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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
The Milites Stationarii of the Empire have not succeeded in attracting the attention of archæologists. Kellermann does not mention them, though the force of which he specially treated bore unquestionable affinity to these milites, and the scope of his work took in every other form of the soldiery of the Empire. Cardinali, Grotefend, Zell, and Dr. William Smith, observe the same silence.
page 299 note 1 Vigilum Romanorum Latercula duo Caeliniontana magnam partem militiae Romanae explicantia. Romae. 1835.
page 299 note 2 Memorie Romane.
page 299 note 3 Grotefend in Pauly's Real-Encyclopädie, under the word ‘legio’.
page 299 note 4 Handbuch der Römischen epigraphik. Zweite theil, p. 301.
page 299 note 5 Classical Dictionary. Statio (castra) and statio (fisci) are the only references.
page 299 note 6 ‘Igitur grassaturas, dispositis per opportuna loca stationibus, inhibuit.’ (Suet, in D. Aug.)
page 300 note 1 Imprimis tuendae pacis a grassaturis ac latrociniis seditionumque licentia curam habuit. Stationes militum per Italiam solito frequentiores disposuit.” (Suet, in Tib.)
page 300 note 2 The passages are quoted post.
page 300 note 3 In his Ecclesiastical History.
page 300 note 4 See the quotation post in note.
page 300 note 5 Acta sincera Martyrum, by Ruinart, edit. Ratisbon, 1859.
page 300 note 6 See post in note.
page 300 note 7 For the inscription on the wall of Saepinum see post.
page 300 note 8 See Seivert, Inscriptiones monumentorum Romanorum in Dacia Mediterranea. Viennae 1773. Insc. 217. This book is not in the British Museum. I quote Massman's, J. F. Libellus Aurarius, p. 11Google Scholar . The inscription is ‘Milites ex Statione.’)
page 300 note 9 It is true that a graffito has been found at Pompeii with the words ‘Cresoens stationarius’ (Garrucci, Graffiti di Pompeii, p. 95), but this may refer to a fiscal officer.
page 300 note 10 Other functionaries came under the like name of milites, e.g. the agentes in rebus. This was the general appellation of all the various grades of officials employed in, and upon the business of, the vast Home Office of the empire. (Zell, Anleitung zur Kentniss der Romischen Inschriften, p. 262.) S. Augustin (Confess, lib. ix. c. 8) speaking of his friend Evodius, says, ‘Qui, cum agens in rebus militaret, prior nobis ad te conversus est et baptizatus, et relicta militia saeculari adcinctus in tua.’ So also, ib. lib. viii. c. 6, he says, ‘Et relicta militia saeculari servire tibi. Erant autem ex eis quos dicunt agentes in rebus.’
page 301 note 1 Dig. xi. 4, 4: ‘Stationarii fngitivos depreliensos ree in custodia retinent.’
In the Acta Martyrum, the stationarii apprehend Montanus and his companions and take them to their lock-up. (Ruinart, p. 275.) ‘Igitur apprehensis nobis ot apud regionantes (i.e. stationarios, see post) in custodia constitutis.’ Am. Marcellinus (xxviii. 6. 27) tells us how one Palladius having been arrested commits suicide in the lock-up (‘in statione prirnis tenebris observata custodum absentia,’ &c.)
page 301 note 2 The action of the centurion is illustrated by the following narrative preserved in Eusebius. (H. E. from the Apology of S. Justus, lib. iv. c. 17.) A man of bad character, who had been repudiated by his wife, in revenge formally accused her of being a Christian, bflt afterwards dropped his proceedings and persuaded a centurion of stationarii to apprehend S. Ptolemaeus, who had converted her. Ptolemaeus is subsequently interrogated and committed by this centurion. He is tried before the praeses and condemned. See also Ruinart, p. 101.
We find in one instance that a beneficiarius commits; ‘Cassander beneficiarius hoc scripsit,’ that is, drew up the notoria, or commitment. Acta SS. Σgapes, Chioniae, Irenes, &c. (Ruinart, p. 424.)
The full expression in this case is beneficiarius centurionis, or sub-officer acting for the centurion. So in the ‘Latercula Vigilum’ of Kellermann we find mentioned beneficiarius praefecti, beneficiarius svbpraefecti, beneficiarius tribuni, beneficiarius centurionis. The beneficiarius was distinct from and superior to the secutor or mere orderly. The same Latercula mention a secutor tribuni, as well as a beneficiarius tribuni.
Zell (vol. ii. p. 305) says, ‘Es sind darunter begriffen (i.e. amongst the milites principals) für den feld dienst, die optiones und beneficiarii, stellvertreter und gehilfen, (leutenants und adjutanten) der obern offizier-stellen; die stiindigen ordonanzen (beneficiarii, secutores.)’
page 301 note 3 Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, in his letter to Fabianus, (Euseb. H. E. lib. vi. c. 41,) says that Xemesion, an Egyptian, had been charged before the centurion (έκατογτύρχψ) with being the companion and associate of thieves. This charge broke down. The centurion, however, committed him for trial as being a Christian.
page 301 note 4 As to searching see Ammianus Marcellinus, xxi. 3. 6. Vadomarus, a German chief in collusion with Constantius, attacks the German border, in order to keep Julian employed there. Vadomarus sends a secretary (or confidential person) to Constantius to give information. The stationarii intercept this man, as one travelling without an apparent object, search him, and find upon him the chiefs letter to Constantius.
page 302 note 1 Dig. xlviii. c. 3. 6. ‘Sed et caput mandatorum extat, quod Divus Pius, quum provinciae Asiae praeerat, sub edicto proposuit, ut irenarchae, quum apprehenderint latrones, interrogent eos de sociis et receptatoribus,’ etc.
page 302 note 2 ‘Tune attentantur numerosis durisque cruciatibus per stationarium militem.’ (Passio Jacobi, Mariani, et aliorum plurimorum martyrum iu Numidia, p. 270, Ruinart. What the stationarii sought by the question is declared by Ammianus Marcellinus, Hist. lib. xxii. 16, 23. ‘Et nulla tormentorum vis inveniri adhuc potuit, quae obdurato illius tractus latroni invito elicere potuit, ut nomen proprium dicat.’
page 302 note 3 Passim in the Acta Martyrum: In the Acta SS. Saturnini, Dativi, et aliorum plurimorum in Africa (p. 415, Ruinart), certain holy men being apprehended by the stationarii in a private house are (p. 41G) sent on to Carthage, and are there handed over, ‘ad officium Annulini tune proconsulis.’ Those officials put them into the common gaol, and they are afterwards brought up by the officium at the trial (ab officio proconsulis offeruntur). So in the Acta SS. Didymi et Theodorae Virginis (p. 428, Ruinart). ‘In civitatc Alexandria Proculus, cum sedisset pro tribunali, dixit, Vocate Theodoram virginem. Ex officio dictum est: adsistit Theodora.’ In the Acta SS. Martyrum Fructuosi episcopi, Augurii et Eulogii diaconorum (Ruinart, p. 265), ‘Aemilianus praeses dixit: Fructuosum episcopum Augurium et Eulogium intromittite. Ex officio dictum est: Adstant.’
There is an essential difference between career and custodia, as I have before mentioned. Career is the prison to which persons were sent on their being committed.
So in the ‘Passio SS. Epipodii et Alexandri,’ (Ruinart, p. 121.) ‘Itaque captos etiam ante dis-cussionem career accepit, quia manifesti putabatur criminis nomen esse ipsa appellatio Christiana.’
So also in the ‘Passio SS. Perpetuae et Felicitatis cum sociis earum’ (ib. p. 138), the Christians were apprehended (apprehensi sunt), and after a few days' detention were sent to the career (post paucos dies recipimur in carcerem).
The career was situated in the civitas or chief town of each territorium, and was under the charge of the decurions of such civitas.
In the ‘Acta SS. Martyrum Claudii, Asterii, et aliorum,’ (Ruinart, p. 309,) the praeses says:—“Offerantur decretioni meae Christiani, qui traditi sunt curialibus hujus civitatis ab officio.’
Again in Paulus's sentences, edited by Arndt, tit. vi. 2, s. 4, we find the municipal magistrates are charged with the custody of all criminals committed for trial, and are bound to hand them over to the officium of the praeses for production when the trial is fixed. They consequently must have kept them in a prison of their own. The words are ‘Magistratus municipales ad officium praesidis provinciae vel proconsulis comprehensos recte transmittunt.’
page 303 note 1 S. Augustin. in epis. 159: ‘Circumcelliones illos, et clericos partis Donati, quos ad judicium pro factis eorum publicae disciplinae cura deduxerat, &c.’ Idem in epis. 159: ‘Qui non accusantibus nostris, sed illorum notoria, ad quos tuendae publicae pacis vigilantia pertinebat, presentari videantur oxamini. Cod. Theod. 16, 2, 31: “Si quis in hoc genus sacrilegii proruperit, ut, in Ecclesias Catholicas irruens, sacerdotibus et ministris vel ipso cultui locoque aliquid inportet injuriae, quod geritur, literis ordinum, magistratuum, et curatorum, et notoriis apparitorum (quos stationarios appellant) deferatur in notitiam potestatum, &c”. In the Acta of SS. Agape, Chionia et Irene (Ruinart, pp. 244 et seqq.) we find a notoria recited: “Cum praesideret Dulcetius, Artemensis scriba dixit: cognitionem de his qui praesentes sunt a stationario missam, si jubes, legam. Jubeo, inquit Dulcetius praeses, te legere. Tune ait scriba, Ordine tibi meo Domino omnia, quae scripta sunt, recitabo; Cassander beneficiarius hoc scripsit. Scito, mi domine, Agathonem, Agapen, Chioniam, Irenem, Casiam, Philippam, et Eutychiam nolle his vesci, quae diis sunt immolata. Eas igitur ad tuam amplitudinem adducendas esse curavi.”
page 303 note 2 Dig. xlviii. c. 3. 1: “Sed et caput mandatorum extat, quod Divus Pius, quum provinciae Asiac praeerat, sub edicto proposuit, ut irenarchae, quum apprehenderint latrones, interrogent eos de sociis et receptatoribus, et interrogationes literis inclusas atque obsignatas ad cognitionem magistrates mittant.” This speaks only of interrogating the criminal and taking his answers. In many or most cases there must have been other evidence, and these depositions would be transmitted along with the rest. The word “cognitio,” as applied (in previous note) to the investigation made by the centurion, can only have this more extended meaning. So S. Cypriani, epis. 48: “Et urgentibus fratribus imminebat cognitionis dies, quo apud nos causa ejus ageretur.”
page 303 note 3 As to the circuits of the praeses see the Theodosian Code, i. tit. 7, and Godefroye's paratitlon (de officio rectoris provinciae)—“certo anni tempore civitates provinciae obire debebant (i.e. the praesides) atque in his locis, quibus praesto esse possent omnibus, sedem constituere, provincialiumque querelas excipere.” See also ib. c. iv. Cassiodorus speaks of it as the old law and custom of the Empire. Var. v. 14, and calls the circuits “discursus judicum.”
In Eusebius, His. Ecc. lib. v. c. 1, S. Pothinus is kept in prison until the coming of the praeses.
In Acta SS. Martyruin Claudii, Asterii, et aliorum, Ruinart, p. 309, in note: Onmesque vincti in carcerem trusi sunt, usque ad adventum proconsulis Lydiae. Cum autem proconsul circumiret provinciam, factum est ut perveniret ad iEgeam, ubi sedens,” &c. The Acta SS. Martyrum Tarachi, Probi, et Andronici, illustrate this fully. (Ib. 452 et seqq.) Numerianus Maximus, the praeses, is found sitting at Tarsus, then at Liscia, and afterwards at Anazaria, all cities of his province. The old classic word conventus even was retained, “Statute forensi conventu.” Acta proconsularia Martyrum Scillitanorum. (Ib. p. 131.)
page 304 note 1 Cod. Just. ix. 4. 1: “In quacunque causa reo exhibito, sive accusator exstat, sive eum publicae solicitudinis cura produxerit,” &c.
As may be easily supposed, people were very glad to push, off upon the stationarii the disagreeable task of prosecuting. A law of Diocletian and Maximian prohibits this. (Cod. Just. ix. 2. 8.) “Si quis so injuriam ab aliquo passuni putaverit, et querelam deferre voluerit, non ad stationarios decurrat, sed praesidialem adeat potestatem, aut libellos offerens, aut querelas suas apud acta deponens.”
page 304 note 2 See ante, in note.
page 304 note 3 Dig. xlviii. c. 3, 6: “Igitur, qui cum elogio mittuntur, ex integro audiendi sunt, etsi per literas, missi fuei'int, vel etiam per irenarchas producti.” Ib. “Et ideo quum quis ἀνἁχρτισιν fecerit, juberi oportet venire irenarcham, et quod scripserit exsequi, et si diligenter ac fideliter hoc fecerit, collaudandum eum, si parum prudenter, non exquisitis argumentis, simpliciter denotare, irenarcham minus retulisse. Sed si quid maligne interrogasse, aut non dicta retulisse pro dictis eum compererit, ut vindicet in exemplum, ne quid et aliud postea tale facere moliatur.” So in Cod. Just. lib. xii. tit. 22 (Constantius, A.D. 355): “Curiosi, et stationarii, vel quicunque funguutur hoc munere, crimina judicibus nuntianda meminerint, et sibi necessitatem probationis incumbere, non citra periculum sui, si insontibus cos calumnias nexuisse constiterit. Cesset ergo prava consuetudo, per quam carceri aliquos immittebant,” i.e. the bad custom of committing persons without evidence.
page 304 note 4 We have two illustrations of this in Ammianus Marcellinus. One has been given before. The other (xxviii. 5, 3) is as follows: Antoninus, a defaulting rctionalis, having determined to fly into Persia, and sell his knowledge of the Empire to the great king, buys a property over the Persian border, in order that on pretence of visiting it he may pass without being detained and questioned through the midst of the stationarii. (’Atque, ut lateret stationarios milites, fundum in Hyaspide, qui locus Tygridis tluentis adluitur, pretio non magno mercatur.”)
page 304 note 5 Robbers and thieves were the original objects of Augustus's law (see ante). Tertullian (in apologetico) says: ’Latronibus investigandis per provincias militaris statio sortitur.”
An interesting inscription, which still remains upon the walls of Saepinum, illustrates what I have said in the text. This inscription contains a correspondence which passed between the stationarii and magistrates (i.e. duumviri) of Saepinum and Bovianum on the one part, and the procuratores reiprivatae of the emperor on the other. The latter say that they have received a complaint from certain conductores of the emperor's flocks, that the stationarii and magistrates of Saepinum and Bovianum, in the passage of the former over the mountains, outrage both horses (jumenta) and shepherds, insisting that the latter are runaway slaves, and have stolen the horses, and that upon this pretext they retain the emperor's sheep (pastores, quos conductores habent, dicentes fugitivos esse, et jumenta abacta habere, et sub hac specie oves quoque dominicas redhibeant). See Zell, vol. i. p. 336. Murray, in his Handbook for Southern Italy, gives a very curious version of this inscription. He says: ’On the east gate (i.e. of Altilia), the old Saepinum, is the inscription given by Gruter and Muratori, and containing an admonition to the magistrates t o protect the drovers of the flocks in their annual passage through the town, as great complaints had reached Eome of the conduct of the soldiers and inhabitants.”
page 305 note 1 Dig. xi. 4. 1. s. 2: “Est etiam generalis epistola Divorum Marci et Commodi, qua declaratur et praesides et magistratus et niilites stationarios dominorum adjuvare debere in inquirendis fugitivis, et ut inventos redderent, et ut ii, apud quos delitescant, puniantur, si crimine contingantur.” Again in Dig. xi. 4. 4. Paulus says, “Stationarii fugitivos deprehensos recte in custodia retinent.” So in the sentences of Paulus, edited by Arndt, tit. vi. s. 30.
The charming story of Androcles, narrated by an eye-witness, illustrates this. He was a slave who had fled from his master, a high Roman functionary in Numidia, on account of ill-treatment. He escaped to the desert and lived there for three years with a lion, whose heart he had won by dressing his wounded foot. The slave, tiring at length of this life, left the desert and was taken up by the stationarii as soon as he trod provincial ground. They transmitted him back to his master, who had by this time returned to Eome, and the latter, as a punishment, sent him to the amphitheatre to combat beasts, us the law allowed a master to do. In the circus the slave found in a lion which was pitted against him his old Numidian friend, and the latter, instead of devouring, caressed him. (Gellii Noctes Atticae, lib. v. c. 14.) The stationarii in this narrative are called milites simply. That the milites stationarii are meant however admits of no doubt.
page 305 note 2 Christians were always liable to be punished as such, whether there was a general persecution or not. Octavius (in M. Felix, c. 35,) says, “Denique de vestro numero career exaestuat: Christianus ibi nullus, nisi aut reus suae religionis, aut profugus.” The nature of persecutions is not always clearly understood. Among instances of the law in its ordinary course dealing with Christians is one told by Eusebius (H. E. lib. v. c. 21,) of Apollonius, who was tried and executed at Rome, in the time of Commodus, for being a Christian, there being no persecution at the time. So in the same manner Lucian's Peregrinus is arrested and tried for being a Christian (De Morte Peregrini, cc. 12. 14) when there is no persecution afloat.
A persecution was a totally different thing. That was a series of prosecutions decreed by the reigning emperor and carried out by the praesides, to each of whom came a separate rescript from the imperial chancery.
In the Acta Proconsularia S. Cypriani, (Ruinart, p. 261,) the proconsul Paternus says to the bishop, “Sacratissimi imperatores Valerianus et Gallienus literas ad me dare dignati sunt, quibus praeciperunt eos, qui Romanam religionem non colunt, debere Romanas ceremonias recognoscere.” By the refusal to do the latter, more frequently called “caerimoniari,” Christians convicted themselves, and nothing remained for the praeses but to punish.
page 305 note 3 The officers of the stationarii included the Christians in this register, ostensibly for the purpose of having them in hand, but really that they might levy black mail upon them for letting them peaceably continue their unlawful observances. Tertullian vouches this to us. He says, (De fuga in persecutione,) “Nescio dolendum an erubescenduni sit, cum in matricibus beneficiariorum et curiosorum inter tabernarios et lanios, et fnres balnearum, et aleones, et lenones, Christiani quoque, vectigales continental-?” He also tells us that the churches levied a voluntary rate upon themselves to meet this necessity, (ib. “Massaliter totae ecclesiae tributum sibi irrogaverunt.”—“Pacisceris cum delatore vel milite.”)
In telling us this Tertullian has made a more important contribution to Christian history than at first sight might be thought. For he shows us how, with a few exceptions, when individual prosecutors (accusatores) put the law in force against Christians out of spite or bigotry, the latter could lead a tolerably quiet life though in the daily practice of rites condemned by the law, being simply enabled o t do so by bribing the officers uf the stationarii under whose ken they came. Like modern inspectors, these police officers of antiquity were ready to mitigate for personal motives the severity of a harassing law.
The Roman stationarii were, I have said, as the police are with us, the general prosecutors, and few persons were inclined, with the prospect of a talio, to compete with them in that responsibility.
page 306 note 1 Cod. Theod. ii. 30. 1, and Godefroye's note.
page 306 note 2 Cod. Just. x. 77: “Irenarchae, qui ad provinciarum tutelam quietis ac pacis per singula territoria faciunt stare concordiam, a decurionibus judicio praesidum provinciarum idonei, nominentur.” Honorius et Theodosius, A.B. 409. The same expression, “per singula territoria,” occurs also in Cod. Theod. 12, 14, 1—the same law.
The inscription at Saepinum (ante) illustrates this also, for the complaints upon the subject of the stationarii recorded in that inscription are made directly to the duumviri.
For this reason they are called recjionantes in a passage in the Acta Martyrum (p. 275 Ruinart), “Igitur apprehensis nobis, et apud regionantes in custodia constitutis, sententiam praesidis milites nunciarc audivimus, quod heri corpus nostrum minaretur urere.” Regio is used for territorium in the Acta dispuiationis Sancti Achatii (ib. p. 199)—“Scutum quoddam ac refugium Antiochiae regionis.” So in the Agrimensores passim.
page 306 note 3 Acta SS. Tryphonis et Respicii Martyrum, Euinart, p. 209: “Missis igitur ex officio apparitorum, rapti sunt a Frontone pacis principe Aprimae civitatis, qui exierat ad exquisitionern sanctorum cum persecutoribus. Hoc autem erat indictum a praefectis. Quos inventos tradiderunt militibus, qui ligaverunt eos: et traxerunt in civitatern. Meetem, ibique in carcerem missi sunt ab Aquilino praefecto.” I am inclined to think that the princeps pacis is referred to under the words praefectus pacis in Cod. Theod. ii. tit. 30, c. 1. In the same manner Aristides, quoted in Ruinart, p. 92 in note, speaks of a custos pacis ρύλακα τήδ είρήνηδ The princeps pacts was appointed either by the praefectus praetorio or by the praeses, out of a number of names of the notables (locnpletiores) of the territory submitted to him by the senate of the city, or he was appointed by the senate itself, with the approval of the praeses (judicio praesidis). See Cod. Theod. xii. 14, 1, Cod. Just. x. 75, and Aristides quoted by Euinart at p. 92 in note.
page 307 note 1 The Asiatic Greeks applied the word irenarch to all grades of the stationarii; e. g. Xenophon of Ephesus, in his novel, lib. iii. C. 9, says: “Περιλάοδ τιδ, άνήρ τών τρώτα δυνάμενων άρχειν μεν έχειροτονήθη τήδ είρήνηδ τήδ έν Κιλικία, έξελθών δέ έΠί ληστώγ ζήτησιν, ήγαγε τιναδ σνλαþών ληστύδ.” Here we have already a princeps pads of a city and its territory. The. xlviii. 3,1, 6, Dig. quoted ante, uses irenarch, firstly, for the stationarii generally; and, secondly, for an officer of the body—a centurion. At p. 85, Kuinart, in the passion of S. Polycarp, the irenarch who apprehends S. Polycarp is a simple stationarius. Godefroye (in note Cod. Theod. xii. 14) observed this confusion. He says: “Eosdem vero cum stationariis facio irenarchas, quique sub irenarchis his erant Ergo iidem irenarchae et stationarii, saltern qui stationariis praeerant). Graeco enim verbo in oriente irenarchae, qui alibi stationarii.”
page 307 note 2 Centurions (and centenarii) of stationarii occur continually in the Acta Martyrum and in Eusebius. See ante in notes.
page 307 note 3 Kellermann regarded the Vigiles as organised upon the same plan as the legionaries, and compiled his work on the Vigiles to prove this. He says (p. 1.): “Ea vero peropportune est diversorum militiae urbanae generum inter se similitudo, ut optimo tuo jure tibi liceat ad alium genus transferre muneia atque instituta, quae in alio existere cognoveris. Ita quaecunque nova apud vigiles inveneris (invenies autem neque pauca neque levia) eadem recte cohortibus et praetorianis urbanis attribueris, si ea modo exceperis quae nisi solorum vigilum esse non potuerunt. Tota autem militia urbana non ita dispar erat militiae legionariae ut non magnam partem munerum novorum legionariis quoque cohortibus recte attribueris. Ut paucis dicam his monumentis toti Romanorum rei militari lux affertur, niaxime vero militiae urbanae imprimisque militiae vigilum urbanorum.” Borghesi entirely agreed with Kellermann. In his review of the Vigiles, reprinted in the collected edition of his works (Oeuvres completes, vol. iii. p. 542), he says: “Ora l'ordmamento dei vigili non era cosi discorde da quello del resto della militia urbana, ed anche dalla legionaria, che nella massima parte non convenissero insieme.”
page 307 note 4 Vegetius, lib. ii. c. 13: “Antiqui cohortes in centurias diviserunt * * * centuriones insuper qui nunc centenarii vocantur * * * singulas jusserunt gubernare centurias * * * Rursus ipsae centuriae in contubernia divisae sunt, ut decern militibus sub uno papilione degentibus units quasi praeesset decanus, qui caput contubernii nominatur. Contubernium autem manipulus vocabatur.”
Modestus (Libellus de vocabulis rei militaris ad Taciturn Augustum) says, “Erant etiam centuriones, qui singulas centurias curabant, qui nunc centenarii nominantur. Erant decani decem militibus praepositi, qui nunc caput contubernii vocantur.” So also Isidorus, Orig. lib. iii. c. 3.
The expression in Vegetius, “decem militibus sub uno papilione degentibus unus praeesset decanus,” shows clearly that the decanus was himself one of the ten, i.e. their primus (see post in note) and I do not hesitate to hold this view, though Facciolati and Forcellini have expressed a different one. They say, sub voce decauus, “decanus (δεκύρχοδ) in exercitu dicebatur qui decem praeerat militibus, ita ut ipse esset undecimus.”
The reason why the decanus is thus reckoned as a miles, together with the milites whom he commanded, is simply this: he was a miles (though at the same time a sub-officer), and therefore, in the numerical divisions of the army where the milites were numbered, he was by necessity reckoned up with the other milites of his own division, and could not be thrown out of the calculation. Zell (vol. ii. p. 804) observes, “Alle stellen abwarts von dem centurio (bei uns leutenante, unteroffiziere, gefreite) zählen zu den soldaten milites, nur heissen sie milites principales; (mit principales werden aber auch zuweilen alle chargirten, die offiziere mit inbegriffen, bezeichnet,) die ubrigen milites municipes (Veget. ii. 7) oder gregarii.”
page 308 note 1 See the inscription at Saepinum, ante.
page 308 note 2 See ante.
page 308 note 3 See Neglected Fact in English History, p. 66; Dig. 1. 4, 18, 7, “Irenarchae quoque, qui disciplinae publicae et corrigendis moribus praeficiuntur, sed et qui ad reficiendas vias eligi solent,” &c. The “praefectus pacis” mentioned in Cod. Theod. ii. tit. 30, c. 1, is identified by Godefroye with the praepositus pagi.
page 309 note 1 H. E. lib. ix. c. 1.
page 309 note 2 See post in note.
page 310 note 1 This is the reading of the Cod. S. Maximini Trevirensis and is unquestionably the true one. The only other reading of the MS. is “centurio,” but the sentence which follows renders this impossible. See Rninart, note 6, p. 269.
page 310 note 2 Quoted by Godefroye in his Comment upon Cod. Theod. xvi. 5. 30.
page 311 note 1 Quoted by Godefroye, Cod. Theod. vol. iv. p. 175, in note.
page 311 note 2 For Italy see Luitprand (Muratori, Eerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. ii. p. 60, lib. v. c. 15), who says, “De servo fugace et advena homine, si in alia judiciaria inventus fuerit, tune decanus, aut saltarius, qui in loco ordinatus fuerit, compreliendere eum debeat, et ad sculdasium swim perducat. Et ipse sculdasius judici suo consignet, et ipse judex potestatem habeat eum inquirendi, unde ipse est. Et si inventus fuerit quod servus sit, aut fur, mox mandet ad judicem, aut ad dominum ejus unde ipse fugerit.” The Sculdasius i s the judex pagi, i. e. the centenarius. (See Muratori's Note to ib. p. 60.)
For France see Marculfus, Formulae solemnes publicorum privatorumque negotiorum, c. 11, p. 1220: “Carolus, rex Francorum” addresses a grant of immunity from toll to “ducibus, comitibns, domesticis, vicariis, centenariis, vel omnibus agentibus nostris.” So also ib. c. 177, p. 1295. Decani are also mentioned by name elsewhere. It is true that a centenarius is found in the Lex Salica (c. 46, p. 334 and c. 48), but that does not prove him to be a German invention. The whole of that code is full of Roman imitations—one even that would scarcely be expected, viz. the tractio testis per aurem, the only mode known to the world of making a witness in civil causes before Justinian introduced the subpoena in these as in criminal causes.
This common expression, and general rule, of Roman law both occur in the Bavarian, the Alamannic, and the Ripuarian Frankish codes (viz. aurem torquere in testimonium.) See Lindenbrogius's Glossary, p. 1360, and Festus, Varro, Isidorus, Fulgentius, Pliny, Horace, with his commentators Acron and Porphyrion.
We all recolleet Horace's (lib. i. sat. 9,) “appono auriculam.” I refer to this usage, because nothing can more vividly illustrate the early Teutonic borrowings from the civil law. A bit of purely classical phraseology, a rule of conventional law become naturalized, the one in the rude mouths, the latter in the ruder minds, of barbarians, living beyond the power but sensible to the influences of Rome. Because Roman principles are found in early or late German laws, it by no means follows that these principles are Germanic. The LL. Anglorum et Verinorum are full of imitations of this sort.
For Spain see Lex Wisigothorum. Lindenbrogius, vol. i. p. 25; lib. ii. c. 26, enumerates amongst the judges the centenarius and decanus. So also lib. ix. c. 1, p. 185.
In Wales the gwlad (shire) is divided into cantrefs (hundreds), the cantrefs being subdivided into cymmwds (tithings). See Glossary to Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, and the Antiquae Linguae Britannicae Thesaurus by the Rev. Thomas Richards, curate of Coychurch, 1753. The lastnamed is not merely a dictionary, but a work of high archaeological merit, in which original and then unpublished documents are referred to. Cantref preserves centena. It is generally considered to be literally a hundred villages, but is in reality just as literally the village of one hundred, i. e. men.
See Lobineau's Histoire de Bretagne, (Paris, 1707, torn. ii. p. 57,) where centena in the sense mentioned in the text occurs several times, e. g. “Dono illas res meas, quae sunt in pago Redonico in centena Laliacinse.” (A.D. 854.) Pagus is here used in the sense of territorium; see Raynouard's Histoire du Droit Municipal en France, torn. i. pp. 33, 34. See the same work of Lobineau, torn. i. p. 71, for centurions as officers under the counts; also ib. torn. ii. p. 67, where the centurion Rivaroie attests a deed, and ib. where a decanus named Riwocon does the same thing (in each case, A.D. 858). See also the “Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Redon en Bretagne.” Revue Archéologique, torn. vii. N. S. p. 399.
page 313 note 1 For the identity of shire and territorium see Neglected Fact in English History, pp. 63, 64, and the authorities quoted in note to p. 64. The Anglo-Saxon word scyr is an ellipse of an older form, which better explains itself, viz. burh scyr. Ælfric has preserved this form. (Homilies by Thorpe, p. 366, and alibi.) E converso, Æthelstan (Thorpe's edition, vol. i. p. 194) uses birig in the sense of shire, “cyð pam gerefan to hwilcere birig.” The passage in which these words occur, as being a direction to pay tithes and earthly fruits, cannot apply to a city or borough proper. Precisely in the same sense also it is found in the Anglo-Saxon poem on the passion of S. George, published by the Percy Society. The saint is asked (p. 6) “of hwilcere byrig he wÆre.” He answers this by saying that he is an ealdorman in the territory of Cappadocia,
“Ic habbe ealdordom
On minum gearde
þe is gehaten Capadocia.”
So civitas in Latin is used for territorium. See Cod. Theod. xii. 1, 174 (A.D. 412), “extra metas propriae civitatis.” This is amplified by Tribonian into “extra metas territorii propriae civitatis.” (Ibid.). See also Dig. 50, tit. 15, c. 4.
It is used just in the same sense in Diocletian's edict, appointing a fixed tariff for all articles (Zell, p. 315), “Majximo cum ejusmodi statuto. non civitatibus siugulis ac populis adque provinciis, sed universo orbi provisum esse videatur.” There is other evidence which demonstrates the identity of the English shire with the territorium of a Roman city. The trifinium at Lilbourn, co. Northampton, is a point where three shires meet, as it was where three territoria met. The subsecival stone at Thames Head, which has never been removed, is still on the border of two counties, as in Roman times it was on the linea finitima of two territoria. (See Centuriation of Roman Britain, vol. xlii. Archaeologia, p. 155.)
page 313 note 2 This territorial division is alluded to as early as the time of King Ine, but under the name of “hynden” (Laws of Ine, c. 54); though this word was superseded by “hundred” as regarded the division of the shire, it remained as denoting the centuria of a guild or collegium. See the introduction to “Ordinances of some secular Guilds of London from 1351 to 1496,” published by the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society.
page 313 note 3 Eadgar's Laws, c. 2.
page 313 note 4 Ib. c. 8, suppl.
page 313 note 5 Ib. c. 5, suppl.
page 313 note 6 Ib. c. 2. “Teoðingman” is the word of the text.
page 313 note 7 The Anglo-Saxon evidences do not give us the number of the tithingman's assistants. But this is of little moment; the collection of Anglo-Saxon laws called Leges Regis Henrici I. and the common law, which was only a transmission of Anglo-Saxon institutes, supply this deficiency, and tell us that the tithingman was the chief of ten, being himself one of those ten. The former say, “Presit autem singulis hominum novenis decimus.” (viii. s. 1.) Cowell (title Headborough) says, “A headborough, the chief of the frankpledge, was also called borsholder, thirdborrow, tithingman, pledge, &c. according to the diversity of speech in several parts. The same officer is now called a constable. He then goes on: “The head-borough was the chief of the ten pledges. The other nine were called handboroughs, or plegii manuales, or inferior pledges.” I do not understand why a peace officer was called a thirdborough, but it occurs before the Conquest under a Latin translation, triumvir. In the Book of Ely, p. 147, Dr. Giles's edition, we find a nobleman who has been robbed going in search of the thief, “cum centurionibus, et triumviris, et praeconibus.”
page 314 note 1 Eadgar's Laws, c. 2.
page 314 note 2 lb.
page 314 note 3 Ib. c. 5.
page 314 note 4 Cnut's Domas, c. 20. The passage in this law, “and gehealde se borh hine and gelajde to telcan rihte” has been misunderstood by Mr. Thorpe, who translates it thus, “And let the borh hold and lead him to every plea.” This translation makes the law apply to civil suits, not to criminal prosecutions, as it really is meant to do. The true meaning is, “let the borh watch him and render him to justice.” That gehealde has the meaning which I have asserted for it may be amply illustrated, e.g. (S. Matt, xxvii. 54,) “Witodlice þæs hundredes ealdor, and þa þe mid him wæron healdende þone hælend,” i. e. the centurion and those that were with him watching the Saviour.
page 314 note 5 Eadgar, c. 4, and Supplement, cc. 6, 10.
page 314 note 6 See the Anglo-Saxon text published by Sir Henry Ellis referred to post. This refers to King Edward the Confessor's time, and gives the Anglo-Saxon names of the hundreds of Northamptonshire.
page 316 note 1 Tacitus, de Mor. Ger. c. 12. “Eliguntur in eisdem conciliis et principes, qui jura per pagos vicosque reddunt. Centum singulis ex plebe comites, consilium simul et auctoritas, adsunt.” This is the only passage i n Tacitus that bears in any way upon the question. Sir William Blackstone, however, has fearlessly applied t o it a previous passage in the same book, c. 6, where Tacitus says that there was always placed in the front of the battle a vanguard composed of contingents of one hundred men each, “Definitur et numerus: centeni ex singulis pagis sunt; idque ipsum inter suos vocantur. Et quod primo numerus fuit, jam nomen et honor est.” Upon this the great jurist observes (Introd. to Comment, p. 130, Stephens): “And indeed, something like this institution of hundreds may be traced back so far as the ancient Germans, from whom were derived both the Franks, who became masters of Gaul, and the Saxons, who settled in England. For both the thing and the name, as a territorial assemblage of persons, from which afterwards the territory itself might probably receive its denomination, were well known to that warlike people.”
page 316 note 2 Lappenberg (Geschichte von England. Erster band. Hamburg 1834, sechste Abtheilung von den innern Zustanden der Angelsachsen, p. 584), who may be taken as the exponent of German views, has adopted a theory which rests upon the first of these passages of Tacitus. He says, “The division of the land into hundreds rests upon the ancient army organisation, like the corresponding northern division in herrads. Both names were given to a district which selected a hundred men for the protection and counsel of the ealdorman. (Die eintheilung des landes in hundreden beruht, gleich den entsprechenden nordischen in herrade, auf der alten heeresverfassung. Beide namen wurden einem districte ertheilt, welcher hundert mannen zum schutze und rathe des ealdormanes erwahlte.)”
page 317 note 1 Scriptores Kerum Italicarum, torn. i. p. 519.
page 317 note 2 Ducange, sub voce Centena. “Centenas a Chlotario primum institutas ad latrones arcendos videtur posse colligi. Dicta vero centena a centum familiis, quibus constabat.”.
page 317 note 3 Domesday Book illustrated.
page 317 note 4 Introduction to Commentaries, vol. i. pp. 127, 129. Stephens's edition.
page 317 note 5 See the original Anglo-Saxon text published by Sir Ellis, Henry in his “General Introduction to Domesday,” p. 59 in noteGoogle Scholar .
page 318 note 1 Perhaps quite savage. Salvianus (lib. iv. De Providentia,) says: “Gens Saxonum fera est, Francorum infidelis, Gepidarum inhumana, et Hunnorum impudica; omnium denique gentium barbarorum vita vitiosa.”
page 318 note 2 See Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, vol. i. c. 5. Ten houses made a gens, ten gentes (or a hundred houses) a curiae, ten curiae (a hundred gentes, or a thousand houses) formed the community. Further, every house found a man for the army of foot, thence miles, &c. In the senate there were ten decuriae, each of which had a primus. They together formed the decem primi. (Niebuhr's Lectures, by L. Schmidt, p. 143.) The tribes were divided into centuriae and the centuriae into decuriae. (Zell, Anleitung, p. 113.) So the municipal senates consisted of centumviri or a hundred decuriones, each the head of ten houses, or a decuria. (See Mommsen, ante. Noel des Vergers, l'Étrurie et les Etrusques, vol. iii. appendice épigraphique, No. 1. Henzen, Annali di Roma, vol. iii. p. 205.) For the army, see ante. As well as private persons, who formed collegia, all public functionaries were constituted into colleges, and all colleges were divided into centuriae and decuriae. (See Massman, Libellus Aurarius, p. 74, et seqq.)
In the agrimensura, lands were divided into tens, a hundred, two hundred, a thousand acres. See the Agrimensores.
Outdoor slaves were worked in decuriae or gangs of ten. (Columella, lib. i. c. 9.) In-door slaves were divided in the same fashion, and were presided over by decurions. See the tituli of the columbarium of the slaves of the Empress Livia. (Zell, pp. 129, 130.) Colonists cast lots, for the land about to be distributed, “per decurias” or “per homines denos.” (See Hyginus, p. 113, Lachman's Agrimensores).
page 319 note 1 The Assarian system.
page 319 note 2 To prevent a carriage from overturning Romans pronounced a prayer three times. (Plinii N. H. xxviii. 4.) Martianus Capella, lib. vii. p. 259, Eyssenhardt's edition, says: “Cujus (i.e. of the trias) auspicio preces tertio ac libamina repetuntur.” In the “Fratres Arvales” we find picturesque illustrations of the practice; e.g. “Omnes foris exierunt. Ibi sacerdotes clusi succincti libellis acceptis carmen descindentes tripodaveruut in verba haec: Enos Lases juvate. Enos Lases juvate. Enos Lases juvate.” And so on in the same way with other sentences. (Marini, tab. xli.a, p. 160.) This lasted to the latest days of heathenism. The pagan army of Licinius (Lact. de Mortibus Persecu-torum, c. 46) repeated three times the prayer which had been dictated to their leader in a dream (illi oratione ter dicta, &c.) So the frankincense was taken up in three fingers to throw upon the altar. Lact. Div. Instit. lib. v c. 18.) “Nam cruciari, atque interfeci malle, quam thura, tribus digitis comprehensa, in focum jactare tam ineptum videtur,” &c.
page 320 note 1 The Anglo-Saxons must have had a reminiscence that the hundred had in former times a better connexion with its name. For, in translating the gospels, they gave to a Roman centurion the same designation as that of their own hundredman; S. Matt, xxvii. 54, “hundredes ealdor;” S. Marc xv. 39, “hundredes man.”
page 320 note 2 A similar thing to what I have contended for in this paper, though on a larger scale, occurred in the Eastern empire. In that empire the word thema was first applied to the Roman legion. Next the military districts garrisoned by a legion were called themata. Ultimately the word was used independently of all military references, merely to indicate geographical administrative divisions, which from this beginning had become a part of the empire. (Finlay's History of the Byzantine Empire, vol. i. p. 14, in note.)