrian's Wall, and up to the outbreak of World War II much of my time was taken up with excavations and research on and near the Wall, though I had begun to travel abroad, mainly to Germany and Switzerland, to study Roman frontiers and important military sites. It is for that reason that only three of the papers in the present volume were written before the caesura of nearly six and a half years in Military Intelligence, studying the German army and, incidentally, learning much about the methods of other modern armies. When I returned to Durham, in 1946, I was able to resume my direct interest in the Roman army, and I found myself asking questions about its organisation and methods which I would probably never have thought of, but for my practical experience of the ways in which modern armies work. Many of the papers here reproduced will serve to show the amount of my debt to those years spent away from my chosen field. But it is right that I should stress the fact that, as a university teacher, I had the opportunity of guiding a number ,f my Durham pupils into the same area of research; and it is a pleasure to recall the published work and the cooperation of several of them: D.J. Breeze, R.W. Davies, Brian Dobson, M.G. Jarrett, Valerie Maxfield, G.R. Watson and J.J. Wilkes; and, away fro.n Durham, I have been able to ' e of some help to Margaret Roxan in London, and Hubert Devijver in Belgium. For more than half a century, Sir Ronald Syme has been both friend and mentor; and in recent years I owe much to Geza Alfoldy, and to Michael Speidel - whose encouragement has brought me to collecting together the papers now off ercd. One friend is alas no longer alive to receive my thanks: I dedicate this book to the memory of Hans-Georg Pflaum ( J 902-1979). whom I first met in Paris in I 952, and from whom over the years I, and many of my Durham pupils, received constant stimulus and encouragement.

Eric Birley Carvoran. December I 986

vii

CONTE~TS

I. GENERAL

3

The epigraphy of the Roman army Hadrianic frontier policy

12

Septimius Severus and the Roman army

21

The aftermath of an incident in A.O. 69

41

True and false: order of battle in the HA

44

The dating and character of the tract De munitionibus castrorum

53

The dating of Vegetius and the Historla Augusta

58

The nature of the Notitia Dignitatum

69

II. SENATORS Senators in the emperors• service

75

Promotions and transfers in the Roman army I: senatorial and equestrian officers

93

The governors of Numidia A.O. 193-268

115

A Severan governor of Upper Moesia

124

A tribunus laticlavius from Cerfennia

127

Inscriptions indicative of impending or recent movements

130

M. Bassaeus Astur: a note

141 111. KNIGHTS

The equestrian officers of the Roman army

14 7

Review and discussion of H.-G. Pflaum: Les procurateurs equestres sous le 165

Haut-empire romain

A note on Cornelius Repentinus

173

The prefects at Carrawburgh and their altars

178

IV. CENTURIONS

The origins of legionary centurions

189

Promotions and transfers in the Roman army II: the ccnturionate

206

ix

A Roman altar from Old Kilpatrick and interim commanders of auxiliary units

221

Eine lnschrift von Untersaal

232

A centurion of leg. VJ Victrix and his wife

234

V. ROMAN BRITAIN

Some military aspects of Roman Scotland

239

Dalswinton and the a/a Petriana

248

Troops from the two Germanies in Roman Britain

251

The adherence of Britain to Vespasian

256

Raetien, Britannien und das romische Heer

259

Veterans of the Roman army in Britain and elsewhere

272

Noricum, Britain and the Roman army

284

More links between Britain and Noricum

298

Britain, Pannonia and the Roman army

304

VI. LEGIONS A note on the title 'Gemina'

311

The fate of the Ninth Legion

316

Evocati Aug.: a review

326

Some military inscriptions from Chester

331

The Flavian colonia at Scupi

339 VII. AUXILIA

A lae and cohortes m/1/iariae

349

Cohors I Tungrorom and the oracle of the Clarian Apollo

365

Alae named after their commanders

368

A note on cohors I Aqultanorom

385

Local militias in the Roman empire

387

VIII. RELIGION The religion of the Roman army: 1895- 1977

397

An inscription from Cramond and the Matres Campestres

433

Indices

437

X

I

GENERAL

THE

EPIGRAPHY

OF THE

ROMAN

ARMY

The study of the Roman army really involves an exercise in Military Intelligence (to use the British Army's term for what the Americans. French and Germans call the work of their G-2, lie Bureau and le respectively). The principal task of Military Intelligence is to discover and assess the strength. Order of Battle, organisation, equipment and value for war of an enemy's army; and its main sources of information, apart from what is derived from contact in the field and from the interrogation of prisoners. are the reports of agents and the enemy's own documents. In the case of the Roman army, it is the archaeologist who can provide contact in the field. by uncovering and interpreting its forts and frontier-works. and from them deducing something as to its value for war, or by digging up the sculptures or even some of the very weapons, which enable us to assess the quality and the variety of its equipment. The interrogation of Roman prisoners, alas. is no longer possible: the reports of agents or observers - the surviving historians and other writers of the Graeco-Roman world - often have much to tell us. indeed, but seldom as much as we could wish, on the subjects with which they deal. and there is a host of questions which occur to us and on which we look in vain to them for an answer: for, as Vegetius puts it (epit. rei mi/. I 8), .. illi res gestas et evcntus tantum scripscre bellorum. ista. quae nunc quaerimus, tamquam nota linquentes". There remain the Roman army's own documents. It is a mere accident that our Congress is only concerned with those of them which were inscribed on stone or metal or wood, or stamped on tiles; a full Military Intelligence survey must take into account not only the epigraphy but also the papyrology of the Roman army, for inscriptions and papyri alike represent. or at least reproduce, that army's original documents. and if we can learn to read them aright, they have a very great deal to teach us about its strength. its Order of Battle. its organisation - and how it actually worked. If I understand the purpose of this Congress correctly, it is intended not so much to take stock of what has been achievcd. as to consider what remains to be done. in each of the fields selected for report. In reporting on the Roman army. however. it would be inappropriate, if not impossible. to avoid referring to the work of the great scholars who founded or developed the scientific study of its epigraphy Mommsen, who illuminated almost every aspect of it: Domaszewski. who elucidated its Rangordnung; Cichorius and Ritterling. who analysed its Order of Battle: Cagnat and Lesquier, who brought it to life as a working organism by their profound studies of the Roman armies of Africa and of Egypt. I cannot but be conscious of Acu, du (k,urii,,,,

co"~'

iitt#ffl11ho,,,dd'ipippbt,

f"cqi,,

n 1111,,.,,Paris 1952. 226-238. R-r.

3

my own unworthiness to follow in their footsteps, but I have been ..dilecto lectus" 1 to speak on the epigraphy of the Roman army. and I will do my best. At least, some of the questions which now seem to be of importance would not, perhaps, have occurred to me at all, but for the fact that I have had to spend half a dozen years, during the recent war, on the staff of the British Army's princeps peregrinorum. the Director of Military Intelligence. On Order of Battle, the study of the units, large and small. which go to make up an army. I do not need to say very much. For the legions. Ritterling's article in the Realcncyclopadie provides an invaluable basis, exemplary in its use of the epigraphic material (if only his references to epigraphic publications had been more methodical); it is a relatively simple matter to bring his lists up to date, by a check through the publications of subsequent years. But there are still a good many problems to be solved, which only fresh discoveries of inscriptions. or a renewed study of inscriptions already known, can enable us to solve. Professor Syme's work on the legions under Augustus will serve to remind us that Ritterling's article was only a report of progress, not a definitive account; there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the movements of legions under the Flavians and in the first half of the second century (what, for example, was the employment of Trajan's two new legions before they came to rest in Egypt and Lower Germany respectively? when, and where, did IX Hispana or XXII Deiotariana cease to exist. to say nothing of XXI Rapax or V Alaudae?); and when we come to the third century, there can be little doubt that several of the legions recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum, and perhaps others of which we have at present no knowledge, were raised by one or other of the successors of Severns. and will one day be identified by epigraphic records. There is already a great deal of epigraphic evidence for the employment of vexillations, far from their parent legions, in that century; it is to be hoped that someone may have the patience and the skill to collect all the evidence together, and to provide us with a reasoned account of the real beginnings of the field-army of the fourth century. As to the army of the Later Empire, I will only say that its study would be very greatly simplified if we could ref er to a corpus of the inscriptions relating to it, as well as to Grosse's useful book; but I must confine my attention here to the army of the Principate. The auxilia are in a worse case than the legions. The excellent articles by Cichorius, on a/a and cohors, were compiled more than half a century ago, and it is now almost forty years since Cheesman wrote his Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army: a fresh survey of aJl the evidence is badly needed, for inscriptions and. to a lesser extent, papyri have added a great mass of information. In part, it has already been digested: Professor Nesselhaufs new edition of the military diplomas in CIL XVI gives us a solid framework, and the careful analyses of Ernst Stein and of Dr Wagner forrn a valuable guide to the auxilia of the Rhine and Danube provinces. But there is a real need for another Cichorius, or another Cheesman, to survey the whole field, and to provide a comprehensive and up to date monograph on that branch of the I. So ILS 230S = CIL VIII 14603.

4

Roman army which manned the frontiers of the empire and bore the brunt of frontier battles and (as Vegetius tells us. epit. rei mi/. II 3) attracted recruits whom the harder work and the stricter discipline of the legions repelled. On the numeri, even more remains to be done; for Mr Rowell's article in the Realencyclopadie does not give anything like a complete list of the units of this type for which we have epigraphic evidence;and despite his article and a recent one by Professor Vittinghoff, there is still much to be learnt about their recruiting, organisation and value for war. On the internal organisation of the Roman army, Domaszewski's Rangordnung has stood the test of more than forty years' use; with few exceptions it has established, once and for all, the relative seniority of all ranks in the military hierarchy, and the normal sequences of promotion from one post to another. 2 If I am to single out any one feature of the book for special mention, it must be its appendix of inscriptions, which enables us not only to check Domaszewski's own reasoning, but to investigate fresh lines of thought by quick reference to the most convenient collection of military texts. A corpus of Roman military inscriptions would be handier still, but we may be thankful that he provided us with so extensive a selection. But though Domaszewski studied the relative seniority of posts with great care, he did not, I think, consider them sufficiently from the point of view of the men who were promoted, or of the officers who promoted them. Indeed, I am inclined to suggest that the most urgent need, in the study of the Roman army. is for a better knowledge, not of the structure of the machine (which by now is tolerably well known). but of the way in which it actually worked; and that is something which we can learn from the study of its documents. For example, the military papyri, illustrating the precise methods and duties of the different scholae, enable us to appreciate the functions and the importance of the signifer in the century or of the cornicularius on the staff of a cohort or a legjon 3 : and the epigraphic records of military careers, or even the bare epitaphs of common soldiers (if we study them in sufficient quantity), have still to yield their full measure of evidence for the working of the system. In a brief report, I cannot hope to draw attention to more than a selection of the questions on which more light may be thrown by further analysis of military inscriptions: I will concentrate as far as possible on those questions to which my own attention has been drawn by a comparable study of the documents of modern armies. Let me make two preliminary points: a prosopographical approach will yield the richest dividends, and the origins - geographical and social - of all ranks are as important as the careers of individuals. Both for prosopography and for the 2. On this question, a useful check-list of the epigraphic evidence is given in George H. Allen's paper, "The advancement of officers in the Roman army", which was published in the same year u the Ran1ordnun1 and, perhaps for that reason, is not so well known u it deserves: see the bibliosraphy at the end of this paper. 3. Mr G.R. Watson, of Nottingham University, i.s at present engqed on a study of Roman military book-keeping, which promises to throw considerable light on such matters. [ See now his book, The Roman Soldiu, 1969.)

s

question

of ongms the student of the Roman army cannot but wish that the

Onomasticon of the Thesaurus linguae latinae might make more rapid progress; Schulze's lateinische Eigennamen, valuable though it is, lists barely two-thirds of the recorded nomina, and studies the distribution of far fewer names than it lists, Holder's Altce/tischer Sprachschatz is not yet matched by comparable handy and extensive collections of material for the other main subdivisions of the Roman empire; a comprehensive study of cognomina and their geographical incidence is a crying need, emphasized by Schulze himself, and it is to be regretted that there has been no scholar to continue and enlarge the use fol survey which Professor L.R. Dean inaugurated with his Princeton dissertation of 1916, on the cognomina of soldiers in the Roman legions ( though now we have the useful works by Kajanto and M6csy). In addition. each of the questions which I propose to refer to, would be far easier to answer. if only the epigraphic material (in Greek even more than in Latin) were not so scattered; a corpus of military inscriptions, no less than full indices of Roman personal names with particulars of their geographical distribution. would make our Military Intelligence project immeasurably easier to bring to fruition. My first question relates to the senatorial officers of the Roman army. Here, we have a substantial number of inscriptions which give cursus honorum, but as yet no serious attempt has been made to deduce the principles on which young men were chosen specifically for the emperors' military service, or on which their subsequent advancement in that service was decided. Ritterling, indeed, in a paper in the Jahreshefte in 1907, drew attention to the importance of kinship or patronage in securing a first appointment as tribunus /aticlavius, and the point has been well illustrated by Groag in a long series of prosopographical articles: yet a careful analysis of the cursus honorum which survive gives me grounds for supposing that even greater importance attaches to the emperor's own rating of a candidate, as indicated by the post in the vigintivirate to which he was assigned 4 : that seems the only explanation why so many men who began their careers as 1///viri viarum curandarum rose to hold consular commands - of which there was little hope for those whose first appointment was that of 11/vir capita/is, unless a change of emperors gave an opportunity for their qualities to be re-assessed, as happened in the cases of Platorius Nepos (ILS I 052), Bruttius Praesens (A.E. 1950. 66) and Burbuleius Optatus (ILS 1066), whose careers should enable us to add at least a footnote to the history of Hadrian's reign. It seems clear that a wise emperor must always have planned ahead, selecting in their late teens the men who were to command legions ten or fifteen years later, and consular armies five or ten years after that. Then again, much has still to be learnt about the pattern of senatorial officers' service: a preliminary survey seems to suggest that, while the Flavian emperors may have aimed at a measure of specialisation, in most periods the three grades (as tribunus laticlavius. legionary legate and consular commander) were 4. This line of approach was first suaested to me by a paper of Brassloff's "Die Grundsatze bei der Commendation der Plebejer" (Jahr~sh~fu VIII, 1905, pp. 60-70), though it does not concern itself with the vi&intivirate.

6

intended to be held in different provinces, and so were successive appointments in the same grade. Over-specialisation in the military problems of a single theatre of war was obviously to be avoided; Agricola might know all about the methods of British or Caledonian enemies, but he had no qualifications for a command on the Danube, as Domitian no doubt realised. If the emperors' planning had been adequate, it would never have been necessary to supplement the list of senatorial generals by promotions from the equestrian service; when, therefore, we meet with such promotions, the reason for them must be sought. The events of A.D. 69 provide a perfect illustration: so many senators had been eliminated from consideration, by the accident of service on the wrong side, that improvisation would have been forced on Vcspasian, even if he had not had loyal and efficient equestrian supporters to reward. Again, casualties in action and from the plague would have forced the hand of Marcus Aurelius, even if Antoninus Pius had been as careful in his planning as we may take Trajan or Hadrian to have been. But it will be sufficient for me to have broached the subject now; a more detailed study can hardly fail to throw light on the methods and the efficiency of the Roman High Command, or at least of individual emperors. On the equestrian military service, I may be allowed to refer to two recent papers of mine, on "The equestrian officers of the Roman army" and "The origins of equestrian officers". published in the Durham University Journal;' there is nothing that I wish to add in the present survey, except to stress the need for more detailed study of the pattern of equestrian careers, in transfers from one province to another or from one unit to another in the same province; it may well throw light on the history of the Roman empire, as well as on the methods of the Roman anny - and the main source for such a study is epigraphy. Next, I take the primipilares. Here, perhaps, is the grade on which most still needs to be done. The epigraphic material is plentiful, and much has been written about them: but, as far as I can see, nobody has subjected the primipilares to methodical and comprehensive study since Karbe's doctoral dissertation appeared in 1880, though Baehr in 1900 added some useful details. If I may use the jargon of modern industry. there had to be a quick through-put of primi pili. if the emperor was to have sufficient primipilares at his disposal; and I fancy that inscriptions and papyri, taken together, can be made to show that Hadrian took steps to increase the supply, by giving each legion' two primi pili, each commanding one century in its first cohort - and I suspect that it was Severus who was responsible for creating appointments as primus pi/us not attached to a legion at all: the primipilares of the fourth century clearly had their forerunners in the third. A Prosopographia Primipilarlum is very badly needed: it would enable us to judge with some exactness how far Monsieur Durry was justified in his assumption of the 5. ( Reprinted in Roman Britain and the Roman Army, 1953; for a revised text or the former paper er. now pp. 147-164, below.) 6. With the exception, perhaps, of// Traiana, on which a newly discovered inscription [now best published by G. Forni and D. Maniniin Studi di 1toria antica in memoria di Luca de Regibus, Genova 1969, 177-21 OJ throws new and important light.

1

importance of his .. chevaliers-pretoriens". and to obtain a clearer picture of the composition and geographical origins of the Roman army's General Staff. How many of them had seen previous service in the ranks of the Guard. we arc never likely to know. for something like two-thirds of the inscriptions which record the careers of primipilares omit all details of service below the rank of primus pi/us: but at least, in many cases, their names make it fairly certain that their initial service was in the legions and not in the Guard.' On the centurionate I have said something in a paper printed in the second volume of the laureae Aquincenses. published in 1941 1 ; it is a pleasure to recall my debt to the Berlin dissertation of Walter Baehr, which still forms the most valuable basis for a study of the origins of legionary centurions. I select for mention on this occasion two questions on which there is need for a more detailed study of the epigraphic evidence. First. the promotion of centurions. On that. Domaszewski's interpretation of the garbled account in Vcgetius. and of the inscriptions. is the least convincing section of the Rangordnung (pp. 90-97). nor did Mr Parker achieve any greater success in his book on The Roman legions: the solution first advanced by Brunckc in 1884, and adopted independently by Wcgelcben in his Berlin dissertation of 1913. is surely correct, namely that all centurions were equal in rank (though differing in seniority and in their position on parade) until they received promotion into the first cohort. to become members of the privileged primi ordines. But there is much still to be learnt about the way in which their capacity was tested, by transfer from cohort to cohort within the legion, from one legion to another or from province to province; and indeed it remains to be seen whether a transfer from one province to another was not nonnally the result of a transfer of vexillations. from a province at peace to one in which active campaigning was in progress or in prospect. A careful study of the inscriptions which record multiple centurionates may well throw light on the military history of the empire: for example. I have noted two or three cases which seem to suggest that the anny of Britain received reinforcements from the legions of the Lower Danube shortly after the close of Trajan's Dacian wars; again, not all vexillations rejoined their parent legions. and when (for example) Nero sent 2000 legionaries from the Rhineland to bring IX Hispana up to strength, after Boudicca's rising. that must have involved the transfer of some twenty centurions as well. The other question is the number of centurions in the legion, at different periods, and that brings with it the problems of dating the tract de munitionibus castrorum and the antiqua legio described by Vegetius. Both problems can be brought nearer to a satisfactory solution by a study of epigraphy. On the former, it may be pointed out that the Order of Battle of its sample field-force could only fit conditions on the Danube - the one region in which as many as four a/ae milli.ariae could be concentrated for active operations: and it seems possible to assign the tract with some confidence to the middle years 7. (cf. now Brian Dobson,Dit Primipil4rts (Bonn, 1978).J 8. (Reprinted in Roman Britain and tht Roman Army, 1953, I 04-124, and in an expanded fonn below, pp. 189-205.)

8

of the reign of Marcus Aurelius. a period when the emperor, the praetorian prefect and the comiles Augusti regularly took the field, and when epigraphy allows us to affirm that the Roman army was still organised on the lines which it presupposes.' On the antiqua legio the case is not so clear; but at least Dr Schenk would never have assigned it to the second century. in his 1930 monograph on the sources of Vegetius, if he had taken the trouble to examine the epigraphic evidence: and Mr Parker's dating to the period 260·290 is surely too late, if we bear in mind that Cassius Dio seems to imply that a legionary cohort was normally 550 strong (the Vcgetian figure). I am inclined to think that it was Severus, fairly late in his reign, who reorganised the legions, reducing the number of centurions on their establishment (table of organization), in order to provide himself with a larger reserve of centuriones supernumerarii or deputati; one day, the inscriptions of the Roman army will no doubt enable us to provide a firm answer to the question. But the largest problem of all, on which epigraphy is bound to remain our chief source, is that of the recruiting of the Roman army - whether we concern ourselves with the Guard (on which Bohn's study of 1883 is still valuable. while M. Durry has recently sketched out his conclusions, and Passerini has left us a convenient table of epigraphic references). or the legions (on which Ritterling has listed the inscriptions that record specific origins), or the auxilia (with which a recent book by Dr Kraft is concerned). Long lists of serving soldiers or of veterans recently discharged (such as those which make Ill Augusta the most profitable of all legions to study, or those from Rome which tell us so much about the Guard or the equiles singulares 10 ) will yield even more information when they are studied prosopographically, with full use of the works of Schulze or of Holder; even more will that be the case when we turn to the mass of inscribed tombstones. Those of them which reproduce the particulars from the nominal rolls of the Roman army (giving filiation, tribe and origo, and details of age and length of service) have most to tell us - particularly if there were a handy and complete collection of them to refer to; but even when they give nothing more than the names of the deceased, they may yield something, especially if we take into account the differences in the fonnulae employed, or in the style of the tombstone and its decoration, which will so often enable us to assign an approximate date to an individual stone, or even to deduce the origin, if not of the deceased, at least of his heirs. 11 To quote one example, a pupil of mine 12 has been able to show, in the course of studying the tombstones of II ltalica in Noricum, that that legion must have received some men from Africa, either as recruits or by incorporation of a vexillation of trained soldiers, 9. (I still believe that the sample field-force represents a case stated in the early 170s, but I have suaested recently that the tract itself wu a compilation from writings of various dates, made a considerable time later: cf. my paper on "The dating and character of the tract de munitionibus coitrorum", below, pp. S3-S1.) I 0. (Cf. now Michael Speidel, Die equ1tes sinxulares Auxusti, Bonn, 196S.) 11. (Cf. now the monumental study by G. Forni, II Rec/utamento de/le Lexioni da Aupsto a Dtoclezi.ano, 19S3, already in the press when my paper was given to the Congress in Paris; and his supplement in ANRW II 1, 1974, 339-391.] 12. (Brian Dobson, when still an undergraduate in Durham.]

9

because of the appearance of some characteristically African names, otherwise inexplicable in Noricum. Quite apart from the geographical origins of officers and other ranks (enlisted men), there is the question of age at entry. and the extent to which it reflects either voluntary enlistment or the operation of the levy. Mommsen's Conscriptionsordnung. I think. assumes too readily that the dilectus was normal and voluntary enlistment of little significance: yet the implication in Vegetius (epit. rei mi/it. II 3) is surely that there were plenty of volunteers in .. the good old days", and we have the specific testimony of Arrius Menander (Digest XLIX 16, 4) to show that. at least in the early years of the third century, the bulk of recruits to the Roman army were in fact volunteers and not conscripts. It is the inscriptions which will enable us to follow the growth in the practice of local recruiting, or to deduce and perhaps to date the infusion of new strains by the transfer of vexillations from one province to another; and the nomenclature of individual soldiers will sometimes allow us to deduce such transfers, even if they are not specifically attested. I am conscious that I have only touched on some of the questions with which I have been concerned, and that there are many more on which I have said nothing for example, the question of changes in the internal structure of the staffs of Roman units. between the time of Augustus and that of Diocletian, as the burden of paperwork increased or as the stress of civil war and frontier warfare caused it to be neglected; or again. the question of the gradual separation from the army. in all but name and uniform, of a considerable number of officers and men. But in every case the same basic need is apparent, namely for the epigraphic material to be made more conveniently accessible. and then for it to be subjected to more thorough study, using all the resources of prosopography. and aiming at discovering how the system developed - and how it worked so well. No Military Intelligence staff can fulfil its mission if it has insufficient trained manpower - ex per to credite - : there is room for plenty of workers in this field, and I hope that our Congress may encourage more epigraphists to join in the study of the Roman army.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The following items have been referred to, directly or indirectly, in the foregoing paper. I have not attempted to produce a comprehensive bibliography of the subject. l. "l

3.

4. 5.

10

Allen, George H.: "The advancement of officers in the Roman army" (Supplementary Papers of the American School of Classical Studies in Rome II, 1908, pp. 1-25). Baehr, Walter: De centurionibus legionariis quaestiones epigraphicae (Diss. Berlin, 1900). Birley, Eric: "The fate of the ninth legion", "The equestrian officers of the Roman army". "The origins of equestrian officers: prosopographi~l method" and "The origins of legionary centurions". all reprinted below. Bohn, Oscar: Ueber die Heimat der Pratorianer (Progr. Berlin, 1883). Bruncke, Hermann: Die Rangordnung der Centurionen (Progr. Wolfenbuttel, 1884).

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. I 4. IS. 16. I 7. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.

Cagnat, Rene: L'armee romaine d'Afrique et !'occupation militaire de l'Afnque sous les empereurs (1st ed .. 1892. 2nd ed., 1913). Cheesman,G.L.: Theauxiliaofthe Roman imperialarmy(1914). Cichorius, Conrad: Art. Ala (RE I, 1893, 1223-1270). and Art. Cohors (RE IV, 1900, 231356). Dean, L.R.: A study of the cognomina of soldiers in the Roman legions (Diss. Princeton, 1916). von Domauewski, Alfred: Die Rangordnung des romischen Heeres (overprint from Bonner Jahrblicher, Heft I 17, 1908 (= 2nd ed, revised by Brian Dobson, 1967). Durry, Marcel: Les cohortes pretoriennes (1938). Grosse, Robert: Romische Militargeschichte von Gallienus bis zum Beginn der by1.antinischen Themenverfassung ( 1920). Kajanto, I., Th~ Larin C0f710mina(1965). Karbe. Johannes: De centurionibus Romanorum quaestiones epigraphicae (Diss. Halle, 1880). Kraft, Konrad: Zur Rekrutierung der Alen und Kohorten an Rhein und Donau ( 1951 ). Lesquier,Jean: L'armee romaine d'Egypte d'Auguste a Diocletien (1918). A. M6csy, Nom~nclator (1986). Mommsen, Theodor: "Die Conscriptionsordnung der r6mischen Kaiserzeit" (Ges. Sehr. VI, 1910, pp.20-117). Parker, HM.D.: "The antiqua lqio of Vegetius" (Classical Quarterly XXVI, 1932, pp. 137149), and The Roman Legions (I 928). Passerini, Alfredo: Le coorti pretorie (1939). Ritterling, Emil: Art. lqio (RE XII, 1924/25, 1211-1829) and "Zu zwei griechischen lnschriften romischer Verwaltungsbeamten" (Jahreshefte X, 1907, pp. 299-3 I I). Rowell, H.T.: Art.Numm.,s(RE XVII, 1937, 1327-1341 and 2S37-2S52). Schenk, Dank fried: Flavius Vegetius Renatus: Die Quellen der Epitoma Rei Militaris (Klio, Beiheft XXII, 1930). Stein, Ernst: Die kaiserlichen Beam ten und Truppenkorper im romischen Deutschland unter dem Prinzipat (1932). Syme, Ronald: "Rhine and Danube legions under Domitian" (JRS XVIII, 1928, pp. 41-5S) and "Some notes on the legions under Augustus" (JRS XXIII, 1933, pp. 14-33). Vittinghoff, Friedrich: "Zur angeblichen Barbarisierung des romischen Heeres durch die Verbande der Numeri" (Historia I, I 9S0, pp. 389-407). Wagner, Walter: Die Dislokation der romischen Auxiliarformationen in den Provinzen Noricum, Pannonien, Moesien und Dakien von Augustus bis Gallienus (1938). Wegeleben, Theodor: Die Rangordnung der romischen Centurionen (Diss. Berlin. 1913 ).

HADRIANIC

FRONTIER

POLICY

Introduction The Englishman who is privileged to take part in such a conrerence as this. meeting at Camuntum, may be excused for reminding himself that he is not the first representative of his country to visit the place. Richard Pococke and Jeremiah :\filles were here in 1737, and left detailed accounts of what they saw - accounts which Wilhelm Kubitschek (quern honoris causa nomino) studied with his customary minuteness and acumen in 1929, in his paper on Altcre Berichte ilber den romischen Limes in Pannonien. Camuntum is clearly an appropriate place for a discussion or Roman frontier policy, and specifically of Hadrian's contribution to that policy: witness its title Aelia and its enrolment in the tribe Sergia, which attest his foundation of a municipium here; witness. too, the importance of Carnuntum in the researches of Austrian archaeologists, who have made its legionary fortress, its two amphitheatres, and now the town which Hadrian founded, the focus of such deep interest to all students of the Roman empire. The very fact that the bulk of the excavation done here has been published in a series termed Der romische Limes in Osterreich will serve to remind us of the basic question of frontier policy, one racet of which I wish to discuss today. Richard Pocockt" later visited Hadrian's Wall in the north of England, but the publication of John Horsley's Britannia Romana in 1732 had deprived him of any inducement to make as detailed notes of it as he had made on his visit to Carnuntum and other Pannonian sites. It has been on Hadrian's Wall, however. or in its neighbourhood, that the bulk of my own archaeological activity has been, and in my consideration of Hadrianic policy the Wall has inevitably been my starting-point. But my special interest in the Roman anny has inevitably led me to devote much attention to other fronlitrs of the Roman empire as well, and some wartime experience of Military Intelligence has suggested to me some frtsh trains of thought in tht' study of their purpose and their military organisation: it seems worth while for me to draw to your notice some points which have emer~ed from a consideration of the contribution made by Hadrian to their development. In a brief paper I must of neceMity attempt an outline rather than a detailed exposition; I hope that you will pardon me if at times I appear to be unduly dogmatic. ~1any of the points which I shall be putting forward as dogmatic statements really deserve to be discussed al some ltngth, but detailed discussion of them would take far more time than I have at my disposal no\\·. Cd(III S044)

39

82 (g) I.

2. 3. 4.

S. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

P. Aclius Carus, Adiaum (III 151881 ) P.Aelius Magnus, Muna (RIB 894) P. Aelius Resp«tus, Sirmium (Ill 3240) Alf(-• -) Fauscinianus, Savaria (Carnunrnm-Jahrbudi 1963/64 [ 1965}. 48-54); G. Alfoldy, Listy FilologidLDY in his •Fasti Hispaniens.cs• (1969), 125 f.: he noted, following an observation made to him by Sir RONALD SYME,that a Scato of Cerfennia should be a member of the same family as the Marsian leader in the Social War, Vettius Scato, .md as Cicero's contemporary, the impoverished Marsian house-agent Vettius Scato; 1 and he suggested further that the present man should be equated with the Scato attested by coins from Cyrenaica as the praetorian proconsul of Crete and Cyrenaica under Augustus, specifically before the death of Agrippa in 12 B. C. If so, Professor ALFLDY concluded, the inscription could be assigned to that early period. As far as the restoration of the nomen is concerned, PIR' S 194, in dealing with the proconsul, had referred to BoRGHESl's observation that the rare cognomen Seara• was only attested epigraphically in the genies Magulnia and Vettia; 1

RE 12, 1550 and lSSS. Cf. Snu, The Roman Revolution, 1939, 91 note S. 1 It may be noted that Soto has not been rcgisicrcd by I. KAJANTO Latin Cognomina, 1965. 1

in his book, Th:

Cbm,118. 1978. 357·J59.

127

35S

and as the Vettii were Marsian, in this case Vcttius is manifestly correct. That is clearly what W. ScHULZEinferred in his discussion of the name, though he re• ferred also to the Magulnii Scatones of Praeneste.' But there is a serious objection to Professor ALFOLov'sequation of the present tribunu.s /aticlaviu.s with the praetorian proconsul, for the text from urfcnni-1 surely implies that the mother, Prima (whose own nomen must remain un• known), is commemorating a son who has died when still on military service, though quaestor designatus - for [quaestori] suggests itself without any question. In that case, we must ask why she should mention the country in which he had been serving? The answer has been suggested to me by the c;ise of Dillius Vocula, whose brave but unavailing leadership on the Rhine in A. D. 69 has been recorded so vividly by Tacitus (Histories 4, 2~59), and whose earlier career was commemorated by his widow on an inscription found in Rome a long time ago (CH. VI 1402 11..S983): C. Dillio A. f. Ser(gia) Voculae trib(uno) milit(um) leg(ionis) I, IIl111iroviarum curandar(um), q(uustori) provinc(iae) Ponti et Bith[y]niae, trib(uno) pl(ebii), pr(aetori), leg(ato) in Germania leg(ionis) XXII Primigeniae, He/via T. f. Procula uxor fetit. Tacitus records (Histories 1, 55) that llll Macedonica had taken the lead, followed reluctantly at first by XXII Primigenia, in declaring against Galba on 1 January 69; those two legions shared a single fortress, shown by numerous

tombstones of their men to have been that at Mogontiacum {Mainz). The legion only sent :a vexillation with the Vitellian forces to Italy (Hist. 2, 100); we next hear of its main body marching with legions I :and XXII, under Vocula, to raise the insurgents' siege of Mogonriacum (Hist. 4,37). After the murder of Vocula by a deserter from leg. I, Tutor caused the troops of the Upper Gertnan command to uke the oath of allegiance to the imprrium Gal/iarum; but at Mogontiacum the military tribunes refused to do so, and they were put to death (Hist. ◄, 59). If I am right, Scato was one of those tribunes, and like Vocula he deserved to be commemorated for his loyalty, and for his tragic death in Germania. His service in the viginrivirate ma>·be restored as lllviro [ capitali], rather than lllviro [a. a. a. f. f.J, since the least prestigious of the minor magistracies seems appropriate for a member of a family which, as far as we know, h:ad never seen one of its members reach the consulate.' If we no[e [h:at the restorations proposed in the second, third and fourth lines of the inscription involve thirteen letters in each case, we may restore the record of this interrupted career as follows: [-. Vrttio -. f. S]t'r(gia) Scatoni 111,•iro/ {capitali, tribuJ,ro militum i11:' {Germ.:-

• Zur Geschichte lateiniKher Eigennamen, 1904, 301. • Cf. my observations in my paper on -Senaton in the emperor~· §Cnicc•, of the British Academy39, t9H, especially 20~ ff.

128

Pux:ceJins~

359 ni4 legio )nis Jill Macedonl[icae, quaestor,) designato, I

[ • - - • • - -. fil.] Prima,

mater. His pr:aenomen :and filiation must remain uncertain, but it may be noted th:u the Marsian leader was Publius Vcttius Scaro, :and it is pcrh:aps likely that Publius remained the nonnal praenomcn for members of the family.

129

INSCRIPTIONS INDICATIVE OF IMPENDING OR RECENT MOVEMENTS

Three inscriptions found in Mainz and first published in the Mainzcr Zeitschrif t 59, 1964, 1 each record a senator who had commanded two legions in succession; such a sequence is commonly taken to imply that warfare, in being or in prospect, had made it necessary to appoint experienced and able legates to the command of legions involved, or likely to be involved, in the theatre of war in question.I That was evidently the case, for example, when Q. Antistius Adventus was transferred from VI Ftrrata to lead // Adi11trix in the Parthian w.u of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius VenJS.• The question arises, what was the correct sequence of posts in each of the three cases attested by the Mainz texts; it must bepremised that the question has bttn discussed by Profeuor GtZA ALFOLDYin his detailed investigation of 1967, Die Legionslegatcn der romischcn Rheinarmeen (Epigraphische Studien 3), but that there is good reason to re-examine the matter in the light of a good deal of comparative material, particularly the inscriptions which show that their dedicators, or the persons honoured by their dedicators, were about to mo,·e to new appointments, or had received word of promotion in their careers, whether senatorial or equestrian. Before we look into the Mainz texts, it will be convenient to sec what the comparative material has to tell us on the subject, fim of all at the level of consular governorships. There happen to be three cases in which the impending transfer is to the consular governorship of Britain: (1) The pol)·onymous Q. Pompeius Falco is known to have been consular govcr-

• The following abbrni.uions arc employed: AE - L'Ann~c £piguphiquc; lLS - Duuu, lnscriptioncs L.1tinac SLDYhas assumed that the command of the Mainz legion came second, after that of// Aug11sta; but the wording of the text ought surely to mean preciselr n Cf. (a) PlR 1 C 1017, for the Ti. Claudius Strenus anened as a procurator, aher two pom in the tq11tmian militi.t, by an inscription from Ephe1us, and (b) the Ti. Claudius Serenus, c(/•riuim,u) v(ir), on a lud pipe: in Rome, XV 742j, on whom GkOAC suggested (C 1018) that he: might be:the procuraror's son. M. P,uuw took the career of the procurator to havr bttn Sevrran at earliest, since his post wu in the ,.atio p,iv•t•, believed to havr bttn crutc:d by Septimiu, Sevrrus (Les carritrn procuratoriennc:s iquc:strc:s, 1960, p. 74), no. 28)); but Professor NustLHAUP has shown that it ,u.s Antoninus Pius who created that 6nancial department (Historia-Augusta-Colloquium 196), 1964, 73-9)), so that the legionary lrgatt could well have been a son of the procurator, and serving in Upper Germany early in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.

136

502

the opposite, namely that Polus Termtianus had received word that he was to go to Britain from Mainz, to take up the command of l/ A11gustaat lsca {Caerleon). 11 In view of the period, when there is evidence for trouble in Britain, from mutinous troops if no longer from northern tri~. it would not be surprising to find an experienced legionary legate sent to command one of that province's three legions, just as it was found necessary to ~d Helvius Pertinax - who had already been consular governor in Moe,ia, 1• the Three Dacias and Syria - to govern Britain (though he soon felt obliged to seek his release from that post). By his names, Q. Aurelius Polus Terentianus has been shown with probability, by A. R. Brun, to have come from Africa;" he was evidently to be one of the trusted supporters of Scptimius Scverus: he was consular governor of the Three Dacias in A.O. 193, as is shown by an inscription sn up soon after that emperor's dits imptrii (III 1374, cf. A. STEIN, Die Reichsbeamtm von Dazien, 1944, 56), and he rose to the consular proconsulship of Asia (AE 1964, 232), presumably while in that office receiving a rcscript from Scverus and Caracalla (Frag. Vat. 200). Other epigraphic records of impending or recent promotion can be found in the case of equestriam too. Here are three instances from Cacsarea in Mauretania: (19) VIII 9360: P. Atlio Ptrtgrino pratsidi pr01.I.Ma14rtt.Cats., ptr/tctissimo

t1iro a cognitionib(us) A"g[g]g., Tib. Cl. Licini"s t:c [p]rat/. coh. I Fl(at1iat) Hisp(anor11m).The epigraphic evidence for Aelius Peregrinus is collected and discussed 11 AE 1954, 143, shows that he was in Caesariensis in by BENCTE. THOMASSON: A.O. 201; his promotion to the important post of a cognitionib11sbrought with it advancement in style from vi, tgrtgius to t1ir ptr/tctissimus, duly registered by the former cohort commander who made the dedication in his honour. It appears that in this case the higher grading was a mark of exceptional favour accorded to him by Severus, as H.-G. PFLAUMhas pointed out."

11 That sequence has been accepted and nplained by A. R. B1auT, The coups d'nat of the year 193, BJ l 69, l 969, 267 f.: he points out that the period indicated by the titul.uure of Commodus is 185/192, and that Polus Terentianus probably served in Britain when P. Hrlvius Pertinu was the consular governor. 11 Cf. PIR 1 H 73. According to the Historia Augusta, v. Pert. 2, 10, Ptrti,u,c Mot1i11t •tri•sq•t, mox D•ci•t rtgimm •cctpit; it might be thought likely that he had been given bcnb Moesias simultaneously, whm the Upper province still had only one legion, and Lower Moesia had been reduced from three legions to two, by the transfer of Y M•ctdonic. to the Three Dacias. Compare the temporary linking of Upper Moe,ia with one or all three of the Dacias, for a time, under M. Claudius Fronto (PIR 1 C 874). • A. R. B1un has given reasons to think that the man's prt1tnomm, the spelling Polus (instead of Paulus), and his son's coinomtn Syriacus, all point to African origin, cf. Gnomon 40, 1968, 384 and BJ 169, 1969, 267 f. In SB. lkridit, p. 499, it i.Jsuggested that father and son came from the Greek-speaking half of the empire, without however taking cognisance of A. R. B1un's discussion of the nomenclature. n Op. cit., 201-204. • La ca.rritra procuratoriennes iquenres, pp. 621-625, no. 2l3.

137

(20) VIII 20997: C. Octat1io p,.Jtnti Cusio Hono,.to p,[ OCMri11tori] A11gi,. p,011i[ncurr]M4Mrrti11nur[r Ci11r1a]rimsi1, p[,ocMri11tori]• cmsib11[1,..bsti]nffltilIn this case, it could be argued that it was while Ocu.Tiut s(imo pr•rsidi -----. Pudens continued as procuratorial gonrnor of Caesariensis that he was given the additional usk of holding a fresh census of that province; such seems to be the conclusion to which M. PFI.Auwhas come in his discussion of the ~. 11But it searu e.uier to suppose that this inscription gives us another instance of promotion being celebrated: it was as procurator of the province that the dedicator or dedicaton of pratst1, while their inscription the text had found him to be an ab1tintnti11imMs recorded his promotion to a higher sphere - surely, in Rome. (21) VIII 9327 = ILS 2750: dus M11Mricis, M. PomponiMSVittllusnMI t,ib»s Here militiis ptr/MnCtMs,proc. A.Mg.i11d'"'"m gtntiMm, p,at/. cl,mis Gtrrrusnic11t. we are dealing with a far more junior member of the procuratorial service; M. PFLAUM has pointed out that the post as proc,.,ato, ad '"'"m gtnti11m,evidently in Africa, must han been graded sexagmary, the man's promotion to command GtmWnica carrying with it centenary status. 14 In this case, promotion the cli11ui1 brought with it the need to make a journey from Caesarea to Lower Germany. Finally, there are three inscriptions, found in Britain, which will serve to illustrate the same practice of announcing impending depanure, to take up a new appointment: (22) RIB 335 (Caerleon): ----]is11s Cl(,1111Ji,,1) [Arm]ili111Q. l[11l(i11s)] HatrrianMsltg. AMg. pr. pr. pr011inc(i•t)Cilic(i•t). In his commentary on this text Mr R. P. W~tCHT has noted that •Haterianus was probably legate of the Se-cond Legion, and on his appointment to the governorship of Cilicia set up this dedication without specifying his re-cent office•; there can be no doubt but that that is the corre-ct explanation - even though, unlike Vmidius Rufus at Bonn, no. 8 above, Haterianus did not include his legionary command on the stone. The likeliest n:planation for the omission is surely that his new altar was set up along,ide an earlier one, in the same temple, on which that post was already specified. There is no other evidence for this senator, whose full nomenclature remains obscure; it seems possible that the recorded -isMsshould really represent the last four letters of the cognomm Dtns11s,but no senatorial bearer of that name is on record. Indeed, it is an n:cessively rare cognomtn, for I. KAJANTO, The Latin Cognomina, 1965, 289, has only four bearers of it to register: a Roman knight, Julius Densus, accused of being too friendly to Britannicus, the son of Claudius (Tacitus, Annals 13, 10), and the loyal praetorian centurion Sempronius Densus, who sacrificed his own life in an attempt to sue Galba's intended heir, Piso Licinianus (Tacirus, Histories 1, 43); apart from these two men, there are only two inscriptions, both from Hither 11

11

138

Op. cit., pp. 70)-70S, no. 262 a. Op. cit., p. 7)6 f., no. 278.

504

Spain (II 2815, 2686). In the case of a polyonymow senator, one cannot be sure a priori which of his nomiM and cognomiM were in normal use, and which were reserved for mention when the whole series was placed on record: in this case, it may well be that the legate's normal names have been lost with the upptt part of his altar. As to the closing trua nomiM, Q. lulius Haterianus, it may be noted that the ,Historia Augusta• produces, in one of the most blatantly fictitious of its Lives (tyr. trig. 6, 5), an alleged encomiast on the Gallic emperor Victorinus, by the name of Julius Athcrianus; some scholars have assumed that the cognomm is a copyist's error for Haterianus, in which case we should have a homonym at our disposal and it is worth bearing in mind that the ,Historia Augusta• sometimes uses the names of historical pttsonagcs, out of their proper historical pttiod, to serve as the purported authors of invented stories: for example, Lolliw Urbicus, the builder of the Antonine Wall in Scotland, is resurrected as the author of a history of his own time, in the 6rst quarter of the third century, and credited with an observation about Diadumenianus, the young son of Macrinus." (23) RIB 782 (perhaps from Old Penrith, Cumberland): ----],i{-----, p,uf. coh. f/1) Gall(o,11m), t[,ib.] mil. ltg. Vil/ A11g.In this case, the prefect of a cohort in Britain is being promoted into the militia stc11nda,as tribune of VI I I A11g11sta in Upper Germany. (24) RIB 827 (Maryport, Cumberland): I. 0. M., (L.] Cammi{11)s Maxim11s prat(/tct11s) coh. I His(panorNm) tq(11itatat) t(t) tri(b11nus) XVI/I cohor(tis) 00l11(ntarion,m) ii. s. I. m. Here we have impending movement, from Britain to Upper Pannonia, without promotion - for the tribunate of a cohors vo/11ntario'""' counted as being a post in the militia p,im.1. The numeral of the Upper Pannonian cohort was omitted 6.nt by the stone-cutter, and had to be inserted awkwardly, in smaller lettering, out of its proper place. A consideration of the Order of Battle details enabln us to assign this prefect to the time of Hadrian, when coh I Hispanor11m formed the garrison of Maryport (the Roman Alauna); Cammius Maximus is attested by two more altars at Maryport (RIB 828, 829), and he appears as one of the decurions present at a meeting of the council of Aquileia on the 6.nt of November, in what year don not appear (V 961). The nomm Cammius is so exceptionally rare that we need feel no hnitation in regarding him as a close kinsman, perhaps (to judge by their cognomina) an elder brother, of the L. Cammius Secundinus who rose through the centurionate to become a procurator, as is shown by an inscription from Solva in Noricum (Ill 5328): M. Gavi[o] Maxim[o] prat/tc[to] prattor[io], L. Cammiu[s] Stcundi[nus] p(,im11s)p(ilus), prat/(ut11s) ltg. X [Gtm(inat)], proc. A11g.,timico. For the best analysis of the career of Secundinus, reference should be madt to M. PFLAUM'sdiscussion;" he takn the man 11 Historia Augusu, v. Diadumeni 9, 2; d. Sir RONALD SYwr's observations on the bogus names in that work, in which fiction predominates incrusin;,;ly, in his book: Emperors and Biography. Studies in the Historia Auguiu, 1971, 1-16. " Les carrieru &c., pp. 259-262, no. 108.

139

SOS to have bttn a native of Solva.1 7 His friendship with Gavius Maximus, praetorian prefect for almost twenty years under Antoninus Pius, at least from A.O. 139,11 gives an approximate indication of his period, and we may take it that he set up his inscription to commemorate his friend's advancement to that pinnacle in a military man's career, in A.O. 138 or 139. Evidently the elder brother had suffi. cient means to become a decurion of Aquileia, and sufficient backing to secure two successive appointments in the militia p,ima (if he advanced further than that, we cannot say), while the younger son perhaps had to content himself with a direct commission as centurion, or even with enlistment in the ranks of a legion, as one of those littrati homints who would have the best chance of being selected for a centurion's commission. I would not wish it to be thought that I have included, in this paper, every instance in which impending or recent movement can be inferred from an inscription or inscriptions relating to the careers of military men; but it will be worth while to stress one particular point: in cases which give two appointments on the same rung of a career ladder, it may of ten be evident that ittm or tt, on an inscription setting forth a c.ucer in dt>Sccndingorder, places the earlier post 6m and the later one second. Take, for example, the case of P. Tullius Varro (XI 336-4 = ILS 1047), as expounded by A. R. Butu:Y:" (25) P. T,cl/io Varronis fil. Sttl. V ,n,oni cos., a,cgNri,procos. prot>inc.A/ricat,

lrg. A,cg. pro pr. Motsiat suptrior., c11rat.alw(i) Tibtris rt ripar11mtt cloacar11m urbis, prat/. atrari Saturn., procos. prof.J. Barticat 11/trriorisHispaniar, lrg. ltg. XII Fulminalat tl VI Victricis p. /., prattori, atdil. Ctria/i, q11atstori11rb.,trib11no mi/it. ltg. XVI FI., Xt>iro stli1ib11si,cdicand.... It is surely necessary to suppose that he held his first legionary command in Cappadocia, and was transferred to VI Victrix at about the time when it was due to be transferred from Lower Ger· many to Britain."

11 G. Alf0LDY has accepted M. PFLAUM'sassumption that Solva was the home of tM family (Noricum, 1974, 274), suggming that the d«urionate at Aquileia held by Cammius Muimus •may probably bt explained by the trading links bttween Solva and Aquileia•. • Cf. PIR 1 G 104. • Soldier and Civilian in Roman Yorkshire, ed. R. M. Bonu, 1971, p. Sl, rcftrring also to G. ALrOLDY,Epigraphisd,e Studien ), 1967, 26 f. • For the most recent discussion of the significance of successive legionary commands, including Tullius Varro's, d. G. AuOLDY, op. cit., 26f. and 77-79; a detailed analysis o( the thirty or so ca5ts, listtd by him, might well throw light on a number of cri5ts not directly attested by other evidence.

140

M. BASSAEUS

ASTUR:

A NOTE

Through the kindness of Profeuor Maurice Sartre, who will publim the text of on inscription from Bostra, to which my attention

hos been drawn by

~

Henry M>cAdom, I

am Clt)le to discuss the c01e of M. Bassoeus Astur, who is described by that text as leg. Aug. pr. pr.,

proeses provinc.

Arabioe. This ia manifestly the some man 01 the Bossoeus Astur

long known as the p~

of that province,

in the Princeton University's 0110

from an inscription published many years ago

records of an expedition to Syria, volume 111,A 531, its text

mentioning his son, M. Bouoeua Astur.

Hitherto,

it hos bNn assumed that the proeaes

was an equestrian govemor,

of the period when .. noton were no longer appointed to govem 2 mi Iitary provinces: cf. Groog' s entry in PIR , B 66; G. W. Bowersock, indeed, hos gone 10

far as to suggest assigning him to • .. cond half of third century or fourth'

Romon Studies 61, 1971, 236). The new inscription,

(Journal of

toking into account various other

evidence, seemsto justify an attempt to produce a pedigree, and to offer on approximate

doting for his time in Arabia.

Mi, starting-point

is the cose of M. Bassaous Rufus (B 69), whose career is given by on

1

inscri pt ion from Rome, I LS 1326: )

M. BossoeoM. f. St[el.] Rufopr. pr. [im]perotorum M. Aureli Antonini

et [L.]

Aureli Veri et L. Aureli Commodi ·Augg., [c)onsularibus omamentis honoroto [e]t ob victoriam Germonicam et Sarmotic.

CAlntonini et Commodi Augg. corona &nlurali

vallori aureo hostis puris 1111 [to]tidemque proef. Aegypti, Germoniarum, pr.,

proef. [vig.],

proc. a rationibus,

proc. regni [Nori]ci,

trib. coh. X urb,,

vexillis obsidionolibus

[cit, iisdem] donoto,

proc. Belg[icae et dularum

proc. Asturioe et Colloecioe,

trib. coh. V vigul.,

trib. [coh. --]

p. p. bis - [t-l,ic sen]otus ouctoribua

impp. Antonino et (Commlodo Augg. statuam ourotam in foro [divi Troialni et oliom clvlli omictu in templo [divi Pii], tertlom loricatom in temfplo M>rtis Ultoris?

po]nendos [censu it]. Ho waa one of the many primipilores whose corffl' in the centurionote to req.,ire mention on the epigrophic

record, but apart from that,

was not thought

the inscription offers

1) For the restoration praef. [vig. ], where Desaouleft the post open as between that and proef. Conn.], cf. XIV 4500 (Ostio) of 10 M>rch 168, which attests him as prefect of the vigiles; for a full discussion of his career cf. Pfloum, Corritfres procuratorienn• no, 162,

pp.389-.393. ZPF. 37, 1980, 19·21.

141

welcome detail.

The number of the praetorian co~t

which he had commanded is miuing,

and we cannot be wre how he was employed as primus pilus iterum - perhaps ffl06t likely In the numerus primipilarium,

at the emperors' disposal; but the interesting

decisive point is his first procuratorial

and, I think,

It seems a

posting, to As tu r i a and Calloecia.

fair inference that M. Bossoeus Ast u r wos born during his father I s service in Asturia: compare the case of Cn. Claudius Severus Arabianus,

cos, 146, evidently

the son

of the C. Claudius Severus, cos. 112, who was the fint governor of Trojan's new province 2 of Arabia (PtR , C 1027 and 1023 refer), and born in that province during his father's long tenure of it. under B 66, that 'Bassoeus Astur nescio qu is nominatur in

Now Groag mentioned,

frustulo Beneventano IX 1763',

without attempting to draw any conclusion from that fact.

Yet the rare nomen Bossoeus occurs more often at Beneventum thon in the rest of the Roman world put together,

cf. Schulz.e, Zur Geschichte

Beneventum was enrolled in Stellatina, allow us both to locate hil patria,

lateinischer

Eigennamen,

the tribe of our praetorian prefect/)

250, and that will

and to identify the man of IX 1763 as either the governor

son, registered by Groag under B 67. of Arabia, or his homonYffl°'JS Arthur Stein's Der r~ische

Ritterstand has familiarised us with the tendency for the son

of a distinguished equestrian administrator to enter on the senatorial

career alffl06t os o

logical to take it that the governor of Arabia was the son of the

matter of course; it

seem&

praetorian prefect,

his floruit coming some thirty years after that of his father.

The text

from Rome shows that Bassoeus Rufus had become prefect of the Guard before the death of Lucius Verus, early in A.O.

169; his second procuratoriol

post, in Noricum,

seems to hove

been held before the death of Antoninus Pius, since the inscription from Celeia dedicated by his beneficiarius

Licinius Hilarus (Ill 5171) is deemed to have rood (bf. M. B)auaei 3 Rufi [proc. Au]g(usti); we may not be for wrong in assuming, with Brion Dobson, ) that his first primipilate

had come circa A. D. 153, when he was some fifty years old - unleu

indeed he had reached that post proerogotivo tempore, when he could hove been somewhat younger. In any case, when one allows for the tribunate in Rome, and the period (however 2) Groog wggested that he come from Beneventum, in view of the tribe Stellatino and there (in footnote 185o, p.104, to Ritterling's Fosti des r(Smischen the occurrence of Bos.soei Deunchland unter dem Prinzipat, 1932; the point wos not miued by Gerhard Winkler, Die Reichsbeomten von Noricum und ihr Personal, 1969, p.57). 3) Die Primipilores, 1978, no. 134, pp.254-256, offen the firit attempt to dote the primipilote and the age at which Bouoeus Rufus reached it; at p.27, Dr Dobson merely lists him os ltalicus, but Beneventum is surely his origo.

142

brief) as p. p. iterum, he cannot well hove been p01ted to Aaturia before the closing yeor1 of Piu1: that will give us an approximate dote, soy A.O. 158, for the birth of his

101"1Aatur.

On that bml1, it aeems reasonable to suppose that Bauoeus Aatur will hove riaen to the praetorian govemonhip

of Arabia at some time in the closing yean of Commodus,

0t

even

in the first few yean of the reign of Septimiu1 Severus - but hardly any later than that. Aa to his homonymous

[------]

101"1,

it may be worth noting that VI 32334 mention, a Basaoeus

who took part in the ludi soeculares of A. D. 204, perhaps as one of the boys per-

forming in the lusus Troiae, as Groog suggested {RE XVI 2547); on the time-scale

hoa been deduced,

which

this could well have been the young 101"1of the man who had recently

been the praetorian governor of Arabia. By contrast,

2 M. Bauaeus Axiu, (PtR , 8 68) CCW\Othave been a member of the same

family, for he was M. f. Pal., and it seems probable that his home was in Puteoli: cf. Pfloum, Carridres procuratoriennes

no. 207, p.552f ., for the suggestion that his career

fell in the latter part of the aecond century.

Given the extreme rarity of the nomen, one

might well suspect that his father had been o freedman of M. Bouoeu1 Rufus; by the time that Rufus had entered the primi ordines, if not 100ner, he .hould have been well enough off to afford to manumit one of his slaves, who would thereby acquire the same praenomen and nomen - and the son of that freedman, granted the patronage of the proet0tion prefect, would have had an ample opportunity for the modest carffr aet forth on the inscription to which we owe our knowledge of him, ILS J.401 = X 1795.

143

Ill KNIGHTS

THE EQUESTRIAN

OFFICERS

OF THE ROMAN

ARMY

The Roman army, whether in the closing years of the Republic or as it was reorganised by Augustus, Trajan and Hadrian, has excited the admiration of countless students of military affairs, from the time of Vegetius until the present day. Its high standard of training, its elaborate and successful basic organisation, its skill in tackling problems of fortification, logistics or tactics, have alike been found worthy of study even in recent years, when the advance of technical research has transformed the conditions of war and the appearance of a battlefield beyond recognition; for there are certain basic requirements which must be met in any army, if it is to be an efficient fighting machine, and most, if not all, of those requirements were in fact met by the Romans. But in one respect there seems to be a general assumption that the Romans fell below, and indeed fell far below, modern standards, namely in the selection and training of officers. It is a commonplace that the officers of the Roman army fall into three distinct groups: (a) senatorial generals or generals-to-be, (b) equestrian staff officers and battalion commanders and (c) centurions, its company commanders and junior staff officers. Of these groups the centurions have come off best; they are generally credited with responsibility for the efficiency of the Roman army; but the senatorial and equestrian officers are usually dismissed as "almost amateur soldiers", to quote the late G.H. Stevenson;' and as for the equestrian officers in particular, the same writer added that "the so-called militia equestris" was "held by young men who aspired to a career in the equestrian cursus honorum." If Mr Stevenson was wrong, at least he was wrong in good company; Cheesman, dealing with a portion only of the equestrian 0fficers, 1 calls them "men of equestrian rank entering upon what was now the accustomed cursus honorum of their class" and "young men directly appointed by the emperor, without any previous military training"; and both Domaszewski and Seeck give the same impression. Yet I think that Mr Stevenson was wrong, and that it will be worth while to consider what the equestrian officers were intended to do, and the extent to which the men selected proved suitable for their jobs. The time is really ripe for a comprehensive study of the officers of the Roman army in all three groups, if only for the light that such a study might throw on some present-day problems; but I have chosen the equestrian officers for special discussion, in advance of such a study, 1. Combridte Ancient History X, 226. 2. The Auxllta of the Roman lmperi4I Army, 1914, 94. ChtrlHn,, UJ1RJffSityJ011nu,I. Dttrmbn

1949.8-19. R~I.

147

because there seems most need for their case to be re-examined. It must be emphasized at the outset that any such discussion will inevitably owe much to the spadework of many scholars, and most of all to that of Alfred von Domaszewski and Arthur Stein. Domaszewski has illuminated every aspect of the organisation of the Roman army, and in particular the relative seniority of its various officers, 3 and Stein has taught us all to understand the place of the equestrian order in the Augustan state, and how those of its members who served in military appointments, even if they themselves never rose to senatorial rank. might hope to see their sons become senators.• But Stein was inevitably most interested in those members of the equestrian order who rose into its upper stratum, above the strictly military sphere; and Domaszewski, in spite of all his valuable detailed studies, never produced a balanced and comprehensive survey of the equestrian officers as a whole. It should be noted that the materials for such a survey are all the harder to assemble together, because the mere tenure of an equestrian military appointment has not been regarded as sufficient qualification for inclusion in the Prosopographia lmperii Romani, t~e modern Who '.s Who of the Principate; 5 so that, in practice, it is hardly to be wondered at if modern scholars tend to assume that subsequent promotion to the upper grades of the equestrian service, which has secured its recipient a place in the Prosopographia, was in fact a regular and normal sequel to a period of probationary service with troops. Yet, when one comes to think of it. it is no way to set about getting adequate officers for an army, if one makes their military service a mere stepping-stone to service of an entirely different kind; and study of the large series of inscriptions, which record equestrian military service, should emphasize that in many cases, at least, that service occupied a substantial number of years and accounted for a career in itself, and not merely a brief qualifying period. Let us take the question of age at appointment first, for there seems to be great unanimity in saying that equestrian officers were normally young men. Here we meet at once with a difficulty: the tombstones of other ranks, and those of centurions (most of whom, in any case, had risen from the ranks). regularly state their age and length of service; but that is not the case with equestrian officers, and though I have collected a certain number of inscriptions which provide specific evidence, I should hesitate to claim that I have a large enough number of instances to provide a really satisfactory basis for general conclusions. I know of only one case. indeed, in which the age on first appointment is given, and that is the phenomenal P. Aelius Tiro (ILS 2749). who received his commission from Commodus at the tender age of fourteen! But there arc two cases in which we have men on the verge of receiving appointments. C. Julius Martialis (ILS 2756/7). who had been accepted for equestrian military service, and Ti. Claudius Claudianus (ILS 2758), who was a candidate for 3. er. in particular Die Ran1ordnun1 du romischen Heeres, 1908 (2nd edition, revised by Brian Dobson, I 96 7). 1927. 4. DerromucheRirterstand, S. First edition, 1897-8, and second edition I 933- (in progress), cited as PIR and PIR 2 respectively.

148

it; both of them died at the age of twenty-four. When we turn to men who died while holding prefects' appointments in command of cohorts. on tribunates of comparable standing - commanding cohorts 500 strong -. the average age rises: C. Saturius Sccundus (XI 1437) was only nineteen. Ti. Claudius Antoninus (XIV 162) was twenty-one and L. Pompeius Marcellinus (Ill 7131} twenty-three; but T. Statilius Felix (Ill 506) and C. Cornelius Flaccus (VIII 4879) were both thirtyfive. Crescens Licinianus (A.E. 1905, 240) was forty-five, a man whose name is lost was fifty (VIII 5532), M. Valerius Speratus (ILS 7173) was fifty-five and Q. Etuvius Capreolus (ILS 9090) was sixty, the average age of the nine men being 38. But it will have been noted that there are in fact three distinct age-groups beginning to appear: (a) men in their late teens or early twenties. (b) those in their thirties and (c) older men, and we shall see presently that the three groups reappear regularly. and can be explained functionally. Next let us consider men who died while serving as tribunes in legions or in command of milliary cohorts. A Ti. Claudius (his cognomen is not preserved) serving with Ill Augusta was thirty or more (A.E. 1920, 19), Versenus Granianus (XI 1937) was thirty-two or possibly forty-two, L. Marcius Optatus (ILS 6948) and T. Statilius Taurus (XIII 6817) were both thirty-six, C. Julius Pudens (ILS 2760) and Q. Herennius Martialis (VIII 20685) both thirty-seven, P. Furius Rusticus (ILS 2760) was forty, Sex. Julius Julianus (ILS 2763) forty-five, C. Antestius Sevcrus (XIII 6812) forty-six, Ti. Julius Latinus (son of the scholar Lconidas) was forty-seven (ILS 1847 add. = VI 32971 ). Rufinus. who had married a senator's daughter, was forty-eight (RIB 1288, cf. 1271). and Aelius Carus (Ill 15188 2 ) and M. Julius Venustus (VI 3524) were both fifty-three; the average age at death of the thirteen men in this group comes to 42. Commanders of cavalry regiments - the senior equestrian military grade - provide too small a basis for calculation: if we leave out of account T. Crustidius Briso (VI 3516), who died at the early age of nineteen and must certainly be reckoned one of Augustus's praefecti equitum laticlavii (senators designate, given such appointments when there were more candidates than establishment posts as trlbunus laticlavius6 ), there are only C. Julius Corinthianus (ILS 2746) aged thirty-nine, P. Valerius Priscus (VI 3654add.) who died at sixty-five, after five posts in the three militiae, and a Cornelius whose cognomen has not been preserved (VI 3514) aged sixty-six; the average age of the three works put at 57. Before we leave this consideration of age, it may be worth adding one or two instances from literature. The elder Pliny claimed castrense contubernium with Titus, 1 and to judge by the record of the association between Pliny's adopted son and Claudius Pollio (Pliny, Ep. 7, 31 ). the likeliest period for that relationship to have begun was when Pliny himself was serving as praefectus equitum and Titus as trlbunus laticlavius on the Rhine: and that must have been in A.D. 60 or thereabouts, when Titus was twenty and Pliny thirty-six; at that stage in his career Pliny could certainly not be written off as an inexperienced young man merely qualifying for a civil service career - was it not then that he composed a manual on shooting from horseback? Pertinax, the future emperor, first 6. Suetonius, Au1. 38, 2. 1. Nat. Hist., praef. 3.

149

sought a centurion's commission, but in the end gained entry into the equestrian service as prefect of a cohort ;1 he was serving in that appointment on the outbreak of the Parthian war in A.D. 161, when he was thirty-five, and he must have been getting on for forty before he in turn rose to the command of a cavalry regiment. In the face of all this evidence, it does not seem reasonable to continue asserting that equestrian officers were necessarily or even preponderantly young men at the outset of a career. The next point to consider briefly is length of service in individual posts. Here the volume of direct evidence is even scantier. Q. Atatinus Modestus (ILS 2707) served as tribune of X Gemina in Spain for sixteen years, but that may have been because Tiberius forgot to supersede him; T. Aufidius Spinter (Ill 399) was tribune of IV Macedonica in the same province for five years and his son T. Aufidius Balbus served with XX/1 Deiotariana at Alexandria for nine, but both may well have served under Tiberius. notorious for leaving men at their posts;• a man from Verona (whose name has perished) served as tribune in Britain - under Claudius, therefore, at earliest -- for seven years, and thereafter as praefectus equitum in Cyrenaica for six (V 3376/7 ); Q. Etuvius Capreolus (ILS 9090), who died at the age of sixty, perhaps in the time of Nero, had been commanding the second cohort of Thracians for five years; and M. Julius Silvanus is shown by the papyrus strength-return of A.D. 156 to have been commanding coh. I Augusta praetoria lusilanorum for upwards of two years. 10 Indirect evidence could swell this list quite substantially; thus, inscriptions from Maryport in Cumberland have suggested tenures of command at that cohort fort, in the time of Hadrian, of two, three or (in two cases) four years; 11 four years or so can be shown to apply in the case of a tribune of the equiles singulares at Rome in the early years of Pius (VI 3 I 147 f.); and while it is clear that in this sphere, no less than with centurions or senatorial governors, there was no fixed term of duty, a period of three or four years' service in each post can have been by no means unusual. That is to say, a man who had been through the three successive grades as praefectus cohortis, tribunus angusticlavius and praefectus equitum, might well have had nine or ten years' continuous military service, if not considerably more. Such men might have had little formal military training before taking up their first appointment, but they must have had plenty of opportunity to acquire a profound knowledge of their duties in particular, and military life in general, by the time that they had completed their final appointment; and it is clear that some men in fact spent the whole of their active life in the service, with two or more appointments in each grade. That is neither surprising nor, indeed, an innovation to be credited to Augustus or Claudius or Hadrian, for we meet with its counterpart under the Republic: witness M. Petreius, that homo militaris, whose 8. Hi1toritl Au,u1ta, 11. Ptrtinacu I, 5-6; cf. also PIR2 , H 73 and Bonntr Jahrbuchtr I 62, 1962, 407 ff. 9. Suetonius, Tib. 41. I 0. The text ii now most conveniently given in Robert 0. Fink, Roman Military Rtcords on Papyru,, 1971, 228-233, no. 64. 11. Cf. the study by L.P. Wenbam,CW2 XXXlX, 1939, I 9 f.

ISO

thirty years and more of military service had included the ranks of tribune and prefect before he became a senator: 12 and under Augustus himself we find Velleius Paterculus. similarly. serving for something like ten years, first as tribune and then aspraefectus equitum, before being promoted to senatorial rank. The next point for consideration is the sequence and the relative seniority of the equestrian military posts. From the time of Nero onwards, the basic order praefectus cohort is - tribunus angusticlavius - praefectus equitum is well established: up to the time of Claudius, the cohort prefecture had not yet been established in the exclusively equestrian series, and it was frequently held by legionary centurions -· as, indeed, occasionally happened in later years (e.g., Tacitus, Agric. 28); and for a very brief period under Claudius, as Suetonius records and a handful of inscriptions confirm, 13 the praefectura equilum followed command of a cohort and preceded the tribunate. But throughout the principate we find men receiving appointments direct to the legionary tribunate, and often holding no other military post: more of them, perhaps, in the first century than in the second, and more in the second than in the third, but the stream never dries up completely; and that will serve to draw attention to a special feature of the legionary tribunate, which distinguishes it sharply from the other equestrian military appointments. The tribunus angusticlavius was not merely a staff officer to the senatorial legate of the legion; he still remained, in a sense, the magistrate seeing that the other ranks were fairly treated, as Roman citizens should be during their military service no less than when they were living their normal municipal life:" and that will serve to explain the background of so many equestrian officers, many of whom were content with a single tour of duty as tribune in a legion. When we turn to consider the antecedents of these officers, a word of caution is needed. For one thing, not every inscription gives full details, and even when full details are given, the chronological order is not always retained; in some cases there is reason to believe that municipal offices are mentioned first (when an inscription was set up in a man's home town), even though some of them were held after the completion of military service; and there is one appointment, aspraefectusfabrum, which in some cases was civilian and municipal, in others military, and in some civilian but on the staff of a consul or praetor at Rome, or of a proconsul in a senatorial province. 15 But in a high proportion of cases there are no difficulties of interpretation and though I have not yet been able to work out as complete statistics as I could wish, a reasonably clear picture is already beginning to emerge. We have seen that three age-groups may be distinguished among holders of equestrian military appointments. namely men appointed in the late teens or early twenties, in their thirties, and in later years. By far the greatest number seem to 12. Sallust, bell. Cat. S9, 6. 13. Suetonius, Claud. 2S, and cf. H. Devijver, "Su~tone, C1aude, 25, et les milices ~questres" (Ancient Society I, 1970, 69-81 ). citing XIV 2960 = ILS 2681, V 40S8 and A.E. 1966, 124. 14. Cf. Isidore, Ori1. 9, 3, 29: tribuni, 11ocati,quod militibus lil't pltbibus iura tribuunt. IS. Cf. Brian Dobson, "The prat/tctus fabrum in the early Principate" (Britain and Rome, edited by M.G. Jarrett and B. Dobson, Kendal, n.d. [ 1966 ), 61-84 ).

ISI

belong to the middle group, which was mainly recruited from men who had reached the highest municipal office, as duovir, in their home towns; and that office. as is well known, normally could not be held before the age of thirty. Men who had held it might reasonably be regarded as being sufficiently mature and experienced in the administration of justice to satisfy the needs of the army. yet not too old to be able to adapt themselves to the special conditions and problems of military life: 16 and some of these men after nine or ten years with troops. might still have twenty years or more of useful life to devote to the more responsible posts in the imperial administration. if they should be thought worthy of promotion to that sphere. Entry at a slightly earlier age. in some cases. might be obtained throu!!h service as a iudex selecrus in the five panels of jurymen at Rome. for which the normal minimum age was twenty-five. or as praefectus fabrum to a senatorial magistrate: and in each of these cases we arc justified in presupposing the direct interest of an influential senator as the deciding factor in securing a first appointment to a military post. It will probably be best to add. at this point. the cases of men given equestrian appointments after service as clerks to the quacstors or aediles in Rome: here. too. there was plenty of opportunity for character and abilities to be noticed favourably by influential senators. if not by the emperor himself. But in the case of the youngest age-group a different explanation must be looked for. C. Saturius Secundus, prefect of the second cohort of Asturians (perhaps in Britain), who was only nineteen when he died. was the son of a primipilaris (XI 1437): he may well have been born and bred on an army post. and thus have absorbed the atmosphere and much of the detail of military !ife before receiving his first appointment. Ti. Claudius Claudianus. the candidate for such an appointment who died aged twentyfour (ILS 2758), was the son of a centurion, with similar opportunities of preparing himself from childhood upwards for an officer's career: and we may not be far wrong if we suppose that the really young men among the equestrian officers were mostly of this type. Such men would naturally be at an advantage in the long race whose ultimate goal was the praetorian pref ccture. We must suppose an early start of that order in the case of a man like M. Macrinius Avitus Catonius Vindex ((LS 1107 ), who after four equestrian military appointments and a procuratorship was transferred to the senate. given the consulate, and had governed two provinces before dying at the age of forty-two - the age at which Sex. Caecilius Januarius (VI 3495) died. after service in the four militiae equestres: 11 he, too, must surely have begun his service before the age of thirty. At the other end of the scale we have the older men, some of whom had perhaps taken longer to climb the municipal ladder. or to attract senatorial notice as a support for a military career, while others

16. It may be recalled that Hadrian(lt,,r. Aut., v. Had,. 10, 6) did not appoint tribunes nm plena barba aut eius aetatis quae prudentia et annu tribunatus robor inpferet; and it is worth remembering that municipal constitutions show that the duovir wu, as such, a mbunus mifitum in posse, in the event of an emergency requiring the town to provide a force under arms. Cf. my paper on "Local militias in the Roman Empire", pp. 387-394 below. 17. C(. p. 354, below.

IS2

had risen from the ranks of the legions. like M. Valerius Speratus or Q. Etuvius Capreolus ((LS 7173. 9090). and only received their appointments in their fifties: such men were already tried warriors of twenty or thirty years' service, and would more than counterbalance such of the equestrian officers as were really young men. Reference has already been made to the effect of senatorial patronage. We are fortunately able to watch concrete instances of it at work in the younger Pliny's letters: thus. in 2. 13 he canvasses his friend Priscus. then commanding a large army, for a post for his friend Voconius Romanus, a contemporary of his own. who had risen to the highest municipal post in his native province Hither Spain, to hold the chairmanship of its provincial council. and must by then have been nearly forty (the appointment in question was no doubt as tribunus angusticlavius. though it is not specifically mentioned): in 3, 8 Pliny secures a tribunate from Neratius Marcellus, presumably already governing Britain, for Suetonius, who in turn asks successfully for it to be transferred to his kinsman Caesennius Silvanus instead: in 4. 4 it is the redoubtable son-in-law of Sex. Julius Frontinus, Q. Sosius Senecio, who is asked to confer a semestris tribunatus on Varisidius Nepos. But the most interesting case is in 7. 22. where Pliny asks Pompeius Falco (later to become Hadrian's first governor of Britain) to confer a tribunate on his friend Cornelius Minicianus, 11 for Pliny adds what he considers to be suitable qualifications for such an appointment: idem rectissimus iudex, fortissimus advocatus. fidelissimus amicus: good training as a lawyer and qualities of character were more important than anything else. It was not merely senators who could secure such appointments for friends or clients from governors of provinces or from the emperor himself, a Vestal Virgin might oblige, as we know was the case with Aemilius Pardalas in A.O. 240 (ILS 4929). 11 And it is no great strain on the imagination to suppose that the consul or proconsul who had chosen a municipal worthy for service as praefectus fabrum on his staff. might be the man responsible in the main for his subsequent entry into the imperial service as praefectus cohortis, and when a provincial town-councillor was selected for service on the panels of jurymen in Rome. the influence of a senatorial governor in recommending that appointment. and in securing a subsequent military post, may legitimately be inferred. But in some cases the initiative may even have come from the town council itself, in the form of a memorial to the emperor: such, at least. was the case under Augustus, as Suetonius records (Aug. I 6): equestrem militiam petentis etiam ex commendatione publica cuiusque oppidi ordinabat: but there is no reason to suppose that later emperors retained this Augustan practice. 10 If an initial recommendation secured a first appointment. still more must a man's promotion have depended on the confidential reports by superior officers, such as 18. Falco appointed Cornelius Minicianus to the prefecture of a cohort, coh. I Damascenorum, in Judaea, rather than a tribunate in its one legion, X Freunsis; a tribunate in /// A 11111stoin Numidia was to come later, as is shown by ILS 2722. 19. I pass over cues where bribery or corruption interfered with the planned working of the system; the recorded instances would be well worth a separate study. 20. Cf. aaude Nicolet, "Tribuni militum o populo" (Milan1es d'Archiolo1ie et d'Hutoire 79, 1967. 29-76).

IS3

we might have postulated with confidence even if we had no specific evidence for them; but fortunately such evidence is to hand. Pliny again is our most interesting source. In I O. 868 he submits to Trajan a report on Fabius Valens (as the context indicates. the occasion is the latter's vacation of a military appointment, though its nature is not specified); and from 10, 87 it appears that it may have been a normal practice, in such cases, for a copy of a favourable report to be given to the officer reported on, for Pliny's friend Nymphidius Lupus the younger, son of a primipilaris and himself prefect of a cohort. has earned such reports from Julius Ferox and Fuscus Salinator (here again, by the way. there is an indication of an appointment lasting long enough for its holder to have served under more than one governor). and Pliny seems to be aware of the sense of them. Such reports would inevitably pass through the hands of the emperor's secretary ab epistulis, and be filed by him; and that explains how in the military sense he came to act as adjutantgeneral and military secretary. responsible - as we learn from a famous passage in Statius (Silvae 5, 1, 94 f.) ·· for all military appointments, from direct commissions in the centurionate upwards: Statius himself, indeed, seems to confine such appointments to the centurionate and the three equestrian military grades, but it will be recalled that Vespasian owed his command of II Augusta, and hence the opportunity to win a name for himself in command of that legion in the conquest of Britain, to the influence of Claudius's powerful ab epistulis, the freedman Narcissus, 21 and it stands to reason that the man who kept the files of confidential reports should be in a position to advise the emperor on the most suitable men to fill specific posts. That aspect of the duties of ab epistulis. by the way. throws interesting light on the career of Pliny's friend Titinius Capito, who held the post under Domitian, Nerva and Trajan (ILS 1448); there is no sign of a disturbance in the careers of viri militares as a result of the fall of the Flavian dynasty, or on the replacement of the elderly lawyer Nerva by the soldier Trajan, and indeed one is tempted to reconsider the reputation of Domitian as an emperor. if his military appointments met with such general acceptance under his successors as is indicated by prosopographical study. 22 From initial selection and the part played by confidential reports, let us turn to consider the duties of equestrian officers. u A basic list is given by Aemilius Macer, writing in the time of Severus Alexander (Digest 49, 16, 12, 2): to keep the troops in camp, to bring them out for training, to keep the keys of the gates, from time to time to go round the guards, to be present at their fellow-soldiers' meal-times and to test the quality of their food, to keep the quartermasters from cheating, to 21. Suetonius, Vesp. 4, I. 22. For senatorial careersunder Domitian and his successors er.now the important study by Werner Eck, SeMtoren Yon Vesposion bis Hadrion, 1970; one apparent exception is the cue of an eminent general of Domitian's who did not continue his career after A.O. 96: Giza Alf6ldy and Helmut Halfmann, "M. Cornelius Niannus Curiatius Maternus, General Domitians und Rivale Trajans"(Chiron 3, 1973,331-373). 23. Cf. now the study by H. Devijver, "Die Aufgabe eines Offiziers im r6mischen Heer" (Anti· dorum It'. Pu~man, sua,~narto ab alumnis oblatum, 1968, 23-3 7).

JS4

punish offences (within the limits of their competence), to hear their fellow-soldiers' complaints, and to inspect the sick-quarters. Macer applies the list of duties to tribunes or those in command of an army, but obviously it holds good for all equestrian officers, at least as a minimum conduct of work. All the same, the commander of a cohort or of an ala had further specific duties to attend to: "Nothing", according to Vegetius, 34 .. does so much Honor to the Abilities and Application of the Tribune, as the Appearance and Discipline of the Soldiers, when their Apparel is neat and clean, their Arms bright and in good Order. and when they perform their Exercises and Evolutions with Dexterity." Hadrian's speech to the first ala of Pannonians in Numidia in A.D. 128 is a case in point (ILS 9134 ): praefectus vester sollicite videtur vobis attendere, he observes, after complimenting the regiment on the excellence of its display; again, Pliny mentions (Ep. 7, 31) the summa integritas and so/licit a diligent/a displayed by his friend Claudius Pollio ( cf. JLS 1418) when in command of the ala mi/Ilaria in Syria. By contrast, if an auxiliary unit showed up badly, its commander was likely to be the first to suffer for it; witness Corbulo's treatment of the praefectus equitum Aemilius Rufus, as recorded by Frontinus (Strat. 4, I, 28): for retreating in the face of the enemy, and for having his regiment insufficiently well trained, he was publicly degraded and then, it seems, dismissed the service; and there are sufficient references, in the legal writers and elsewhere, 15 to missio ignominiosa applying to equestrian officers, for us to realise that a high standard of efficiency and devotion to duty could be demanded of them. In the legions, the trlbuni angustic/avli were not normally employed in command of troops, but in compensation they had considerable administrative duties. Thus, we find them supervising the discharge of time-expired men (Tacitus, Annals I, 37), checking the reliability of centurions (ibid., I, 44), selecting non-commissioned officers and. in general. superintending the smooth running of the whole machinery of the legion. That is not to say that they had no opportunity of distinguishing themselves in the field; there are ample instances of legionary tribunes winning decorations, to prove that their service in the field was not merely administrative. But it is perhaps right to emphasize that the Roman army was devised to maintain peace rather than to be on continuous active service, and commanders of auxiliary units. no less than the tribunes in the legions, had normally a great deal of administrative and paper work to do. The rich haul of papyri from Egypt and, more recently. from Syria has given us a useful cross-section of such activities. It will be sufficient in the present study to ref er to a few typical instances: 36 they were responsible for maintaining detailed records of strength in men and horses, of the 24. Vegetius 2, 10 (I quote from Lieutenant John Clarke's translation, 1767, p. 6S). 2S. Cf., e.g., Quintilian, Inst. Or. 6, 3, 64: d1xit Au,rustus praefuto, quem cum i1nomin1a mittdat, subinde interponenti precibus "Quid respondebo patri meo '", "Die. me tibi disp/icuiue " The neatness or the reply would inevitably be lost in translation. 26. There are convenient collections of this category of material in Lesquier, l 'armte romaine d 'Etypte, 1918; Mitteis & Wilcken, Grundzii1e und ChrestcJmathie der Papyrusk.unde, 1912; Serlio Daris, Documenti per la Storia del/'Esercito Romano in Etitto, 1964; and especially R.O. Fink, Roman Military Records on Papyrus, 1971.

ISS

day to day employment of all men in the unit. and of its finances. and in general for preparing as rich and varied a series of returns as a11y modern army (with all the advantages of typewriters and carbon paper) can require. In addition, they were liable to undcrtakc a variety of duties in the administration of the province in which they were stationed. for example superintending the epicrisis in Egypt, or providing for the entertainment and safe conduct of ambassadors passing through Syria on their way to Rome from the Parthian court. One document is of special interest (P. Oxy. vii I 022): a letter from the prefect of Egypt. C. Minicius ltalus (on the next to top rung of the equestrian ladder) to Celsianus, prefect of the third cohort of lturaeans (on the bottom rung of all). closes with vale frater karissime: both were members of the same brotherhood of service. for all the difference in rank between them. And though they fall outside the period 0f the principatc, with which this study is concerned. reference may be made in passing to the correspondence of Abinnaeus. prefect of a/a V prae/ectorum in Egypt in the middle of the fourth century ,n with a wide range of duties ranging from suppression of smuggling to supporting tax-ldi, "Zu den Militlrreformen des Kaisers Gallien us" ( Ume• Studien, Buel 1959, 13-18), for the lianificance of the distribution of that emperor's leponary iauea: in the repon in which his d~ facto field-army wu concentrated, and not in the fortresses in which the lqions concerned bad their permanent hues.

219

5. 6.

c) 43 years (Clau)dius (Cel)er, 7 leg. XI C. p. f (III 2834/9893) d) 44/47 years M. Tillius Rufus, p. p. leg. X XII Pr., after 16 years in the Guard and evocatio (XIII 6762, cf. X 5064 = ILS 2667). c) 45 years

7.

8. 9. 10.

M. Acbutius Victorinus, 7 leg. XV Apo/. (Ill 260/6761) T. Flavius Virilis, no. 3, p. 209 above (VIII 2877 = ILS 2653) A. Hennius Mar(tinus), 7 leg. XII Fu/. (Ill 266) [------------], 7 leg. XX/1 Pr. (XIII 6952) f) 46 years

11.

12.

( - - - - - - - - - - - - ). princeps II leg. XIV Gem., the first 23 years in the ranks (XIII 7556 = ILS 2649) g) 48 years T. Vitcllius Atillianus. no. 6. p. 211 above (VIII 300 I)

13.

h) 49 years (- - - - - - - - - - - - ), p. p. leg. VI Vic., after service in a legion, then in the Guard, then evocatio (VI 32887)

14.

i) 50 years Pctronius Fortunatus, no. I, p. 208 above, the first 4 years in the ranks (VIII 217 add.= ILS 2658 add.)

15.

j) 52 years Sexti[lius) Marc(ianus), p. p. leg. XX/1 Pr., the first 22 years in the ranks of the Guard or as evocatus (XIII 6728) k) 55 years

16. 17.

M. Herennius Valens, 7 leg. IV FI., V hast. post., after the Guard and evocatio (Ill 13360) Varius Quintius Gaianus, 7 leg. XX V. V. ex CCC (VI 33033) I) 57 years

18.

19. 20.

220

L. Maximius Gaetulicus, p. p. leg. I /ta/. (fulfilling in A.O. 184 a vow made as a tiro in leg. XX V. V.) (ZPE 57, 1984, I 8 I ff.) m) 58 years L. Retonius Lucius. p. p. leg. I Adi. (III 11031) n) 61 years Aclius Silvanus, 7 leg. II Adi. (mentioned by V. Kuzsinszky, Aquincum: Ausgrabungen und Funde, Budapest 1934, no. 285; I owe my knowledge of the text to the kindness of Professor A. M6csy).

A ROMAN ALTAR FROM OLD KILPATRICK AND INTERIM COMMANDERS OF AUXILIARY UNITS

A Roman altar. found in 1969 just outside the north-ecm corner of the fort at Old Kilpatrick. at the western end of the Antonine Wall in Scotland ( 1). carries a text of considerable interest. There is no doubt about its reading : /(ovl) O(p1imo) M(axlmo) coh{x/ilWatioR(aktorum g11es11torum qluorum) cf uramJ a(gitJ luliw Set'(>r.triblunw}. In dieaem •·an hat man daa cognomen des Tribune ala Severinua gedeutet, wobei vorausgesetzt wurde, da6 er der lulim Severinua voo RIB 1212 aua RiAingham sei: Fortunae Reduc{i/, Julius Severinw triblunw) explicito baliMO v. s. I. m. Die apezielle Bedeutung dieees Texte-s ist zweilach: einmal hat du Kleinkaatell z.u Cappuck unmoglich mehr als hochstens zweihundert Soldaten enthalten; z.um anderen mu6 man sich voratellen, da6 die Raeti gaesati lwie die exploratores} von dem Kastell am, deueo Kommandant Uber aie Aufsicht z.u ftihren hatte, Streifz.Ugeweit nach Nor· den machten. 5. RIB 1i24 IGreatcheaters, Aesical: d{(eJae F/or{t/u(naeJ, t•exs(illatio} g(aeutorumJ R(aktofrumJ quorum curam agit Tabelliw Victor (centurioJ. Man sieht also, da6 in jedem Fall die Raeti gat>satiohne eigene KommandeUtt waren, indem aie entweder dem Tribun einer cohors milliaria oder einem Legions-Centurio zuge· teilt wurden, wie dt-m spateren princf'p., der lf'f(io 11/talira in Lauriacum 17•. Die Bezeichnung t•exillatio mu6 man in diesem Falle als eine der neuen ArtPn von Truppeneinheiten interpretieren - also als .,einen selbstandigen Truppenkorper", wie sie R. Saxer beuichnet hat, und ea beateht kein Zweifel, da6 ea aich um eine viel kleinere Einheit handelt als diejenige, die z.ur Zeit des Augustu11die Gamison des castellum lrcal'ium ausmachte. Das Vorkommen der Ra"ti f(ll(>Uti aowie der explorator(>swird nicht nur durch lnschriften, aondern auch durch den Orunamen Castra (>Xploratorum, den das Vorpostenkastell z.u Netherby in Cumberland erhielt, bez.eugt und 1.eigt, da6 im 3. Jahrhundert die Kontrolle dN entfemteren Gebietes nordlich der Hadrianamauer von irreguliiren Soldaten be!IOrgl wurde, die ihre Ba11isin Kastellen hauen, die mil einer Garnison von rohort(>Smilliaria" equit11t11t-belegt waren.lll. Zu aolchen Einheiten in einer Grenz.provinz vergleiche man die Konuntration von cohortes milliariae in Dacia Porolwensis: allerdings fehlen dort Belege fllr eine vergleichbare Konz.entration irregulirer Soldaten. Ritterliche Of/i.zit>rt>

In vier Fallen haben riuerliche Offiziere folgende Ditn11tlaulbahn durchgemacht: entweder Hm enten Fall I z.uent in Raetien und dann in Britannitn, oder aber lin drei Fiillenl z.u• ent in Britannien und danach in Raetien; dazu kommt noch ein fiinfter Fall, in welchem dieae z.weite Laulbahn vorge11ehlagenworden i11t. 1. ILS 8866 (PrUAiasad Hypium, Bithyoienl: griechiache lnachrift, die dem Te11tamenteine-s gewiuen L. Domitiua Proclus enl8prechend aulgestellt wurde, mit folgender Laul-

,: S.stt. ■ .a.O. IAnm. 191 72 wf'iat dif'w lnechrilt ralllrna.tribu} lan,u,/rio/ praef(ectoJ a/Lael Pannoniorum. praf'f(ectoJ al.te HupfarwrumJ Aur/ian( aeJJ. praeffectoJ al.te Arat:aco/rum/, PrutumiJI Q. /filial Ca/sta/ mllrilo c~rissimo. Hier ergibt eich du eini.ige mir bekannte Beiepiel eines Mannea, der drei alae nacheinander kommandierte. alle drei,

•• CuMrnon,m all ftM 1-rt, dw auch RIB 1524 lawi Ca1Tawburrhl voritommt. Ow Cohortto •ncMint al. I Cu~norum auf dmi britilc~n Diplom ,·om 19. Januar 103 IXVI 481, wu vnmult'n 116t. da6 tit echon 78 n.Chr .• wffln nicht frllMr, •ullffU'lh wunk; bi. apiLN~N I i. Juli 122 IX VI Ml wurd. tit dw / l,'lpi.a Tra~• n.a Cu{tt'f'1tOrUm c.R. Untt>r Anloninwi Pim 140/144 war tit dahei. ~• Stra8t voo N-•~ad ITrimontiuml am oordwirta 1.u beuen, •wndtt M•ik>nwin RIB 2313 bn..ust lnac:-hdtt V~r~n, Britannia 4, 1973, 33b f.l. Ott Stillff in Carrawburp, Auri•liual Cam~lff. ph«t aidwrlich frlltw.&t-na ckm •~lwndm •••itt>n JahrICN Ertlr\ttunc H.-G. PO.wm, Chiron 4, hundm an; apllff wird d~ Cohorw iibtthaupt aicht YttUichiwl 1'174. 454 ff .• bedarf NWr •inldwnckn Obttarb.it1a.n,I. .., Vgl. H.-G. PO.um, ue canwrn procura~D.IIN i,queatrft eow k haut-empitt romain tParia 1%01 41 Nr. 170.

269

88

nebenbeibemerkl, quingenariae. Die •"' Auriana lag eelb&tventindlich in Raetien; dazu ltomml eine •"' Hu,,.oorum Ar•v•corum. von denen die I in P•noonu, ,u~rior und die II zuent in Pannonien und danach in Niedermoe&ien gelegen hal 41• Es frqt sich, welche die •"' P•nnoniorum war. Angeaichta 10 ~ieler Mtsglichlteiten Iii& aich din nichl eindeulig entacheiden. Zwar hat W. Waper'! die•"' I Pannoniorum Tampiana, die doch bis in die Hernchaft Hadrianshinein in Britannien war. vorgeechlagen und dementapttehend die Laufbahn der Zeil von Trajan zugewieeen'-'. Sowohl die Identili%ierun, als auch die Datierung milaeen aber wohl als hochst zweifelhafl betrachtet werden.

Eine Frau •w R•ttien Ein kumlvoll gearbeiteter Grabetein au& Netherby, dem Vorpoetenkaatell nordlich von Carliale in Cumberland, liefert noch eine Verbindung zwiachen Rae lien und Britannien tRIB 9841: D(uJ Mf•nibwJ Tilullinu, Pr.witta c:ifviJ, Ratt• vi:uit anno, XXXV merun VIII die, XV. Die hohe Qualitit des Grabtteines deutet darauf hin, d.6 die Frau wohlhabend geweaen eein mu.6: am ehesten wird sie die Frau Coder vielmehr die Witwel eines ritterlichen Offaz.ierageweaen eein Cwiitt ihr Mann noch am Leben geweeen, 110 hiltte auch er vennutlich eeinen Namen in den Stein gravitten luaenl. Solche Offi%ierehalten ihtt Frauen often bei aich, auch in Britannien; al, Zeugni, diene eine lnachrift au, Chnten ICilurnum I an der Hadrianam•uer tRIB 14821:D{iJJ M(anibw) 1facrum) Fabi(a)e Hooorat(aJe, Fabiw Honoratw tribun(ru) colifortuJ I Vangion(umJ et Aurelia E/g/ltt/t/une filifak dulcwim(a)e. Anhang

Mogliclie Zeupi,~

far &uchen oder Epidemien in Raetien und in Britannien.

Zwei in Rqenaburg und zwei in Britannien aufgef undene Grabeteine veruichnen jeweil, den Tod mehrerer Mitglieder einer Familie und deuten damil auf Seuchen oder epidemiache Krankheiten hin. Zuenl diejenigen aus Regensburg.

I. Vollmer, IBR 377: Clfaudiw) Rfaleticru tiet(eranru) ex leg(ione) Ill ltalfica), Aurlelue) Lu.cinae quondam coniugi carwimae, vix(it} anfno1) XXX V. et Unioni /fiJlio, vixfit) an(M1) XII. et Reguuae filiae vixfit) an(no,J V. et Lu.cue /iliae, vix(itJ anfno,J Ill. /facien· dumJ cfuravi1J. 2. Schillinger-Hilfele, 58. lkricht Nr. 240: D(i,J M( anibwJ Fl(uueJ Prociuae, v(ixil) /an(no1)/ XII m(erue,J Ill d(in VIII/-/, /fl(avio) V/ictorliJ, l'fixil) an(no1) V/·Jm(eruem) I d(ie,J 1111. FUaviaeJ Vict/or/inae. dixitJ rru>(n.,,sJII d(i,sJ XI. {filfiu} t/ribw. ,,.rlente1J Prot•i(nci/ali, S.turnini //ilfius}/ ,t Flfavul Avita m/ater/ /ilior(u.m) kar/us/imorlum} ··••

41

"'acnn

V,t. a.a.0. tAnm. 321 45-4'1. •: 'l'a,ntt •.•. 0. w. U .,,.,.,.... Datitnan, wird oboe wdllJn'e von H. lnvijv~r. Proeopocraphia mili1iarum f'qUNlnum qWK' nanl ab A...,-w&oad Galli.num, pen prima tl....uwo 19761 I b8 tS. ~I akuptittt.

270

r~-

B9

3. RIB 594 IRibcheeter, Bremeteonacwn): Hu terru tegilur Ael(ia) M•trona quond.f•mJ, vixfilJ •nfno,J XXVIII m(en.se,J II d(w1J VIII, et Mf•rcwJ lulfuuJ Muinuu jilfuuJ. vix(ilJ.n(no,) VI m(enu,J Ill d(iea) XX, et C•mpani.a Dubli/t•t• nutf'r, vix(itJ•nfno,) L, lulfuu) Muim,u 1(ummu.,J cfur•tor) •t.e S.rlnut•rum) coniux coniu,ri incompar•bili et filio patri p/i/en1i.uimo et ,ouerl•k tenacwimf•k memoria(m} p(o,uil).

4. RIB 685 tYorit, Eboracum): Dfu} Mf•nibus) Ft.viae Augu.stinae, vixil •nfno,J XXXVll/1 m(e,un) VII dfw,J XI, filiw S.eni,u Aug(u)stinus, vixil •nfnum) I d(ws) Ill. u,...vixit an(num) I m(enus VII/I) d(ie,J V, C. Aernius S.enw vet(er•nw) leg(ionu) VI Vic(tricis) coniugi ~ri/1/ainue ~ 1ibi f(aciendum) c(ur•vit). Ein frqmentarilcher Grabstein aua Carrawburgh IBrooolitia), RIB 1558 verzeichnet den Tod eioea vierunddrei6igjii~n Vat.en, einer drei.6igjii~n Mutter, einer ltleinen Tochter aowie amcheinend zweier Sijhne; daa dilrfte ala ein drittea Zeucniaf Ur Seuche oder Epidm1ie in Britannien pit.en. Dieee Texte aiod wohl auanahmaloe frilhestena auf du auaphende2. Jahrhundert zu datieren, und diejenipn, die da, Alter auf Jahr. Monat und Ta, genau aagebeo, datiereo wohl aua dem 3. Jahrhundert. Die gro6eSeuche. die in den 60er Jahreo da 2. Jahrhundert.s au.a Mm O.Un eingeachleppt wurde. liegt offenbar zu frilh, denn vor 191 n.Chr. iat Ct.uduu Raeticw unmoglich Veteran der 11/ ltali~ gewordeo, auch wenn er zum Kootingent der unpriinclichen Rekrutienm, in dieee Legion gehorte. Andereneita iat im FalJ Provincialu S.turnini filius, Mr im Ge,eoutz zu 1einer Frau Ft.via Avita, civil Ronuana noch J"!~l"nw war, eine Datierung auf du frilhe 3. Jahrhundert am wahncheinlichaten.

271

VETERANS OF THE ROMAN ARMY AND ELSEWHERE

IN BRITAI~

It has been recognised for a long time that one result of the Roman army having been stationed along the frontiers of the empire was a tendency for man)· veterans. on leaving the service. to settle down in the frontier districts instead of returning to often distant homes. in so far as they had not been recruited in those districts themselves. The locus classicus. as far as the literary sources are concerned. is that passage in the Annals (XIV 27): \'Ctcrani Tarcntum et Anuum ad!oenpti non tamcn infrcqucnllac locorum )Ub\·cncrc. dilap-,1s plunbus in provincias in quibus stipcndia cxplcvcrant;

they preferred to return to provinces in which their ser-.·icehad been spent, rather than to remain in the Italian towns in which they had been settled by Nero's orders. To some extent. the government aimed at solving the problem by the foundation of veteran colonies in the frontier provinces, for example at Camulodunum in Britain. when P. Ostorius Scapula was governor (Ann. XII 32): colonia Camulodunum vahda \'Ctcranorum manu dcduc1tur in agro) \AtPII· vo~. subs1d1um advcrsus rcbclhs et 1mbucnd1s socm, ad officia lcgum.

The irony of Tacitus. preparing his readers for the twofold failure of the policy. thus stated. when Boudicca·s rising came about. meant that another basic reason for the foundation was not mentioned. namely • Dr Marpret Roun hu k1ndl) read carltcr draft, of this papc-r. making a numl>cr of valuable rommcnl\ and furnishing 1mporian1 par11culu, .about diploma\, ,omc ,,f 1hem unpubhihcd; 111s a plcuant duty 10 thank her for her assistance The follov.1ng 1bbrcv1a11ons arc employed At.·· l ·a,,,,;, ip11rapl11q1W /LS H DcSSAL. /,ucript,onrs latlNN Hl,atN

JRS P/RJ

Journal of Roman Stwl1t'J Prowp,ofrapl11a /~ri1

ROfflOlf1. 2nd cd111on

RIB R G. Coll 1,c.111,•ooo,RP W111GHT.r,,,. Roman Jn,a1pt1111J• of Brtrom I. O11Jord 196S. RMD • M M Rou,. Roman M,htar,r Diplomas. /954-/977. London 19711 C/L 1s om11tcd before volumn of the Corpu1 /n.,rriptmf'lum lotmarum -""'"'"'

272

Son1ty 13/14, 1982/1983,

265·276.

266 the provision of a congenial home, within the province, for men who would probably prefer to remain among their fellow veterans. rather than to go their different ways to distant homes, or to be settled against their will among the civilians of some unfashionable town in Italy. In many cases, the success of such veteran colonies has been abundantly attested by inscriptions, and even when there is no epigraphic evidence for the date at which a particular colony was established, we sometimes have an indicator in the plaoe-rwne; for example, there is the reference in the elder P1iny (N HIV 45) to IH~llon cwn stagno qu,odn.uncDeultum vocatur ~teranorum, showing that before the later years of Vespasian, when that massive work was published, veterans had been settled at Deultum in Thrace. As it happens, there is epigraphic confirmation, in the inscription from Rome I which records how veterans of VIII Augusta. who had been settled in the colonia Flavia Pacis /Hultrnsium, decided in A.O. 82 to co-opt, as one of their patrons, the T. Avidius Quietus who was later to govern Britain. For Pannonia under Trajan, again, there is a combination of literary and epigraphic evidence. Mommsen, in his study of the rvocati Augwti. cited an extract from Hyginus Gromaticus 2 : quidam evocatus Augusti. vir milit.aris disciplinac, profcssionis quoquc nostrac capecis.simus. cum in Pannonia agros ex volunt.alc et libcralit.atc imp. Traiani Augusli Germantci adsignaret;

that is to say that Trajan allotted land to unspecified beneficiaries, and that the land so given was surveyed by a specialist military surveyor. That the grant thus recorded was to veterans is shown by an inscription from the chief town of Pannonia, Poctovio (Ill 4057 = /LS 2462): C. Cornelius C.f. Pom(ptina) Derl(ona) Vcrus vct(cranus) lq(ionis) II Adi(utricis) dcduct(us) col(oniam) U(lpiam) T(rawwn) P(oetovionem) mission(c) agr(aru) II. milit(avil) b(cncficiarius) co(n)s(ularis), annor(um) L. h(ic) !(itus) e(st). tcs1(amen10) fter(i) ius(sit), hffes C. Billienus Vit.alis flacicndum) c(uravit).

That is to say that Cornelius Verus had been settled on the land, in the territory of Trajan 's colony at Poctovio, instead of returning home to Dcrtona in Rrgio IX of Italy; and the inscription shows that he was a 1

VJ 3838. 31692 • /LS 610S.

1

G,UllftlfWIU Scltrift,ri VIII, p. 4S6.

273

member of a second batch of men so settled. But the new colony also provided a living for veterans who preferred a grant in cash rather than an allotment of land. as is shown by two more inscriptions from Poctovio: I) /LS 9085. d(is) m(anibus). L. Gargihus L.f. Qumna fchll. Tacapn. vct(«anus) ltg(1onis) I Ad(1utnc1s) p(a3c) fladchs). missus massionc nummaria. ann(orum) [ 2) A£ 1934. 226: L. Fanni[u)s L.f. Cl(audia) Quadratus opti(o) ltg(aonas) I Ad(iutnm) p(aat) f(adchs). mis.sa(o)n(c)numma(na missus ). Pr1m111us hb(crlus) f(ac,cndum) c(uraval).

We cannot say where Fannius Quadratus had come from originally. for there were towns enrolled in Claudia. not only in Italy. but also in Noricum (Aguntum. Celeia. Iuvavum. Teurnia and Virunum). in the Maritime Alps (Cemenelum). Sicily (Catina). Mauretania Tingitana (Volubilis). Pannonia itself (Savaria). Thrace (Aprum) and the two Claudian colonies at Cologne and Colchester. But Gargilius Felix came from Tacapae (Gabes). in the proconsular province of Africa. and it must be a matter for conjecture how he happened to have been serving in a legion on the Danube. at the turn of the first and second centuries - perhaps transferred to / Adiutrn in a vexillation from Ill Augusta in Numidia. for example during Domit1an·s Danubian campaigns? Occasionally, an inscription tells us how a veteran put his money grant and his skills to good account. setting up in business as a swordsmith >, or as a dealer in pottery'. for example. But no doubt a high proportion of veterans chose to settle on the land as farmers. and grants of land must have remained for a long time as the commonest form of gratuity; and no other way of providing for them can have been so cheap in the long run, particularly if the land in question was already owned by the state, or could be obtained by confiscation. It so happens that the latest literary record ofland being allocated to veterans in a frontier province comes from Justinian·s Dil{est. in an extract from the sixth book of respo,ua by the jurist Julius Paulus; he was a pupil of Cervidius Scaevola. serving thereafter on the staff of Papinian > XIII 6677 • ILS 2472 (Mainz): C. Gffltthus VtC1or ~l(ttanus) lq(1on1s) XXII Pt(1mi1n11ac) p(iac) Otdrhs). m(mus) h(onnta) m(n,s,onc). nqooa1or pdianus.

• XIII 1906 = /LS 7531 (Lyon)· V11ahmus Fcl111.veteran or l,r ncso11a(1o)n Lul(tuncnli arus cr(c)unac.

274

I

M1Mrt10

268

and still active (in what capacity remains unctttai,1) under Scverus Alexander' : the case will have been heard either in the closing years of the second century or. perhaps more likely, in the first quarter of the third. II is summarised as follows (Dig. XXI 2.11): Lucius Titius pr~ia in Germania trans Rhcnum emtt et par1cm pre1ii in1uli1:cum in restduam quan111a1cm hcres emploris conveniretur. quaeslioncm rettulit diccns has posscssionn ex praccq,to principeli pertim distractas, parttm vetcranis m praemt.a adstgnatas : quacro. an huius rci ix-nculum ad venduorcm pcrunerc pouil. Paulus rcspond11futuros c-asusC\'ictionis post contractam emplioncm ad vendtlores non pcrlincrc et idco sccundum ea quac proponuntur prc11umpracdiorum pelt poss.c.

That is to say, John Doc had purchased farms across the Rhine in Germany, and had paid part of the price before he died: the vendor sued the purchaser·s heir for the balance of the price, but the latter pleaded that part of the property had been confiscated by the emperor's orders. and part had been allotted to veterans as their gratuities: Paulus replied that the vendor could not be held liable to suffer for any loss by eviction. once the contract for the purchase had been completed. so that the balance of the purchase price could be sued for legitimately .

••• For some provinces we have ample evidence for the settlement of veterans from the legions. whether in colonies such as Poetovio in Pannonia. or Timgad and Theveste in Numidia: but there is no such volume of cpigraphic material from Britain. While there arc some eighty veterans of // Adiutrix attested by inscriptions from Aquincum or elsewhere in Lower Pannonia. Britain can produce no more than twenty from the legions which served in the province. Seven of them come from Chester : one, a man from II Adiutrix. presumably discharged while that legion was still in Britain (RIB 478). three certainly from XX Valeria Victrix (RIB 495. 500 and 534 6 ) and three doubtless of that ' Cf. H.-G Pn ...cM. Lt-1 corr/jrrs prt>urcc • The kgion·s name and numbn arc not Pfncn-cd. bu1 1hc man·, hnr 1s an Ach\l$ 11111h no prorrtomnt Jl'tCn. 1mP')1ng• date v.-cllinto 1hc second century al the tarhnt

27S

legion (RIB 517. 526 and 545): in only one case is the man·s origin given. L Licinius Valcns coming from Arelate (Aries) in Narbonensis (RIB 500). Caerlcon can show six veterans: one from Dinia (Digne). also in Narbonensis (RIB 361). four more specifically veterans of // Augusra (RIB 359, 363. 3671 and Britannia 8. 1977. p. 429 no. 15). and one (RIB 358) doubtless so likewise. York has only two to offer: both are from VI Victrix and neither·s origin is on record (RIB 679 and 685). Elsewhere. legionary veterans are recorded at Lincoln. a man of XIII/ Gemina commemorating a freedman of his (RIB 249). and a veteran of VI Victrix whose original home was Lugdunum (RIB 252); an emerituJ of II Augusta. who was connected in some way with Arausio (Orange) in Narbonensis. dedicated to Mithras in London ( Rf B 3): an emaituJ of legio X X at Bath - the legion still without the titles V. V. so that his tombstone was presumably set up before Boudicca·s rising whose home was at Nicopolis in Epirus (RIB 160): and from Castlecary on the Antonine Wall in Scotland there is a veteran of VI Victrix, who on his dedication of an altar seems to describe himself as n( atione J Mat(liacus J. if the MS. reading of a lost text can be relied upon ( Rf B 2151). Turning from the legions to the au,i/ia. we may take first the four cases of veteran officers : I) RIB 266 (Lincoln). ) v[ct.) u (dJe'-"(unone)alae II A5,tor1um1. vill1t(a)nms LXX( • 2) RIB600(one mile north of Lancaster): dco Jalono ContrC'(bi)sanctissl1)mo luhus lanuanus em(entus) ex dec(urione) v(otum) s(olvit). 3) RIB 748 (found in the area of the civilian seulemcnt northMr,zurR&M,u11. Rcamsburg1979, p. 63ff. : auucd in Decmibcr 11J to • BataV11nfrom colt. TBoto-.on,mmillioria c.R. his BataV11nwareand three daugh1cn " Published by s. OuiANlt an G,rmanlQ S6 (1978). p. 461 rr : issued to I BttuCUI or colt. VII BrnKonffl. who had ev>dmtly returned home ancr his d11Ch&rge in June 6S

278

272 from Rome(XVI l 18)and one from the Lebanon (XVI 117), presumably taken home by a man who had been discharged from the Syrian coh. I Flavia Canathrnorum milliaria sagittariorum - the recipient's name and that of his unit have not been preserved in this case. At present. there arc only fourteen diplomas known which refer, or once did so. to the army of Britain. four of them mere fragments. Two have been found elsewhere: that for A.D. 98 in Belgium (XVI 43). from within the territory of the civitas Tungrorum, and though it is incomplete. the recipient's name and origin being lost, the fact that the a/a I Tungrorum was one of the units listed on it seems to justify the assumption that. in this case, the veteran had returned home - in other words. that it was a Tungrian who had been serving in the a/a originally raised in that civitas, recruited (by subtraction of 25) in or shortly before A.D. 73, once the rebellion of Julius Civilis had been brought to an end by Pctillius Cerialis in A.D. 70: we shall be seeing further evidence to suggest that some units in Britain continued, well into the second century. to receive replacements from their original recruiting-grounds. The diploma for A.D. 122 (XVI 69) was found in Hungary, within the area of Lower Pannonia; it had been issued to a Pannonian, Gemcllus son of Breucus. who had been a s~squiplicarius in the ala I Pannoniorum Tampiana; here too we have a man from the original recruiting-ground serving in an appropriate unit - unless. indeed, he had been taken on for service in a vcxillation from that a/a when it was on temporary duty in Pannonia. most probably in A.D. 97 16 • By contrast, the other twelve diplomas for the army of Britain have been found in Britain itself. as follows : (a) Two come from the Wall fort al Chesters. presumably showing that they had been issued to men who preferred to remain in the village outside the fort in which at least the closing years of their service had been spent, one of them leaving the army in A.D. 146 (XVI 93), the other in the same general period. though the fragment (XVI 115) cannot be dated to a specific year. •• 1114466 • /LS 2SIS (Carnun1um)" che combstone or a crooprr oJra,,Tamrp1wxf1/la11onuJ Bm(QlllflfM): Gcmcllus mhs1cd 1n A.O. 97 (as Dr Roun points ouc. sintt the diploma does not andude plur,bt.uw. so that the men concerned had all serwd cuctly twcncy-favc years), che occasion for the vcxdlation from Bricaan bani an Pannoni.a may well have bttn che campa1an wh.c:h led 10 Nena aca:puna che utk G"""'11i(KJ late in 97. _,

279

273 (b) A fragment recently discovered at Vindolanda, apparently also of A.D. 1461 \ comes from a diploma issued to a soldier of con. I Tungrorum m1/liaria, but it is not clear whether that unit was in garrison there 11 • or whether the veteran had settled in the vicus Vindollandessis (as a later inscription. RIB 1700. terms the place). (c) A man from the colony at Glevum (Gloucester). who had served in coh. I Fido Vardullorum, discharged in the latter years of Antoninus Pius 19 , settled in the senior British colony at Camulodunum (XVI 130). (d) An infantryman from coh. II Dalmararum settled in the civitQ.J Cornm·iorum at Wroxeter in Shropshire. instead of returning to his home in the territory of the Treveri. on leaving the service in A.O. 135 (XVI 82). and another veteran went to Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencestcr in Gloucestershire) within the period A.O. 141-147. sufficient surviving of the names of its witnesses to allow that dating (RMD 45). (c) The fragments of a diploma found in London, as yet unpublished 20 , seem to show that its recipient was living in the capital of Roman Britain in the time of Trajan or in the earliest years of Hadrian. (f) The remaining five diplomas all come from the countryside, implying that their recipients had gone in for farming. though we lack the evidence to show whether that had been the result of successivemissiones agrariae (if indeed au,iliary veterans were eligible for such grants). Two of them have been found in Cheshire: one issued to a former decurion of the a/a Tampiana who came from Spain, discharged in A.O. 103 (XVI 48. Malpas). the other to a trooper of the a/a Classiana, discharged two years later (RMD 8. Middlewich). From South YorkI Sunurorvm in A.O. shire we have a Sunucan. discharged from con. 124(XVI 70, Stannington); from Somerset, a trooper of the a/a PrCU-leiana discharged in Hadrian's reign 21 (XVI 88, Walcot near Bath); and from Kent a centurion or decurion. from what unit we cannot

• · Found ,n 1980. and to b( publ1shw b)· Dr Ro.an '• It " not ~rt11n whether the fort al V1ndolanda was CK:Cupicdundn An1on1nus P,u,. hut m.11tt1alor that penod hu bttn found ,n the adJa~nt c1~11scukmcnt ,. er Muprct Ro\.\ ... \ not( in BritQJttllQ II (1980). p 337. which shows lhal 1he Cokhcmr d1plom.1 ,hould b( datrd 10 r11hcr I S-4or 159 Jo I owr m) knowlrdgc of this dnco~tty 10 the kind~, or Dr Roun " II ~ 10 b( thought 1ha1the Walco1 diploma could b( assigned10 the penod I \O- IH. but d RM D. p 20. sugcs11na th.11 117-120 ,s morr probable

280

274

say, discharged in A.D. 105, like lhe man from lhe a/a Classiana (XVI SI). Thus, twelve of the fourteen men to whom diplomas for the army of Britain have related remained in the province. and nearly half of them seem to have settled. or to have been settled. on the land. When we take into account the veterans from the auxilia attesled in Britain by inscriptions on stone. it will be seen that we have six officers and eighteen other ranks 22 who remained in the province after leaving the service. That is a very small body of evidence. insufficient no doubt for the statistician to regard it as adequate as a random sample; but at least it seems highly suggestive H_

• •• There is one further piece of evidence for veterans in Britain, the place-name Bresnetenaci vtteranorum - that is to say. Bremetennacum (Ribchester. on the river Ribble in Lancashire) - recorded by the Ravenna Cosmographer 2' (see the study by the late I. A. Richmond in J RS JS. 1945, p. 22 ff., which discusses the suitability of that district for the settlement of veterans). The epithet recurs, not only in the case of Deultum veteranorwn in Thrace, but also in that of Diana veteranorwn in Numidia, a place which has yielded a more than useful series of inscriptions. Furthermore, there were of course two other veleran colonies in Britain as well as that at Camulodunum. namely Lindum (Lincoln) and Glevum (Gloucester). which can be shown to have been founded. one in the Flavian period 2 ' and the other during the brief reign of u It seems bnt. at this sui,e. to take the reciptt"nl or the London diploma as having Krvcd in the ranks. z, RIB 926 (Old Pennlhl w;o mid by Haverfield (Eplt Ep1ir IX 1124) IS a dcdiauon by four wtfn01111. bt.11in RIB Mr R P Wnghl Ms shown IMt the men were Krving in a rr,111/atioJ. slffularly. a dcdia11on 10 Co"en11na from the Wall fort al 1s shown by RIB C.urawburgh. read by Huebnn as by Aur Camp()ttt ~t'tlt'ra,rw). 1524 10 read nol wt. bul ,rntllfrl} pro.um} /(0,101 a/,runoJ. a Cf A. F. L R1H r-C. SMITH. Th, Pluu•Nam,s of Rontalt Brita11t. London 1979. p 277 for the evidence of Ra\'Cnnas and other iOurcn for 1hc place-name. including RIB S8l 11 XIII SS79 (M.aanz) dcdtauon by a p,11nuspi/us of Irr XX/1 Pr pf. whose orago II giwn IS Quir11na) Lindo. IMI was 1hc tribe 1n whteh Flav11n foundations were enrolled. and the nuibhJhmenl of a veteran colony 11 Lincoln prnumably came bu1 nol long after lr, IX Hupo,ta Md bttn moved forward 10 i1, new base II York

as•

281

275 Nerva 26 : but, apart from the two veterans attested at Lincoln, and the man from Gloucester whose diploma was found at Colchester, neither of these two colonies has yielded evidence for the veterans settled in it. while Gloucester itself remains without a single instance.

APPENDIX The colony at Oamulodunum The aocounts in Tacitus and in Cassius Dio are sufficient to establish the date of the Oaudian foundation at Camulodunum and the manner of its destructt0n by the Boud,ccan insurgents. An imaiption from Camuntum in Pannoma records a soldier whose origo was Camulodunum. and that it had bttn enrolled in the appropriate tribe for a Claudian foundation. Clawlia (Ill I 1233): T. Statnn T. (rihus) Cla(uda,a) V1tahs. Camuloduni. st1(pcnd1orum) Ill. an(norum) XXIII (7) Arrunu Eipectau.

From this we may infer that the full title of the place was originally rolonilJ ClaudilJ Camulodunum. But there is an inscnplion from near Nomentum. in Italy. which gives the place a difTettnt name (XIV 39SS ., /LS 2740): Gn. Munatius M f Pal(alina)Aurelius Busu1 procturator) Aug(usti).prac(tectu11 fabrium). prac(tectus) coh(ortis) Ill sagittanorum. prae(tectus) coh(ortis) ,icrum II Asturum. ~nsuor civium Romanorum coloniae Victri«nsis quae ffi 1n BritanniaCamaloduni

After two posts in the militia prima. first commanding rolr. Ill sagmario,.,,,, - perhaps in Upper Germany 1 ' - and then rolr. // Ast11f11ffl, presumably the unit of that number in Britain itself. he supervised the register of the Roman citizens living in the rolonio Vinrirmsis at Camulodunum (as the name is usually spelt). in a period when a new oensus of the provi~ of Britain was being taken u_ It s«ms difficult to accq,t the view. still it seems widely held. that that was the title of the Oaudian foundation. If we bear in mind that. from the

afler AplCOJ."sdeparture from Britain. or surely Tacnus would haw IJYffl him the credit for its foundation' H An 1n1cnpoon from Rome. VI 33'16 • /LS 2365. commemorates a deaatcd m1/rJ /rwrtffltarivs of lr, VI V,a,u: M. Ulpeo Ncr. Quinto GleVl, Nff(Yla) here Mina an eumple of the •pseudo-tribe•. • plaoe·s imperial 1itle takina the plaoe of the tnbc in wtuch the town had been enrolled. i, Cf AE 1978. 2S62 (corrccttns 1976. 497b. Mainz) for an lturaean serv,na in 1 roll. Ill: hardly rolt. Ill /1110,0,..,,, only attested in faypt. but presumably one or 1he eastern archer cohorts on the Rhine. in the rint oentury. JI er H.-0 P'FlAUl4, 0( (n. S). p 180(. sua,estina. Tra,anic date

282

276 defeat of Boudia:a onwards. the Fourteenth Legion. which had earned the lion's share of glory for the victory over the insurgents. became ffllillcd 10 1he epithets Martia Victrix, and lhe Twen1ieih. which had Sfflt a vcxillation to share in that victory. was thencdorward known as Valrria Victrix. it would surely scan reasonableto infer that the colonia V,ctrimuis was the new colony which arose from the ashes of the place destroyed in A.D. 60. Just as there is a single inscription recording a soldier from the original colony, we now have one which attests to a legionary from the colonia Victr1cnui.s, namely the fragmentary tombstone found in High Holborn. London. in 19611 •: dis manibus G. Pomponi GJ Valcn1is. Victric:cnsf"- b(cnc){(1c1arul) qr~b(uni) lc{l(ionis) - - -

Tbcre is no need to be surpriled at the pttseTl0C of a legionarysoldier in Roman London.for therewere a good many clericalpersonnel,drawn from the legions. on a consular governor's staff: shorthand writers and filing-clerks. for example, quite apart from the tquitts and ptditts SUfllllarts, drawn from lhe au.xilia of the province. who formed the governor's personal guard unit Jo The presence of all these troops will explain the fort found. in the years immediately aficr the end of World War II. in the Cripplegate area of London. The prcsenoc of other legionaries in London was already attested, by tombstones such as that of Flavius Agricola, mi/. /,g. VI Viet. (RIB 11), or that of lulius Valens. mi/. Wf. XX V. V. (RIB 13). or that of a sp,nJator from /,g. II Aug. who was commemorated by thn:c other sp,C11latorts, warrant ofTKltn on the personal staff of the consular govm,or (RIB 19).

ADDENDUM An important inscription found in Gloucester {G/num), published in Britannia XV {1984), p. 333, provides w with the first veteran known to have settled in that colony, as follows: d(i.s) m(anibus) / l(ucius) Val(trius) Aurelius I 11tt(mznus) ltl(_ionis) XX I V(aleriat)[V(ictricis)----

This requires amplification of my printed text on p. 275: instead of twenty, there are now twenty-one legionary veterans attested in the province. And on p. 282 the closing words of the main text may be re-phrased: Gloucester itself has at last yielded a single instance.

n JRS S2 (1962). p. 190(; A111,qvo,w1JOflT"ll4/ 43 (19631. p 1231T.and plate XX Cf. M. P Sn,ou. G1111rtb of,,,, R""'°",.,,,,_... Bonn 1978. for such un,u

>°

283

NORICUM.

BRITAIN

AND THE ROMA~

ARMY

To an English stuc.lent of the Roman army an< in1tancr of the gcn1t1ve form. I sugnt 1he rcadin1 (?L An)nius Duft«) ,nquac(plic)ariu1 ala ("Maxi)mi, nauonc (Cam)utenus. an L. fh ,.Je. HI.I., I- - - -Js;u1 Martia(bs h.)f.c. The ala was perhap1 that later known u / Allfwsta Gallor11m, attnted in Tingitana from 9 January 88, u / Au111.11a (CIL XVI I S9). onwards 11 M,11,lrlt,11tuc"' 8,ldl,-,.,.-nksttltt"'"" I. Jlr " Cir,. Bonn 1938. p. 109

374

264 with other evidence, that they need not concern us unduly. We may be confident, therefore, that we arc dealing with al~ in a period when none of them had a permanent name. and when they were regularly known by the names of their commanders for the time being. That will explain why the inscription of an early prat'/utus equitum could not well specify the name of his a/a! But before long the time evidently came when it was judged desirable to give each a/a a permanent name, and in a good many cases it is surely not unnatural that the name selected should preserve the memory of an officer who had commanded the unit with distinction at some former time 12 • There is evidence, indeed. to suggest that there was a period when the same was the case with auxiliary cohorts. There arc inscriptions found in Egypt on which. in three cases, a cohort is attested with no titles but with the name of its commander in the genitive 121 : Facundi (/GR I 1249: Pros. Mi/. Eq. Fl03). Flori (A£ 1910. 207 and cf. /GR I 1250; Pros. Mi/. Eq. Fill) and Nigri (/GR I 1236: Pros. Mi/. Eq. N31 ). But, in the same way. former commanders seem to be attested in adjectival fonn in the cases of the cohors Flaviana (known only from the record of one of its prefects, Sex. Julius Philon of AlexandriaTroas, /GR IV 216; Pros. Mi/. Eq. I 94) and coh. I upidiana c. R.• which seems to have served successively in Syria. Pannonia. Lower Moesia and Cappadocia 13 .

••• I now tum to a critical list of the alM which arc attested with names in adjectival form. in several cases oITering a possible idcntif ication of the commander whose memory is commemorated. I list 11

I may be allowed 10 enc a modem analogy. Al Chfton Collcsc. Bnstol, 11 was

for a long 11me cu,tomary 10 name board1n1 housn after their hou,cmasten for the time beina. but from 1922 onwards each house wu &1YCna permanent name. every case cxccpc one 1h11 of the fint houscrnaster; only Oak.elcy', Hou,c was named after its 1oCCond hou,cmas1er. rathc'r 1han 11Sfin1. Harris , :. Michael Speidel h,n poin1cd oul (Stud11·n :11 ,kn M1l1tdrgrrn:rn Ronu II. 1977. p. SI I-SI Sl 1ha1 1hc1c three men were all commanders of one and the umc cohon. or perhaps JI /t,uoror11m. and he adds a probable founh man. eithc'r I n,.,.1,oc-0,""' 111~1cd as the prcdcciruor of NiJcr by an 0ttracon Camc~nsis (0. Ta,1245) ,, S)na area A.D 69: ,H.: 1%7. S2S; Pannonia in June 80: C/l XVI 26: lower Mocsui in Aususi 99 Cll XVI 45. and cf S8 (before A D. 114). Cappadcxu m A.O. 199 AE 1908. 22 and cf Not D,i. 0, XXXVIII JS (sub dl\posillonc \'In ipcctabihs duel\ AnMn&ae). in

375

265 them in the alphabetical order of personal names. rather than that of the ethnic titles which a good man)' of the units carried. Where LE followed by a page reference occurs. the referenc.c: is to the evidence for a particular nomen in Wilhelm Schulzc's monumental work. Lur Geschichtt· lateinischc•r Eigennamen ( 1904 and reprints); Wagner = Walter Wagner. Die• Dislokation der romischen Auxiliarformatwnm m dt·n Prm·in:C'/1,Voricum. Pannomen. Moc·sim und Dakim ,·on Augustus his Ga/l,mus ( 1938): Truppenkorper = Ernst Stein. Die kaiserlichen Beamten und Truppenkorper im rom,schen Deutsch/and untn dem Prin:ipat ( 1932): and Hilfstruppen = Gcza Alfoldy. Dit• Hi/fftruppt:n dn romi.schc•n Pro,·in: Gt•rmania /n{nior (EpigrapJmcht,Ji}Ntu At1f. ,~ s. I. •· (Unle91 really { ForlllJ,uu?)

.... M. A11rllitu lntUll'itu

1 Uf. 111 A"f. p. •·

• A.E. 1965. 41. It should be remembered that distif>tJ,,.o wu not neceuarily reserved for the Roma.n army: compare the reply of Commodus to Lurius Lucullus and the othtt cclMti of the ..U.U B11rvt1t'4"tu (CIL VIII 10&70 cf. 14464 - ILS 6870), showitlg that his procuraton mast act UlflUM/>lolic>NduciptdiNN d ,,.stilwli ,wi. 11 ALFOLov 1961, in his illuminating study of the religious life at Aquincam. 11 A comparable point has bttn m&de by F1sKWICK 1969, in his study of third-INM f>""""' '"" rtslilwr(wfll), dtdsta"'4 T. To[- - - - - -J cos. III Daci•("'"'), Ulf>io Victor, ,-x. A "l· proui[,c,(itu) Po, Jol(isu,csis). '"'",,. T. FI. SaJunti[flO '/ h Jt. V Moc(14· L. A.Ji .Aw,h COfflJftOdiPii F.J,cu A"f, "·· L. Rwwieu Man•IU ,,,,.. , .... .JM Huf'(nonl,,.) 1'0lw• Jol11t.Note &110the dedication., to DoJichenua at Stocbtadt by two dilfensot prefects of "°A. I Apt'4atlon,• win•"• 1ft1""6a, T. Fabiua Liberalia and L Caecihua Ca.ecilianu1 (CIL XIII 11780 and 11 78211783) - Liberali1. at leut, uaipable to the 1«ond century. 97 CIL Ill '4.18: I,crnao MuA,(a},, C. S11&uliw.sBo,,IHanu 7 Uf. XV A/>ol.u 1'0lo [- - - - - -} - .,E,,"4ilrl ul tMll#ieAI "" COfU1JMDowliluaru." N

ro

410

1520 Bockingen (though he assigned it to Kongen) by a centurion of leg. VIII A ugv.staf' who also set up there an altar to Fortuna Respiciens in A. D. 148•; Xanten has yielded a dedication of A. D. 189 by a centurion successively of leg. XXX U. V. and leg. XXII P,. ,p./.70 - and from Lambaesis there is an altar dedicated by M. Valerius Maximianus 11, who had served in the East as an equestrian officer, and ended his brilliant military career as legionary legate, legaJusAugusti -p,o-p,aeloreof leg. Ill Augusta and finally eofWU,in A. D. 184, before ever setting his foot in the Senate House 11• For Jupiter Heliopolitanus we have no firmly datable second-century texts, but the prefect of leg. Ill Augusta cited by DoMASZEWSKI (p. 68, no. 119) would seem best assignable to the pre-Severan age11 - and note that he came from Teate Marrucinorum in Italy. Several other dedications to that deity are by officers who came from Heliopolis itself'', or from Berytus 71 , the latter very likely pre-Severan; and it will be worth while to take note of an altar of A. D. 249 from Stockstadt, by a prefect of cols. I Aquita,w,um veteranawhose home was at Berytus, dedicated to I. 0. M. Heliopolitanus, Venus Felix and Mercurius Augustus 7•, for an inscription from Athens shows that these were the three major Heliopolitan deities". On the evidence which we have cited, it will be seen that D0MASZEWSKJ went too far, at p. 69, in claiming that .,Du geltnule An.sc.\auung,daPtlu orientali.sclse,sCulu im Abffldla,ule nu Zeil de, AffloniM allgemein verbreild geu,esenwrt,en, /saJ i" den U,kuntlen wenigsun.s nidst tlu gmngsu Stutze." It will be worth while to cite another instance of the cult of Sol lnvictus being brought into the West by a senator, namely Q. Antistius Adventus from Thibilis in Numidia, who had seen service in the Parthian war of Marcus and Verus: his dedication to that deity, as well as to eight others, comes from Vecbten = Fectio in Lower Germany 71 • His career began under • CIL XIII 6477 - ILS '191: Soli /r1vido MuArtU JMPW,.., P. Ntu{,]Uitu Pr{oc]luuatu {1 J Uf. YI II A "I• •· ,. l. "'· • CIL XIII 6472 - ILS 2613; in the same year, he dedicated there to ApoUo Pythiu (CIL XIII 6496 - ILS 4048 add.). "CIL XIII 8640: D(,o) l(r1c,iuo) M(WwtU), M. ltJ. MM#itu 1 i.,. XXX u. V., i.,. xxrr Pr. p. /., S"-i, dMObtuwJ. 71 A.E. 1916, 28: D,o l•vido MilJtf'tU IM(,,.,.,..), M. VoJ(mw,) Ma.n,....,.tu Uf. A"f. p,,.p,,. " For him, cf. footnote 1', above. " CIL VIII 2638 (Lamt>.cais): Iovi Opli""° Man""° Hlliopoliunto JO'!Uhui""°JMNM, P. S#itu P. /. A,.,.. RM/tu, Tuu M....witaOrMM, /WtU/. Z.f. Ill A"f. " CIL VI 423 - ILS 4287 (Rome): /. 0. M. H(lliopoliwMJ) UlfUff'flMm i•f>mid.•· Gtw4uuai Pii Fil. ir1fl'tdi A.., .• L. r,,,botlitu Feb(u,) Souuatttu, Hllifll>oli, 7 ,,,_(,.. IM'itu) 1#1. 1111 Fl(niM) Go,,,diMIIM,p. p. " CIL XII 8072 - ILS 4288 (Nemausu1): /. 0. M. Hll'°"'°'ilMt(o) II N~. C. lwitu Tib. /il. Fab. Tibwir1tu p. p .. ~ B,ryto, JOltlil. " CIL XIII 6668: by (M.) /Nlitu Man /il. Fa(lnJ• Rt1/tu P•pi(r1J•-tu Slttlit1{s) G,.

'°""'"'

"°"'"'

"91Utu, ~ Brryl(o).

" CIL Ill 7280 - ILS 4284: [ I. 0.) M. II Yltlffl d Mmtwio

H,livpoli{IJ-u,

Q. Tlditu

Man,,...,•· I. •· " CIL XIII 8812 - ILS 8094: Iovi 0. M. JWfftRIIO 1nt1/>l"•fllim""°, Soli lr1vicJo, Apollir1i. LtlfJtU, n....111, Forl11r1111, MM#i, Viaori111, Pan, Q. AflliJlitu Atl11ntltu (l)lf. A"f. p,,.fW.

411

1521

Antoninus Pius and extended into the mid-l 70s: be had won decorations in the East as legate of kg. I I Adiut,ix after commanding kg. VI FeJTaJ4 in Syria Palaestina, and became praetorian governor of Arabia before his suffect consulship in A. D. 166 or 167; after governing Lower Germany he was transferred to Britain, where he is attested by an inscription from Lanchester in County Durham". His years in the East will have given him ample opportunity for making the acquaintance of that cult, while (as we have seen) one of the legions of Britain had been practising it a dozen years or more before he became governor of that province. \\'e might al.so cite the multiple dedication at Apulum by L. Aemilius Carus, consular governor of the Three Dacias, who bracketed together Sarapis, Jupiter, Sol, Isis, Luna, Diana and the dii ~ umservauweson his altar"; it is immaterial whether he was in Dacia in the 160s, as GROAGwas disposed to think 11, or in the closing years of Marcus Aurelius as ARTHURSTEIN preferred to argue' 1 - but if STEIN was right, he cannot be equated with the L. Aemilius Carus who had been praetorian governor of Arabia in the early 140s and later consular governor of Cappadocia, but he may well have been the latter man's son, and have served under him as t,ibu,uu lmiclavius in one or both of those eastern provinces, thereby acquiring his interest in oriental cults before ever he came to govern in Dacia. While we are discussing oriental cults, it will be convenient to take into account Serapis and Isis, to whom a tribunus laJidavius dedicated an altar at Apulumu, evidently in the middle years of the second century for the same man, L. Junius Rufinus Proculianus, was to become consular governor of Dalmatia in 18416• It might have been thought that he had acquired an interest in those Egyptian deities as a result of service in the East (though not, of course, in Egypt itself); but caution is called for, since there is a dedication to them in Rome itself as early as 6111• ~fore relevant for the specifically Egyptian connection is an inscription of 116/117 1 , A 764 for his full carttr (ILS 8977 gives it in detail up to the governonhip of Lower wrm.any). ,. CIL VII 440 - RIB 1083: NwM(i,.,J ,hf(ustiJ 11 Gn(w) col4(orlis) I F(ulal) Vartlwl1on,,.. e(illiw"') R(OtlUMO"'"') ,q(witMM) (,..,m11ri111) sub ,1"1ulio Adw,uo 1,,. A"f. fW. l'[r.J F[I.J TitiAN111 lnb(w,.wsj d(1) s(MO) d(tdll). D01uszzwsK1 dt'duced (p. 76) that ~ inscnption wu cut under C&racalla, on the usumption that the govt"mor could not be identilied with the Antistius Adventus of the second half of the second century because the type of dedication should be of later date. But from the bme of Septimius Severus onwards the cohort wu at the outpost fort of High Rochester (Bremenium); cf. A. R. B1auv 1967, pp. 74 and 100. pointing out that his governorship of Britain .bould probably fall within the period A D. 169/176. • CIL III 1771 - ILS 4398 (Apulum). ll PJR 1 , A 338. 11 Die Rcichsbeamtt"n von Dazien (Diss. Pann. I, 12, Budapeit/Lt"1p1ig, 1944). pp. 44--46 • CIL III 7770 - ILS 4382: S•r•pi II Ind,, L. Jw,.,ws Rwf,,.w.s Proewlia,.ws lnb(w,.ws)

tlal. Cf. PIR

l(tlli)e(l11v11u)

"'il(ilu"')

111(,o•m)

XIII G('"''""").

I 810. citing CIL III 3202 - ILS 393. n CIL VI 363 cl. 30747 - ILS 4375. N

412

Cf. PIR

1•

1522

from Jerusalem", by a vexillation of the Egyptian leg. II I Cyrenaica. It is admittedly well known that the Severan dynasty, particularly Caracalla, was devoted to Serapis, but it is evident that his cult was well established among senatorial officers in the Antonine period, and if an inscription from Marienhausen can be accepted as genuine 17, a centurion of leg. III/ Macedonica dedicated to him in the pre-Flavian period. But perhaps the most striking evidence for high-level military interest in these Egyptian deities in the second century is provided by an inscription from Lambaesis: 16. CIL VIII 2630: [Is]idi et [S]erapi, [L. M]atuccius Fuscinus ltg. Aug. [p,. pj,. aedem cum Volteia Cornificia uxore [et Majtuccia Fuscina /ilia ab anteussoribus [ suis i]nstituJam exallatam et adieCUJp,onao per leg. III Aug. [columni]s sua pecunia positis exornavit. This governor was in office in A. D. 16811, but his dedication demonstrates that more than one of his predecessors had paid their devotions to the two deities - and the fact that legio Ill Augusta was involved in the work on the temple should indicate that it was not only senatorial officers who might be expected to worship in it. Another eastern god, equated with Jupiter, was Hammon; his cult, too, was established at Rome in an early period, witness a dedication to him and to Silvanus by P. Stertinius Quartus, suffect consul in A. D. 112'1 . On an inscription from Aquincum, as Dm,1ASZEWSKI noted, p. 73, his name precedes/. 0. M.to; the dedicator was a tribunus laJiclavius of ltg. /III Flavia, who in due course became legate of leg. XII I Gemina in Dacia, probably in the Severan period 11 • But he was also worshipped by a centurion in Tripolitania 11 , and by a cornicularius of the governor of Arabia at Bostra"; neither of these inscriptions can be dated, but both seem likely to be of the third century. CIL Ill 13687 = ILS 4393: [ I ]ot·1 0. M. S,m,puli pro saluu •I 11frto,,ia""/>.,,,;,,,_,'" T,,a,aN1 Ca,sa.-is Op1.. ,,.; Aut. G,r"'41tici Dacici Parlluti ,t populi Ro"'41ti. r1u1ll(o1io) llt(101to) Ill Cyr(,,.aiccu) /wt. 17 CIL XIII 7610 ..,, ILS 4-100: /. 0. ,\,( S,rap,, Ca.,usl1 ForlN1t{.. J ,1 G,,.io loci, P. Lic,,.1us PALTR 7 l,g, Ill/ ,\f(audo·,uccu) p(osuil} pro u suisq(111) 11,I. I. ,. It tttms difficult to bdieve th&t such a dedication can have b«n made in the Rhineland no later than A.D. 69; the dedicator's cognomen is of courte corrupt. and one would have been happier if Uw legion h&d b«n, for example, VII I A uiiuta, and the date some time in the hrst half of the third century • C(, THOMASSON 1960. II 1761. " CIL VJ 378 - ILS 4-1:?G. N CIL Ill 3463 ILS 3..138: Ha,,.,,.o,.i I 0. M. II Lar(ibus) ,\-f1l{1laribus) uu,iiq du. M. Ctuc(1l1Ns} Ru/i,ius Mana1t1u t,(ibu1tus) lal(ulmus) 1,,. I I/ [ F (la1111u)} "· s. I. '" 11 Cf. PI R 1, C 77. " IRT 920 (Bu-Ngem): /011i HaM""'1t(i) nd(tu1) Atlf(VJli) SAlr(uM}, Tullius RoMul~ i' u ,aa/1/orano. ,,, .. fpout]us ff[xillol1c,,iis-------J .. A,E, 1952, 248: /0(111) Op. Mos. c.,.;oJIJflClo Ha"'"'"'"· L'Jp,~ TaMFlftMS w,wietal(anus) l,f ( 1111) 110INMsol111, 11

413

1523

There are three more eastern deities, equated with Jupiter, to whom in the third century military men made dedications, and who merit attention here. First is Sabasius (as he is termed on an inscription from Mainz cited by DoKASZEWSKI, p. ,UN) or Sabadius, worshipped by a primusf>ilus of kg. XXII P,imigenia, and by a decurion and troopers of the equius singulares impe,au,,is in A. D. 24111 ; his cult was well established in Rome, but it presumably came from the land of the Sabadii, attested by the geographer Ptolemy as a people of southern Bactriana•. Other troopers of the t.quites singularu dedicated to Jupiter Beellefarus", worshipped in the first century by an eparch of one or other king Agrippa in Batanaia". Finally there'is the deity worshipped at Lambaesis by M. Aurelius Decimus": • 16. A. E. 1919, 26: Deo patno pra.eu,ui ,sumi,si Imn Bazouno, cui#S pra.eU1Slem maieslaum t,eque,ue, e:xpe,tus sum, Au,el. Decimus v(ir) p(erfedissimus) ,p(,a.esu) ,p{,mnfJCiae) Numidiae ,:x principe pe,eg,iMrWm volum solvit.

I I I. A cuptabl,eLocal,Cults Devotion to their tUi f,4Jrii is widespread on altars dedicated in the third century, and it may be exemplified particularly well on altars from ~forth African provinces which in principle honour dei Mau,i or Maurici, with various additional epithets. Reference has been made, above, to some Syrian instances of such devotion, and in particular there is that text from Micia (p. 1618, above) by the Mauri Micienses who restored the temple of their dei f>aJ,ii.Who those gods were may be inferred from the African

"'I"'""

CIL XIII 6708 ... ILS 2294: /. 0. M. S.sNSio [Cjorum,au,,1, H"""" ltt XXII Pr(i,,.i1ncuu) f>.f . ... The dNlication HOflo,, t111111iltU marks the completion of his year of office by a primJpilu1. cf. DOBION 1977. p. 60 and cf. pp. 166-160. • CIL VI 31164 - ILS 2189 add. (Rome): /. 0 . .\I. Dto Sllhodio sacn.,,., ltlliiu Fa11uw uc(tuio) Jt(11JMri) "ff. ,i,.f. tl(a...i,.i) Jt(oslri} 111 (I) poswil" ,o,.talam,m ,roMs,ra i,r11,.,i1, 111tala f>ri- Da,d,(,ron,,,.) p,-011(i..c11U}MNsia., i,r/{tnms) ... dedicala 1111 ,r0t1. A11f. tlo,,m,o ,., Go,tliaJto A"f. 11 ,1 Pomp,i,,ro ,os. (2 August 241) " Cf. H&UIUNN, RE IA 2 (1920), 1616, 1. v. I~101 citing for the ~6101 Ptolem. VI 11, 6: ..,i,r so,ru Jtidl Jtad-ub.r,s VolA ;,,. IWl/icMfll Bdlria,r,," ., CIL VI 31168 - ILS 4342 (Rome): Dis D,ohtuqw lt1111 Bu/11/aro 14M""""' p,o 1talt1U(1) T. M

"°'""'

"""· Ro-,ri ,, /tJrGJti ,, Dif•"'· fraJrtJ lf(llmJ) Jiftf. ;,,.p. "· v. J. l. "'· A.E. 1952, 246: ~h ~~IO\.lft&fls lmrp~xJoS ICCllcnpcrrtly~ Baravcri[Q'\:). He •• shown by JGR Ill 1194 to have been eparch of one or other Agrippa, thus within the period A.D. 3b/90. " There 15 another dNlication by him to Jupiter Buosenus (A E. 1973, G..'H- CIL \"III 2678a add ). while rus catholicity of ttligious interesu is abown by a ~ries of altus to I. 0 . •U .. /11,u, Rtt•,.•• M,"""" stJ111eto. Sol Mstll,as. H1rc"111, Ma,s, .\fncurr11s, Gn1i11r /ocs, d, uuqw om,us (C.11. VIII 4678 - ILS 3091) and various others, listNl by THOMASSON 1960, II 229: cf. al!K>footnote 23 above for his devotion to Man Gradivu-. •

414

1524

dedications, by procurators, an equestrian officer, legionary centurions, a legionary soldier or two and some auxiliary officers, as follows: 17. CIL VIII 21486 = ILS 4496 (Zuccabar): Diis palriis a Mauris 1'° v(ir) f,{er/edissimtlS} AelitlS Aelia11t1S M,u,,eu,,auu Cau(Miemis), ob rostFala,n geftlem Bava,w,n MuepeitisiuM OM1Wac /amiluu eo,u'" abdtldas, votum solvil.

rrusesrornncuu

~.

r~

18. CIL VIII 8486

=

ILS 4498 (Sitifis): [- - - - -Jo (e]t tli(is] ,patriis

et hosf>itW1'S,tliis Mauricis et Gnw loci, M. Conul(itlS} Od4vi[ant1S1o1 .•.

19. CIL VIII 9827 = ILS 2760 (Chercbel): Diis Mauricis, M. P0Mf,o11iusViullia11t1Sl0t lribus Militiis f,er/undw, Aug. ad cu,a,n gntiuM,

raef. classisGen,ui11icae.

roe.

20. A. E. 1920, 31 (Cberchel): Mau,icis, C. Stminius Aemilianus•oi

P,oc. Aug. 21. A. E. 1966, 169 (Altava): Diis p,os-pe,is Mau,is saluta,ibus, C. Fa1111it1S luniaftflS rae/. u,'/wrtis (II) SardoruM"· s. l. '"· 22. CIL VIII 2640 {Lambaesis): Dis M[au]m sac(,wMJ, L. Purlisius 1M FirMw luisl(atus) cum Popillia Marcunu amiuge /ecer(uftt) l(ibem)

II.'"""'"·

a(11iMO). 28. CIL VIII 2638 = ILS 9293 (Lambaesis): P,o saluu d. n. Severi Alnandri Pi(i) Felim Aug. dis Maum, M. Porciw [I]tl.S11da11 7 leg. XX Val(eriae) V(idrim) Severae 11. s. l. o. 24. CIL VIII 2639 (Lambaesis): Dis Maum Aug(ustis) stKr{t,M}, L. Fltmus M. fil. Quir. Gemi11us,Kal4ma, mil. leg. III Aug. v. s. l. o. 26. A. E. 1929, 136 (Rapidum): Deo,patrifJsalutan, Aemilius POM,peianus dec(urw) allU Tlwac(uM} p,aepositus (sc. wit. II Sordorvm) v. f,.

Cl. Pn..Aov 1960, pp. ~962, no. 367, obeervi.q that bis governonh.ip of Mauretui& Caeuriemd wu doubtlaa in the early yeara of Diocleti&D'1 reign - which would uplain why be ii not lilted by THOM.USON 1960. JA Cl. P'n..AUIC 1960, pp. 906-923, DO. 347bi.s a.nd TRON.USON 1960, II 279(. - in Caeurieoaia under Valerian and Gall.ienua (A.E. 1907, 4 - ILS 9006 abo,n that be, like Aeliu Ac:lia.nu a generation later, b&d a ruing of the B&va.res to contend with); bi1 origin 11 unknown. 1A1 Cf. Pn..Auv 1960, p. 736f., no. 218, 1ugesting that bis dedication may be taken to imply that be wu a native of Caaarienaia, and that iDfe~nce ii 1upporud by hi• appointment u ~"""' .-f..,-.uti 114~""' f.-hNM. 1• Cf. T■ oM.USON 1960, II 284, obaerving that be abould have been in the province earlier than the middle of the third century, but not attempting to 1ugpat a dating. The nomen Purtiaiu ii a rare Italian one: cf. C. Partiliua C. f. Stel. Atinu at Forum Livi fw(e,/ldvs) 1fVi(twM), fw( .. /ldvs) iD Regio Vlll (CIL XI 624: ////nr fvi•(ftlft..Ju), /llb(rvM), f>n(Mtf.l) p,il(vs) lq. {------}), a.nd L. Purtiaiua Atinu, tribune of &0A. in Dalmatia when P. Corneliu1 Dol&bella wu governor (A.E. 1964. VI Volu~ 227, a.nd cf. PIR 1, C 1348). The 4'u1Mvs of Uf. Ill AMp1141 wu surely from Italy. •

*

41S

1525

26. CIL VIII 21720 = ILS 2607 (Altava): Dis Mau,is saltlUU'ibus, Aurelius Exo,"'"5 du(u,io) alae Parl{Js)orum p,aeposiJus colsorlis [ II] Sa,do,um Severianae. 27. CIL VIII 20261 = ILS 4496 (Satafis): Dis Mauris [con]snvaklribus d Geniis Sau/is, SaUustius Saturninus b(ene)l(icia,ius) dup(licarius) ex quaestiona,io umplum de suo e.xo,navit .. . 28. CIL VIII 2637 = ILS 342 (Lambaesis): p,o salute imp. Antonini Aug. Pii d senati (I) p. R. d Fuscini 1 ltg. c. v. d leg. I II Aug. d a•xili{i)s eius, Catius Sacerdos1" Mau,is d(e) s(uo) p(osuiJ).

°'

29. CIL III 3668 (somewhere in Pannonia inferior): Dis patri(i)s Manalplso d Tlseandrio p,o sal{ute) dd. nn., Cl(audius) Viaorianus e,q{ues) colt{orlis) (quingenaritu) Ma[u,orum - - - - -). This last inscription, dedicated by a trooper of a cohot-s Mau,orum in Pannonia inferior, gives us the names of two conceivably Moorish deities; others are attested in Africa by civilians' altars 107, while at Tiemcen we have three dedications to a god, safletus or invidus Aulisva, who was evidently the local patron of the aJa explcratmum Pomariemium 1 The main point which deserves to be stressed is that, while some of the military dedicators were without doubt at home in Roman Africa, others were evidently brought there by their military service; we may wonder whether for such men it was a precautionary offering, rather than a sign of religious devotion, which led to them making and fulfilling vows to the assorted deities of provinces in which there was often trouble to be faced by them, whether in open warfare or from unruly hill tribes: get their gods on your own side, and you will be able to overcome them - such might have been the reasoning for such men as Aelius Aelianus (inscription 117, above).

°".

If Aulisva is the only Moorish deity to become the special patron of an auxiliary unit in Mauretania Caesariensis, the Aufaniae at Bonn provide a far more striking example of a local cult which attracted every level of military men - and their womenfolk - , specifically those serving in kgio I M iftffllia. Their votaries included the Galatian senator L. Calpumius •• For L. Matuccius Fuscinus cf. inscription no. 16. above. CIL and ILS take ,aentl,,s to have been the nan'■ office, that i.ato aay that be was pricat of the ui Mom at Lambaesis; but bit evident military intereata tuggest that be was a aoldier of l11. III A"f1"141, and that in hi■ cue (u in aevcral then) St1Cn@s wu a cognomen. Cf. KAJAMTO 1966, p. 319. 1"' Cf. CIL VIII 1''44 (Hr. Ramdam): Diu Motiris Ftufo,o, Vt1Ctonu,., Vusis(n,u); A.E. 19.S. 11' (Dear Vaga): Moewr1.. ,,.. M°'"""'"'· ViAit111M,B01Ultm, Vumn,u, Mohlo .... /,.,,o,.. .. : CIL VIII 16749 - ILS 4493 (near Theveste): Dii, MOfi/1» A"ft· ... ,i,,..,_ ltKro Mo.suu"u 11 TAililruu u S"ft_i, II lu4nu 11 Mosi44iu 11 1•

"'°"'"'...

... /uil .. ..

1 •

''"""°

(1) CIL VIII 9906 - ILS 2634: D,o A..Ji.n,.,, Fl(llfli,u) Cauu11,u fwt11/1u(,u) alM 111J>kwolorMMPOMorilwsiMM S[,w]ria,uu; (2) CIL VIII 9907 - ILS «92: !ho AMlUPIII, M [- - - -] FI{- - - - p,111/.J aJ.. upl. PMf/UII. GMtlunuu II fw«. A-,. •· Cl. also CIL VIII 21704 (Ain-Kbi&I).

,,.lliao

416

""'I>'""'

1526

Proculus, legate of that legion, and his wife Domitia Regina 1", and Flavia Tiberina, the wife of another legate, Claudius Stratonicus from Aezani 110 ; T. Statilius Proculus, prefect of the legion and his wife Sutoria Piam; five centurions 111, three bemficia,ii conS14laris111, two legionaries 11• and a veteran e% a,matu(,a)m; another legionary dedicated to them at Cologne111, and they also received altars from a beneficia,ius Nov(i) Prisci legat[i} 117 and, for example, another bf. cos.111 at the legion's out-station at Nettersheim. An equestrian tribune of leg. I Minervia honoured them at Lugudunum under Septimius Severus, his dedication deserving to be given in my text:

= ILS

4794: pro salute dom[inij n(ost,i) imp. L. Sept. Severi Aug. totiusq. domus eius, Aufanis Matronis et Mat,ibus PanMn""'"'" tl Delmatarum, Ti. Cl( audius) Pompeianus trib. mil. leg. I Min( erviae) loco excuUo cum disC14bitiontd tabula v. s.

30. CIL XIII 1766

In this case, as has been pointed out by GEZAALFOLDY 1968, p. 210, the guardian goddess of leg. I Minervia has shared an altar with the Mothers of cols. I Pan,wnwrum et Delmatarum, that unit's service in Lower Germany causing it to adopt the local fashion of worshipping mother goddesses, whether as Matres or, more commonly, as Matronae. Another dedication to the Aufaniae at Bonn was by a P,aeftdus cash'orum from Italy: 31. 27. Bericht, 150: Mat,onis Sidicino, P,aef. cast. leg. VII I Aug.

Aufaniabus,

P. P,osius Celer, Tiano

It may be suspected that he set up his altar on promotion to that rank and impending movement to Strasbourg, after serving as P,imuspuus of 119

111 111

111

111 11 '

U.t 1H

27. Bericht, 146-148. Cl. PIR 1, C 303 for him. 27. Bt-richt, H9. Cf. PIR 1• C 1033. 27. Bericht, 151. 27. Bericht, 162-156 (in two cues, recording tr&.n1fers - 162: Molroflis A11f,.,,i,. Tib. Cl. A'lldmas 7 Hf. IM. p. /. d VII Clotulitu 11. 1. I. "'·• &nd 166: Mllh'01ti1 A11/o•ii.l, G. IM11111 Ba.uio,.111 7 hf. I MiMnliM p. /. II VI 11 A"I·• pod optioIIOtlfflll, 11. 1. I. ftl.). 27. Bericht, 167 (of A.O. 205), 168 and 169 (of A.O. 233). CIL XIII 8021 - ILS 4780 (Mlllnbtu siw Mlll'rOftis A"l••iohl """'6sliei1, M. Clodi111 Mo,ull,,.111 ftlihs 1,,. IM. 11. s. I. - he waa later centurion in the same legion, CIL XIII 8010) and 27. Bericht, 160. 27. Bericht, 182. CIL XIII 8213 - ILS 4796: M""°11u ..... ,.,.sl,(111) c. ltll(i111) Moruwl111 ftl(aus) 1(-,io"is) I M(i,.nvuu) p. /. 11. ,. I."'·· /w{i]I o4 Alw""' ,, .. ,_,. ue,u _,. Co""li. Cf. also CIL XIII 8214: Mlll"°"il A11/orti1.M. Vol(ni111) s .. "'(isnu) A(MUu.) "'(isnou) II. J. I."'· CIL XIII 11990: Mllh'Ofti{ 1) ..... , ... iohl, c. St1MMitU AfTllli.l I,/, Nov(i) Prim 1'fM{i A"f. p,. pr. - - - -} . The governor is undoubtedly intended, &nd not a legate of ,.,, I Mtflllf11'UI;cf. RrrrnuNo 1932, p. 72f., for Gao•o•• 1uggution th&t be was a son of the cos. 152. and that be wu governor of Lower Germany in the late 1601. CIL XIII 1198-4: D,obtu ..... ,., .. (,} f>ro 1ol..t. i .. vidi Aftlolli•i ... .., .• M ...... ,,1;..., ...,.,,. pi""' bf. "''· 11. s. I. "'· At least five other Mtt1faciorii &-OftlMlffls have left altan at Netun.heim.

pn_,

u,

IU

417

1527 kg. I Minnvia, rather than that he was a pas&ng visitor to Bonn. By the same token, an altar at Mainz implies transfer of its dedicator from Bonn to one or other of the legions of Upper Germany: 32. CIL XIII 6666 = ILS 4796: De.ah(us) Au/a11{uzbus) et Tutdae l«i p,o salule eJ incol(u)mitau sua sUMUmq.om,sium, L. Maiorius Cogiuuus bf. cos. vot. sol. l. l. m., idibus luJis Ge,,tia,w et Basso cos. (lo July 211) Indeed, wherever altars to the Aufaniae have been found, one will be justified in deducing that the dedicators have made their acquaintance in Bonn, though it does not necessarily follow that they were military men, for in Bonn itself there are altars by magistrates and councillors of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippina, Cologne11•. There is no need to give details of the various groups of Matres or Matronae which attracted the worship of officers and men, whether in Lower Germany (in particular) or in Britain. It was evidently common form, at least in the Roman~Celtic north-west, for mother goddesses to be honoured, whether under strictly local names or in more general terms; some instances will be found in my paper on 'The deities of Roman Britain•••. One of the most interesting features of D0MASZEWSKl's survey is his analysis of the deities worshipped by the equiks singulares in Rome (pp. 46ff.): in it he satisfied himself that it was possible to distinguish two distinct groups, apart from the official deities of the Roman state, namely Hercules and Mercurius, as the romanised versions of the Germanic Donar and Wodan, while Silvanus, Apollo and Diana represented deities of Illyricum and the Balkan lands under equivalent Roman names (p. 62f.); one of his points has won widespread (though not universal) acceptance 111, namely that in Illyricum Silvanus was the Roman representation of that region's native god, ,.der in dem Scluuten de, U""alde, Dalffl4tinss flJoll,u", while he looked on Apollo and Diana as characteristic of western Thrace and the neighbouring parts of Moesia and Dacia, particularly when on altars Diana precedes Apollo. One example of this last practice may be quoted: 33. CIL III 12371 (Kutlovica = Civitas Montanensium, Lower Moesia): Dianae Reginae et ApoUini p,o saluu L. lu[l}i StaJilii Severi kg. Aug. p,. p,. et li[beroj,um eius, Aelius Arlemi; cf. E. Blll&Y 1977, p. 108, for the view that it was cell II Turtf"(WWM ,q1,il"'4 and not rolt. I Turttyoni"' that set up the altar at Cramond. 111 (a) RIB lf>23: D1(M) Clh(rttu) i,ol(u*) r,l(l)ulil Maus(tuus) optto c(o)Jio(rtis) f>(ri"4M) F,ixi,u1(""u"'); (b) RIB lb34 and 1635: both by prefecu of col. I B11111w,,,..,., the third-; cf. alM>the altar from Cutlehill, Co,,.f>Ulnbtls II Sri'4flfli(M), (DoMASZIIWSltl,

CIL VII 1129 - ILS 4829 - RIB 219f>:

Q. Piufllius

lusliu fw(•)1/. «>Ii. JIil Gal(lon,,,.) •· s. I. I.,._ p. 60, no. 100. dNluced the reading S"""9ti(cis) - note the mit•~lling -

and callNl the prefect Picentius: once more, evidence of his careless trall5Cription) Cf. in pvticular Fin 1967 for a con~nient and stimulating discussion of the grouping of Danubian provinces within the period A. D. 244-2f>9. IN Cf. PIR 1 , A 1360. and inscriptions publishNl since that volume wu iuued (1933), e. g. PIR 1 pan II (1936) p xvi, citing an inscription from Aquincum published by Kuts1HSKV in 1934 which atttsfflf him u kt. Avt. fw. p,, or A. E. 1960, 381. m CIL III 1671 (Ad MNliam): Htrcul1 J,.11,clo.L. POffllp#ius C1l,r fwtu/. «>Ii. I Ubior(uM) 1•

V. I.

1534

By contrast, Hercules Magusanus was manifestly a deity of Lower Germany - worshipped by Batavians and Tungrians, and ultimately honoured by being portrayed on coins of Postumus 111 ; so was Hercules Saxanus, worshipped by legionaries, au%ilia and men from the classis Gemuiftica,when they were working in the quarries of the Brohltal and clsewhcre1M. In both these cases, it was interpretatio Romana which equated a local deity with Hercules, and not a Gennanic Donar given a Latin name and an additional epithet. cited four dedications to Fortuna (his nos. 63-66 and 167). and observed (p. 47) that she was ,.du romisck Gotti", wekhe d.asHeer i" jtMf' Zeu bereits verelm". As in the case of that altar from Brigetio, no. 43 above, she often carries a descriptive epithet, the significance of which can be deduced with some confidence; thus, on an altar from Lussonium, she is regarded as the preserver of a cohort in Pannonia inferior: DOMASZEWSKI

44. CIL III 3316: Forlu,uu Saluuiri coh{orlis} I Alp{iMrUM) eq(uiuiuu), P. Ckxl.(ius) Severus fwae/(eaus), dMObusAugg. d.d. ""· cos. (The year is presumably A. D. 202)1M

Fortuna Redux, exemplified by numerous dedications, needs no explanation; but something must be said about one instance, at the outpost fort at Risingham in Northumberland:

=

RIB 1212: Forlu1tae Reduc[i], Julius Severinus trib(unus) e%plicirobali~ v. s. l. "'· 45. CIL VII 984

It has long been a commonplace in England that dedications to Fortuna are found in military bath-houses, and the frequent assumption has been made that the soldiers used the apodyteria to gamble in, hence their devotion to the goddess of chance; but note an inscription from Balaton (midway between Segovia and Clunia in Hither Spain): 46. CIL II 2763: Forlu,uu BalflUlri sac(rum), Q. Valerius Tucco miles leg(wnis) II Adiutricis p. /., {Cfflluria) Aemili Secundi111 • 111

Cf. HAUG, RE VIII 1 (1912) 661, 1. v. Hercules, pointing out that the name is Germanic; for the coim, P. H. Wan. in: Roman lmperi&.l Coinage V 1. London, 1927. Postumus nos. 68. 139 and 140. 111Cf. for example, CIL XIII 4623 - ILS 9120: Hmwli S111.u•"oouillm l•(fU"'iJ) XXI Ro(p0&is) n •usilio •or""' ,(o)ltoru1 V, qe,i swb L. Pomp,io S•~u,.do 1 u(ro,,is) XXI, u. 1. l. "'· Cohort■ attested include // .AJ'""'"' p. f. D(o"'itio-), CIL XIII 7706; 1,(iviM"'} R("1flll"Dr'N"'), CIL XIII 7706; // v.,.,i••o"'"'· CIL XIII 7707; cf. G. ALPOLDY 1968, pp. 193, 197 and 214. IN It teems necessary to assume that the cohort wu in the genitive c&!C: no other date aeem.s acceptable, though DaGllASSJ 1962, p. 274, omita 202 and only lists 161, 205 and 208 under ,.'4>tUouali i,uliulli i,r MOdoJfHCUJU". 1 ought to imply th&t his unit wu present. but it "' The apecification of the man's ""'"""' must remain uncertain on what orcasion ltf. I I .Ad1e,lf'ix,or a vu:illation of it,"'&'> present in Hither Spain.

J""'

42S

153S

The explanation seems to be that in a Roman bath-house men were naked - except for wearing wooden clogs, to protect their feet when they walked on the heated floors•M- , and naked men needed special protection from the appropriate deity, the benevolent counterpart of Nemesis that they addressed as Fortuna. Fortuna Conservatrix explains herself (Diana shared that epithet with her); Conservator was an epithet applied by military men to Apollo, Hercules, Jupiter, Silvanus and the Mauri (who, as we have seen above, no. 21, were also styled Salutares). It must have been for those who viewed his altar in Cologne to deduce which particular deities a governor of Lower Gennany 117 had in mind: 47. CIL XIII 8170 = ILS 2298: Dis Conservakww(us), Q. Tar(Jtlitius Catu[l}us leg. Aug., cuiu[s} cu,a p,aeto[, ]ium '" ru,na[m co]nlapsum ad [Mjvam /aciem ,estitut[um est, v. s. l. m.] 11• The dedication to Diana as Conservatrix comes from near Aquincum, on an altar set up by an equestrian officer circa A. D. 1601•: 48. CIL III 3632: Dianae C01'$ervalrics,C. Cal(vss,us) Faust,nian[us t],ib. mil. It does not appear from what peril Diana had preserved him, but another of his altars was to Apollo Conservator: 49. CIL III 3631: ApolJin, C01'$ervakws, C. Cal. Faust,n,anus t,ib. mil. leg. JIii Fl(avuu) v. s. l. m. The conjunction of Apollo and Diana reminds us of DoMASZEWSKI's point, that they represent local deities under Roman names, and an officer whose legion was normally stationed in Upper Moesia might well have come to accept such deities, even though his home, as we know, was Verona in Italy 1•. But to many Romans it was Diana the huntress that they venerated, witness an altar from Mauretania Caesariensis: 111

Excavations at Vindolanda, in the north of England, have yielded two such shoes, now on diaplay in the Vindolanda Muaeum. Cf. E. B11.uv. Vindolanda: Forta and 'vie,• in the North of England, ANRW II 12. Berlin-New York. ea. 1979. a, Though be does not term hitmt"lf Uf. A"f. fw. pr .. his dedication in the capital of Lo~r ~rmany and his restoration of the governor's fWt11toriw'" must mean that he was in fact 1932, p. 86. pointed out; the period of his term in consular governor, as RITTH.Lll'IG that province is quite uncertain. 1" Cf. also CIL III 3419 (Aquincum) for another dedication to unspecified Conservatores. by C. /NlitU c,,,.i,.(i)us Cop,llio,.us, praetorian governor of Lower Pannon.ia in the closing yean of Antoninua Pius (PIR 1 , I 339). 111 Cf. Pn.AUM 1960, p. 444f., no. 177, pointing out that in A. D. 160 he was apparently serving in the ,,.i/,tio J>ri""' as prefect of a cohort in Lower ~rmany: bis posting to "f. 1111 Flouio will have come shortly after that date, and his appearance in Lower Pan• nonia will be: explained by the fact that /tf. 11 Adiw.lriir was away in the East. serving in the Part.h.ian war under Antistius Adventu1, so that the L'pper Moesi&D legion or at leut a strong detachment of it bad to be moved to Aquincum. By A. D. 173 he had ri1en to be: uliolcp1 A,typti (cf. PIR 1• C 346). 1• Cf. Pn.AUN 1960, ppp. 406-408, no. 166. for his father C. Calvili\15 Statianus. who is shown by CIL V 3336 - ILS 1463 (Verona) to have the appropriate tribe:, Poblilia.

416

1536

60. CIL VIII 9831 = ILS 3267 (Altava): Dianae ne,,w,111n romiti, vidrici /erarNm, a,u,ua vota udi F a,s,sius I ulianus 111p,uf edus rolwrlis I I SarlUn'tlm.

All the same, it is noteworthy that it is in Dacia and Moesia that we find equestrian cohort commanders dedicating to Diana Augusta, as though that goddess had acquired parity of esteem with I. 0. M.; for example: 61. A. E. 1967, 417 (Enlaka,

Dacia): Dianae Aug{ustae) sacn,m, Hisp(ats-91) J. Fin, Die Vereinigung der Donauprovin.un in der Mitte dea 8. Jahrbunderu (Studien 1u den MilitArgrenzen Roma. Vort:rlge dee 6. Internation. Limeskongreuea in SGddeutxhl&nd, Bonner Jahrb., Beih. 19, KOln/Gru 1967, 113-121) Lee Syriem 1 Interci.sa (Collection Latomus 122, Bru:xelles 1972), in particular •Religions, cultes', 177-196. N. GunaA and V. LucAcn. Imcriptii fi Monumente Sculpturale ln Mueul de lstoire ti AIU Zallu (Zallu 1976) S. GunNaatno,aa, Die gennanilchen Gtittern.amen der anti.ken Imchrifun (Rheini1tbo Beitrlge und Hilf.sbGcher zur Germanilchen Pbilologie und Volkskunde 2-4, H&lle 1936) J. HaLGZLAND,Roman Army Religion (AN RW II 16,2, pp.14701606) P. Hau, Untenuc.hungen rum Festblender der romillchen Kaiseneit nach datierten Weih- und E.hreninlchriften (Dia. Mainz 1976). especi&lly 'Die Religion des romachen Hocres", pp. at-108 with notes pp. 440--4-46 I. l. Vic(to, - - - - -J< 31. VIII 1o,6o {Lambacsu, Numidia): diis Gim(ptstribus),/[- - - - - -).

(c) Elsewhere: 3.2. L'Anntt Epigrapliiqut1967, 405 (Tirgu Murcs, st. Dacia): Silvanistt Silvano Compts(tribus}pro pro (sic) ul(utt) Bocini,Frontopottr