04-10-2014, 12:29 PM
Quote:the idea that the name (auxilia) leads to an origin of the troops (non-citizens) is therefore a huge leap that I'm unwilling to risk.
You're right, of course, that there's no hard evidence, and the sole known natus for a soldier of the Cornuti (for example) is Singidunum in Roman Dacia (AE 1977, 00806), with the man in question being enlisted c.AD329.
However. I don't think it's such a huge leap that the origin of the auxilia palatina as a body lay in non-citizen recruitment. Why else would they be called by that name? Every other reference to auxiliaries (as far as I know) connotes non-citizen troops.
As I say, Roman citizens were found in these units relatively soon (the cornutus Flavius Aemilianus, above, being one of them) - but unless they had their roots in non-citizen formations, perhaps of the tetrarchic era, why would they be called auxilia?
Nathan Ross