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

244 The Roman Army
in respect of one person on the precedent of the field army soldiers.
{Even if he should be discharged before completion of twenty years of
service, he shall have the same munificence since weak and disabled
people are not entered on the tax lists.}
Cavalry soldiers and soldiers belonging to infantry cohorts are to be
exempt in respect of their own person, as long as they remain on active
service; and their veterans are to have the reward of similar exemption,
if they should obtain their discharge at any time and in any area. Soldiers
discharged from the field army because of old age or disablement are
to be exempt in respect of two people, that is, each man and his wife,
irrespective of the number of years served. And the territorial troops
are to have the same privilege without distinction, if they prove that
they were discharged as a result of wounds acquired in war, with the
limitation that, if any of them should leave military service after serving
fifteen years, before the completion of their twenty-four years, he is to
enjoy exemption only in respect of his own person. But it is right to
exempt the wife of one of the territorial troops, if he was discharged
after twenty-four years’ service.
Posted on 17 June at Antioch in the consulship of Paulinus and
Julianus.
This law contains a number of obscurities and contradictions, and Mommsen
judged the passages marked { } to be interpolations. Moreover, the first paragraph
is obscure and seems to contradict the rest of the law. It may have been
mistakenly included in garbled form from an earlier law of Constantine on
veterans’ privileges. On this basis we may distinguish: (1) the field army
(comitatenses) who earn exemption of two tax units (for the soldier and his
wife) after 24 years’ service and one tax unit after 20 years’ service; (2) territorial
troops (ripenses—riverbank troops I take to be the equivalent of limitanei),
who have the same exemptions; (3) soldiers of the alae and cohorts who made
up the old auxiliary troops and who also constituted part of the territorial
troops, who now receive exemption of one tax unit after 24 years’ service. In
the event of a medical discharge, group (1) received exemption of two tax units
in any circumstances, group (2) exemption of two units if they could prove
that they had been wounded and had more than 15 years’ service; otherwise
only one unit; group (3) got no benefits.
Despite the difficulties, this law shows first a reduction in military privileges
in relation to the letter of AD 311 (text no. 393); now that he was in full
control Constantine was more confident in dealing with the troops, and tax
exemptions were costly; and second, a formal distinction between the field
army and the territorial troops. Now, although the field army troops are more
privileged in respect of medical discharges, in the main the two groups were
treated in a broadly similar fashion. Indeed Constantine improved the standing
of the territorial troops by allowing them exemption for themselves after twenty