09-06-2007, 06:44 PM
Barker's 'The Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome' (1972), p. 8 may be another place where wikipedia got its information from, as he follows Vegetius' claim that a decurion (Vegetius' decanus)was in charge of each contubernium. I find that this view also tends to slip into other interpretations of the decurion and his role in the army (for instance Tomlin's 1998 analysis of manuscripts from Carlisle), based largely on the argument of "what else would these guys do?!"... but all that being said, as Hassell pointed out in his review of the Barker's book, this hypothesis is entirely unsubstantiated outside of Vegetius!
Even so, even in Vegetius (and Barker and Tomlinson, etc.) this rank seems to be confined entirely to the cavalry... and as far as I'm aware all the inscriptional evidence for the rank (from Carlisle, there are also some papyri for the cohors XX Palmyrenorum, etc.) also refer only to cavalry units... so even taking Vegetius at face value, unless you were in a contubernium of eques, you wouldn't have a decurion in charge of you!
Even so, even in Vegetius (and Barker and Tomlinson, etc.) this rank seems to be confined entirely to the cavalry... and as far as I'm aware all the inscriptional evidence for the rank (from Carlisle, there are also some papyri for the cohors XX Palmyrenorum, etc.) also refer only to cavalry units... so even taking Vegetius at face value, unless you were in a contubernium of eques, you wouldn't have a decurion in charge of you!
