The Roman Army, 31 BC–AD 337: A Sourcebook

The army, the local community, the law 143
certainly no reason to associate these changes with Septimius Severus;
although he permitted soldiers to form legally valid marriages, this
does not mean that the government undertook to provide any special
facilities for soldiers’ families, especially since their liaisons had been
widely tolerated before. If Severus was generous in conferring municipal
or colonial status, he was perhaps attempting to ensure the loyalty of
communities, especially those closely associated with the military camps,
during the civil wars.
For the relationship of military camps and local settlements—
MacMullen 1967:119–25; Lengyel and Radan 1980:239–74; Jones 1984;
J. Ch. Balty, JRS 1988, 97, 1993; Jones and Mattingly 1990:153–78.
235 P. Amherst. 107=SP 387, papyrus, Egypt, AD 185
To Damarion, strategus of the Hermopolite nome, from Antonius
Justinus, soldier on double pay, sent by Valerius Frontinus, prefect of the
Heraclian ala stationed at Coptos. I have had measured out to me by the
elders of the village of Terton Epa in the upper Patemite district the
quota imposed on their village out of the 20,000 artabae (about 1,040,000
litres) of barley which the most distinguished prefect, Longaeus Rufus,
ordered to be bought up out of the harvest of the past twenty-fourth
year, for the requirements of the above mentioned ala, namely one
hundred artabae (about 5,200 litres) of barley measured out by the public
receiving measure on the basis of the measurement stipulated, that is,
100 artabae in accordance with the reckoning made by the officials of
the nome. I have handed out four copies of this receipt. Year twenty-five
of Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus
Pius, Conqueror of the Armenians, Conqueror of the Medes, Conqueror
of the Parthians, Conqueror of the Sarmatians, Conqueror of the
Germans, Greatest Conqueror of the British, Pauni [ _ _ _ ] (Second
hand) I, Antonius Justinus, soldier on double pay, have had measured
out to me the hundred artabae of barley, 100 artabae, as signified above.
236 P. Lond. 482=Fink, RMR 80, papyrus, Egypt, AD 130
Ala Veterana Gallica, troop (turma) of Donacianus, Serenus, procurator,
greetings to the contractors of hay. I have received the hay for my
comrades in the squadron for the month of June, and I have myself
paid the conveyance charge, and thirty cavalrymen are assigned to you.
In the consulship of Catullinus and Aper. (Thirty names follow.)
Serenus appears to be a soldier, but the contractors to whom he writes may be