Cataphracts - evidence for early Roman use..

[Simplex]

........ in the western part of the empire.
Well -- inspired by the discussion about clibanarii/kataphractes I remembered the gravestone (/memorial)that was found at Stuttgart-Cannstatt (Wilhelmsplatz/Seelbergstrasse) in 1930.
It reads (if my eyes don't fail me): It translates like:
AVRELIS SALUDA ET (For) the Brothers Aurelius Saluda
REGRETHO FRATRIB und Regrethus, once cavalerists
QVONDAM EQVITIBVS (in the) New And Firm
N-ALAE-FIRM-CATAFR- (Steadfast ?) Cuirassiers (?) Ala

AVR-AVREL-ABDETAT- Aurelius Aurelius (Their) Brother
HVS-FR--A-TER
E(?) F C (= ex voto fecit ??) did this (according to his vow ?)
Hope I got that right.
Philipp Filtzinger dates this one to about 233-238 ( In "Die Römer in Baden-Württemberg", 3rd Ed. 2005 [Basically a reprint of the 1995 Edition] where he also gives more informations on the whereabouts of this unit afterwards -- 238AD Italy (?)-- afterwards Pannonia-- 242AD with Gordian III into the Persian War, from 244AD under Phillippus Arabs stationed at Bostra (Arabia).
I also found a note about a similar grave (?) at Frankfurt but I could not verify that.
A similar inscription was found at Worms, but up to now is attributed to "the first half of the 4th century at latest" (Dr. Mathilde Grünewald -- "Die Römer in Worms", 1986.
I had no time to ask her about new evidence in that case- so I have no newer evidence my self).
I hope some of you can help me out.
Greez & Thanks

Simplex

[Paullus Scipio]

A note of caution here. That date (233 AD) jumps out in red lights, because it is the date given in the "Augustan History", in the section written by "Aelius Lampridius" on the 'Alexandri Severi Vita'. It purports to quote verbatim a speech given in the senate on 25 Sept, 233 AD which refers to clibanarii. Unfortunately this is a 4th C AD forgery, and the speech never occurred - there was no 'acta' of 233 AD, no "Aelius Lampridius", and it was not written c. 300 AD. At best, this literature supports Ammianus' 4th C usage of the term.

IF, as seems likely, this literary piece is the source of the dating, then that dating is clearly wrong.

In that case the similarity to the inscription from Worms would perhaps indicate that it should be dated 4 C, as Dr Matthilde Grunewald seems to have attributed.

[jho]

The dating of the Canstatt inscription is in fact based on historical assumptions. However, it is unlikely to be 4th century because it was found east of the Rhine and also because of the style. If you read German, there is a discussion of evidence of cataphracts in Germany (in connection with Harzhorn) in the latest Varus-Kurier which is avaible online here:

varusforschung.geschichte-multimedial.net/documents/Varus-Kurier_12.pdf

If you do not read German you can at least take a look at pictures of this and the Worm slabs.

[Simplex]

Thnaks y' both,
...this brings the case a bit forward.
And Jens, the PDF you dug up also should be interesting to az least one of the other threads on late roman heavy cavalry.
If I had the time I'd immediately jump to translating the first part of the pdf. for this forum, ...but... :roll: ...time DOES matter .....
In the meantime I found out where I saw that Cannstatt-stone : at Aalen (Limes-Museum inside the roman fort.
For now

Greez

Siggi