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diers appeared regularly in the matriculae or matrices of the
various units of the Roman army and that from these
"Heimathsvermerke," especially those of the auxiliary units, the
scribes of Shapuhr derived their information about the "Neither the Dura matriculae nor any of the other extant military papyri regularly mention the soldiers' origo; and those that do` give the names of cities, not of provinces or of regions of Italy." Such being the case, it is much more probable that the source of the list of Shapuhr was not the matriculae but other documents in which were mentioned not the origo of individual soldiers but the names and stations of whole units: legions, cohorts, alae, and numeri. On this point Professor Fink and 1 are in complete agreement. Let me quote the passage in Professor Fink's letter on this subject (in abridged form). "The titles of cohorts and alae (and of course numeri) very frequently contain ethnic or geographical designations, so these were taken directly into Shapuhr's list. This would account for Campania (cohors I Campana) and probably Amastris, and also for the other districts mentioned, like Galatia (Alae I and II Gallorum, cohh. I-XI Gallicae or Gallorum). The legions, on the other hand, had mostly titles like Minervia, Augusta, Traiana, Gemina, Vindex, etc., or victory titles like Parthica, so that instead of the titles Shapuhr used in his list designations of their stations. This would account for the first six regions mentioned (Germania, Rhaetia, Noricum, Dacia, Pannonia, and Moesia) whose legions probably supplied the solidest part of Valerian's army; and the presence of legions" [or vexillationes of legions - M.R.] "from the provinces named might he considered among the reasons for including Spain (if that restoration is correct), Syria Phoenice and Syria Coele, Cappadocia, Arabia, and Mesopotamia. of course all these provinces, including those of the Rhine-Danube limes also supplied auxiliary troops, so that one cannot be dogmatic on the question; but it seems to me that the way the list begins is striking enough to support the belief that the Rhine-Danube legions are meant. This explanation would account for the omission of the names of certain provinces, such as Africa, Macedonia, and Britain. Ritterling for example shows in PWK that in A.D. 255-58 one of the three British legions, the XX Valeria Victrix, was in Germany and Gaul. It was no doubt transferred there to help fill the vacancies created by the withdrawal of forces for Valerian; and the other two British legions would then have taken over the whole defense of Britain." If Fink and the present writer are correct in the interpretation of Shapuhr's list it appears as an invaluable document for ascertaining the composition of Valerian's army. |
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Created by the Digital
Documentation Center at AUB
in collaboration with Al
Mashriq of Høgskolen i
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of the Roman Empire. This however is not the case. We possess several
fragments of the matriculae of the Roman army found in Egypt and in
Dura. Professor R. 0. Fink who is in charge of the publication of the
Dura matriculae and has collected and studied the fragments of those
found in Egypt gives me the following information on this point.