Speidel, Michael

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ARCTOS ACT A PHILOLOGICA FENNICA VOL. XXIV HELSINKI 1990 HELSINGFORS INDEX CHRISTER BRUUN Die Historia Augusta, die Proskriptionen des Severus und die curatores ope rum publico rum ANNE HEL TIULA Portuensia. Nove iscrizioni sepolcrali dell'Isola Sacra (Porto) TUIJ A JA T AKARI Der jtingere Sokrates MAARIT KAIMIO et alii Comic Violence in Aristophanes IIRO KAJANTO Johannes Scheffer on the imitatio veterum KLAUSKARTIUNEN Taxila -Indian City and a Stronghold of Hellenism BENGT LOFSTEDT Zum Latein des Humanisten Otto Melander OLLI SALOMIES A Note on the Establishment of the Date of the Rain Miracle under Marcus Aurelius TIMO SIRONEN Oscan V AAMUNIM HEIKKI SOLIN Analecta epigraphica CXXXIII-CXXXIX MICHAEL P. SPEIDEL The Names of Legionary Centuriae 5 15 29 47 73 85 97 107 .113 121 135 LEENA TALVIO Les citations bibliques dans le Morale Somnium Pharaonis HOLGER THESLEFF Theaitetos and Theodoros JYRI V AAHTERA Pebbles, Points, or Ballots: The Emergence of the Individual Vote in Rome ROLFWESTMAN Das Adespoton TrGF II F 123 b identifiziert De novis libris iudicia Index librorum in hoc volumine recensorum Libri nobis missi 139 147 161 179 183 219 223 The N a01es of Legionary Centuriae M.P. SPEIDEL Most legionary centuriae were named after their commander. A few however, especially in the third century, were named after their cohort and their rank. When reading the abbreviated names of such centuriae, most scholars add the word cohors. Hence names of centuriae like 7 VIII/ h. pr. and 7 VIII/ p. poster. were read 7(centuria) (cohortis) VIIII(nonae) h(astati) pr(ioris) and 7(centuria) (cohortis) VIIII(nonae) p(rincipis) posterior( is). 1 Having shown that the old-fashioned centurions' titles like quintus princeps posterior or sextus hastatus prior were still in use duljng the empire, I concluded in an earlier paper that there was no need to insert the word cohors in the names of the centuriae. 2 I still think this is correct. However, in a well-researched, useful article in Arctos 22 (1988) Christer Bruun pointed out a newly found career of a centurion of whom it is saidfuit ordine in sexta hastatus posterior. Bruun suggested that in this one case and two other, similar ones, one should insert cohors, after all, and readfuit ordine in sexta (cohorte) hastatus posterior.3 1 See M.P. Speidel, The Centurions' Titles, Epigr.Studien 13 (1983) 43-61, nos. 27 and 5. 2 Ibid. The use of the old centurions' titles shows up again in an inscription from Satala: T.B. Mitford, Further Inscriptions from the Cappadocian Limes, ZPE 71 (1988) 167-178, no. 2. 3 Chr. Bruun, Caligatus, tubicen, optio carceris and the Centurions' positions; Some Remarks on an lns,cription in ZPE 71 (1988), Arctos 22 (1988) 23-40. The inscription is published by Mitford 1988, no. 12. 136 M.P. Speidel No doubt, Bruun is right in that the feminine ending of sexta implies a feminine noun to be understood. That word, however, should be centuria rather than cohors, to judge from a papyrus published not long ago, mentioning in 248 a soldier of the Egyptian legion II Traiana EKa'LOV1;apxiac; 8[ £ ]u--r£pac; acr'LUl;OU npro--r[ ou] ,4 i.e. centuria secunda hastati prioris. Likewise, Prof. J.-Ch. Balty, Brussels, informs me that the correct text of an inscription from Apamea/Syria is 7 NONA PRI[NJ POSTER/ which surely is to be read: 7(centuria) nona pri[n](cipis) posteri(oris).5 No doubt, this was a pattern,6 and it becomes clear that during the third century, an increasing number of legionary centuriae were identified by their number and place in one of the six battle lines (ordines)? Battle lines Centuriae 5 4 3 2 1 pili pilus prior pilus prior pilus prior pilus prior pilus prior pilus posterior pilus posterior pilus posterior pilus posterior principes princeps prior princeps prior princeps prior princeps prior princeps prior princeps posterior princeps posterior princeps posterior princeps posterior princeps posterior hastati hastatus prior hastatus prior hastatus prior hastatus prior hastatus prior hastatus posterior hastatus posterior hastatus posterior hastatus posterior hastatus posterior 4 K.A. Worp, SPP XXII 80: Revidiert, Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer, Wien 1983, 368ff. The editor, following the traditional scheme, thinks centuria was written for cohors by mistake. 5 CIL Ill 187 = IGLS 1372. See my article, quoted above, no. 1. 6 It includes, as the Apamea inscription suggests, all centuriae of legio IT Parthica. In my paper, quoted above, the ordinal numbers should thus be put in the feminine, in all cases save nos. 4, 6, 22, 25, 26, where centurions themselves are meant. 7 For battle lines as ordines see Veg. mil. 3,14. From the point of view of the 'Rangordnung' these lines are 'Staffeln' (A. v.Domaszewski, Die Rangordnung des romischen Heeres, Koln 19672, 90ff.) or 'Rangklassen' (K. Strobel, Bemerkungen zur Laufbahn des Ti. Claudius Vitalis, Tyche 2 [1987] 203-209; Idem, Ein neues Zeugnis zur Rangordnung im romischen Legionszenturionat der Kaiserzeit, Epigr.Anat., forthcoming). The Names of Legionary Centuriae 137 Since the cohorts were lined up next to each other, the class and number of the centuriae stayed the same: the second centuria of the hastatus posterior is the same as the hastatus posterior centuria of the second cohort. It was the point of view that changed: the battle line mattered now more than the cohort. The reason for this change must have been the increasing specialization of the lines as each came to wield weapons different from those of the others. 8 An interesting sidelight is shed thereby on the origin of legion IT Parthica. When drafts from various legions were called up for campaigns and had to fight together, the different vexillationes needed to be classed by their battle field role. They thus referred to themselves in terms like 7(centuriae) VI(sextae) ha[st(ati) pr(ioris)], or 7(centuria) Vllll(nona) h(astati) pr(ioris).9 Hence legion II Parthica which named all its centuriae by number and line, is likely to have been raised from such a mixed field army during Septimius Severus' first Parthian war. 10 8 Thus Hadrian in his speech at Lambaesis adressed first the two battle lines of the pili (Dessau 9133; the men, not the centurions are meant). Even greater specialization: Veg. mil. 2,15: 3,14; E. v.Nischer, in: J. Kromayer, G. Veith, Heerwesen und Kriegftihrung der Griechen und Romer, Miinchen 1928, 523; E. Wheeler, The Legion as Phalanx, Chiron 9 (1979) 303-318; Speidel 1983, 50. 9 IDR II 327 and 328; Speidel1984, nos. 23 and 5. Compare the identification of vexillations by cohorts: M.P. Speidel, Roman Army Studies I, Amsterdam 1984, 65-7 5. For field armies put together from drafts see E. Ritterling, s.v. legio, RE Xll (1924) 1211-1829, esp. col. 1303ff. 1° For the origin of legion ll Parthica see now D. Kennedy, The Garrisoning of Mesopotamia, Antichthon 21 (1987) 57-66. Legion ll Traiana may also have been raised thus: see Speidel 1984, 47 for its pattern in naming centuriae; see further CIL Ill 151 and J.C. Mann, The Raising of New Legions, Hermes 91 (1963) 483-489, esp. 485; G. Forni, ANRW 11:1 (1974) 380ff. and 388. 

The Names of Legionary Centuriae

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The Names of Legionary Centuriae

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