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Historical Novel question about posting
#1
My novel is set at the time of Augustus, 5AD, to be precise.

My question is this:

I have a Centurion who is badly injured in battle and is sent home to Rome to recover. Once he's pronounced fit where would he go to be reassigned to a new legion? as he can't return to his old unit.

Any help on Roman military administration in Rome would be appreciated.

Thanks.
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#2
(03-19-2020, 01:18 PM)James Ryan Writer Wrote: a Centurion who is badly injured in battle and is sent home to Rome to recover...he can't return to his old unit.

If he's that badly injured the journey would probably kill him quicker than the wound... But very few centurions or other soldiers came from Rome itself, even by the late Augustan era.

Centurions were regular soldiers, whether raised from the ranks or directly commissioned, and the legion would be their home; if they were injured, they would probably be cared for at the legion hospital (or most likely in their own quarters - centurions were wealthy men and had plenty of slaves to look after them), for however long it took them to recover. They would only leave the legion if they were transferred or invalided, in which case their fighting days would be over. There would be other officers who could deputise for those temporarily incapacitated - most legions appear to have had more centurions than centuries that needed commanding, the extra men being staff officers or other supernumerarii.

It's possible, I suppose, that a centurion might be sent away from camp for a rest cure - perhaps to a local hot spring, where he could make offerings for a speedy recovery. Dedicatory inscriptions from centurions and other soldiers are fairly common at spa bathing facilities, I believe, including my favourite Roman inscription, from Aquae Flavianae in North Africa!
Nathan Ross
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#3
Nathan Ross Wrote:It's possible, I suppose, that a centurion might be sent away from camp for a rest cure - perhaps to a local hot spring

Three inscriptions from Bath may be relevant. RIB 143 and RIB 144 are altars dedicated to the goddess Sulis by the freedmen of apparently the same centurion, Marcus Aufidius Maximus of Legio VI Victrix, for his welfare and safety. RIB 146 is an altar dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva and the divinities of the emperors by Gaius Curiatius Saturninus, centurion of Legio II Augusta.
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#4
Thanks guys, very helpful.
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