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

The army, the local community, the law 153
us, her son, who lived six years, three months, twenty days, and
Campania Dubitata, her mother, who lived fifty years. Julius Maximus,
senior treasurer (?) of the ala of Sarmatians, her husband, erected this
memorial to his incomparable wife, and to his son who was extremely
devoted to his father, and to his most resolute mother-in-law.
These funeral inscriptions are cited to show the desire among ordinary soldiers
for female companionship and normal family life, although only text no. 251
is securely dated to the period before the marriage ban was removed.
254 Bowman and Thomas 1987:137–40, tablet, Vindolanda,
Britain, c. AD 100–105
Claudia Severa to her Lepidina, greetings.
I cordially invite you, sister, to make sure that you come to us on 11
September for the day of the celebration of my birthday, since if you
come you will make the day more pleasant for me by your arrival.
Pass on my best wishes to your Cerialis. My Aelius and my little son
send [you (?)] their greetings.
(Second hand) I shall expect you, sister. Be well, sister, my dearest
love, and so may I be, and hail.
(On the back, third hand ?) To Sulpicia Lepidina, (wife) of Flavius
Cerialis, from Severa.
The author of the letter, Claudia Severa, was married to Aelius Bocchus who is
likely to have been the commander of a military unit in north Britain; Lepidina
was probably the wife of Flavius Cerialis, who was the prefect of one of the
cohorts stationed at Vindolanda (Bowman and Thomas 1987:129–30). There
was no restriction on the marriage of equestrian officers in the army, and this
letter is good evidence for the presence of wives and children in army quarters,
and the nature of camp life in Britain some sixty years after the conquest.
255 Dio (2nd–3rd C.AD), 60. 24
He (Claudius) granted the privileges of married men to the soldiers
(AD 44), since they were not legally permitted to have wives.
Claudius was presumably granting not the privileges accorded to married men
with children, which were inappropriate, but formal exemption from the penalties
imposed by Augustus’ legislation on the unmarried and childless; it was an
anomaly if these had been applied to soldiers who were forbidden to marry.
256 BGU 1690=FIRA 3. 5, papyrus, Philadelphia, Egypt, AD 131
Epimachus, son of Longinus, soldier of the second cohort of Thebans,
century of Octavius Alexander [affirmed _ _ _ ] that a daughter,