REIGN OF SEVERUS ALEXANDER, DATED 7 JANUARY 225 A.D.

Details

A ROMAN BRONZE MILITARY DIPLOMA
REIGN OF SEVERUS ALEXANDER, DATED 7 JANUARY 225 A.D.
Formed of two rectangular tablets, each with two perforations in the center for binding them together, each side of the tablets engraved in Latin, the exterior of Tablet I, reading: "The Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurellius Severus Alexander, son of the deified Antoninus the Great (and) Dutiful, grandson of the deified Severus the Dutiful; Dutiful, Happy, August, Chief Pontiff, in the 4th year of his Tribunician Power, Father of his Country. [I have appended] the names of soldiers who have served in the ten Praetorian Cohorts, Severus' Own, [numbered] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Dutiful [and] Avenging, who have completed their service dutifully and bravely. I have granted them the right of legal marriage provided that [it be] with only one woman and a first wife, so that even if they have married women of peregrine status they may raise children accordingly as if they were born of two Roman citizens. [Dated] the 7th day before the Ides of January in the consulship of Marcus Manilius Fuscus for the second time with Servius Domitius Dexter. The 9th Praetorian Cohort, Severus' Own, Dutiful [and] Avenging. To Marcus Aurelius Diodorus, son of Marcus, of the Ulpian [voting-tribe], from Pautalia. Copied and checked from the bronze tablet which has been posted at Rome on the wall behind the temple of the Deified Augustus next to Minerva;" the exterior of Tablet II listing the witnesses: "[Seal] of Marcus Aurelius Romanus; [Seal] of Gaius Valerius Cycnus; [Seal] of Gaius Serotinius Ingenuus; [Seal] of Gaius Settius Martinus; [Seal] of Marcus Aurelius Lucilianus; [Seal] of Gaius Julius Aurelius; [Seal] of Gaius Valerius Maximus; the interior of the tablets repeating portions of the exterior text of Tablet I
Each: 5 5/8 in. x 4¼ in. (14.3 cm. x 10.8 cm.) (2)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 31 May 1997, lot 123.

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Lot Essay

Diodorus came from Pautalia in western Thrace, modern Kjustendil in Bulgaria (70 km south-west of Sofia). This was a Trajanic foundation with "Ulpia" as part of its title, which Diodorus has incorporated into his formal nomenclature as a fictive Roman voting-tribe. Such "pseudo-tribes" are popular with 3rd-century Praetorians and legionaries from the Danubian provinces, who used them to give their names an old Roman ring.

The old Praetorian Guard was disbanded by Septimius Severus after he seized Rome in 193 A.D., and was replaced by a new Guard of ten cohorts, each 1000-men strong, drawn from the Danubian legions which had supported his usurpation. It continued to be largely recruited from this source, with many Guardsmen like Diodorus being of Thracian origin, until it was finally disbanded by Constantine in 312 A.D.

Special thanks to Roger Tomlin for his translation and expertise.

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