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

I n t r o d u c t i o n 7
vive s , covering va rious aspects of the day - to - d ay con cerns of the legi ons and
auxiliary troops. The chief categories of administrative records are to be found
on papyrus, on wooden writing tablets, and in inscriptions on stone. Most of
the papyrus evi den ce comes from Roman provi n ces su ch as Syria or Egypt ,
where the dry climate is conducive to the preservation of such items. There are
several notable collections of papyrus records distributed among the museums
and libraries of the world. Two of the largest collections with considerable interest
for the Roman army are those from Oxyrhynchus, 200 kilometers south of
Ca i ro in Egypt , and from Du ra - Eu ropos on the Eu ph ra te s . The Ox yrhy n chu s
papyri are diverse in content, covering private documents, official civilian materi
a l , and also mu ch of m i l i t a ry intere s t . The Du ra - Eu ropos papyri (Well e s ,
1959) cover a much narrower field with regard to time scale and content, but
they are of considerable importance for the study of the army, since they contain
the duty rosters of cohors XX Palmyrenorum, the auxiliary unit that was stationed
there in the early third century ad. Some individual papyri have been inten
s ively stu d i ed and have acqu i red long bi bl i ogra phies of t h eir own . For
i n s t a n ce , the Bri tish Mu s eum example known as Hu n t’s Pri d i a nu m (a ye a rly
strength report) has been examined and questioned by many scholars, some of
whom have doubted whether it qualifies as a pridianum at all, since there is no
mention anywhere in the document of this particular title, and likewise there is
no firm evidence that it was in fact an annual return. Whatever its true classification,
it is definitely a strength report of some description (Fink, 1971), and it
is a fascinating document. It is probably to be dated to the first decade of the
second century, and it concerns the cohors I Hispanorum Veterana stationed on
the lower Danu be in the provi n ce of Moe s i a . The text reve a l s , a m ong other
items, that many of the soldiers of the unit were absent from their fort for many
d i f ferent re a s on s . One cava l ryman had been kill ed by bandits, s om eone had
been drowned, some men were absent in another province procuring clothing,
and others had been sent to find grain. Two groups had been detailed to bring
animals for the unit: one had been sent to get horses, which possibly involved
crossing a river (the text is uncertain), and a second group had been sent to the
mountains to bring cattle. Some men were on a scouting expedition with a centurion
in command, and several soldiers had been posted in different locations
on guard duty over the crops and the draft animals. This and the many other
papyrus records concerning the army are invaluable; no other source so readily
brings to life the daily routine of Roman soldiers nearly two thousand years ago.
Some ad m i n i s tra tive records have been pre s erved even wi t h o ut the aid of
hot, dry weather. The persistent damp climate and the particular soil conditions
of northern England have preserved a collection of wooden writing tablets from
the fort at Vi n dolanda (modern Ch e s terh o l m ) , just south of Had ri a n’s Wa ll .
These tablets throw much light on the day-to-day lives of soldiers at the extreme
northwestern edge of the Empire at the end of the first century ad (Birley, 2002;