Vespasian\'s Auxiliaries

[D B Campbell]

What we need is a Batavus serving in Lower Germany after Vespasian's supposed ban on Germans serving near their homeland.

Here you go Duncan. Gaverius a cavalryman.. (RMD-04, 00216 )

Thanks for posting that, Adrian. I must confess that I was being rather mischievous. Paul Holder had earlier drawn my attention to this very diploma. A Batavus discharged in AD 98 in Germania Inferior raises very interesting possibilities, as he would've enlisted in AD 73, in the aftermath of the Batavian Revolt. This implies that the ala Batavorum of Tac., Hist. IV.18 was still in Germ. Inf. in that year, contrary to our assumption regarding Vespasian's "new policy". (Unfortunately its precise whereabouts between enlisting our Batavus in Germ. Inf. in AD 73 and gaining the honorific titles pia fidelis in Germ. Inf. in AD 89 are not known.)

P.S. Note that your man's father was Gaver(i)us; his own name has not survived.