12-22-2007, 03:18 AM
Here is a new, Roman Diploma, so far unpublished - it is up for private sale at around US$65,000. Here is the accompanying blurb from the (Edited by Moderator) site "ROMAN BRONZE MILITARY DIPLOMA OF M. SOLLIUS GRACILIS
Constituted 22 August 139 under the emperor Antoninus Pius, and the suffect consules L. Minicius Natalis (Quadronius Verus) and L. Claudius Proculus, for the Praetorian Fleet of Ravenna. The recipient veteran was from the tribe of the Scordisci, with the Roman name M. Sollius Gracilis. His fathers name is Zura, a name known from Moesia inferior in the lower Danube area. The Scordisci were a Celtic tribe living in lower Pannonia - Illyria between the Sava, Drava, and Danube rivers.
Copied and checked from the bronze tablet fixed to the wall at Rome behind the temple of the deified Augustus at the shrine of Minerva. The outside face of the reverse tablet lists the names of seven witnesses. The whole comprising two rectangular tablets each pierced twice for binding.
Soon to be published in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik: "New Diplomas for the Italian Fleets", by Werner Eck and Andreas Pangerl.
Ca. AD 139
H. 5 1/2 in. (14.2 cm.) x 4 5/8 in. (11.8 cm.)
These diplomas are actually copies of original bronze documents that were kept in an archive in Rome. The copies were distributed to a serviceman upon his retirement as proof of his honorable service and newly acquired citizenship (at the end of a minimum twenty-five year military service, citizenship was awarded to the soldier and wife and children). The text was repeated twice, on the outside and on the inside, to prevent fraud since the sealed interior text could not be tampered with. If a former soldier enjoying retirement on the Dalmatian coast was suspected of forging the cover of his diploma, local government officials could break the seals and verify that the interior text corresponded to the front cover without having to wait for confirmation from the archives in distant Rome. Today, Roman military diplomas are beloved by scholars because they contain of wealth of information that can be precisely dated. Through such records, it is possible to track the deployment of troops throughout the empire and to chart the rise in rank of specific individuals. Likewise, in the life of a specific soldier, we can determine where he was born, raised, what wars he fought in, and to where he retired."
Constituted 22 August 139 under the emperor Antoninus Pius, and the suffect consules L. Minicius Natalis (Quadronius Verus) and L. Claudius Proculus, for the Praetorian Fleet of Ravenna. The recipient veteran was from the tribe of the Scordisci, with the Roman name M. Sollius Gracilis. His fathers name is Zura, a name known from Moesia inferior in the lower Danube area. The Scordisci were a Celtic tribe living in lower Pannonia - Illyria between the Sava, Drava, and Danube rivers.
Copied and checked from the bronze tablet fixed to the wall at Rome behind the temple of the deified Augustus at the shrine of Minerva. The outside face of the reverse tablet lists the names of seven witnesses. The whole comprising two rectangular tablets each pierced twice for binding.
Soon to be published in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik: "New Diplomas for the Italian Fleets", by Werner Eck and Andreas Pangerl.
Ca. AD 139
H. 5 1/2 in. (14.2 cm.) x 4 5/8 in. (11.8 cm.)
These diplomas are actually copies of original bronze documents that were kept in an archive in Rome. The copies were distributed to a serviceman upon his retirement as proof of his honorable service and newly acquired citizenship (at the end of a minimum twenty-five year military service, citizenship was awarded to the soldier and wife and children). The text was repeated twice, on the outside and on the inside, to prevent fraud since the sealed interior text could not be tampered with. If a former soldier enjoying retirement on the Dalmatian coast was suspected of forging the cover of his diploma, local government officials could break the seals and verify that the interior text corresponded to the front cover without having to wait for confirmation from the archives in distant Rome. Today, Roman military diplomas are beloved by scholars because they contain of wealth of information that can be precisely dated. Through such records, it is possible to track the deployment of troops throughout the empire and to chart the rise in rank of specific individuals. Likewise, in the life of a specific soldier, we can determine where he was born, raised, what wars he fought in, and to where he retired."
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
