Ethnicity of "Roman" soldiers

[Nicholas Gaukroger]

Could anyone point me to any works - books or articles - that have information on the known ethnicity of soldiers in Roman units (probably via their names at a guess)?

By preference the east post Septimius Severus.

Thanks in advance.

[Ross Cowan]

For origines (from epitaphs and laterculi) of legionaries and praetorians see:

G. Forni, Il reclutamento delle legioni da Augusto a Diocleziano (1953), and the supplement in his Mavors volume, Esercito e marina di Roma antica (1992), 116-141

A. Passerini, Le coorti pretorie (1939), 148-183

R

[Sean Manning]

Could anyone point me to any works - books or articles - that have information on the known ethnicity of soldiers in Roman units (probably via their names at a guess)?

By preference the east post Septimius Severus.

Thanks in advance.

Its trickier than you might think to identify ancient people's ethnic identities. For example, some people take names from the dominant culture in addition to the one they were born with. And I have an Irish name, but that doesn't mean I think of myself as Irish. Sometimes ethnic identifications in records have more to do with the government's ideas about how to categorize people than the ideas of the people recorded. (The Ptolemies in particular seem to have used ethnic labels this way, but think of “Blacksâ€

[Nicholas Gaukroger]

Ross, would those be in English?

[Ross Cowan]

In Italian, but easy to understand as lists of place names and probable regional or ethnic origins.

Cheers,

R

[Graham Sumner]

Hi

There is an article by M.P. Speidel (I think?) which might be of interest,

'The rise of Ethnic Units in the Roman Imperial Army'.
ANRW II.3 (1975) 202-231.

Graham.

[D B Campbell]

Its trickier than you might think to identify ancient people's ethnic identities.

True -- as far as I recall, there has been a lot of research on north African inscriptions, showing that the "natives" quickly adopted the tria nomina so that they appear to be "Romans" ... but were ethnically African. (Sorry -- I can't remember the details.)

[Graham Sumner]

Duncan wrote:

as far as I recall, there has been a lot of research on north African inscriptions, showing that the "natives" quickly adopted the tria nomina so that they appear to be "Romans"

Yes, I think that also shows up in the work by M.A. Speidel in his article on Roman Army Pay Scales. It was assumed that one pay document showing all Triple Roman names referred to Legionaries in Egypt. But if that was the case they were getting paid less than normal. Therefore Spiedel argued that these particular soldiers were Auxiliaries but with Roman names.

Graham.

[Nicholas Gaukroger]

I understand that this was less common in the east - which I am more interested in - and that there are some studies somewhere that indicate that Aramaic and Iranian names were not uncommon. The possibility of Iranians being common is, IMO, most intruiging

[Graham Sumner]

Try tracking down M.P. Spiedel's other work on 'Nubia's Roman Garrison' and 'The Roman Army in Arabia'. Also anything by D. Kennedy especially his 'Roman Army in the East'. Certainly the only known commander of the Camel Cohort was himself a Palmyrene.

Graham.

[Nicholas Gaukroger]

Graham,

Many thanks - I'll follow those leads

[Nicholas Gaukroger]

Ross,

Got the info you sent - many thanks.