A Cavalry Regiment from Orléans at Zeugma on the ... - Kaveh Farrokh

A CAVALRY REGIMENT FROM ORLEANS AT ZEUGMA ON THE
EUPHRATES: THE EQU ITES SCUT ARII AURELIACI
The military importance of <strong>Zeugma</strong>, now Belkis, <strong>at</strong> the ma?or crossing over the Euphr<strong>at</strong>es
is well established for the time of the princip?te by the brilliant researches and recent
public<strong>at</strong>ions of J.Wagner. Wagner's very rich archaeological m<strong>at</strong>erial comprises among
other major discoveries
1111 Scythi
a series of tile stamps pointing
ca <strong>at</strong> <strong>Zeugma</strong> <strong>from</strong> the mid-first century
to the permanent loc<strong>at</strong>ion of I eg i o
onwards. Another valuable find are
tombstones of three of the four Pannonian legions, proof th<strong>at</strong> the town was a base for the
European crack units in the Parthian expedition of Septimius Severus in A.D. 197 ff. or th<strong>at</strong>
of Caracal la in A.D.
2) '
215 ff.
In A.D. 256 Shapur I took and burned <strong>Zeugma</strong>. The setback the town suffered is well
illustr<strong>at</strong>ed by the near complete lack of finds <strong>from</strong> the subsequent periods. The legion, too,
had left: the Notitia Dignit<strong>at</strong>um (Or.33,23) loc<strong>at</strong>es it <strong>at</strong> Oresa far to the Southeast. The
Roman-Persian frontier having moved further East, <strong>Zeugma</strong> no
of the frontier army, witness the troop list of the Duke of Syria
longer accomod<strong>at</strong>ed
a garrison
in the Notitia Dignit<strong>at</strong>um.
Still, as the East-West road crossed the river here, the town's military significance
must have
remained considerable. Indeed, a chapter of the fourth-century military history of <strong>Zeugma</strong> can
3)
be traced with help of a funeral inscription published by Wagner thus:
Aur(elius) Benedictus / n<strong>at</strong>(us) pro(vincia) Cappa(docia)Ma(acae) /
Termas Basilicas, su/pervix(it) an(nis) X et amb(ulavit) in/sco(lam)
me(nses) II, deinde f<strong>at</strong>o /suo sup(er<strong>at</strong>us est). Vi<strong>at</strong>(or) iter qu[i] / carpes
res(ta) et relege, miser (ere)/Benedicto
me (o) et refma / me.Fla(vius)
Uccaius cent(ur?o) de Aurelia(no) co(n)s(ule) / pos(uit) titulum filio
suo bene m?rito.
Aurelianus, according to this reading, would be the consul of A.D. 400, yet the abbre
vi<strong>at</strong>ion of his name to Au re I i a is startling. Wh<strong>at</strong> is more, the preposition de can hardly
1) J?rg Wagner, Seleukeia am Euphr<strong>at</strong>/<strong>Zeugma</strong>, Wiesbaden 1976 ( = Beihefte zum
T?binger Atlas des Vorderen Orients B/10).
2) The first Parthian expedition of
Septimius Severus of A.D. 195 must be excluded,
for one of the soldiers, carrying the name
Septimius died with eight years of service but
because of his name he will not have been recruited before A.D? 193, the year of the
accession of Septimius Severus.
3) Ibid. 262 and pl<strong>at</strong>e 52.