09-28-2009, 06:16 PM
Quote:apparently - say several sites accessible via Google - a soldier (presumably a prefect) serving on the staff of the governor appointed by the senate.
Do you mean 'Beneficiarius Praefecti Proconsulis'? This title is listed in Sander Van Dorst's 'Glossary of Roman Military Terms', and seems to have been picked up from there by a couple of other sites. There's no mention of this (or your version) in any of the titles on Google Books, however.
A list of Roman abbreviations from coins and inscriptions (in Crabb's Universal Technical Dictionary) gives B.PR.PR for Beneficiarium Praefecto Praetorio and B.PRO for Beneficiarius Proconsulis, but no B.PR.PRO.
I suspect it might be a mistype, or a combination of other titles - Beneficiarius Praefectus, the orderly to a Praefect (of an auxiliary cohort, for example), and Beneficiarius Proconsulis - orderly or military assistant to a Proconsular governor. Both are mentioned in the ESG article, and were, I believe, otherwise ordinary soldiers. Equestrian officers would have served in the governor's officium in various roles - Praefectus Fabrum, for example - although I don't know how or by whom they were appointed - most likely the governor himself, as a way of increasing his patronage.
- Nathan
Nathan Ross
