Probatio of horses in auxiliary units, III century a.D.

[Ti Cl Nero]

Salvete,
Since I see there are many horseback riders here, I'd like to submit this.
Among the papyri recoverd at Dura Europos related to coh XX Palmyrenorum (which was a cohors equitata), there are a few dealing with unit's horses.

Here is an extract from one of the fragments of P.DUR.56

Recto:

[marius maximus ualentino suo]
[ salutem]
Ec[um ca]ppado[cem ] ..u..[…..]
Num n f a s pr[oba]tum a me halathe
Marin[i] eq’coh [XX p]al c p [….]
In [acta ut] mos [refer ex k]al…[
[….]
Xvi kal [s]ept(embers)
Antiochia

Verso:

[VLPIO] VALENTIN[O TRIB COH]
[a mario maximo leg] augg pr pr

Translation (Fink, 1971):

"[Marius Maximus to Valentinus]
Enter in the records as usual a Cappadocian horse, approved by me, ...branded on the left thigh and shoulder, for Halathes son of Marinus, cavalryman of the XX cohors Palmyrenorum which you command, at 125 denarii, effective [date]
Given August 17 at Antioch"


(n f a s stands for "Notatis femore armo sinistro" ; the year is 208 a.D. as stated in another fragment from the same papyrus, the sender is the governor of Syria Coele, the recipient the commander of coh XX Palmyrenorum).

It looks like an official document accompanying the assignment of a horse to a military unit after approval by the provincial governor.
From this document, it seems horses were directly assigned to specific horsemen.
quite interesting the economical aspect of the matter, an insight in the general managing of the unit.
Confirmations of all these considerations are available in another papyrus, still from Dura and still relating to the coh XX Palm.
Here is an excerpt from P.DUR.97, dated 251 a.D. :

[o]gelus malchi [[eq quadrimum te [....]us albis [[n f]] n' f a' d prob' a tunc preff xiii kal nouembr pres et albino cos * cxxv

[m]alchus goras amisit eq i[....]

[...]h.lcus eq quad[rimum pe]dibus posterioribus albis s n prob ab atilio cosmino tunc [èc]os xi kal febr ii[i] et i cos *cxxv

barhathes maesom eq aequ[atam ] ....alidam s n' prob' a tunc preff xi lal octobr aemil ii et [a]qul cos

Translation (Fink, 1971)

"Ogelus, son of Malchus, horse, four years old, [...] white, right thigh and shoulder branded, approved by the then prefects October 20 - 125 denarii

Malchus Goras : lost his horse [date]

[name]: horse, four years old, [...] white hind feet, no brand (s n stands for sine nota) approved by Attilius Cosminus, then governor, Jan 22, 251 - 125 denarii

Barathes son of (?) Maesomas: mare, seven or more years old, [...] no brand, approved by the then prefects, Sept 21, 249"


The document, which is quite longer, seems to be a list of horsemen with their assigned horse.
All of the entries would originally probably have the monetary value of the horse mentioned.
It seems, from the not-so-few horsemen in the list whose names are followed by "eq amisit", that horses were not immediately replaced, or at least they weren't assigned to those who had lost one (maybe these guys were kept on foot for a while as a sort of a punishment?).
All of the horses were "probati"; officially, governors or high ranking personalities (sometimes duces, for example) were responsible for that, but obviously someone did carry out the probatio on their behalf.
It would seems logical to think that selected military personnel were in charge of that; a partial confirmation comes from another Dura papyrus about coh XX Palm (P.DUR 100, dated 219 a. D.)., a roster of the unit where soldiers are listed by centruiae and turmae, many of them with a still readable note describing specific tasks assigned to them.
One reads:

ad equm prob aurel saedus magdaei

We have, then a cavalryman with the precise task of carrying out the probatio of horse.
He did that, then, before the assignment of the horse to the unit , which would follow with an official document, as we have seen, generally from the governor.
Only one horseman is given this task in the entire unit - even though the documents is not completely readable.
Anyway, still a lot to be discovered....
Valete