Late Roman Army Grade/Rank List under Anastasius

[Nathan Ross]

A nice article that floated by yesterday

I saw that yesterday too - must have been doing the rounds!

the papyrus is signed by the acturarius of the unit, but countersigned by the eight (!) senior officers (priores) of the unit. The only literate being the ordinarius et auditor.

I think the 8 priores are from the other papyrus mentioned in the paper - P.Munich 2 from AD578. The one under discussion, from 514, just has the actuarius doing everything; it also seems to concern a cavalry unit (the Mauri Scutarii).

Again, it's interesting to see just how long these ranks and titles from the later principiate endured!

any idea who these 8 priores were? Do they fit with our current view of the unit?

If we go with Francis's theory above that the 20 ordinarii of the Perge unit were divided into priores and posteriores - and it does seem that there must have been some sort of 10/10 division or difference within them, based on the numbers of standard bearers - then maybe these 8 could be the number of priores remaining in a slightly reduced unit (the other two on detachment, or otherwise missing)?