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Front Plate of a Military Diploma
A Roman military diploma was a certificate of discharge from the army as well as a record of Roman citizenship. This diploma was issued in AD 88 to Dassius, a soldier from the Roman province of Pannonia, who served in Syria as a member of an auxiliary cavalry regiment (ala). Roman auxiliary regiments (auxilia) were non-citizen troops. Following twenty-five years of service, however, retiring auxiliary soldiers and their families were awarded Roman citizenship, conferring significant rights and privileges.
The diploma consists of two bronze plates, inscribed on both faces and hinged together by wires looped through the holes in the corners. The full text of the diploma ran across the two inner sides of the diploma. Once inscribed, the two plates were pressed together and wired shut through the holes in the center of the plates. The names of seven witnesses were added to the outer side of the back plate, in horizontal orientation, alongside tamper-proof wax seals (now missing). The outer side of the front plate, vertically oriented, contained a neatly written copy of the full text, which the soldier could show as proof of his citizenship without breaking the seals.
The full text of the certificate on the front plate is as follows:
"The Emperor Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus, son of the deified Vespasian, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the eighth year, acclaimed "Imperator" seventeen times, having been consul fourteen times, censor for life, father of his country, has granted to the infantrymen and cavalry who are serving in five cavalry and two infantry companies, namely, the select Praetorian, the steadfast Gallic and Thracian, the Phrygian, the Sebastean, the Antian of Gauls and Thracians; the First Gaetulian cohort and the First Augustan Thracian cohort (which are in Syria serving under Publius Valerius Patruinus) and likewise to the men honorably discharged from these companies and cohorts who have served twenty-five years (their names are listed below), and to their children and descendants [to these the Emperor has granted] citizenship and the right of Roman marriage with the wives whom they had when citizenship was granted to them or, if any are unmarried, with those women whom they might marry later, with only one wife for each man. Dated on November 7 in the consulship of Manius Otacilius Catulus and Sextus Julius Sparsus [AD 88]. To the soldier Dassius, the son of Dasens, a Pannonian of the company of Phrygians commanded by Marcus Helenius Priscus. This copy has been checked against the bronze tablet posted at Rome on the Capitol on the left side wall of the Public Record Office."
Credit: Getty gallery
A Roman military diploma was a certificate of discharge from the army as well as a record of Roman citizenship. This diploma was issued in AD 88 to Dassius, a soldier from the Roman province of Pannonia, who served in Syria as a member of an auxiliary cavalry regiment (ala). Roman auxiliary regiments (auxilia) were non-citizen troops. Following twenty-five years of service, however, retiring auxiliary soldiers and their families were awarded Roman citizenship, conferring significant rights and privileges.
The diploma consists of two bronze plates, inscribed on both faces and hinged together by wires looped through the holes in the corners. The full text of the diploma ran across the two inner sides of the diploma. Once inscribed, the two plates were pressed together and wired shut through the holes in the center of the plates. The names of seven witnesses were added to the outer side of the back plate, in horizontal orientation, alongside tamper-proof wax seals (now missing). The outer side of the front plate, vertically oriented, contained a neatly written copy of the full text, which the soldier could show as proof of his citizenship without breaking the seals.
The full text of the certificate on the front plate is as follows:
"The Emperor Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus, son of the deified Vespasian, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the eighth year, acclaimed "Imperator" seventeen times, having been consul fourteen times, censor for life, father of his country, has granted to the infantrymen and cavalry who are serving in five cavalry and two infantry companies, namely, the select Praetorian, the steadfast Gallic and Thracian, the Phrygian, the Sebastean, the Antian of Gauls and Thracians; the First Gaetulian cohort and the First Augustan Thracian cohort (which are in Syria serving under Publius Valerius Patruinus) and likewise to the men honorably discharged from these companies and cohorts who have served twenty-five years (their names are listed below), and to their children and descendants [to these the Emperor has granted] citizenship and the right of Roman marriage with the wives whom they had when citizenship was granted to them or, if any are unmarried, with those women whom they might marry later, with only one wife for each man. Dated on November 7 in the consulship of Manius Otacilius Catulus and Sextus Julius Sparsus [AD 88]. To the soldier Dassius, the son of Dasens, a Pannonian of the company of Phrygians commanded by Marcus Helenius Priscus. This copy has been checked against the bronze tablet posted at Rome on the Capitol on the left side wall of the Public Record Office."
Credit: Getty gallery
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