10-14-2020, 07:44 PM
(10-12-2020, 11:30 PM)musterion Wrote: I'm curious if there is any idea when this kind unit was organized?
The earliest references I can find are Trajanic. CIL 03, 01627 dates to AD106-7, and I think is the very earliest dateable one mentioning this sort of unit:
Imp(erator) / Caesar Nerva / Traianus Aug(ustus) / Germ(anicus) Dacicus / pontif(ex) maxim(us) / (!) pot(estate) XII co(n)s(ul) V / imp(erator) VI p(ater) p(atriae) fecit / per coh(ortem) I Fl(aviam) Ulp(iam) / Hisp(anam) mil(iariam) c(ivium) R(omanorum) eq(uitatam) / a Potaissa Napo/cam / m(ilia) p(assuum) X
This next guy held his last procuratorial position under Trajan, which might mean that his earlier post as prefect (interestingly, not tribune) of a coh mil eq might predate that emperor, but could still fall within his reign. More interestingly still, he seems to have jumped straight from the equestrian militia secunda to Primus Pilus!
AE 1992, 00979: [P(ublius)] Postumius A(uli) f(ilius) / Pap(iria) Acilianus / [p]raef(ectus) cohort(is) II Hi[sp(anorum) m]iliar(iae) / [eq]uit(atae) prim(us) pil(us) leg(ionis) X[II F]ulm(inatae) / proc(urator) provin[ciae Ach]aiae / procurator / [Im]p(eratoris) Nervae [Traiani Aug(usti)] / [provinciae Baeticae?]
The regular cohors equitata probably date right back to the formation of the auxilia under Augustus (there are one or two very early inscriptions), but really take off from around the mid 1st century. Inscriptions mentioning cohors miliaria date from the Domitian-Trajan era onwards, but may relate to veterans who had served many years already.
So I would say we could probably best place the widespread introduction of cohors equitata to the Nero-Vespasian era, of cohors miliaria to Vespasian-Domitian, and cohors miliaria equitata to Domitian-Trajan.
Nathan Ross
