The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

C u lt u re o f t h e R o m a n A r m y 163
po l i tical and military force to dispossess ex i s ting landholders and install the
new ones. This was clearly not a viable system for the standing army that developed
under Augustus and his successors.
At the end of the civil wars when there were thousands of soldiers ready for
d i s ch a r ge , the most com m on met h od was to place large nu m bers of t h em in
colonies, usually created in existing towns or cities, or more rarely new foundations
specially built for the purpose. Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian-
Augustus settled many of their veterans in colonies, in Italy, and the provinces.
Those established in Italy up to 14 bc have been studied by Keppie (1983). In
his account of the achievements of his long reign (Res Gestae), Augustus stated
that he had set t l ed 120,000 soldiers in twen ty co l onies in It a ly in 31 bc, t h en
100,000 men in colonies in Spain and southern Gaul in 14 bc, followed by another
96,000 in 2 bc. These are vast numbers; spread over nearly three decades,
the impact was perhaps less disruptive than it seems at first sight, but it is hardly
representative of a properly organized and regular military system. There was a
lot of ground to cover before the fully fledged Imperial procedures for discharge
of veterans could be instituted. The first stage was to regulate and standardize
the term of service for soldiers of the legions and of the nascent auxiliary units,
and then institute a program of regular discharge and the concomitant recruitment
of replacements. Toward the end of Augustus’s reign, discharge of veterans
and their return to civilian life was gradually regularized.
Under Augustus, veterans were semiretired but still attached to their units,
u n dertaking ligh ter duti e s , for the last four ye a rs of t h eir servi ce . Th ey were
formed as a vexillum, under a curator (Le Bohec, 1994). The curatores veteranorum
attested on inscriptions may be officers in charge of these semiretired men.
A tombstone from Milan names Publius Tutilius as curator veteranorum of legio
V (probably Gallica). Tutilius was born as Octavian was coming to power, and
he died in the reign of Tiberius (ILS 2338). Another tombstone, from Verona,
attests Lucius Sertorius Firmus as curator of legio XI Claudia (ILS 2339). These
m en were both standard be a rers (s i gn i feri) who had become eagle be a rers
(aquiliferi), so they may have been chosen as curatores because they were officers,
and they would be literate, experienced in keeping records, and trustworthy,
since part of their duties involved accounting and issuing the soldiers’ pay.
At least one quaestor veteranorum is known from legio VIII Augusta, with a service
record of twenty-eight years (ILS 2466).
Most of the soldiers served for their full term and were hon ora bly disch a r ged ,
but there were two furt h er kinds of dismissal from the army be s i deshonesta miss
i o. These altern a tives are out l i n edin the Di ge s t ( 4 9 . 1 6 . 1 3 . 3 ) . So l d i ers could be
d i s h on ora bly dismissed from the servi ce (i gnominiosa missio) if t h ey had comm
i t ted a crime or sign a lly failed to meet army standard s . An o t h er re a s on for dismissal
from the army, before the ex p i ry of the statutory length of s ervi ce , was on
m edical gro u n d s , wh i ch inclu ded both physical and mental probl ems (c a u s a ri a