A Roman Bronze Military Diploma Fragment for Auxiliaries in Syria

Circa 114-140 A.D.

Width 3.8 cm (1 1/2 inches).

Provenance:

David John MacDonald (1943-2025; Ancient Numismatist and Illinois State University Professor of History from 1971-2005), Carlock, Illinois.

Published:

W. Eck, D. MacDonald, and A. Pangerl, "Neue Diplome für die Auxilien Syriens aus dem Zeitraum 114 bis 140," Chiron, Iss. 32, 2002, fig. 6, pp. 438-441.

Translation:

The Emperor Caesar Hadrian Augustus, chief priest (pontifex maximus), in possession of tribunician power …, consul for the third time, …, to the cavalrymen and infantrymen who have served in the alae and cohorts, which are called …, and the First Ulpia Dacorum and … and the … archers, and the Second Classica archers, and … and the Fourth Cohort of the Callaeci Lucenses, and …, who are stationed in Syria under ….]

From the infantryman …, son of Staius, (something like PIT? may be a fragment of a cognomen), and …, his son, and …, his son/daughter.

Copied and checked from the bronze tablet which is fixed at Rome on the wall behind the temple of the Divine Augustus near Minerva.

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Mr. Coley joined the Antiquities department in 2021 after working as Managing Director in the Ancient Art department at Colnaghi, the world’s oldest commercial art gallery, where he helped to establish the Ancient Art department and launched Colnaghi New York in 2017. Prior to Colnaghi, Mr. Coley was in the Greek and Roman Art department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Coley holds a B.A. from the University of Miami and an M.A. in Art Market from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and he earned an art-appraisal certificate from New York University.

Antiquities and Ancient Art: Including Property from the Estates of Andrew C. Ware and Iris C. Love

A Roman Bronze Military Diploma Fragment for Auxiliaries in Syria

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