Roman Military Diplomas!

[spedius01]

Ave

If you've read my recent posts in "Good Luck" this is my "seed" article.

This was first posted here. http://www.roman365.com/news.php

For more information please see also http://www.slitherine.com/eslitherine/f ... .php?t=590

"Ave

As the title of this topic indicates my main interest lies in the analysis of Roman Military Diplomas (RMD).

I've only been involved in this study for a relatively short time, just over four years. During that time I've learned that many are aware of their existence but very few have detailed knowledge.

My self-imposed task is to bring RMDs to life and encourage others to explore these fascinating artifacts.

Any person who consider themselves to be serious students of the Roman Army and Empire cannot ignore these important documents.

For those of you who may be unaware of RMDs, this is what Wikipedia had to say:-

Wikipedia
military diploma

A Roman military diploma is a document written on 2 ca. 10 ??” 15 cm bronze tablets, wired and sealed together through two central holes, so that the two inner sides cannot be read without breaking the seals. For examples see [1].

It was a notarized copy of the original bronze constitution issued by the emperor in Rome, granting Roman citizenship to foreign veterans who had served for 25 years or more in the Roman auxiliary forces. Legionaries in contrast had to be Roman citizens as pre-requisite to joining military service. In addition to the veteran, his children also received citizenship, but not his wife. His marriage with her was however legalized under Roman law by granting him the conubium with one foreign wife, either the one he lived with when receiving the diploma, or a later one (but only once). From ca. 50 - 140 AD this included children born during the military service. As soldiers were however not formally allowed to have a female companion, after ca. 140 only children born after his military service were elegible. One diploma is known where a soldier's parents and brothers/sisters we granted Roman citizenship, but this seems to have been the exception. These citizenship grants became over the centuries a major source of Roman citizenship in even the remotest province.

The full text of the diploma is listed on the outer side of the so called tabula 1; the outer side of tabula 2 shows the names of seven notaries and their seals covered and protected by metal strips. The same text as tabula 1 was repeated over the two inner sides. The idea was that if the outer text had possibly been manipulated, a provincial official far from the original in Rome could break the seals, and compare the outer text with the presumably untouched inner text, actually considered the primary copy.

About 1,000 diploma are known through fragments, the original number must have been in 100,000s, so it seems that most got melted down or lost over time.

[1] For examples please see http://www.romancoins.info .

This is the first of many similar articles that I will be writing on RMDs.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

PS. Could someone please suggest a good, free image hosting site for a UK resident?

~~Jim Poulton~~

I came, I saw, I hid"

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo