01-29-2008, 05:41 PM
ILS 2669 = CIL 6.3603, Rome
L Pullio Peregrino 7 legion deputato qui vix ann xxviiii mens iii die i hor IS eq R.
Lucius Pullius Peregrinus, legionary centurion sent in a deputation (possibly to the emperor), who lived 29 years, 3 months, 1 day, 1 and a half hours (how on earth did they know?!!!), Roman Equestrian.
No reason at all, in the Principate, why an aristocratic young man, especially an Equestrian like Peregrinus, shouldn't be appointed to the centurionate at a very early age. Just found this example flicking through Dessau - there's probably others if anyone wants to go trawling through the whole of CIL!
Average age at recruitment of Leg IV Macedonica is round about 21-22, I seem to recall. There were regs. on minimum age of recruitment. Vegetius (1.5) says it was puberty, but Livy (22.57) states that recruits of 17 years were being levied in 216 BC (in the aftermath of Cannae), and that some were still wearing the toga praetexta indicating they had not taken on the full trappings of adulthood. That could be younger than 17, but it's a time of national emergency and no doubt recruiting officials didn't worry too much about minimum ages.
Gaius Gracchus passed legislation in 123 BC banning the conscription of anyone below the age of 17 (Plut. Gaius Gracchus 5), which suggests that some boys were being conscripted or voluteering despite being below what appears to have been the legal age of 17.
L Pullio Peregrino 7 legion deputato qui vix ann xxviiii mens iii die i hor IS eq R.
Lucius Pullius Peregrinus, legionary centurion sent in a deputation (possibly to the emperor), who lived 29 years, 3 months, 1 day, 1 and a half hours (how on earth did they know?!!!), Roman Equestrian.
No reason at all, in the Principate, why an aristocratic young man, especially an Equestrian like Peregrinus, shouldn't be appointed to the centurionate at a very early age. Just found this example flicking through Dessau - there's probably others if anyone wants to go trawling through the whole of CIL!
Average age at recruitment of Leg IV Macedonica is round about 21-22, I seem to recall. There were regs. on minimum age of recruitment. Vegetius (1.5) says it was puberty, but Livy (22.57) states that recruits of 17 years were being levied in 216 BC (in the aftermath of Cannae), and that some were still wearing the toga praetexta indicating they had not taken on the full trappings of adulthood. That could be younger than 17, but it's a time of national emergency and no doubt recruiting officials didn't worry too much about minimum ages.
Gaius Gracchus passed legislation in 123 BC banning the conscription of anyone below the age of 17 (Plut. Gaius Gracchus 5), which suggests that some boys were being conscripted or voluteering despite being below what appears to have been the legal age of 17.
