Honorific Titles of Roman Military Units in the 3rd Century PDF
Preview Honorific Titles of Roman Military Units in the 3rd Century
HONORIFC ]HLES | OF ROMAN MILITARY UNITS | IN THE Sra CENTURY DR. RUDOLF HABELT, BONN HONORIFIC TITLES OF ROMAN MILITARY UNITS IN THE 3rd CENTURY BY JENÓ FITZ The civil war of 193—197 A.D. consider- ably strengthened the imperial power of the Romans and, together with this, the influence of the legions on which this power was based. The close links be- tween the emperor and the army were demonstrated by the regular granting of honorific titles to certain army units. This practice lasted from the reign of Caracalla to the period of Diocletian. In addition to its emphasizing that a unit belonged to the emperor, the epithet formed from the name of the emperor was also a manifestation of an individual unit’s loyalty. These imperial epithets were different from those (Pius, Felix, Constans, etc.) awarded in honour of a unit’s military achievements. Awards of honour could be confiscated only as a punishment, whereas imperial epithets were dropped when the emperor died. The honorific titles have been interpret- ed in very different ways. According to the most widespread opinion, the epithet was automatically granted to all military formations on the emperor’s accession. If this is true, no historical importance can be attributed to them: their sole use being an approximate means of dating HONORIFIC TITLES OF ROMAN MILITARY UNITS IN THE 3rd CENTURY HONORIFIC TITLES OF ROMAN MILITARY UNITS IN THE 3rd CENTURY JENÓ FITZ 1 (i i m ) 1983 AKADEMIAI KIADO Dr. RUDOLF HABELT BUDAPEST BONN TRANSLATED BY MARIA BARANYAI TRANSLATION EDITED BY GEORG DUNCAN ISBN 963 05 2838 X Akadémiai Kiadó ISBN 3-7749-1840-6 Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn © AKADÉMIAI KIADÓ, BUDAPEST 1983 Vertrieb für alle nichtsozialistischen Länder: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Am Buchenhang |, D 5300 Bonn 1, BRD Vertrieb für die sozialistischen Länder: Akademiai Kiadó, Budapest PRINTED IN HUNGARY CONTENTS ΕΞ met Abbreviations .. « «νον νυν νειν νιν νιν νειν hn Introduction ... «Ὁ. .ννννννννν εν eee ee eet een PART ONE I. Imperial epithets in the Ist and 2nd centuries...................... II. Imperial epithets under Septimius Severus....................0000- II. Απιοπίπίαμα. . .. «ον νν νιν νιν εν RII lille en IV. Severiand 0.0.0. ν νον νιν γεν ννν tee ee en ahh V. Maximiniana 0.0060c 0h h VI. Pupiena, Balbina (Gordiana?) .........iissseeseeeeee VII. Gordiana 1.0.0.0. ccc Rm hn VIII. Philippiana ...... sss nl IX. Deciana .... isseshm metn X. Galliana Volusiana .........22222ceeeeeeeeeeeneenenen XI. Valeriana Galliena, Valeriana Galliena Valeriana, Galliena ........... XII. Postumiana . ...ςν ον νιν ννν νιν eee 9 en XII. Tetriciana ...οςνν νον νιν eee ee nee HH nenne XIV. Claudiana ..... ον νον νιν νιν hm e enn eeee XV. Αμνοίΐαπα. «ον ν νον νν ee ene νγ ann XVI. Probiana .....««ὐννννν νιν νννννν eR me XVII. Cariniana Numeriana? ..... llle e nn XVIII. Diocletiana Maximiana ............... esses ΝΕ XIX. Uncertain imperial epithets ..ςςννννν νιν 0.0.0... 0c cece eee eee eee XX. Inscriptions not included in the present volume .................... XXI. Imperial epithets in cursus honorum inscriptions .................004 PART TWO I. Distribution of the imperial epithets.........0..00..0.. .0.c .ee.e II. The erectors of the inscriptions with imperial epithets............... III. The place of the imperial epithet in the name of the unit ............. Historical summary ΞΕ Indexes ..... cesses RH ehh a menn PREFACE Two decades ago LASZLO BARKÓCZI was the first scholar to make an attempt at explaining the imperial epithets appearing as honorific titles of Roman military units on inscriptions of the 3rd century and to use these with the aim of identifying and dating military events.! To confirm or refute the work of LASZLO BARKÓCZI and to determine the value of imperial epithets as evidence for further research it is necessary to collect all the epigraphic material and to subject it to profound analysis. The author aspires to fulfil this requirement in the present book. In the interests of completeness, inscriptions published after the closing of the manuscript, or from sites which only became accessible to research at a later date but before the printing of this book are included with marks a) b) c). Naturally it was not possible to take account of this additional material in the analyses. Sources of differing value have been used in the present work, as in other collections of inscriptions. The text given is in general that of the sources indicated, which have also been followed in the description of the place of discovery, after eliminating mistakes, obsolete names and inconsistencies.? In general the text published and accepted in the literature has been changed only when the restoration and explanation of an imperial epithet made it necessary. One method for the analysis of imperial epithets is a constant comparison with contemporary inscriptions designating army units without imperial epithets. Conse- quently, all inscriptions produced between 212 and 300 which refer to military units are in principle relevant to this inquiry. Such completeness could not, however, be attained in the present analyses. Obviously, examples of the epithet Antoniniana can be compared only with inscriptions lacking imperial epithets the date of which can be assigned without any doubt to between 212 and 222. This condition is valid for other epithets as well. It should be noted that the detailed analysis, which constitutes the main part of this work, can include only a comparison of dateable inscriptions without epithet and those with epithet within the period 212 to 300. Further information, on which inferences might have been based, could have been obtained if it had been possible to compare the whole body of inscriptions with imperial epithets with all inscriptions of the period 212 to 300 which mention an army unit. The closer dating of inscriptions known only to fall within the 3rd century depends upon imprecise factors such as the style of engraving, the type of ' L. Barköczı, Die Grundzüge der Geschichte von Intercisa. Intercisa II. AHung, XXXVI, 1957, 619-620. ? Sites in Dacia producing inscriptions were designated by Hungarian place names in older publications, but by Romanian names in recent publications, so in the interests of greater clarity both names are given. In the cases where a publication gives first the modern place name, then that used in antiquity. | have used only the latter. decoration, forms of ligature, the abbreviations employed, the formulation, etc. Such criteria are quite inadequate for separating the inscriptions after 212 from those produced before. [Indeed only some inscriptions were given a date by their erectors, and the preserved texts by themselves are unsuitable for the assignment of a date and the restoration of missing portions; moreover in the majority of cases neither photographs nor drawings are available for the correction of mistakes. To use documents which are not firmly dated and which have lost an indeterminable portion of their text would have rendered a comparison and evaluation of dated inscriptions with epithet and ones without epithet of dubious value. Therefore, the non-datable inscriptions have been left out of the compilation. Besides, during the analysis we must reckon with the fact that inscriptions without epithets are not usable in the same proportion as those with epithets. In the analysis of the material, the present study confines itself to conclusions which may immediately be drawn from the text of the inscriptions. Given this limitation, a set of obvious questions has necessarily remained unanswered, especially the historical questions raised by the relationship between imperial epithets on the one hand and political and military events on the other. These however would have such a wide scope and entail so many ramifications that they would certainly require further research and detailed analyses. Even if the large number of inscriptions published here have added to the value of imperial epithets as an historical source, my analyses need further refinement, supplementation and revision; the consideration of further interconnections and details would go beyond the scope of the present volume.
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