a soldiers story

[TITVS PVLLO]

anyone know of a first hand description of a roman legionaries military experience from enlistment to discharge,a chronological order of events starting from enlistment to discharge,minute details would be nice

[Praefectusclassis]

Hi Salvatore,
Sadly our records almost never allow such minute reconstructions. Extensive career inscriptions are rare. Papyri sometimes provide the minute details you'd like, but never span a full career.

[Uwe Bahr]

Salve Salvatore,

may-be the best summary of a special soldier's career and military actions is the tombstone of TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS MAXIMUS. Well-known to us as the man who caught the Dacian king Decebalus.

He started his career as legionary infantryman, later changed to a cavalry ala and was promoted up to decurio. All is summarized by Peter Connolly in his two books:

[url:2oatq6gt]http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0199104255/ref=sib_dp_pt/202-7576415-9118232#reader-link[/url]

[url:2oatq6gt]http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0199104247/ref=sib_dp_pt/202-7576415-9118232#reader-link[/url]

You can find his fine tombstone in Jasper's excellent image database:

[url:2oatq6gt]http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/option,com_imagebase/task,view/cid,121/Itemid,94/[/url]

The stone shows the incident that was the highlight in his career; the same does this image on Traian's column:

[url:2oatq6gt]http://cheiron.mcmaster.ca/~trajan/images/hi/3.38.h.jpg[/url]

Greets - Uwe

[Tarbicus]

Kate Gilliver pointed this one out (Spurius Ligustinus):
link from old RAT

There are also firsthand accounts in the letters discussed here (Claudius Terentianus):
link from old RAT

Not as detailed as I think you're after, but as good as it gets.

[Praefectusclassis]

Those letters are indeed some of the glimpses one can catch from the life of Roman soldiers, but they do not describe complete careers.

[Tarbicus]

True. But you could take both of the main correspondents, Terentianus and Tiberianus together, and get a glimpse of both miltary and everyday life in the same province at the same time, from pre-enlistment to post-retirement as speculator.

[Praefectusclassis]

Certainly!

[D B Campbell]

anyone know of a first hand description of a roman legionaries military experience from enlistment to discharge

The inscriptions tend to be for promoted men, like Tib. Claudius Maximus. We never get that level of detail for ordinary legionaries (afaik).