The End of the Primus Pilus

[Nathan Ross]

At some point in the third century, it seems that the Primus Pilus lost his military role and turned into some kind of glorified tax collector. Ross Cowan (Imperial Roman Legionary AD161-284, p12-13) notes the first evidence of the tax in 213, and implies that the last known military Primus Pilus (Sattonius Iucundus) served in 253. By 286, Cowan claims, the role had become hereditary and non-military.

So what happened to the role the Primus Primus once played in the legions of the principiate? Quite an important one, after all, as both the senior centurion in the legion and the bridge between the centurionate and the equestrian tribunates and procuratorships.

I can think of a few suggestions, but I'm unsure which, if any, are most likely:

1. The 'new' legions were much smaller, and no longer supported the hierarchy of centurions that would require a Primus Pilus at their head. But - I believe these 'new' legions date to rather later than the disappearance of the role...

2. The role continued, but under a different name - princeps, perhaps? Or could the names of all the centurions have changed around this time, to those listed here on Fectio - centenarius, primicerius, and so on? But - again, this change seems to have occured at a somewhat later date...

3. The mid-third-century Corps of Protectores took over as the principal promotion mechanism for centurions. Deserving or well-connected men were taken into the protectores, served for a while, and were then promoted directly to equestrian status and command of a 'new' legion as Praefectus Legionis. Actually, if we assume these 'new' legions to be of only c1000 men, they wouldn't be much larger than the old double-strength first cohort commanded by the Primus Pilus...

:-?

- Nathan

[Doc]

Interesting transformation. However, was not a recent thread resurrected about the primus pilus suggesting that it may not be a person rather a unit or file....i.e. first file not first spear? So if the primus pilus had a change in position it suggests that the title was bestowed on one person. You would not have an entire unit becoming tax collectors. Maybe primus pilus is the title given to the centurion of the first file; first century (file) of the first cohort. This person was probably high on the administrative level that going from the field to tax collector was not a far stretch.

[Vindex]

Blimey - this is FAR too difficult to start with on a Sunday morning!!

Off to think about it for a while...with a strong cup of coffee...

[Nathan Ross]

Interesting transformation. However, was not a recent thread resurrected about the primus pilus suggesting that it may not be a person rather a unit or file....i.e. first file not first spear?

Yeah, I think the point of that one was that the term could refer to a unit or group as well as their commander - it was certainly a title of rank though. It just didn't have anything to do with spears (probably...)

Blimey - this is FAR too difficult to start with on a Sunday morning!!

Sorry Moi! Although to be fair, it was still the heady intellectual fervour of Saturday afternoon when I posted it! :grin:

[Vindex]

That's ok...I did realise that AFTER my caffeine hit! :wink:

[Robert Vermaat]

2. The role continued, but under a different name - princeps, perhaps? Or could the names of all the centurions have changed around this time, to those listed here on Fectio - centenarius, primicerius, and so on? But - again, this change seems to have occurred at a somewhat later date...

I can clarify this possibility with a negative. Oddly enough, while the ranks in the 'new' units changed (e.g. ordinarius or biarchus), the old-style units continued with the ranks (centurio and decurio) that had existed for centuries. As far as we know, these systems continued next to each other until at least the 6th century: a papyrus describes an old-style cohort commanded by a tribunus, eight senior officers including the adiutor (regimental clerk), the primicerius, six ordinarii and six others, probably the centuriones.

[Nathan Ross]

a papyrus describes an old-style cohort commanded by a tribunus, eight senior officers including the adiutor (regimental clerk), the primicerius, six ordinarii and six others, probably the centuriones.

That's interesting, thanks. Do we have any idea what the earliest dated use of these new ranks might be? I remember some controversy about primicerius, I think - was it usually a civil rather than military rank, or confined to certain units, or something?

[Robert Vermaat]

Do we have any idea what the earliest dated use of these new ranks might be?

Reference begins in the 320s and becomes universal soon after. This continues until after Justinian's reign, when most Latin names are translated into Greek. (Rance, Philip (2007b): Campidoctores Vicarii vel Tribuni: The Senior Regimental Officers of the Late Roman Army and the Rise of the Campidoctor, in: Ariel S. Lewin and Pietra Pellegrini (eds.) (2007): The Late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest, p. 396-7)

I remember some controversy about primicerius, I think - was it usually a civil rather than military rank, or confined to certain units, or something?

Primicerius is, with tribunus, vicarius and campidoctor, one of the few mentioned in both old as well as new styled units. I'm not sure where it originated.

[Nathan Ross]

Reference begins in the 320s and becomes universal soon after.

Thanks Robert. Again, rather later than the apparent disappearance of the Primus Pilus, so the two might not be explicitly connected...

Tom Wrobel (popularis) has pointed me back in the direction of Brian Dobson. Dobson's essay The Primipilares in Army and Society (Kaisar, Heer and Gesellschaft, 2000) has the following, in relation to 'the gradual change from praefectus castrorum legionis to praefectus legionis:

It was important that Severus chose to find commanders for his three Parthian legions from the ranks of the primipilares, on the model of the legion(s) in Egypt. Although all the legions seem to have received prefect-commanders, who were still primipilares, under Gallienus, some time before the end of the century, the link between primipili/primipilares and military service was broken, as the primipilaris became the administrator of the tax known as the primipilum. This development had its roots earier, but consideration of this must be left to another occasion.

The note to this last point directs 'for some discussion' to J.M. Carrie in ZPE 35, 1979 - although I have no idea who this author is or what ZPE might be!

However, the simultaneous disappearance of the primus pilus and the metamorphosis of the praefectus castrorum into the praefectus legionis (equestrian commander of the legion) around the time of Gallienus might perhaps support my third suggestion above: at a time when senatorial legates were being withdrawn, and legions were increasingly operating in smaller and more mobile vexillations, might the protectores have acted as a mechanism for cherrypicking capable and loyal centurions and boosting them into command positions without their having to serve through all the ranks of the centurionate and arrive at primus pilus at a relatively advanced age? There are, I believe, a couple of inscriptions describing precisely this movement.

The old primus pilus position, then, effectively took over the former supply and logistics role of the praefectus castrorum, before being moved entirely out of the military sphere and into civilian life. The prestige of the position, and equestrian membership, was maintained, with the added bonus of hereditary tenure - initially, maybe, a sop to the pride of the old veteran centurions!

[D B Campbell]

The note to this last point directs 'for some discussion' to J.M. Carrie in ZPE 35, 1979 - although I have no idea who this author is or what ZPE might be!

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20185743

[Nathan Ross]

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20185743

Ah, thanks Duncan! German title, French text - should have guessed! :-)

It did allow me to locate the Clive Foss essay, upon which M. Carrie is commenting, which in turn gave me some grounding in what Carrie might be saying... He appears to date the 'militarisation' of the titles of civil servants to the reign of Aurelian, with primipili coming in as the heads of departments. Not sure if there's any particular crossover with the former military rank, or what might have happened to the latter in the meantime.

'Bryonianus Jasonianus' (from the Foss essay) is one of the stranger Roman names I've seen though! hock:

[Aussum]

Nathan,

Another question related to this, did the reduction in role of the primus pilus
also correspond to a reduction in status and size of the First Cohort? Did it
become just another cohort that could be vexillated or did it become the "home"
cohort that never left base?

Austin