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The Governors of Numidia, A.D. 193–268
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
In their recent paper on the Limes Tripolitanus (JRS xxxix, 81–95), Mr. Goodchild and Mr. Ward Perkins have published an inscription from the centenarium now known as Gasr Duib, recording its erection in A.D. 244–246—when M. Iulius Philippus was emperor and his son of the same names still (nobilissimus) Caesar—and naming Cominius Cassianus as governor; and they note that the well-known governor of Numidia, M. Aurelius Cominius Cassianus, is customarily dated A.D. 208, so that ‘unless there has been an error in the reading of the consular names on the significant Lambaesis inscription, we can only conclude that the Cominius Cassianus of the Gasr Duib inscription was a son or relative of the earlier Legatus’ (op. cit. 92). It so happens that the customary dating can now be shown to be wrong, and the governorship in question can demonstrably be assigned to the decade A.D. 240–250 even without the assistance of the new discovery; and so many points of interest arise from a consideration of the evidence, that it seems worth while to set it forth at some length. At the same time, it seems desirable to put forward a revised list of the governors of Numidia from the accession of Severus in 193 to the time of Gallienus, under whom the last of the senatorial governors and commanders-in-chief of that province were appointed; for the list given by Pallu de Lessert is nowhere in need of such considerable revision as for that period, as a result of the fresh epigraphic evidence which has come to light in the past half-century. It will be convenient to take the case of identity first, and to deal with the succession of governors thereafter.
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- Copyright © Eric Birley 1950. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
References
1 de Lessert, Pallu, Fastes des Provinces Africaines I (1896), II (1901)Google Scholar, cited below as Fastes.
2 Volumes of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum are referred to below by roman capitals, without the prefix CIL.
3 G.-Ch.Picard, who first published this inscription (Castellum Dimmidi (1947) 85), proposed to date the governorship 201/208, justly pointing out that Geta was frequently credited with the title ‘Augustus’ before 209; but in all cases where Severus, Caracalla, and Geta are mentioned by name, the distinction between the first two, Augusti, and the latter, nobilissimus Caesar, is observed.
4 cf. XIII 3162: … is Sollemnis amicus Tib. Claud. Paulini, leg. Aug. pro pr. provinc. Lugd., et cliens fuit, with H. G. Pflaum's admirable discussion (Le Marbre de Thorigny, 1948).
5 It seems possible that M. Valerius Florus, trib. leg. III Aug., to whom T. Sennius Sollemnis acted as assessor (XIII 3162: Ritterling, P-W XII 1503, wrongly gives his cognomen as Flavus), was the son of this governor and served in Numidia under him. Pflaum (op. cit. 51) shows that there is no need to assume that this episode in the career of Sollemnis occurred later than his visit to Lower Britain in 220; in any case, Florus must surely have been a tribunus laticlavius.
6 Unless indeed VIII is a stonecutter's mistake for III and the Numidian command is intended; that would explain the dedicator describing him as praeses, hardly appropriate for a legatus legionis.
7 cf. Stein, A. in Klio xxix, 1936, 237Google Scholar ff. (who adopts a different view of this governor's status): AE 1941, no. 33.
8 The unknown senator of ILS 1198 = VIII 11338 (Fastes 1, 463) is described as leg. Numidiae; there is nothing military in his career as recorded in the inscription, and it seems best to suppose that he, too, was governor of the province after the separation of the military and civil commands: the time of Gordian seems too early to fit this case.
9 Cf. also AE 1941, no. 175, which gives an improved reading of the last four lines of this inscription.