01-11-2013, 07:58 PM
Quote:Tribunus militum as a praetorian commander: do you have a reference for this? I'd expect tribunus cohortis x praetoriae.Fully correct, thats what I expeceted, too. But, if I remember right, I have read the short term Tribunus Militum naming a praetorian tribune, if it is absolutely clear from context, that he is a praetorian. However, perhaps I myself or one of the authors I have read about this subject lately (Domaszewski, Dobson, Breeze, Bohec, Speidel, ...) mixed something up.
Quote:In general, cohorts of Roman citizens had tribunes in command.I have to admit, that I am less firm about republican armies. For me a cohors voluntiarium c.R. in imperial times is nothing else than an auxila made from roman citizens from a tactical point of view. The issue of this thread is, who commanded the 10 cohorts of a regular legion and a cohors c.R. belongs not to a legion. So unfortunately the fact, that the cohors c.R as the auxilia was lead by praefects and tribunes doesn't help much.
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Some of these cohorts (Cohors VI uoluntarionum, etc.) were still commanded by tribunes (Purtisius Atinas, ILJug. 2) - although others, such as the cohors Apula (C. Fabricius Tuscus, AE 1973, 501), were commanded by prefects.
Looking to vexillationes, things were even worse in very early empire. During his campaign in the Alps Augustus had to split legions into big vexillationes in order to take several routes thru the alps. The problem was, that a vexillatio of roman citizens, which is supposed to fight (not just move) had the need of a commander who is a (ex-)magistrate elected by the people of Rome. So just some of the higher tribunes were that experienced.
Later emperors dealt more flexibly with that issue, than the rather traditional and cautious Augustus in his early years as a princeps.
Quote:Minor quibble: you can't really generalise about the pre-Flavian equestrian cursus, it's all very fluid.
Fully correct, things were different from Augustus to Claudius, from Claudius to Vespasian and from Vespasian on. It even becomes more complex, if you add the career of the primipiles, which also needed time to evolve. My intent was not to generalise, but a short answer to Macedons question, if there were tribune ranks. Of course you can write a 200 page book just about the equestrian career, and some guys did.
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas