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M. Oclatinius Adventus in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

N.B. Rankov
N.B. Rankov
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
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Extract

Of the senior Roman officials who took part in the administration of Britain perhaps the most intriguing is Severus' procurator, M. Oclatinius Adventus. His service in the province is recorded for us on two inscriptions erected in the governorship of L. Alfenus Senecio between 205 and 207. The first was found at Chesters on Hadrian's Wall:

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 18 , November 1987 , pp. 243 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © N.B. Rankov 1987. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 RIB 1462.

2 RIB 1234.

3 Breeze, D.J. and Dobson, B., Hadrian's Wall (1978), 128–30Google Scholar. The inscription proves that Risingham needed extensive rebuilding and the presence of Cohors I Vangionum represents a change of garrison from the second-century unit. Since the Samian ware evidence (collected by Hartley, B.R., Britannia iii (1972), 20–2Google Scholar, 36, 39–40, 53–4) suggests that Newstead further north along Dere Street was abandoned in the 180's it is possible that Risingham was given up at the same time.

4 E.g. Mann, J.C. and Jarrett, M.G., JRS lvii (1967), 64 n.39Google Scholar; Birley, A.R., Septimius Severus (1971), 248Google Scholar; idem, The Fasti of Roman Britain (1981), 160–1.

5 Herodian III, 14.1. A.R. Birley, Fasti, op. cit. (note 4), 160 rejects the story of the appeal as a rhetorical τóπoζ.

6 Dio LXXVIII, 14,1: ‘Adventus who had served amongst the spies and trackers (i.e. as a speculator) and who, having left their ranks, joined the couriers (i.e. the frumentarü) and was appointed their commander'. On the career of Oclatinius Adventus see H.-G. Pflaum, Les Carrières Procuratoriennes Équestres sous le Haut-Empire Romain (1960), no. 247 and p. 992; A.R. Birley, Fasti, op. cit. (note 4), 298-9.

7 Dio LXXVIII, 14,3: ‘he served as a common soldier and performed the duties of executioner, spy and centurion’.

8 On the speculatores see Clauss, M., Untersuchungen zu den Principales des römischen Heeres von Augustus bis Diokletian: Cornicularii, speculatores, frumentarii (1973), 59–79.Google Scholar On the frumentarii, Baillie Reynolds, P.K., JRS xiii (1923), 168–89Google Scholar; M. Clauss, op. cit., 82-117.

9 Mark 6,27 calls the executioner of John the Baptist бβεκουλατοπα, even though Herod cannot have been entitled to such an officer. The provincial speculatores are to be distinguished from the imperial speculatores who acted as a sort of mounted bodyguard for the Emperor attached to the Praetorian Guard, and did not act as executioners; see M. Clauss, op. cit. (note 8), 46-58.

10 The only recorded promotion to the rank of speculator was earned by P. Gargilius Felix who appears as a beneficiarius consularis on CIL viii 2856 and as a speculator on AE 1917/18 no. 57, both found at Lambaesis, the capital of Numidia.

11 See note 8.

12 Tacitus Hist. 11,73 records that speculatores from Syria and Judaea brought the news to Vitellius at Rome in 69 that the Eastern legions had taken the oath of loyalty. The attachment of speculatores to the Castra Peregrina is indicated by CIL vi 3358 = ILS 2372, CIL vi 36775 = ILS 484, and perhaps by CIL vi 3562, all from Rome.

13 CIL vi 36775 = ILS 484, Rome, reign of Severus: Genio sancto Castror[um] Peregrinorum … quod speculator leg(ionis) III Parth(icae) Severianae vovit, hastatus leg(ionis) X Fretensis princeps peregrinorum reddedit (sic).

14 Dio LXXVIII, 14.1: ‘Adventus … was unable to see through old age or read through lack of education or do anything through inexperience;’ Herodian IV, 12,1: ‘He (Caracalla) had two Praetorian Prefects, one of them a very old man … ‘

15 Dio LXXVIII, 14,1: ‘after this promoted to a procuratorship and to be senator, co-consul and City Prefect’.

16 See note 6.

17 On M. Aquilius Felix, see H.-G. Pflaum, op. cit. (note 6), no. 225; P. Vibius Marianus, ibid. no. 263; C. Titius Similis, ibid. no. 330.

18 Ulpius Julianus, H.-G. Pflaum, op. cit. (note 6), no. 288; Julianus Nestor, ibid. no. 289.

19 Dio LXXVIII, 15,1: ‘because of their great service to him (Macrinus), as commanders of the couriers (i.e. principes peregrinorum), in satisfying his unholy curiosity’.

20 SHA Comm. 4,5.

21 SHA lul. V,8; Pese. Nig. 11,6. Th. Mommsen was the first to suggest in an article published in 1850 (reprinted in Gesammelte Schriften III (1907), 104) the identity of the Aquilius named in these two passages with the M. Aquilius Felix who had been a centurio frumentarius recorded on CIL x 6657 = ILS 1387, Antium.

22 Herodian III, 5, 4–5.

23 SHA Hadr. 11.

24 SHA M aer. 12.

25 SAH Claud. 17, 1. It would, however, be unwise to place great faith in the veracity of these last two Vitae.

26 Aur. Viet., Lib. de Caes. XXXIX, 44: remoto pestilenti frumentariorum genere, quorum nunc agentes rerum simillimi sunt, qui cum ad explorandum annuntiandumque ecqui forte in provinciis motus exsisterent instituti viderentur, compositis nefarie criminationibus, iniecto passim metu, praecipue remotissimo cuique, cuneta foede diripiebant.

27 Dio LXXVIII, 39,2–3.

28 The literary and epigraphic evidence was first brought to my attention by Dr N.J.E. Austin with whom I am collaborating in the preparation of a full-length study of Roman military intelligence.

29 On provincial headquarters staffs see von Domaszewski, A., Die Rangordnung des römischen Heeres (1908; 2nd ed. by Dobson, B., 1967), 29–37, 48Google Scholar; Jones, A.H.M., JRS xxxix (1949), 44–6.Google Scholar

30 On exploratores in the German provinces see Stein, E., Die kaiserlichen Beamten und Truppenkörper im römischen Deutschland unter dem Prinzipal (1932), 260–8Google Scholar; Speidel, M.P., Epigraphische Studien xiii (1983), 63–78.Google Scholar

31 On the stationes manned by beneficiarii consularis see in general von Domaszewski, A., ‘Die Beneficiarier-posten und die römische Strassennetze’, West-deutsche Zeitschrift XXI (1902), 158–211Google Scholar (now very out-of-date but not yet superseded). The earliest beneficiarius consularis recorded on the German frontier appears in CIL xiii 6649, Stockstadt, A.D. 166, and on the Pannonian frontier in AE 1973 no.448, Osijek, A.D. 164.

32 Cf. note 10.

33 See O. Hirschfeld, Die kaiserlichen Verwaltungsbeamten bis auf Diocletian (1905), 402 with n.2 citing Strabo III, 4,20: ‘There are also imperial procurators, men of the equestrian order who distribute money to the troops for them to live on’.

34 Ala II Asturum is recorded at Chesters in the 180's under Ulpius Marcellus (RIB 1463–4) and in the third century (RIB 1462, 1465–6). It is still recorded here in the Notitia Dignitatum (Not. Dig. Occ. XL, 38).

35 A.R. Birley, Fasti, op. cit. (note 4), 160.

36 RIB 1482, Chesters.

37 RIB 1235, Risingham, A.D. 213.

38 RIB 1225, Risingham: Habitanci prima statione. This inscription incidentally proves that a beneficiantes consularis was stationed here in the third century.

39 RIB 1270, High Rochester; RIB 1262, High Rochester, A.D. 238–44.

40 On the rebuilding and reoccupation of Risingham see note 3; High Rochester was probably rebuilt at the same time, in the years 205–7 (RIB 1277 Cf 1234), and a unit new to the fort, Cohors I Vardullorum, is recorded there by 213 (RIB 1272 Cf. 1265).

41 The line of march of the Severan campaigns in Britain is indicated by the series of 165-acre marching camps stretching north from Newstead and the 63-acre and 130-acre series skirting the Highlands of Scotland. See Frere, S.S., Britannia (1974), 200–1 with fig. 8Google Scholar; Breeze, D.J., The Northern Frontiers of Roman Britain (1982), 131–2Google Scholar with fig. 29.

42 CIL iii 6709, = ILS 5899, Bridge over the river Chabina near Kiachta (Syria), A.D. 200; Cf. H.-G. Pflaum, op. cit. (note 6), no. 176; Leaning, J.B., Latomus xxx (1971), 386–9.Google Scholar

43 Dio LXXV, 9.4: τò μὲν ‘αγνωσίą των χωРίων, τò δ’ ’ατορίὲ των ’επιτηδείων.