Cohort commander?

[Macedon]

So, no commanders of legionary cohorts! :wink:

Well... as I admitted I am no expert on Roman military details, so I really do not know whether a praetorian legion counts as normal or what peculiarities it exhibited throughout the centuries but it seems that my decision to look into the speirae has produced some interesting results.

Contrary to the word "coorti" we have many instances of "speirae" to be able to produce sounder conclusions.

What crops up most often is some rank called in Greek "eparchos", which usually means governor (so it seems to be a direct translation of "praefectus", which is something very common for Greeks trying to translate Roman ranks) but here it certainly is the leader of a speira. The word praefect also often (not as often) appears (as in the example I brought forth in this epigraph from Massilia). Another rank also appears some very limited times called "speirarchos" which would be a direct, easy way to call someone "leader of a speira", a term that may be colloquial Greek.

So, it seems that the speirae were commanded by :

praefectoi
eparchoi (the Greek translation of praefectus)
speirarchoi (Greek word meaning "leaders of speirae")

all three of course being one and the same thing.

Yet, apart from the chiliarchos part which also appears, albeit seldomly, also in connection to speirae, there is another rank that crops up in relation with the speira, that of the praepositos, twice linked with the speira and a number of times independent of it as in an ile or a legion and I am inclined to believe that it was not a commanding rank but some honorary position.

So, whatever this speira is, it was commanded by a praefectus who in Greek was also called eparchos or speirarchos. But is it certain that a speira is a cohort? I actually found some bilingual epigraphs in both Latin and Greek (like the stele of Rosetta...), where the Roman term is indeed coh(ortis) and the Greek translation speira.

Regions : Northern Greece (IG X) : Macedonia
IG X,2 2 309 Previous Inscription IG X,2 2 308 IG X,2 2 310 Next Inscription
Makedonia (Derriopos) — Pašino Ruvci — 112/113 AD — CIL III 7318 — Dimitsas, He Makedonia 267 + 270 — Spomenik 71 (1931) 178, 468

[D]is Manibus #⁹⁰⁰
[T(itus) Flav]ịus Capiton mil(es) coh(ortis)
[Hispa]ne(n)s(is) ∙ XIII mil(i)tavit ∙ an(n)is ∙ II
[vixit] an(n)is ∙ XXV ∙ fecit T(itus) Flavius
[Her]mas l(ibertus) ex textamento {²⁶testamento}²⁶.

ἔτος {²anaglyphum}² ξσʹ
Θεοῖς Δαίμοσιν #⁹⁰⁰
[Τ(ίτου) Φ]λ̣αουίου Καπίτωνος
[σ]τρατιώτου σπείρης ∙ ιγ̣ʹ
[Ἱσ]π̣ανῆς, ἐστράτευσε̣[ν ἔτ]-
[εσι δ]υ̣σίν, ἔζησεν ἔτεσι [εἴκο]-
[σι πέντ]ε̣· Ἑρμᾶς κατ[ὰ] δ̣[ια]-
[θήκην]. vacat

Now, an interesting fact I came across was that I found no speira (cohort) numbered over 6.. Any insight? Shouldn't there be 10 cohorts in a legion? When looking for latin inscriptions, I think that there are multiple with numbers greater than 6 but I unfortunately cannot check them...

Finally, regarding the legionary cohorts, I will name some of the legions in the epigraphs and you can look into them :

eparchos of the 1st speira of the Apamenoi of the 3rd Gallic legion

chiliarchos of the 1st speira of the Ulpia Petraea legion

chiliarchos of the 1st speira miliaria Spanon

eparchos of the 1st speira of legion Flavia

eparchos of the 2nd speira of legion Claudia

eparchos of the 5th speira of legion Gordiana

eparchos of the 6th speira of Praetoria

chiliarchos of the 4th speira of the Raetoi

These are some of the examples and there are also multiple instances of cavalry speirae, also often numbered.



Not knowing Latin, I just looked for the terms in question and here are some results. What do you make of these ?

1. Corinth 8,3 135
Saronic Gulf, Corinthia, and the Argolid (IG IV) : Korinthia

C(aio) Caelio C(ai)
fil(io) Ouf(entina) Martiali, praef(ecto)
coh(ortis) I Raetorum quae tendit
in Raetia, trib(uno) leg(ionis) XIII Gem(inae) quae

2. Taşliklioğlu II:86,14
Thrace and Moesia Inferior

[— — — — — — — — — — —]
[praef(ecto) coh(ortis) — —]
[e]q̣[uit(atae), praef(ecto) coh(ortis) I {²⁷II(?)}²⁷ Chalci]-
denoru[m, praef(ecto) alae]
I Panno[n]ịọ[rum, praef(ecto)]
vehiculorum [Imp(eratoris) Cae]-

3. IScM V 36
Scythia Minor

Venustus
praef(ectus) coh(ortis) I Ger(manorum)
coniugi piis-

4. IDR II 641
Dacia

[— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —]
[pr]aef(ecto) coh(ortis) [— — — — — — — — —]
[tr]ib(uno) coh(ortis) I (miliariae) [— — —]
praef(ecto) al(ae) [— — — — — — — — — — —]
proc(uratori) Au[g(usti) — — — — — — — — —]

5. IDR III,1 11
Dacia

Q(uintus) Petro[nius]
Novatus [praef(ectus)]
coh(ortis) V Gal[l(orum) v(otum) p(osuit)(?)].

M(arco) Ulp(io) Gem[ellino]
praef(ecto) coh(ortis) II [Fl(aviae) Com(magenorum)(?)]
q(uin)q(uennali) IIvir(o) qu[aestor(i)]

6. Ephesos 1189
Ionia: Ephesos

M(arco) Gavio P(ublii) filio Palatina Basso
Romae praef(ecto) coh(ortis) VI Britt(onum) eq(uitatae) P(iae) F(idelis), trib(uno)
mil(itum) leg(ionis) I adiutric(is), adlecto in dec(urias) V inter
selectos, praef(ecto) eq(uitatae) alae Cl(audiae) novae, donis donato
bello Dacico ab Imp(eratore) Caesare Nerva Traiano
Aug(usto) Germanico Dacico corona murali hasta
[p]ura vexillo, praef(ecto) orae Ponticae maritimae.
Μ(άρκῳ) Γαου[ί]ῳ Π(οπλίου) υἱῶι Παλατεί̣να Βάσσωι, Ῥώμης

7. Ephesos 1305
Ionia: Ephesos

ae et Cariae, tribuno
cohort(is) VI civium
Romanorum, praef(ecto)
cohortis secundạẹ
Hispaniorum

8. Gerasa 173
Arabia: Gerasa

Poblilia Firm[o]
trib(uno) coh(ortis) XXVI vol(untariorum),
trib(uno) mil(itum) leg(ionis) X P(iae) F(idelis),
praef(ecto)
alae Silianae bis torq(uatae),

9. I.Messina 147,XI
Sicily, Sardinia, and neighboring Islands

Gal(eria) ∙ Iuncinus
praef(ectus) ∙ fabr(um) ∙ praef(ectus)
coh(ortis) ∙ IIII ∙ Raetorum
trib(unus) ∙ milit(um) ∙ leg(ionis) ∙ XXII
Deiotarianae
praef(ectus) ∙ alae ∙ Astyrum
praef(ectus) ∙ vehiculorum
iuridicus ∙ Aegypti.

10.

Exoratus
praef(ectus) coh(ortis)
V Lucens(ium)

So, Greek epigraphy clearly follows the Latin one. tribunus cohortis is rendered chiliarchos speiras/coortis, praefectus cohortis is rendered eparchos/praefectos speiras.

Regarding the tribunus issue, I saw that normally, when the rank is given independently of a cohort it is given as tribunus militum legionis (although a number of times I found it as tribunus legionis). In contrast, when linked with a cohort, it is always tribunus cohortis and never (as far as I checked) tribunus militum cohortis. Do you think that these might be different ranks/positions?