Military Diploma (T.Duk.inv. 2)

Images

150 dpi image of T.Duk.inv. 2

Catalogue Record

Title: Military Diploma, A.D. 209

Author: Septimius Severus, Emperor of Rome 193-212

Subject: An honorable discharge is granted to sailor who has served
 28 years in the fleet based at Misenum. The text is dated in the consulships
 of Aurellius Commodus Pompeianus, a grandson of the emperor Marcus Aurelius
 and Avitus (his second consulship), probably L. Hedius Rufus Lollianus Avitus.
 The Prefect of the Fleet is Claudius Diognetus.

Material: Bronze tablet incised.

Description: Originally 18.5 c. high and 14.5 cm. wide and ranging in
 thickness from 1.5 to 2.5 mm. The tablet is now missing its lower left-hand
 corner. One large fragment and a smaller one which joins at the left middle
 of the tablet. Inscribed on both surfaces with a partial copy on the interior
 surface; both surfaces have suffered abrasion and most of the inner text is
 not readable. The outer surface is readable for the most part where extant,
 but has suffered damage in the lower part.

Descriptive database available in repository.

Acquired by purchase for the Special Collections Library in 1972.

Publication: John F. Oates, "A Sailor's Discharge and the Consuls of A.D. 209,"
Phoenix 30 (1976) 282-287.  See also M. Roxan, Roman Military Diplomas
1954-1977 (London 1978) no. 73.

Descriptive database available in repository.

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