I had a quick look through Maxfield's
Military Decorations of the Roman Army, which largely covers the Principiate, but while there's lots of detail about the various
dona, there's not much about how they were actually awarded. Both Polybius and Caesar mention the distribution of awards after battle, but not much beyond the bare note.
Under the empire, it appears that the emperor himself gave the award with his own hand (
imperatoria manu). This would be trickier in the later empire, with the increasingly sacred person of the emperor making personal contact rather more ritualised - unless the lucky awardee was being promoted to the Protectores, who I believe had the right to 'adore the purple', he probably wouldn't have been allowed to get too close to the August Person.
The only brief mention of the ceremony I can find is this, from Tertullian
de corona, probably dating to the Severan era:
Quote:while the bounty of our most excellent emperors was dispensed in the camp, the soldiers, laurel-crowned, were approaching. One of them... his head alone uncovered, the useless crown in his hand — already even by that peculiarity known to every one as a Christian — was nobly conspicuous. Accordingly, all began to mark him out, jeering him at a distance, gnashing on him near at hand. The murmur is wafted to the tribune, when the person had just left the ranks.
The tribune at once puts the question to him, Why are you so different in your attire? He declared that he had no liberty to wear the crown with the rest. Being urgently asked for his reasons, he answered, I am a Christian... Then the case was considered and voted on; the matter was remitted to a higher tribunal; the offender was conducted to the prefects.
The 'higher tribunal' would presumably be the seat of the emperor(s) - so the laurel-crowned soldiers were approaching this tribunal from the ranks in order to receive their 'bounty' (
dona?). The murmur-hearing tribune would perhaps be the commanding officer of the men's unit - perhaps indeed he would represent them to the emperors, calling out their names and the nature of their brave deed; the men might then either step up to the tribunal themselves for the emperor to decorate them in person, or (more likely in the later era, perhaps?), the emperor would hand the
dona to a subordinate, who would pass it to the tribune who in turn would present it to the deserving soldier.
Presumably quite a lavish ceremony, whatever the actual arrangements may have been. It probably varied between emperors though - Julian, who Ammianus describes as giving traditional
dona in Persia, may have been rather more relaxed about personal contact with his men, since he was consciously trying to revive 'ancient' practices...
