[68] The last diploma to mention children is dated 138 (cviii).
[69] Wilcken and Mitteis, Papyruskunde, no. 459. I have assumed the correctness of Wilcken’s restorations of the text, which is very corrupt in places.
[70] The phraseology of the diplomata issued to the Praetorians ‘ut etiam si peregrini iuris feminas matrimonio suo iunxerint, proinde liberos tollant ac si ex duobus civibus Romanis natos’—D. xii (76)—shows that in their case children born before their father’s discharge had always suffered under the disabilities created for the auxiliaries in the second century. The position of the legionaries is still uncertain.
[71] Such regulations would be covered by the general statement of Suetonius, Vit. Aug. 49 ‘Quidquid autem ubique militum esset, ad certam stipendiorum praemiorumque formulam adstrinxit, definitis pro gradu cuiusque et temporibus militiae et commodis missionum’. The number of the diplomata seems to tell decisively against the suggestion that they were only issued to troops who had distinguished themselves by exceptional conduct in the field.
[72] Von Dom. Sold, p. 226; id. Rangordnung, p. 68.
[73] Tac. Hist. iv. 19. The Batavian cohorts demand ‘duplex stipendium, augeri equitum numerum’. Cf. viii. 18042, where the emperor gives as a reason for the superiority of the cavalry over the mounted infantry of the cohorts, ‘equorum forma, armorum cultus pro stipendi modo.’ I do not see how von Domaszewski concludes from the first passage that the pay of the infantry was one-third that of the legionaries, i.e. 75 denarii a year. Sold, p. 225.
[74] I am assuming that the duplicarius really did receive twice the pay of the private, as his name implies, which is probable since he maintained two horses (Hyginus, 16). For the promotion of legionaries to this post cf. viii. 2354 cited below.
[75] See below, [pp. 65-7].
[76] xii. 2231 ‘[D] Decmanio Capro sub praef(ecto) equit(um) alae Agrippian(ae)’; v. Suppl. 185 ‘Ti. Iulio C. f., Fab(ia) Viatori subpraef(ecto) cohortis III Lusitanorum …’. The origin of this post may be due to Augustus’s practice of giving auxiliary regiments two praefecti, although this measure was primarily designed in the interest of officers of senatorial rank. Cf. Suet. Vit. Aug. 38 ‘binos plerumque laticlavios praeposuit singulis alis’. Von Domaszewski prefers to connect it with the early system of brigading several auxiliary regiments together under one commander; Rangordnung, p. 119.
[77] See below, [pp. 90-101].