Bronze military diploma of Dassius
A Roman military diploma was a certificate of discharge from the army as well as a record of Roman citizenship. This diploma was issued in AD 88 to Dassius, a soldier from the Roman province of Pannonia, who served in Syria as a member of an auxiliary cavalry regiment (ala). Roman auxiliary regiments (auxilia) were non-citizen troops. Following twenty-five years of service, however, retiring auxiliary soldiers and their families were awarded Roman citizenship, conferring significant rights and privileges.
The diploma consists of two bronze plates, inscribed on both faces and hinged together by wires looped through the holes in the corners. The full text of the diploma ran across the two inner sides of the diploma. Once inscribed, the two plates were pressed together and wired shut through the holes in the center of the plates. The names of seven witnesses were added to the outer side of the back plate, in horizontal orientation, alongside tamper-proof wax seals (now missing). The outer side of the front plate, vertically oriented, contained a neatly written copy of the full text, which the soldier could show as proof of his citizenship without breaking the seals.
The full text of the certificate on the front plate is as follows:
IMP CAESAR DIVI VESPASIANI F DOMITIANUS / AUGUSTUS GERMANICUS PONTIFEX MAXIMUS / TRIBUNIC POTESTAT VIII IMP XVII COS XIIII / CENSOR PERPETUUS P P / EQUITIBUS ET PEDITIBUS QUI MILITANT IN ALIS / QUINQUE ET COHORTIBUS DUABUS QUAE APPEL / LANTUR PRAETORIA SINGULARIUM GALLORUM ET THRACUM CONSTANTIUM PHRYGUM / SEBASTENA GALLORUM ET THRACUM ANTIA / NA GAETULORUM AUGUSTA THRACUM / ET SUNT IN SYRIA SUB P VALERIO PATRUINO / ITEM DIMISSIS HONESTA MISSIONE EX / IISDEM ALIS ET COHORTIBUS QUIQUINA ET XI / CENA STIPENDIA AUT PLURA MERVERANT / QUORUM NOMINA SUBSCRIPTA SUNT / IPSIS LIBERIS POSTERISQUE EORUM CIVI / TATEM DEDIT ET CONUBIUM CUM UXORIBUS / QUAS TUNC HABUISSENT CUM EST CIVITAS / IIS DATA AUT SI QUI CAELIBES ESSENT CUM / IIS QUAS POSTEA DUXISSENT DUM / TAXAT SINGULI SINGULAS / A D VII IDUS NOVEMBR / M OTACILIO CATULO COS / SEX IULIO SPARTO / ALAE PHRYGUM CUI PRAEST / M HELENIUS PRISCUS / GREGALI / DASSIO DASSENTIS E PANNON / DESCRIPTUM ET RECOGNITUM EX TABULA / AENEA QUAE FIXA EST ROMAE IN CAPITOLIO / IN LATERE SINISTRO TABULARI PUBLICI
"The Emperor Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus, son of the deified Vespasian, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the eighth year, acclaimed "Imperator" seventeen times, having been consul fourteen times, censor for life, father of his country, has granted to the infantrymen and cavalry who are serving in five cavalry and two infantry companies, namely, the select Praetorian, the steadfast Gallic and Thracian, the Phrygian, the Sebastean, the Antian of Gauls and Thracians; the First Gaetulian cohort and the First Augustan Thracian cohort (which are in Syria serving under Publius Valerius Patruinus) and likewise to the men honorably discharged from these companies and cohorts who have served twenty-five years (their names are listed below), and to their children and descendants [to these the Emperor has granted] citizenship and the right of Roman marriage with the wives whom they had when citizenship was granted to them or, if any are unmarried, with those women whom they might marry later, with only one wife for each man. Dated on November 7 in the consulship of Manius Otacilius Catulus and Sextus Julius Sparsus [AD 88]. To the soldier Dassius, the son of Dasens, a Pannonian of the company of Phrygians commanded by Marcus Helenius Priscus. This copy has been checked against the bronze tablet posted at Rome on the Capitol on the left side wall of the Public Record Office."
The names of the witnesses are inscribed on the back plate:
“Q. Mucius Augustalis, M. Calpurnius Justus, C. Lucretius Modestus, C. Claudius Sementivus, C. Pompeius Eutrapelus, C. Julius Helenus, L. Pullius Verecundus"
Roman, 88 CE
Bronze
Getty Villa Museum (73.AC.39)
Bronze military diploma of Dassius
A Roman military diploma was a certificate of discharge from the army as well as a record of Roman citizenship. This diploma was issued in AD 88 to Dassius, a soldier from the Roman province of Pannonia, who served in Syria as a member of an auxiliary cavalry regiment (ala). Roman auxiliary regiments (auxilia) were non-citizen troops. Following twenty-five years of service, however, retiring auxiliary soldiers and their families were awarded Roman citizenship, conferring significant rights and privileges.
The diploma consists of two bronze plates, inscribed on both faces and hinged together by wires looped through the holes in the corners. The full text of the diploma ran across the two inner sides of the diploma. Once inscribed, the two plates were pressed together and wired shut through the holes in the center of the plates. The names of seven witnesses were added to the outer side of the back plate, in horizontal orientation, alongside tamper-proof wax seals (now missing). The outer side of the front plate, vertically oriented, contained a neatly written copy of the full text, which the soldier could show as proof of his citizenship without breaking the seals.
The full text of the certificate on the front plate is as follows:
IMP CAESAR DIVI VESPASIANI F DOMITIANUS / AUGUSTUS GERMANICUS PONTIFEX MAXIMUS / TRIBUNIC POTESTAT VIII IMP XVII COS XIIII / CENSOR PERPETUUS P P / EQUITIBUS ET PEDITIBUS QUI MILITANT IN ALIS / QUINQUE ET COHORTIBUS DUABUS QUAE APPEL / LANTUR PRAETORIA SINGULARIUM GALLORUM ET THRACUM CONSTANTIUM PHRYGUM / SEBASTENA GALLORUM ET THRACUM ANTIA / NA GAETULORUM AUGUSTA THRACUM / ET SUNT IN SYRIA SUB P VALERIO PATRUINO / ITEM DIMISSIS HONESTA MISSIONE EX / IISDEM ALIS ET COHORTIBUS QUIQUINA ET XI / CENA STIPENDIA AUT PLURA MERVERANT / QUORUM NOMINA SUBSCRIPTA SUNT / IPSIS LIBERIS POSTERISQUE EORUM CIVI / TATEM DEDIT ET CONUBIUM CUM UXORIBUS / QUAS TUNC HABUISSENT CUM EST CIVITAS / IIS DATA AUT SI QUI CAELIBES ESSENT CUM / IIS QUAS POSTEA DUXISSENT DUM / TAXAT SINGULI SINGULAS / A D VII IDUS NOVEMBR / M OTACILIO CATULO COS / SEX IULIO SPARTO / ALAE PHRYGUM CUI PRAEST / M HELENIUS PRISCUS / GREGALI / DASSIO DASSENTIS E PANNON / DESCRIPTUM ET RECOGNITUM EX TABULA / AENEA QUAE FIXA EST ROMAE IN CAPITOLIO / IN LATERE SINISTRO TABULARI PUBLICI
"The Emperor Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus, son of the deified Vespasian, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the eighth year, acclaimed "Imperator" seventeen times, having been consul fourteen times, censor for life, father of his country, has granted to the infantrymen and cavalry who are serving in five cavalry and two infantry companies, namely, the select Praetorian, the steadfast Gallic and Thracian, the Phrygian, the Sebastean, the Antian of Gauls and Thracians; the First Gaetulian cohort and the First Augustan Thracian cohort (which are in Syria serving under Publius Valerius Patruinus) and likewise to the men honorably discharged from these companies and cohorts who have served twenty-five years (their names are listed below), and to their children and descendants [to these the Emperor has granted] citizenship and the right of Roman marriage with the wives whom they had when citizenship was granted to them or, if any are unmarried, with those women whom they might marry later, with only one wife for each man. Dated on November 7 in the consulship of Manius Otacilius Catulus and Sextus Julius Sparsus [AD 88]. To the soldier Dassius, the son of Dasens, a Pannonian of the company of Phrygians commanded by Marcus Helenius Priscus. This copy has been checked against the bronze tablet posted at Rome on the Capitol on the left side wall of the Public Record Office."
The names of the witnesses are inscribed on the back plate:
“Q. Mucius Augustalis, M. Calpurnius Justus, C. Lucretius Modestus, C. Claudius Sementivus, C. Pompeius Eutrapelus, C. Julius Helenus, L. Pullius Verecundus"
Roman, 88 CE
Bronze
Getty Villa Museum (73.AC.39)