Military Forces in the Senatorial Provinces

E. Ritterling
The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 17. (1927), pp. 28-32.
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MILITARY FORCES IN THE SFNATORIAL. PROVINCES.
The commentary on the notable inscription of Hadrian's time
from Ishekli (7. R. S. xvi, 1926, p. 74, no. 201) does not, it would
seem, give adequate consideration t o the fact that under t he
Empire permanent military garrisons were regularly stationed even
in proconsular provinces administered by t he Senate, although
such garrisons consisted of
-
no more than one or several auxiliary
regiments. A few instances that I happen t o have at hand may bk
mentioned here bv way of illustration.
Baetica : I n the proceedings taken against the former proconsul
of this province, Caecilius Classicus, there was involved, among others,
Stilonius Priscus ' qui tribunus cohortis sub Classico fuerat ' (Plin.
Epp. iii, 9, 18). I t follows that towards the end of the first century
one cohort at least was on garrison duty in t he province ; its name
however seems t o be unknown as yet."
Achaia : I n this province there was probably stationed for some
time a cohors equestris ; this is suggested by the Greek epitaph from
Laconia of active o'~pcc7~h7-q~ an oneLpq6 ixo~ioTpq< ( Le Bas ii, 268).
Bithynia-Pontus : Of the cohorts which lay in this province
under Trajan (Plin. ad Traian. 21) we know by name the cob. F'I
equestris (ibid. 106, 107) =one^ipcx EK' c- ~ of which several i n n ~~f i ,
members have left epigraphic memorials in the province (I. G. Rom.
iii, 2, 1396" 1411).
Cyrenaica: The disturbances caused in this district by the Jewish
sicarii in the early years of Vespasian were quelled by the proconsul
of the province by force of arms (inxicx< TE xcci ne<ob< &nooreLhccs
The Editorial Committee is much indebted to of I-Iispania Ulterior ; if so, the community in
Mr. W. H. Buckler for a translation of the late Dr. question is perhaps to be sought for in t hat
Ritterling-'s article. Dr. Kitterling, sl w the first proofs. province.
M'e cannot tell from the documentL( CI L *
", 5 1 2 7 , add, p, 1 ~ 8 ~ ) in what province Situated
Ju" then the head of the province Of Bi t h~ni a
the community Roman
\ va~ not a proconsul sent by the Senate but a special
of drloairi
propoied t hat honours be paid to a certain M, Sem-
of the i this fact, how-
pronius Fuscus, prnetectus cohortis Bnef i cae ; he was
ever, makes no difference so far as
apparently from B2rgamum and t he occasion
the units stationed in the count ry are
his impending from the post, till then held
concerned. Plainly these would consist of troops
by hirn, in which he had rendered services to t hat
which had f or some time previously formed the
community, To all appearance we have here
local garrison, and this is confirmed by the me-
province ; his predecessors in post are mention-
Ot he r "ldiers in the province (e.g. I' G.
iii, 9,
ed and the Emperor ,vas t o be Petitioned in the
59' '3901, who Can
have served in a legion.
interest of t hat community t o appoint a no less Wf. the complete restoration of this text by
competent successor. The unusual name cob. J. Keil, Jahreshefte, xxi, 1921, p. 261, and t he
Bact i ca may have been a popular dcsi ~nat i on of comments of Rostovtzeff, Soc. and Ecofr. Hi s t . of
t he corps as the standing gar;ison of the province R.E. (1926) p. 593, note j8.
MILITARY FORCES I N THE SENATORI AL PROVI NCES.
29
eqr8iw5 Zxpkr-qo~v,Josephus, Bell. Jud. vii, I, I) ; the official concerned,
775 ~ E V S C L ~ ~ ~ E W S $ y ~ ~ i ) v none other than A ~ p h q ~ Kkruhho~, can be
the procos. (Cretae et) Cyrenarum, and he is perhaps to be identified
with L. Valerius Catullus Messalinus, consul in A.D. 73. I t follows
that the governor had in his province a certain military force
at his disposal. Further, from the epithet attached t o some
cohorts we may infer that they were for a while stationed in
the province ; ' coh. I Lusitanorum Cywnaica ' and ' coh. I1
Hispanorum scutata Cyrenaica.'l The presence at an early date
of a cob. Hispanorum eguitata, possibly the same as the one last
named, is proved also by a sepulchral inscription found in Cyrene :
' T. Pompeius Licyrgus Autrico ann(orum) XL, eques [ex] cohorte
Hispanor(um) aer(um) XX ' (Annie +Ji g?. 1915, no. I I I =1917-18,
no. 64).
hlacedonia : For this province Hadrian's document of 29 June,
A.D. 120, states in plain language that the cob. 1 E'lavia Bessorunz,
which is known to have been previously in Moesia, was at the disposal
of the praetorian proconsul of the province, under whom the
praefect of the cohort had direct command of the regiment :
. . . peditibus qui militaverunt in coh. I Flavia Bessorum quae
est in Macedonia sub Octavio Antonino . . . ' (Annee epigr. 1909,
no. 105).
Thus it was quite usual for single units of the imperial army, and
for their officers drawn from the equestrian class, to be placed under
functionaries of the Senatus populusque Romanus,-proconsuls and
legati pro p?.aetort-whom the Senate appointed by lot.
At no time can a garrison of that kind ever have been absent
from the great proconsular province of Asia, reserved as it was for
men of the highest senatorial rank2 ; yet the explicit evidence hither-
to found respecting such military force is scanty and only of a
relatively late date. The presence of troops in the province about
the second half of the first century is deducible from the monument
dedicated at Ephesus in honour of C. Rutilius Gallicus (Keil,
Jahreshefte xvii, pp. 194 ff). This was erected to him, as has long
ago been recognised, during the period when for two proconsular
years-probably 69-713-he was legatus pro praetore Asiae. This
title is not mentioned in the list of his offices ; on the other hand,
it is strongly em~hasised at the close of the dedication because it
had supplied the motive for the erection of that memorial in the
administrative centre of the province of Asia. The fact is clearly
demonstrated by the title and official relations of the dedicator :
1 \Ve need not here broach the question of t he V:n the province of Africa, which ranked with
origin of t he name of cohorter I - I I I n'iig. Cyrer~ai cae, t hat of Asia, the prcbence of sel-cral military units
orwhet her Sulpicius Quirinius as pro:os. i;yrei;iirilni \vas clearly neccss:lry o ~ ~ i n j i to the repeated dis-
under Augustus carried out his succe?sful cnmp::ign turbances. internal and external.
against t he hlarmnridae and the Garamantes with "roag, I'.il.. . z~. Kut l l i us, col. 1258.
only t he troops of his own pro\-ince.
30
MI 1, I TARY FORCES I N THE SENATORI AL PROVI NCES,
%. Aemilius M.f. Pal. Pius , . . praef. coh. I Bospor. et coh. I
Hispan. legato.' The officer here named set up the monument
t o his legate for the simple reason that the latter,while serving as
leg. pro pr. Asiae, had been, or was then, his immediate superior.
Hence it follows that the cohorts commanded by Aemilius Pius
belonged at that time to thegarrison of theprovince of Asia1; and
further that the praetorian legate of the consular proconsul, not
the proconsul himself, was directly responsible for the superinten-
denceof suchgarrison. Wherewithin thevast area of theprovince
these cohortshad their permanent campwe do not know; this may,
perhaps, have been at Ishekli, the ancient Eumenia, though it is not
till later that the existence of such a camp can actually be proved
there. I n any case they were soon withdrawn from the province,
but whither and when they went is not ascertainable. The' cob. I
Bosporan.' might possibly be identical with the regiment of that
namewhich we find in thearmyof Cappadocia, but in thecase of
the ' IHispanor.' there are so many possible alternatives that con-
jecture seems idle.
I t was doubtless in the course of the first century that these
cohortswere replaced by othersas themilitaryforceof theprovince ;
that afurtherchange took place in thelast yearsof Hadrianis shown
by the evidence of the new inscription, for the place where it was
found is in itself enough to prove that the ' coh. I Sz~gamFrorum
veterana ' should be regarded, not as aregiment marching through
Eumenia, but as thenew garrison of the town. Thetroops occupy-
ing the province, or at least part of them, had evidently had their
permanent encampment at Eumenia for a considerable period ; the
factis demonstrated by a series of inscriptions, mostly Greek, found
in and near that place,* which give the names of soldiers in active
serviceorof veteransandwhichappear todatefromtheseconddown
tothefourthcentury. Thetownliesattheintersectionof thenorth-
to-south thoroughfare, from Nicaea-Nicomedia on the Propontis t o
Attalia on the Pamphylian coast by way of Apamea Cibotus, with
the west-to-north-east line from Smyrna-Ephesus on the Ionian
coast throughtheMaeander valleytoAncyra, thecentre of theroad
system of Asia Minor,passing by way of Hieropolis very close t o
1Theinscription furnishesno support t oGroag's by Chnpot in his otherwise excellent hook, La
conjecture (106. cit.) t hat the t no cohorts under p~oni?ire roiiz. d' Asi r , p. 370fi. They are 11ow
Aemiliiis Piusformedpart of the armyof Mucinnur. collected by Cagnat, I.G. Roii;. iv, 728, 729, 730,
73%733 (=C.I.L. iii, 36913 731, 735, 7361737,738.
2 ,rhzfunction can hayeheell
Add C.1.L. iii, 7051, from the neighbourlng
to Gallicus in this particular illstancc on account
of his repute as a oiiicer it is f ar Dionysopolis: PI. Iulius Capito beneficiari(u)s
mile(s)=I.G.
illore likely t ohnx-e been
theduties regularly
P ~ ( ; ~ ) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Rani. ir, 757.
discl,nrged by one of the proconsLil,s
Further, the person honoured in 1.C. Ror;i. lv,
7j 6, Q. Plautius Veniijstus?I may v;ell have been
legates.
u Roinnn oflicer of the neighboaring garrison.
,3 Ci. in 1lic11er Sr i ~d i ~n 1901,
also ;bid. iu, (jot, a
my pip?r sxiv,
~ f . ,l-here Grpari d7Ts
p 1 3 1 i. elected a ~n e n ~h c r of the yepouuia of t he city of
4 Their :isnifi:ancc is tot:!ly mlsappreh,:niled
Seb:lstc near Eiimenia 21s early as . D .98-99.
MI LI TARY FORCES I N THE SENATORI AL PROVI NCES.
31
Synnada and its district, which had a special importance as the
headquartersof procurators of great imperialestates.
Thesize of the force stationed at thedep6t of Eumenia and the
names of its component regiments are as yet only partly known.
'The cccasionwhich gave rise totheerection of thenewly discovered
monument was the arrival of the cohort in its new quarters. To
this place M. Iulius M.f. Pisonianus, the officer making the dedica-
tion, had-as he states with welcome precision and fullness-
personally led the regiment (numerum1 = the cohort) from its
former military station. Probably its transference from the Danube
was only indirectly connected with Hadrian's Jewish VCTar,which
fell in about the same period ; the previous garrison of Eumenia?
maywell have been ordered t oproceed straight totheseat of war.
However, the cob. I Claud. Sugambrorum did not itself remain
very long-at most about 20 years-in its newgarrisontown;before
A. D. 157it had been attached to the army of the province of Syria
(Dipl. cx, CI L iii, p. 2328' I), probably in consequence of the
menace of a Parthian war under Antoninus Pius. At Eumenia it
may have been replaced by the Cob. I Raetorunz equitata, which is
explicitly mentioned in three of the soldiers' inscriptions found
there; two of these are epitaphs of a o.cpct.c~6'c^rj; ox&i prj ; np( I ' ~7j ;
"PKLTGV( I . G. Rom. iv, 729) and a 6~cho(p6),~5 o n ~ i p r j q n p C j q q ' PC( LT~V
(ibid. 736);while the third is a dedication by the municipality
of Eumenia to a tribune of this cohort as .cbv 2au.cGv ~ h ~ p y & q v ,
describing him as . . . ~ o v ~ ~ [ ~ ) , i a p ~ ] o v Ex'c^q; ac t ... .. vbv, ; ~ C j [ p q ~ ]
' I onavGv, xcri ~ ] C j p q ; [' P]KLTGV(I.(,. Ram. ; CEL) ~[ CI ~XOV [xph].crj ;
iv. 728). This cob. I.Raetorum may with practical certainty be
identified with the cohort of the same name which about A. D. 135
formed part of the exercitus Cappadocicus under the governor
Flavius Arrianus,"ut which in the later period no longer
appears among the regiments of the dux Armeniae (Not. Dign.
xxxviii) which represented the same army corps.V f this cohort
belonged to the garrison of Eumenia, it is likely that fromabout the
time of Pius till well into the third century the majority of the
The word here is evidently not, as Atkinson W i d this rob. z i Hispuuor. also belong at somc
assumes i t to be ( 7. K. S. si r, p. 77): a military time to the garrison of Eumenia ? Later on i t was
technical term used in a specific sense, but denotes probably stationed in Arabia, where the Xot .
in aquitegeneralway thebody of troops previously Dign. (xxx\ii, 20) mentions an tzia sextu I<ispauo-
named, as ~vould have been self-evident to anyone rum. The name of nln was given, fro111 the 4t h
who loolied at the monument. Otherwise the century onward, to Inany cohorts of the earlier
word could not have failed to have sonle additional empire.
qu;ilification indicating what n~iineriisnas referred Cf. my paper Il'ietzer St ud. xxiv, 1901,p. 137.
to. ihid. p. 133. I t is just the non-appearance of
"hat this had been cannot as yet be deter- the cohort at the later period among the regiments
mined;possibly i t was thc cob. I~lclolztnnor.(c.7.) of what had formerly been Cappadocia which leads
nrhich mas stationed in Moesia superior in A. D. 100, us to believe t hat thc cob. I. Raetorilnt was not the
andisknonrn tohave been in SyriaPalaestina inA. D. predecessor but the successor of the I S~ignnl-
133.(Uipl. cix, CIT, iii, 232X. 70). for thc other ht ot ~l i ?as the g:irrisol of Eumcnin. 'Taken by
rnihtary units in Palaestina with ~vhi chme arc themselves, the three Grcek inscriptions mcntion-
acquainted had almost all bclongcd at an earlier ing thc 1 Rat t or~i i ?~ furni:h no evidcncc sulficicnt
period to the armies of the East. to fis thzir date.
32
MILITARY FORCES I N THE SEKATORI AL PROVI NCES.
soldiers' epitaphs, enumerated above (p. 30, note 4), which mention no
particular military unit, refer t o men of this cohort. Such are a funerary
inscription of 235-236 A.D. ( I . G. Rom. iv, 730) ; the epitaph engraved
on a tomb erected for himself and his family by a o r p a r ~ h ~ r j q who
was at the same time pouh~u-cbc~ i j cEhP&\ ~Lwv .rchh&wc ( i bi d. 735) ;
and those of a o.i.poc~~h-crj6for his mother ( i bi d. 732) ; of an eques
aTn/orum custor ( i ~ x ~ b q i bi d. 733) ; of o~px. i . ~hrrj c ( i bi d. 6xho(pShx<, a
734) and of two 06c.i.pr.voi ( i bi d. 737, 738). And the sepiilchral
inscription of a i x mb c o~-~r,-c.i.kpr, (o )c Gpotzwvkpc (o )c ( i bi d 73I ) shows
that even under the reorganised military system of the fourth
century, when equitei i agi t t ari i often appear as separate military units,
there still existed at Eumenia a military station of some importance,
This was perhaps the residence of the praeses of one of the smaller
provinces carved out of the territory that had formerly been Asia-
probably Phrygia Pacatiana-for the cavalryman in question describes
himself as meinber of the o$ci%m ~ y ~ p 6 v o ~ TOG hocyxpo-c&-cou Kx o r p l o v