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

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

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388 CJ 10. 55(54). 3<br />

<strong>The</strong> army in the later empire 239<br />

<strong>The</strong> same Emperors (Diocletian and Maximian) to Philopator.<br />

Exemption from undertaking public office and compulsory public<br />

services is legally granted to veterans if they are shown to have received<br />

an honourable or medical discharge after twenty years’ military service<br />

performed in a legion or a vexillatio. <strong>The</strong>refore, since you say that you<br />

served in a cohort, you should realize that it is pointless for you to seek<br />

to claim exemption for yourself.<br />

<strong>The</strong>se rescripts grant special privileges only to veterans who served in a legion<br />

or cavalry detachment (vexillatio), while those serving in auxiliary cohorts are<br />

regarded as of lesser status. At this time the field army was not important<br />

enough, or perhaps insufficiently firmly established, to qualify for any special<br />

recognition. Cf. text no. 394.<br />

389 CIL 3. 764=ILS 4103, inscription, Tomi (Constanta), Lower<br />

Moesia, AD 293–305<br />

To the great Mother of the gods, for the welfare and security of our<br />

lords the Emperors and Caesars, Aurelius Firminianus, most splendid<br />

man, commander (dux) of the frontiers in the province of Scythia,<br />

dedicated this with good auspices.<br />

In some provinces Diocletian separated civil authority from military<br />

responsibilities, the latter being exercised by a dux. Several are attested in his<br />

reign, some with responsibility for an area covering several civil provinces.<br />

This process seems to have begun late in the reign and was a gradual<br />

development, perhaps in response to local emergencies, rather than the result<br />

of a single decision.<br />

390 CTh 7. 22. 1, AD <strong>31</strong>9<br />

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Octavianus. We order that veterans’<br />

sons who are fit for military service, of whom some indolently refuse<br />

to perform compulsory military duties while others are so cowardly<br />

that they wish to evade the necessity of military service by mutilating<br />

their own bodies, if they should be judged incapable of military service<br />

because their fingers have been cut off, are to be assigned, without any<br />

ambiguity, to perform the compulsory public services and duties of<br />

decurions.<br />

Given on 16 February at Sirmium. Received on 7 April at Rhegium<br />

in the consulship of Constantine Augustus for the fifth time and Licinius<br />

Caesar.

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