10-06-2014, 10:53 PM
Freedmen, even people which were slaves the day before enlistment, were usually just allowed for service with the vigiles or the classis.
However, in very bad times, the emperors even allowed freedmen in the auxilia. Marc Aurel hired everyone he could get, after the marcomannic invasion, perhaps even for his 2 new legions. Some historians also believe, that they have evidence, that the cohortes civium romanorum, Augustus raised after the Clades Variana, because he could not get romans for new legions included freedmen; very new freedmen.
Real slaves (not freedmen) under arms are just known in very bad emergeny cases, like a siege of a city ("Hannibal ante portas")
So I would not fully exclude, that in the late empire freedmen were hired in emergency case. Freedmen could mean, he was a slave, was brought to the praetor, was freed and enlisted right behind the next door.
The idea that this son brings his horses and a slave to the army is very usual and therefore plausible. Usually this son cannot sell the slave as long as the pater familias lives, because everything the son earned before he entered the army is property of the father. But if the father donated (peculium) this slave and the horses to his son before departure, which is again very plausible, then he could sell him.
And if this vet as his new owner thinks, that he should free this slave, because he did so a good job, he has all the rights to do so. And if the prefect of this legion thinks, that this new freedman is so valuable, he will find a way to enlist him as a legionary. You bet! Actually a prefect would just do it. He is godfather of the camp himself.
Regarding the rank of this son. I don't know exactly about the late roman army. But during principate, sons of the curiales or of equestrian rank could even start as decurio or centurio. It is all a matter of social rank, connections and sometimes money. The youngest centurio we know of, died, when he was 19 years old.
However, in very bad times, the emperors even allowed freedmen in the auxilia. Marc Aurel hired everyone he could get, after the marcomannic invasion, perhaps even for his 2 new legions. Some historians also believe, that they have evidence, that the cohortes civium romanorum, Augustus raised after the Clades Variana, because he could not get romans for new legions included freedmen; very new freedmen.
Real slaves (not freedmen) under arms are just known in very bad emergeny cases, like a siege of a city ("Hannibal ante portas")
So I would not fully exclude, that in the late empire freedmen were hired in emergency case. Freedmen could mean, he was a slave, was brought to the praetor, was freed and enlisted right behind the next door.
The idea that this son brings his horses and a slave to the army is very usual and therefore plausible. Usually this son cannot sell the slave as long as the pater familias lives, because everything the son earned before he entered the army is property of the father. But if the father donated (peculium) this slave and the horses to his son before departure, which is again very plausible, then he could sell him.
And if this vet as his new owner thinks, that he should free this slave, because he did so a good job, he has all the rights to do so. And if the prefect of this legion thinks, that this new freedman is so valuable, he will find a way to enlist him as a legionary. You bet! Actually a prefect would just do it. He is godfather of the camp himself.
Regarding the rank of this son. I don't know exactly about the late roman army. But during principate, sons of the curiales or of equestrian rank could even start as decurio or centurio. It is all a matter of social rank, connections and sometimes money. The youngest centurio we know of, died, when he was 19 years old.
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas
