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Domitian. AD 81-96. Æ Military Diploma (Tabula I and Tabula II incomplete and fragmentary). Dated 13 November 82 CE. Incomplete and fragmentary engraved pair of diploma tablets, originally complete, with the external texts of the plates engraved vebatim on the interior of each respective plate, and then sealed. The bronze lengths which formed the base of the original attached seal box are missing, but it can be seen where they joined to the second tablet, which contains the signatories. See W. Eck, “A Second Constitution for the Auxiliary Troops in Judaea in 86 AD,” Scripta Classica Israelica XXIX (2010), pp. 21-31; H.M. Cotton, W. Eck, and B. Issac, “A Newly Discovered Governor of Judaea in a Military Diploma from 90 CE,” Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology 2 (2003), Fig. 3. Earthen green and red patina, some green deposits, minor smoothing, incomplete. As made.
This, and the following lot, are examples of military diplomas – official documents of discharge from Roman military service of 25 years. As a condition of honorable discharge, foreign-born auxiliary troops were granted Roman citizenship for themselves, their now-legal wives and children, and their grandchildren. To prevent fraud, the constitution along with the name of the individual or group (as well as the ruling emperor by the time of the Empire), were engraved on both sides of the plates, sealed, and then presented to the veteran. An exact copy was sent to Rome, where it was mounted on one of the walls of one of the temples, as noted in the text. In this way, the Roman Empire extended citizenship to non-Romans serving in the military, paving the way for many to serve in the Roman bureucracy as equites, senators, generals, governors, and even emperors. The names and units listed provide the historian with information not available in the extant literature. Through such information, the deployment of units and well-known individuals can be traced, while names otherwise lost are recorded for posterity.
Tabula I of this diploma, dated to 13 November 82 CE, is similar to an example in the Israel Museum (Accession number 2002.42.18). That object, a Tabula I, dated to 90 CE and published in Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology in 2003, is similar to our diploma, in that the same units are the subject of honorable discharge. Like the 90 CE example, ours notes that these veterans were, at the time, stationed in Judaea under the command of Tiberius Julius Candidus Marius Celsus. Known from contemporary epigraphic sources and a mention in a letter of Pliny the Younger, there is no current evidence to name him as a governor of Judaea at the time. The Roman historian Sir Ronald Syme points out that Candidus was absent from Rome after 81 CE (as evidenced by the records of the Arval Bretheran), when our diploma indicates that by early November 82 CE, he was in command of troops in Judaea. It is possible that Candidus had been sent to oversee the Roman administration in the province following the First Roman-Jewish War (66-70 CE) and the Fall of Masada (73/74 CE), where he discharged troops there who may have served in the conflict.
Transcription and translation:
EXTERIOR OF THE FIRST TABLET (larger fragment):
IMP(erator) CAESAR DIVI VESPASIANI F(ilius) DOMITIANVS AV/GVSTVS PONTIFEX MAXIMVS TRIBVNIC(ia) POTESTAT(e)/II IMP(erator) III P(ater) P(atriae) CO(n)S(ul) VIII DE[S]IGNAT(us) VIIII/IIS QVI MILITAVERVNT EQVITES ET PEDITES IN ALIS/TRIBVS ET COHORTIBVS [S]E[PT]EM QVAE APPELLANT/VR VOCONTIORVM ET VETERANA GAETVLORVM/ET II THRACVM MAVRETAN[A] ET I AVGVSTA LVS/ITANOR[VM ET ...] DAMASCENA ARMENIACA ET I/MILIA[RIA S]AGITTARIORVM ET II THRA/CVM ET II CANTABRICORVM ET II[I] CALLAECORVM/BRACARAVGVSTANORVM ET SVNT IN IVDAEA/[SVB] T IVLIO CANDIDO MARIO CELSO QVINIS/[ET VI]CENIS PLVRIBVS [...] STIPENDIS EMERI/[TIS] DIMISSIS HONESTA MISSIONE QVO/[RV]M NOMINA SVBSCRIPTA SVNT IS (broken here)
TRANSLATION OF THE EXTERIOR THE FIRST TABLET (larger fragment):
Emperor Caesar son of the Divus Vespasian Domitian Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, holding tribunician power for the second time, acclaimed supreme commander for the third time, Father of the Nation, consul for the eighth time, consul designate for the ninth time, has granted citizenship to those cavalry and infantry serving in three wings and seven cohorts which are called ala I Thracum Victrix and two cohorts, Vocontiorum and veterana Gaetulorum and II Thracum Mauretana and I Augusta Lusitanorum and Damascena Armeniaca and I Milliaria Sagittariorum and II Thracum and II Cantabricorum and III Callaecorum Bracaraugustanorum, and are in Judaea under the command of T. Julius Candidus Marius Celsus, who have received payment for twenty-five years, or more, and whose names are attached below, to their children (broken here)
INTERIOR OF THE FIRST TABLET (larger fragment):
IMP CAESAR DIVI VESPASIANI F DOMITIANVS AVGVSTVS]/PONTIFEX MAXIM[VS TRIBVNIC POTESTAT II IMP III/P P COS VIII [DESIGNAT VIIII]/IIS QVI MILITAVERVNT EQ[VITES ET PEDITES IN ALIS]/TRIBVS ET COHORTIBVS S/EPTEM QVAE APPELLANTVR]/VOCONTIORVM ET VETER[ANA GAETVLORVM ET II THRA]/CVM MAVRETANA ET I A[VGVSTA LVSITANORVM ET ...]/DAMASCENA ARMENIACA [ET I MILIA RIA S]AGITTA]/RIORVM ET II THRACVM ET II CANTABRICORVM]/ET III CALLAECORVM BR[ACARAVGVSTANORVM]/ ET SVNT IN IVDAEA SVB [T IVLIO CANDIDO MARIO]/CELSO QVINIS ET VICEN[IS PLVRIBVS [...] STIPENDIS]/EMERITIS DIMISSIS HO[NESTA MISSIONE QVO]/RVM NOMINA SVBSC[RIPTA SVNT]/RIS POSTERISQVE EO[RVM]
TRANSLATION OF THE INTERIOR THE FIRST TABLET (larger fragment):
(same as exterior, but includes) to their children and the descendants of them
EXTERIOR OF THE FIRST TABLET (smaller fragment):
[POSTERISQVE EORVM] CIVITATEM/[...]VXORIBVSQVE/CIVITAS/(remainder partially legible)
TRANSLATION OF THE EXTERIOR THE FIRST TABLET (smaller fragment):
[and the descendants of them] citizenshp [has been granted, and [the rights of conubium] with the wives [they now possess when] citizenship
EXTERIOR OF THE SECOND TABLET (reconstructed from extant fragments):
[...] AVGVSTALIS
[...] EVTRAPEII
C(aii) · LVCRETI[I] MODESTI
P(ublii) CAVLI GEMELLI
P(ublii) · ATINI RVFI
L(ucii) · PVLLI [hole for sealing the document] SP[...]I
P(ublii) · [...]
TRANSLATION OF THE EXTERIOR OF THE SECOND TABLET (reconstructed from extant fragments):
(Seal of) [...] | | Augustalis
(Seal of) […] | | Eutrapeius
(Seal of) C. Lucretius | | Modestus
(Seal of) P. Caulus | | Gemellus
(Seal of) P. Atinius | | Rufus
(Seal of) L. Pullius |•| Sp[inther?]
(Seal of) P. [...] | | [...]
INTERIOR OF THE SECOND TABLET (reconstructed from extant fragments):
ET CONVBIVM CVM VXORIBVS QVAS TVN[C HA]
BVISSENT CVM EST CIVITAS IIS [DATA AVT SI QVI]
CAELIBES ESSENT [hole for sealing the document] CVM IIS QVAS DV/
XISSENT DVMTAXAT SINGVLI SINGVLAS/
IDIB A NOVEMBRI
TREBATIO PRISCO/COS/MARIO PRISCO
COHORT · II · CANTABRORVM · CVI · PRAEST/
T FLAVIVS FRONTO/EX CENTIBVS(?)/
C · PROSIO T · ARIMEN[...]
SCRIPTVM EX TABVLA AENA/
[QV]AE FIXA [...] IN [...]CAPITOLIO
TRANSLATION OF THE EXTERIOR OF THE SECOND TABLET (reconstructed from extant fragments):
and the rights of conubium with the wives they now possess when citizenshp [was granted] to them, [or those (now)] single when they do marry – naturally one man to one wife. (Dated) the Ides of November while Trebatius Priscus and Marius Priscus were consuls (13 November 82 CE). Cohors II Cantabrorum – under the command of T. Flavius Fronto. From that unit for C. Prosius T. Arimenius. [A transcribed copy] from the bronze tablet which has been affixed [at Rome] on the Capitol.
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