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Beneficiarius Praefectus Proconsulis
#1
Chaps,

One of the characters in my second book will be a Beneficiarius Praefectus Proconsulis. Can anyone throw more light on the role please, and if possible tell me what the standard abbreviation for the title was? I'm guessing BF.PR.PRO., but I hate making stuff up like that.

Thanks,

Tony.
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#2
Hi Tony

If you go onto the website of The Ermine Street Guard there is an article on Beneficarii by Paul Holder which will be of interest.

Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.

"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.

"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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#3
Thanks Graham, I did indeed find that article useful, but I'm guessing that this particular flavour of beneficiarius was a rarity, and Paul understandably makes no mention of such a Senate appointed prefect.

By the way, nice badge. I have one just like it on my shoulder!

Best regards,

Tony.
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#4
Quote:One of the characters in my second book will be a Beneficiarius Praefectus Proconsulis.
What exactly is a praefectus proconsulis? After 25 years in the business, I thought I'd pretty much run across most of the emperor's men, but I must admit that I've never heard of that one.
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#5
Quote:
Tony Riches:19l67yje Wrote:One of the characters in my second book will be a Beneficiarius Praefectus Proconsulis.
What exactly is a praefectus proconsulis? After 25 years in the business, I thought I'd pretty much run across most of the emperor's men, but I must admit that I've never heard of that one.

I was originally going to use a NATO standard beneficiarius consularis - i.e. the governor's beneficiarius - but I was convinced by stalwart RATer and good friend Caballo to go for the latter title because it is apparently - say several sites accessible via Google - a soldier (presumably a prefect) serving on the staff of the governor appointed by the senate. And for plot reasons, I do like the idea of my man having that sort of clout.

I was as surprised as you with the rank, although I have more like 2.5 years in the business...(the writing novels about Romans business, that is).

BR

Toy.
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#6
Quote:apparently - say several sites accessible via Google - a soldier (presumably a prefect) serving on the staff of the governor appointed by the senate.

Do you mean 'Beneficiarius Praefecti Proconsulis'? This title is listed in Sander Van Dorst's 'Glossary of Roman Military Terms', and seems to have been picked up from there by a couple of other sites. There's no mention of this (or your version) in any of the titles on Google Books, however.

A list of Roman abbreviations from coins and inscriptions (in Crabb's Universal Technical Dictionary) gives B.PR.PR for Beneficiarium Praefecto Praetorio and B.PRO for Beneficiarius Proconsulis, but no B.PR.PRO.

I suspect it might be a mistype, or a combination of other titles - Beneficiarius Praefectus, the orderly to a Praefect (of an auxiliary cohort, for example), and Beneficiarius Proconsulis - orderly or military assistant to a Proconsular governor. Both are mentioned in the ESG article, and were, I believe, otherwise ordinary soldiers. Equestrian officers would have served in the governor's officium in various roles - Praefectus Fabrum, for example - although I don't know how or by whom they were appointed - most likely the governor himself, as a way of increasing his patronage.

- Nathan
Nathan Ross
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#7
Quote:
Tony Riches:l0ayjllp Wrote:apparently - say several sites accessible via Google - a soldier (presumably a prefect) serving on the staff of the governor appointed by the senate.

Do you mean 'Beneficiarius Praefecti Proconsulis'? This title is listed in Sander Van Dorst's 'Glossary of Roman Military Terms', and seems to have been picked up from there by a couple of other sites. There's no mention of this (or your version) in any of the titles on Google Books, however.

A list of Roman abbreviations from coins and inscriptions (in Crabb's Universal Technical Dictionary) gives B.PR.PR for Beneficiarium Praefecto Praetorio and B.PRO for Beneficiarius Proconsulis, but no B.PR.PRO.

I suspect it might be a mistype, or a combination of other titles - Beneficiarius Praefectus, the orderly to a Praefect (of an auxiliary cohort, for example), and Beneficiarius Proconsulis - orderly or military assistant to a Proconsular governor. Both are mentioned in the ESG article, and were, I believe, otherwise ordinary soldiers. Equestrian officers would have served in the governor's officium in various roles - Praefectus Fabrum, for example - although I don't know how or by whom they were appointed - most likely the governor himself, as a way of increasing his patronage.

- Nathan

Yes, indeed, having checked back you're right about the 'Praefecti' bit. The fact that I'm sat here with some kind of low level viral thing when I ought to be working in France might explain the slip, or it might just be me being a numpty. And Indeed, having already been to Crabb on Google books before posting in the first place, I can't argue with your guess that this might not be a real title. On the other hand, the Glossary page is quite definite about the nature of the role. Since I find myself in agreement with your last two sentences from my own reading, I shall have to wait in hopes that someone with the requisite knowledge - if it's there to be had - comes to the rescue.
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#8
Quote:... Beneficiarius Proconsulis - orderly or military assistant to a Proconsular governor. Both are mentioned in the ESG article, and were, I believe, otherwise ordinary soldiers.
Interestingly, Joachim Ott, Die Beneficiarier (1995), observes (p. 84) that there is not a single known case of a beneficiarius proconsulis. I suppose, in theory, the proconsul Africae, with the legion nearby, might've had access to beneficiarii. It's difficult to see how the others would've managed, though.

Having given the beneficiarius proconsulis the thumbs-down, you may also like to ponder what on earth a praefectus proconsulis ("proconsul's prefect") is!
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#9
I also wondered about the idea of 'a soldier... appointed by the senate' - as Duncan says, this would only happen in senatorial provinces, and (again) only Africa had a legion available to provide beneficiarii.

In imperial provinces, appointments would be directly by the emperor, or indirectly by the ab epistulis, and would therefore carry the sort of 'clout' Tony wants for his character. There were a number of posts like this, some very interesting. It seems that the (equestrian) procurator could sometimes act as the 'emperor's man', even in a senatorial province - C. Minucius Italus was procurator of Asia under Vettulenus Cerialis c.88AD - Cerialis was executed, and Italus took over for the duration of the governorship, over the heads of available senatorial assistants. Brian W. Jones (The Emperor Domitian) suggests (following Syme, I think) that Italus actually killed his own boss, on Domitian's orders.

- Nathan
Nathan Ross
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#10
Quote:It seems that the (equestrian) procurator could sometimes act as the 'emperor's man', even in a senatorial province ...
The tension between the (senatorial) legate and the (equestrian) procurator in an imperial province is an interesting one. Everyone must be familiar with how Julius Classicianus (procurator) attempts to blow the whistle on Suetonius Paullinus (legate) after the Boudican revolt. They were both "the emperor's men".

But we digress ...
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#11
Quote:But we digress ...

Yes we do!... I was actually trying to think of an alternative for the position Tony seems to want for his character - an equestrian (praefect-level) officer on the staff of a proconsular governor, but not appointed by the governor himself (as other beneficiarii seem to have been) - procurator would probably be a bit high up the tree, in any case!
Nathan Ross
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#12
For what date do you want this equestrian-ranked, imperially-appointed individual? As Nathan Ross writes, the praefectus fabrum is a good bet, at least for the first century. The theory of Cotton and Birley is that in theory all equestrian-level officer appointments are via the ab epistulis, and that although there's evidence from Pliny and others for military tribunes being appointed appointed by governors, there isn't any evidence for the appointment of military prefects by personal appointment (or letter of recommendation) direct to the governor. The trouble would be including praefecti fabrum under the heading of military prefects, which is a stretch for the late first century.

In other words, were you to have a praefectus fabrum who was imperially appointed, I don't know of any evidence that would contradict that (incidentally, if there is any evidence/bibliography on the appointment of praefecti fabrum in the principate, I'd be grateful for it!).

blue skies

Tom
Tom Wrobel
email = [email protected]
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#13
The period in which I'm writing is the early 180s. I might just ditch the whole idea, to be honest, and just make the man in question a straight cohort commander sponsored by the governor (Ulpius Marcellus as it happens), the whole beneficiarius thing feels as if it's getting somewhat contrived. Add to that the perception I have that the beneficiarius rank tended to operate at a much lower level than senior officers and it might all be too much fuss to work this idea to completion.
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#14
Glad I never asked why you were writing a novel about a rank you had never heard of before..... :roll: :mrgreen:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#15
Quote:Glad I never asked why you were writing a novel about a rank you had never heard of before..... :roll: :mrgreen:

Long and ever so boring story. But I can do boring (believe me). The book started out being called 'The Golden Spear', in reference to the man's beneficiarius standard, and his status was going to be a big point of exposition late on in the narrative, for reasons that I won't put here to avoid a spoiler. Since the title has now changed this is perhaps less important - and not really necessary to the plot, I suppose. He was going to be a BF.COS (the governor's man), but that's in no way necessary in order for him to be the hard arse he so clearly is. The potential move to him being this (apparently) mythical rank of Beneficiarius Praefecti Proconsulis was really of interest because of the increased influence he would have gained, but again he doesn't really need it.
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