Roman Military Beneficiarii

Овај рад има за циљ да истражи и презентује римске војне трупе које су биле стациониране на граници провинција Далмације и Горње Мезије. Географска област коју обухвата овај рад
грубо је одређена рекама Дрином и Западном Моравом, планинама Космајем и Рудником и Рашком облашћу. Наративни извори за ову тему крајње су оскудни, те је истраживање засновано пре свега на епиграфском материјалу. У том смислу, рад је допуњен Епиграфским каталогом, који има за циљ да олакша сналажење са коришћеним натписима. Рад хронолошки обухвата период Принципата, али због природе извора, фокус је на периоду после владавине цара Марка Аурелија (161-180. г. н. е.). Прво се излажу веће војне јединице, тј. кохорте, а затим вексилације и конзуларски бенефицијари.

This paper aims to research and present Roman troops stationed on the border of the provinces of Dalmatia and Moesia Superior. The geographical area encompassed by this paper is roughly defined by rivers Drina and Zapadna Morava, Kosmaj and Rudnik mountains and Raška. Narrative sources are quite scarce on this topic, therefore the research is based primarily on epigraphic material. The paper chronologically deals with the period of Principate, i.e. the first three centuries CE, but due to the nature of the sources, the focus is on the post-Marcus Aurelius period. During his reign, Marcomannic Wars (166-180 CE) coupled with devastating plague led to the upsurge of the banditry on the border of Dalmatia and Moesia Superior. These latrones were enough of trouble to warrant an intervention from Didius Julianus, then governor of Dalmatia. Furthermore, Marcus Aurelius raised new cohorts and placed them in this area. The cohorts in question were I and II Delmatarum, stationed in Užice and Čačak respectively and cohors II Aurelia nova, stationed on Kosmaj mountain. Beside those cohorts, the vexillationes were attested in Čačak and Novi Pazar. Still, most of the day-to-day security work rested on beneficiarii consulares, soldiers detached from their legions and stationed near Roman municipia, mines and important crossroads. Their objective was to secure those points and represent the governor’s rule on the local level. The need to protect this area is obvious: municipium Malvesatium, Užice, Čačak, municipium S(plonistarum), Novi Pazar, all lay on the important network of roads connecting several mining districts: Argentaria (near modern-day Srebrenica) to the west, Kosmaj and Rudnik mountains to the north and east, and Dardanian mines (in modern-day Kosovo and Metohija) to the south and east. The uninterrupted supply of silver from those mines provided the salaries for legions stationed on the limes, therefore helping protect the Roman state. At the end of this paper is an Epigraphic Catalogue, which should help the reader with the inscriptions mentioned in the text.

The epigraphical documentation from the city of Carthago Nova is scanty in regard to the Roman Army neither to the military subject. An exception to that is the epitaph erected by a beneficiarius consularis in honor of his very young wife, suddenly dead in the city before age 20. Our commentaries and critical notes are focused here in the role of the beneficiairus (from the beneficiarii) consularis, refining some published previous opinions about this tex-tual evidence.