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Celeres under the third century
#1
I just found the following inscriptions in AE and CIL.

Philippopolis-Shahba (Arabia). AE, 1992, 1694.
Diuino Marino, equites alae Celerum Philippiannae.

Virunum-Mariasaal-Zollfeld; near Klagenfurt (Noricum) CIL, III, 4832.
Aggaeo, hexarco alae Celerum.

The problem is that I never heard anything about these alae of Celeres under the third century. Y. Le Bohec told me it was some kind of heavy-armoured cavalry, a bit similar to catafractarii and other units that appeared during the crisis. He also told me that M. Speidel wrote an article about it.

Do someone get more informations ?
Maxime
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#2
A quick trawl of Google Scholar threw up the follow articles that had references to alae celerum in them so they may be worth looking for.


Equites and Celeres
H. Hill
Classical Philology, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Jul., 1938), pp. 283-290
This article consists of 8 page(s).

Roman Arrowheads from Dinorben and the 'Sagittarii' of the Roman Army
Jeffrey L. Davies
Britannia, Vol. 8, 1977 (1977), pp. 257-270
doi:10.2307/525899
This article consists of 14 page(s).

Procum Patricium
Arnaldo Momigliano
The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 56, Parts 1 and 2 (1966), pp. 16-24
doi:10.2307/300130
This article consists of 9 page(s).

The Significance of the Consular Tribunate
E. S. Staveley
The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 43, 1953 (1953), pp. 30-36
doi:10.2307/297776
This article consists of 7 page(s).
Nik Gaukroger

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#3
Well, I found some answers in Tyche 7, "Ala Celerum Philippiana", by M.P. SPEIDEL, and in Roman Army Studies 1, "Roman imperial Army in Arabia".

The ala Celerum Philippiana was probably created by Philip the Arab during the middle of the third century, as a mounted imperial guard. First stationed at Shahba (Philippopolis - Arabia), it moved on the danubian front (Noricum - Virunum) with the emperor and was perhaps disbanded after the civil war with Decius.
This unit is only known by 3 inscriptions. His name certainly refers to Romulus' legendary guard. Moreover, the ala was led by hexarchi (not the later exarchi), which could be linked to the seuiri, leaders of the ancient Roman aristocratic cavalry.
We can consider that the Celeres were in fact eastern (arabian ?) mounted archers, recruited during Philip's stay on oriental frontier. Indeed, at the begining of his reign, this emperor also created an ala noua firma catafractaria Philippiana, stationned in Arabia too.
Maxime
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