AE 1981 777

[Ross Cowan]

Old-style legions could also have both the ordinarius and centenarius, it seems:

D(is) M(anibus) / b(ene) m(erentibus) Castae quae vixit an(num) I d(ies) V et / Reginae quae vixit / ann(os) VII mens(es) V dies / XVIII filiabus dul/cissimis Val(erius) Castus / centur(io) ord(inarius) leg(ionis) I Iov(iae) / Scyt(hicae) una cum Val(erio) / Valeriano centen(ario) so/cero suo posuit (AE 1989, 00641, from Moesia)

As far as I can tell, only the mysterious ducenarius was restricted to non-legionary units.

Isn't centenarius here a reference to Valerianus' (notional) pay grade/equestrian status rather than his military rank? Cp. Flavius Baudio as ducenarius protector (ILS 2777).

[Nathan Ross]

Isn't centenarius here a reference to Valerianus' (notional) pay grade/equestrian status rather than his military rank? Cp. Flavius Baudio as ducenarius protector (ILS 2777).

Wouldn't he need to be a centenarius procurator, in that case? Sexagenarius, Centenarius and Ducenarius were used to differentiate procuratorial grades within the equestrian hierarchy, based on their annual pay in thousands of sesterces, but as far as I know the word by itself wouldn't mean anything in that context. Or would it?

I believe that the ducenarius might have been an actual rank within the corps of protectores (who didn't have centurions, obviously, as most of their members were former centurions anyway!). Thus similar to the scholae and later auxilia palatina of the imperial comitatus.

[Ross Cowan]

Wouldn't he need to be a centenarius procurator, in that case?

Not in this late period. As you probably know, Brunt proposed that prot. ducenarii = primi ordines:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40310480 - go to p. 70.

I'm not sure I agree that ducenarius = primi ord/senior centurion, but I find it persuasive that ducenarius and related terms like centenarius had lost their original meaning and were granted as honorifics to certain ranks. I'll probably have changed my mind by the time I finish Roman Legionary AD 284-337. ;-)

[Nathan Ross]

Not in this late period.

Aha - yes, looking through the inscriptions database I see there were quite a few centenarii who are clearly high-ranking civilian officials.*

I would guess the derivation is, firstly, procuratori centenario, then (3rd century?) egregio viro procuratori centenario, then egregio viro centenario, until the word centenario alone connotes high rank. In one case (CIL 05, 01680) even a eunucho palatino centenario and a vir ducenarius.

However, in the example I cited above, AE 1989, 00641, Valerianus the centenarius is the father-in-law of the ordinarius Castus (if I'm reading it right). Would a vir egregius civilian official really be so related to the lowly ordinarius of a provincial legion? As this is in a military context, wouldn't it be more obvious to read both as military ranks?

Clearly both centenarius and ducenarius did denote military ranks during this period, as we find in the Concordia inscriptions, Codex Justianiana etc.

As you probably know, Brunt proposed that prot. ducenarii = primi ordines:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40310480 - go to p. 70.

I didn't! And my JSTOR account unfortunately doesn't stretch to that article... It sounds an interesting theory. But as ducenarii also occur in the agens in rebus (CIL 10, 07200: ducenario agente in rebus et praeposito cursus publici, early-mid 4th century), and the agentes, while holding military ranks, were not centurions, surely a ducenarius of the protectores might be something similar? (i.e. an officer of the imperial household guard, the title later transferring to the scholae and then the new-style auxilia)...

EDIT * - from the reign of Commodus, according to the redoubtable Fergus Millar here.