Caius Romanus Capito

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My apologies if this has been discussed before but the link to the discussion on the database is not working and a search has not brought anything up.

Our friend Capito has this on his tombstone:

Caius Romanus Capito, trooper of the Ala Noricorum, from Celeia, of the voting tribe Claudia (40) years of age, 19 years of service, lies here. His heir had (this) built according to his testament.

I was under the impression that Celeia was in modern Slovenia (my apologies if I have got this wrong and I would appreciate being put right!)

But the question is, given that he has a voting tribe and perhaps from his name Romanus, was he a Roman citizen before he joined the Ala Noricorum? Is there any further information (preferably in English) I need to be looking at?

Thank you in advance

[Jona Lendering]

But the question is, given that he has a voting tribe and perhaps from his name Romanus, was he a Roman citizen before he joined the Ala Noricorum?

That seems to be the inevitable conclusion. There were, of course, cohortes with Roman citizens; there may have been more citizens in the auxiliaries.

To the best of my knowledge, we have sources (like the letters of the younger Pliny) that indicate that the legionaries had to be citizens. I am unaware of any source mentioning the opposite, i.e. that the auxilaries were there for non-citizens only. I would not be surprised if that is a modern reconstruction.

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Thanks Jona.

One assumes the fact we know citizenship was granted when auxiliaries left their service has influenced the opinion. (Also assuming ALL cavalry were auxiliaries).

If he was a second/third generation citizen and wanted to be in the cavalry it would make sense to me.

[mcbishop]

I was under the impression that Celeia was in modern Slovenia (my apologies if I have got this wrong and I would appreciate being put right!)

You are right. Celje-Celeia is in Slovenia. There was (briefly) a legionary base nearby (Ločica or Lotschitz in the old literature... a case where a (name) change is as good as a mile :-) ).

But the question is, given that he has a voting tribe and perhaps from his name Romanus, was he a Roman citizen before he joined the Ala Noricorum? Is there any further information (preferably in English) I need to be looking at?

His nomen is actually Romanius, but that is neither here nor there, although it is intriguing that his tria nomina goes unmentioned in Seltzer's catalogue (he is No.87) of the stones in the Landesmuseum Mainz (he is even blazoned all over the dustjacket on my copy). It is quite a common nomen (try searching the Epigraphik-Datenbank) and I don't think there's anything about it specifically to indicate first- or second-generation citizenship, but I might be (probably am) wrong. Tib. Claudius Maximus was of course a citizen whilst serving with ala II Pannoniorum (having transferred from a legion) so there was no intrinsic reason you could not be a citizen and an auxiliary cavalryman.

One of my favourite Reiter tombstones.

Mike Bishop

[Vindex]

Thank you Mike

The translation of the stone is from the database here (which misses out his age which is why it appears in brackets!) and conflicts between Romanus and Romanius so thank you for putting that right for me.

Just been to find my own copy of Selzer and think I have ordered one. My German isn't brilliant so we'll see what appears LOL

[popularis]

But the question is, given that he has a voting tribe and perhaps from his name Romanus, was he a Roman citizen before he joined the Ala Noricorum?

I know this seems silly, but are we sure that Cl(audia) here is necessarily a voting tribe? Having a look at inscriptions from Celeia, there are five or six inscriptions which suggest that Claudia was part of the town's name (it was granted municipal status under Claudius).

e.g. CIL 03, 05183 = ILLPRON 01644 = EQNoricum-C, 00009
"I(ovi) O(ptimo) M(aximo) po[s(uerunt)] / C(aius) Bellicius / Ingenuus / IIvir Cl(audiae) Cel(eiae) / et Aurelia / Aurelia co(n)/iunx pro sa/lute sua su/orumque o/mnium".

ILLPRON 01867 = ILJug-01, 00375 = EQNoricum-C, 00035 = AE 1958, 00249 = AE 1985, 00702
"D(is) M(anibus) // C(aius) Vindonius / Successus / aed(ilis) Cl(audiae) Cel(eiae) / fec(it) sibi et / Iuliae Sex(ti) fil(iae) / Ingenuae uxori / fidelissimae an(norum) L"

I only ask because it seems odd to me that the cognomen comes after the title and unit identification (does the epigraphic text have an error in it?).

However, if it is his voting tribe, then it's probably evidence he was born a citizen, as the normal voting tribe for Celeia seems to have been Claudia. As a question from ignorance - what voting tribe did you get if you were enfranchised after service with the auxilia?

blue skies

Tom

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Doesn't seem silly to me at all and I will go and have a look at it again when I am more with it. Been a long day of editing!!