The Anastasian Military Decree from Perge in Pamphylia: Revised 2nd Edition

Year 2017, Volume: 14, 133 - 212, 15.05.2017

Fatih Onur

https://doi.org/10.37095/gephyra.318456

Cited By: 3

Abstract

This article
contains a revised version of the inscription from Perge containing a military decree
of Anastasius I. The fragments of this inscription were unearthed in 1974
during excavations at Perge. The inscription was discovered in about 850
fragments in an area to the south of northern fountain on the southern slopes
of the acropolis. Today these fragments are preserved in the storage rooms of
the Museum of Antalya. It contains an imperial sermo, an enactment of a magister
militum, both translated from Latin into Greek, and a notitia
concerning the number of soldiers in a legio and their respective
salaries in kind and in cash.

The main
issue addressed in the inscription concerns the soldiers in a legio and that
they have been deprived of their customary payments and retirement bounties on
account of corruption and the sale of posts within the unit and its constituent
scholae. In particular, that the names of the deceased or of missing
soldiers had not been removed from the regimental records or their positions had
been filled by unqualified or ineligible men who had obtained these posts
through either bribery or influence. Accordingly, this edict aims to impose
measures against these corrupt practices. Anastasius orders that the actual
numbers of soldiers holding each grade in the legio should be
investigated and any shortfall was to be rectified and it was to be maintained
at a full complement in accordance with the schedule of grades and annonae
provided.

On the
basis of research on Text C, it seems that the total number of men listed in
the schedule is no less than 1550-1600. The titles included in the list are tribunus numeri, tribunus minor, ordinarii,
augustales (1), augustales alii (2), augustales alii (3), flaviales (1),
flaviales alii (2), signiferi, optiones, veredarii (1), veredarii alii (2),
vexillarii, imaginiferi, librarii, mensores, tubicines, cornicines,
bucinatores, praeco, armaturae duplares, beneficiarii, torquati semissales,
bracchiati semissales, armaturae semissales, munifices, clerici and deputati. Additionaly, there are also some other
titles/grades/posts mentioned in the text A and B as follow: principia, draconarii, magister draconum and campidoctor. Even though some parts of the inscription are today
missing, the surviving text contains valuable information in respect to later
Roman history, the army, the legal system, and for linguistics.

Keywords

Anastasius I, Later Roman Army, Late Antiquity, corruption, military pay, adaeratio, annona

Pamphylia-Perge’de Bulunmuş I. Anastasios Dönemi'ne Ait Ordu Fermanı: Gözden Geçirilmiş İkinci Edisyon

Abstract

Bu makalede, Perge’de bulunmuş olan İmparator I.
Anastasios’un (İ.S. 491-518) ordu ile ilgili fermanını içeren yazıtın revize
edilmiş ikinci edisyonu yayımlanmaktadır. Bu yazıtın parçaları Perge’de 1974
yılı kazılarında gün yüzüne çıkarılmıştır. Akropolis tepesinin güneyindeki
kuzey çeşmesinin güneyinde yak. 850 parça olarak çıkarılan yazıt Antalya
Arkeoloji Müzesi’nde korunmaktadır. Yazıt, her ikisi de Latince’den Yunanca’ya
çevrilmiş olan Anastasios’a ait bir imparatorluk fermanı ve magister militum’un emirnamesi ile
birlikte bir lejyondaki askerlerin unvan/rütbe sınıflarına göre sayıları,
aldıkları ayni ve nakdi maaşlarını içeren bir çizelge olmak üzere üç kısımdan
oluşmaktadır.

Yazıtta değinilen ana konu bir lejyondaki askerler ve bu
askerlerin, bulundukları birimleri ve schola’larında
gerçekleşen yozlaşmalar ve mevki satışı nedeniyle geleneksel ödemelerden,
emeklilik ikramiyelerinden mahrum bırakılışlarıdır. Ayrıca, ölmüş ya da kayıp
statüsündeki askerlerin isimlerinin birim kayıtlarından çıkarılmadığı ve
bunların kadrolarının rüşvet ya da torpille gelen niteliksiz ve yetersiz
kimselerce doldurulduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Buna uygun şekilde ferman bu yoz
uygulamalara karşı önlemler getirmektedir. Anastasios lejyon içerisinde her bir
unvan/rütbe grubundaki asker sayılarının takip edilmesini ve bu sayıların
belirtilen miktarda tutularak, birimin gerçek asker sayısının her zaman tam
olmasını emretmektedir.

C lehvasındaki listeye göre, ilgili lejyondaki
askerlerin toplam sayısı 1550-1600’den aşağı değildir. Listede içerilen
unvan/rütbe adları şu şekildedir: tribunus numeri, tribunus minor, ordinarii, augustales
(1), augustales alii (2), augustales alii (3), flaviales (1), flaviales alii
(2), signiferi, optiones, veredarii (1), veredarii alii (2), vexillarii,
imaginiferi, librarii, mensores, tubicines, cornicines, bucinatores, praeco,
armaturae duplares, beneficiarii, torquati semissales, bracchiati semissales,
armaturae semissales, munifices, clerici ve deputati. Ayrıca Levha A ve B’deki metinlerde principia, draconarii, magister draconum ve campidoctor anılmaktadır. Yazıtın bazı
kısımları eksik olsa da, mevcut metin Roma tarihi, ordusu, hukuk sistemi ve
dilbilimsel açıdan önemli veriler içermektedir.

Keywords

I. Anastasios, Geç Roma Ordusu, Geç Antik Dönem, yozlaşma, askeri ödemeler, adaeratio, annona

References

• M. Amelotti – L. M. Zingale (eds.), Le Costituzioni giustinianee nei papiri e nelle epigrafi (Legum Iustiniani Imperatoris Vocabularium Subsidia I), Milano 21985.
• M. Avi-Yonah, Abbreviations in Greek Inscriptions (the Near East, 200 B.C.-A.D. 1100), Jerusalem – London 1940.
• M. Ballance – C. Rouché, The Inscriptions from Ovacık, in: W. Young (ed.), M. Harrison, Mountain and Plain: from the Lycian Coast to the Phrygian Plateau in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Period, Ann Arbor 2001, 87-112.
• S. Barnish – A. D. Lee – M. Whitby, Government and Administration (Chapter 7), in: A. Cameron – B. Ward-Perkins – M. Whitby (edd.), CAH XIV2. Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A. D. 425-600, Cambridge 2000, 164-206.
• G. E. Bean – T. B. Mitford, Journeys in Rough Cilicia 1964-1968 (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-hist. Kl., Denkschriften102), Vienna 1970.
• A. Blanchard, Sigles et Abréviations Dans les Papyrus Documentaires Grecs: Recherche de Paléographie, London 1974.
• H. Brandt, Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft Pamphyliens und Pisidiens im Altertum (Asia Minor Studien 7), Bonn 1992.
• R. Cagnat, Centurio, in: Dizionario epigrafico di Antichità romane II, Rome 1900, 192-202.
• J. P. Callu, Le tarif d'Abydus et la réforme monétaire d'Anastase, in: T. Hackens – R. Weiller (edd.), Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of Numismatics, Berne September 1979, Luxemburg 1982, 731-740.
• M. Clauss, Lexicon lateinischer militärischer Fachausdrücke, Stuttgart 1999.
• C. Clermont-Ganneau, Archaeological researches in Palestine during the years 1873-1874 I-II, London 1896.
• T. Coello, Unit Sizes in the Late Roman Army, Oxford 1996.
• Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum
• P. Coyne, Priscian’s De Laude Anastasii Imperatoris, Ontario 1988 (McMAster University, PhD Thesis).
• Corpus Papyrorum Raineri (Vols. I-XVIII, Vienna 1895-1991)
• C. V. Daremberg – E. Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, d'après les textes et les monuments, Paris 1873.
• G. Dagron, Inscriptions inédites du Musée d'Antioche, TM 9, 1985, 421-461.
• W. Smith – W. Wayte – G. E. Marindin, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London 1875.
• Th. Drew-Bear, Les Voyages d’Aurelius Gaius soldat de Dioclétien, in: T. Fahd (ed.), La géographie administrative et politique d’Alexandre à Mahomet: Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 14-16 juin 1979, Leiden 1981, 93-141.
• T. M. P. Duggan, Not just the Shadows on the Stone: the Greek, Lycian and Roman Craft of Encaustica (ἔγκαυσις) and the Polishing (γάνωσις) of Coloured Inscriptions, that is, of Graphō (γράφω) and its Study – Epigraphy, Phaselis II, 2016, 269-283.
• R. Duncan-Jones, Pay and Numbers in Diocletian's Army, Chiron 8, 1978, 541-560.
• J. Durliat – A. Guillou, Le Tarif d’Abydos (vers 492), BCH 108, 1984, 581-598.
• Epigrafia Greca (M. Guarducci, Vols. I-IV., Rome 1957-1978)
• H. Elton, Warfare in Roman Europe AD 350-425, Oxford 1996.
• H. Elton, Warfare and the Military, in: N. Lenski (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine, Cambridge 2006, 325-346.
• H. Elton, Military Forces, in: P. Sabin – H. van Wees – M. Whitby (edd.), The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare. Volume II: Rome from the Late Republic to the Late Empire, Cambridge 2007, 270-309.
• Y. Le Bohec (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Roman Army (Vols. I – II – III), Oxford 2015.
• D. Feissel, Un rescrit de Justinien découvert à Didymes, Chiron 34, 2004, 285-365.
• D. Feissel, Un fragment palestinien de la constitution d'Anastase sur l'administration militaire du diocèse d'Orient, ZPE 173, 2010, 125-129.
• D. Feissel, Les breviatica de Kasai en Pamphylié: un jugement du maître des offices sous le règne de Zénon, in: R. Haensch (ed.), Recht haben und Recht bekommen im Imperium Romanum. Das Gerichtswesen der Römischen Kaiserzeit und seine dokumentarische Evidenz [Journal of Juristic Papyrology, Suppl. 24], Warschau 2016, 659-737.
• D. Feissel – İ. Kaygusuz, Un mandement impérial du VIe siècle dans une inscription d’Hadrianoupolis d’Honoriade, TM 9, 1985, 397-419.
• C. Foss, Cities, Fortresses and Villages of Byzantine Asia Minor, Aldershot 1996.
• W. Froehner, Les inscriptions grecques interprétées, Paris 1880.
• F. T. Gignac, A Grammar of the Greek Papyri of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (Vols. I-II), Milano 1976.
• J. F. Gilliam, The "Ordinarii" and "Ordinati" of the Roman Army, TAPhA 71, 1940, 127-148.
• E. A. Sophocles (ed.), Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods from B.C. 146 to A.D. 1100, New York 1900.
• G. Greatrex – H. Elton – R. Burges, Urbicius’ Epitedeuma: An Edition, Translation, and Commentary, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 98, 2005, 37-76.
• R. Grosse, Römische Militärgeschichte von Gallienus bis zum Beginn der byzantinischen Themenverfassung, Berlin 1920.
• F. K. Haarer, Anastasius I. Politics and Empire in the Late Roman World, Cambridge 2006.
• G. F. Haenel, Corpus legum ab imperatoribus romanis ante Iustinianum latarum: quae extra constitutionum codices supersunt; accedunt res ab imperatoribus gestae, quibus romani iuris historia et imperii status illustratur etc., Leipzig 1857.
• R. Haensch, La christianisation de l´armée romaine, in: Y. Le Bohec – C. Wolff (edd.), L'armée romaine de Dioclétien à Valentinien Ier, Actes du Congrès de Lyon, 12-14 septembre 2002, Lyon 2004, 525-531.
• S. Hagel – K. Tomaschitz, Repertorium der westkilikischen Inschriften: nach den Scheden der Kleinasiatischen Kommission der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1998.
• D. Hoffmann, Das spätrömische Bewegungsheer und die Notitia Dignitatum I-II, Düsseldorf 1969.
• O. Hornickel, Ehren und Rangprädikate in den Papyrusurkunden: ein Beitrag zum römischen und byzantinischen Titelwesen, Giessen 1930 (Dissertation).
• J. İnan, Perge Kazısı 1981 Çalışmaları, TAD 26/2, 1983, 1-63.
• S. Janniard, Centuriones ordinarii et ducenarii dans l'armee romaine tardive (IIIe-VIe s. apr. J.-C.), in: A. S. Lewin – P. Pellegrini (edd.), The late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest: proceedings of a colloquium held at Potenza, Acerenza and Matera, Italy, May 2005, (British Archaeological Reports 1717), Oxford 2007, 383-393
• S. Janniard, Field Officers: Late Empire, in: ERA II, 403-404.
• S. Janniard, Transmission of Orders: Late Empire, in: ERA III, 1021-1022.
• A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey ( I-IV), Oxford 1964.
• J. G. Keenan, An instance of the military grade Flavialis, BASP 10, 1973, 43-46.
• G. Klaffenbach, Griechische Epigraphik, Göttingen 1966.
• P. Krüger, Kritik des Justinianischen Codex, Berlin 1867.
• W. Larfeld, Handbuch der griechischen Epigraphik. Erster band, Einleitungs- und Hilfsdisziplinen, die nicht-attischen Inschriften, Leipzig 1907.
• Lexikon zur Byzantinischen Gräzität
• A. D. Lee, The Army (Chapter 7), in: A. Cameron – P. Garnsey (edd.), CAH XIII2: The Late Empire, A. D. 337-425, Cambridge 1998, 211-237.
• Z. von Lingenthal, Die vom Kaiser Anastasius für die Libya Pentapolis erlassenen Formae, Monatsber. Ak. Berlin, 1879, 134-158.
• H. G. Liddell – R. Scott (edd.), A Greek-English Lexicon, Ninth Edition with a Revised Supplement by Roderick McKenzie, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones, Oxford 1996.
• C. L. Lewis – C. Short (edd.), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford 1879.
• J. Marcillet-Jaubert, Les Inscriptions Grecques de Hallabat II, ADAJ 26, 1982, 145-158.
• H. J. Mason, Greek Terms for Roman Institutions. A Lexicon and Analysis (ASPap 13), Toronto 1974.
• B. H. McLean, An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: From Alexander the Great to the Reign of Constantine (323 BC-AD 337), Ann Arbor 2002.
• F. Millar, Imperial Government and the Maintenance of Orthodoxy: Justin I and Irregularities at Cyrrhus in 520, SCI 28, 2009, 117-138.
• G. Millet, Inscriptions byzantines de Mistra, BCH 23, 1899, 97-156.
• N. P. Milner, Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science. Translated with notes and introduction (Translated Texts for Historians Volume 16), Liverpool 1993.
• St. Mitchell, Archaeology in Asia Minor 1985-1989, AR 36, 1990, 83-131.
• F. Mitthof, Annona militaris. Die Heeresversorgung im Spätantiken Ägypten. Ein Beitrag zur Verwaltungs- und Heeresgeschichte des Römischen Reiches im 3. bis 6. Jh. n. Chr. I - II (Papyrologica Florentina 32), Firenze 2001.
• Th. Mommsen, Das Römische Militärwesen Seit Diocletian, Hermes 24/2, 1889, 195-279.
• Th. Mommsen, Nomina et gradus centurionum, Gesammelte Schriften 8, 1913, 360-384.
• A. D. Mordtmann, Ein Edict Justinians, MDAI 4, 1879, 307-311.
• J. P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiæ cursus completus, series Græca, Paris 1857-1868.
• J. P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiæ cursus completus, series Latina, Paris 1844-1864.
• J. Nélis-Clément, Les Beneficiarii: militaires et administrateurs au service de l'empire (Ier s. a. C.-VF s. p. C), Bordeaux 2000.
• M. J. Nicasie, Twilight of empire: The Roman army from the reign of Diocletian until the Battle of Adrianople, Amsterdam 1998.
• E. C. Nischer, The Army Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine and Their Modifications up to the Time of the Notitia Dignitatum, JRS 13, 1923, 1-55.
• J. Nollé, ‘Oriens Augusti’. Kaiserpanegyrik und Perserkriegspropaganda und Münzen der Stadt Side in Pamphylien unter Valerian und Gallienus 253-268, JNG 36, 1986, 127-143.
• A. N. Oikonomides, Abbreviations in Greek Inscriptions: Papyri, Manuscripts, and Early Printed Books. A Manual, Chicago 1974.
• G. Oliverio, Cirenaica. Il decreto di Anastasio I su l'ordinamento politico-militare della Cirenaica (Documenti antichi dell'Africa Italiana II/II), Bergamo 1932.
• F. Onur, Perge’den Anastasius Dönemi’ne Ait Bir Ordu Fermanı: Ön Rapor, in: K. Dörtlük – T. Kahya – R. Boyraz Seyhan – T. Ertekin (edd.), International Young Scholars Conference I: Mediterranean Anatolia / Uluslararası Genç Bilimciler Buluşması I: Anadolu Akdenizi 04-07 November / Kasım 2009, Istanbul 2012, 257-272.
• F. Onur, The Military Edict of Anastasius from Perge: A Preliminary Report, in: C. Wolff (ed.), Le métier de soldat dans le monde romain. Actes du cinquième Congrès de Lyon, 23-25 septembre 2010, Lyon 2012, 21-38.
• F. Onur, Monumentum Pergense. Anastasios’un Ordu Fermanı, Istanbul 2014.
• J. R. Pacho, Relation d'un voyage dans la Marmarique, la Cyrénaïque et les oasis d'Audjelah et de Maradeh : accompagnée de cartes géographiques et de planches représentant les monuments de ces contrées, Paris 1827.
• B. Palme, Flavius Flavianus – von Herakleopolis nach Konstantinopel?, BASP 45, 2008,143-169.
• H. M. Parker, The Legions of Diocletian and Constantine, JRS 23, 1933, 175-189.
• S. Pierre, Nélis-Clément (Jocelyne). Les Beneficiarii: militaires et administrateurs au service de l'empire (Ier s. a. C.-VF s. p. C), Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 80/1, 2002, 301-302.
• G. W. Lampe (ed.), A Patristic Greek Lexicon, Oxford 1961.
• Syria. Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-5 and 1909. Division III, Greek and Latin Inscriptions, Section A: Southern Syria, edd. E. Littmann – D. Magie, Leiden 1907-1921.
• N. E. Priest, A Loan of Money with Some Notes on the Ala Mauretana, ZPE 51, 1983, 65-70.
• P. Rance, Campidoctores Vicarii vel Tribuni: The Senior Regimental Officers of the Late Roman Army and Rise of the Campidoctor, in: A. S. Lewin – P. Pellegrini (edd.), The Late Roman Army in Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest: Proceedings of a colloquium held at Potenza, Acerenza and Matera, Italy, May 2005 (British Archaeological Reports 1717), Oxford 2007, 395-409.
• P. Rance, The De Militari Scientia or Müller Fragment as a philological resource. Latin in the East Roman army and two new loanwords in Greek: palmarium and *recala’, Glotta. Zeitschrift für griechische und lateinische Sprache 86, 2010, 63-92.
• P. Rance, The Third Equites Stablesiani at Cyrrhus, Chiron 42, 2012, 345-358.
• P. Rance, An unnoticed regimental ‘diaconus’ in the correspondence of Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Historia 63/1, 2014, 117-128.
• P. Rance, Languages: Late Empire, in: ERA II, 579-580.
• P. Rance, Music: Late Empire, in: ERA II, 671-672.
• P. Rance, Training: Late Empire, in: ERA III, 1012-1014.
• B. Rankov, ‘Beneficiarii’ and the Reality of Roman Bureaucracy, JRA 15, 2002, 524-527.
• C. Roueché, Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity. The Late Roman and Byzantine Inscriptions Including Texts from the Excavations at Aphrodisias Conducted by Kenan T. Erim, London 1989.
• H. A. Sanders, Papyrus 1804 in the Michigan Collection, in: G. D. Hadzsits (ed.), Classical Studies in Honor of John C. Rolfe, Philadelphia 1931, 265-283.
• I. Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, Washington, D.C., 1989.
• R. K. Sherk, The Inermes Provinciae of Asia Minor, AJA 76/4, 1955, 400-413.
• M. P. Speidel, The Master of the Dragon Standards and the Golden Torc: An Inscription from Prusias and Prudentius' Peristephanon, TAPA 115, 1985, 283-287.
• M. P. Speidel, Late-Roman military decorations I: Neck- and wristbands, AntTard 4, 1996, 235-243.
• M. A. Speidel, Specialisation and promotion in the Roman imperial army, in: L. de Blois (ed.), Administration, Prosopography, and Appointment Policies in the Roman Empire, Amsterdam 2001, 50-61.
• E. Stein, Ordinarii et Campidoctores, Byzantion 8, 1933, 379-387.
• E. Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire I-II, Paris 1949.
• S. Şahin, Pamphylia'da Epigrafi ve Tarihi Coğrafya Araştırmaları, AST 6, 1988, 253-256.
• S. Şahin, Spätrömisch-Frühbyzantinische Inschriften aus Perge in Pamphylien, in: A. Rhoby (ed.), Inscriptions in Byzantium and Beyond, Vienna 2015, 177-186.
• W. T. Treadgold, Byzantium and Its Army, Stanford 1995.
• L. Várady, New Evidence on some Problems of the Late Roman Military Organisation, AAntHung 9, 1961, 333-396.
• W. H. Waddington, Édit de l'Empereur Anastase sur l'administration militaire de la Libye, RA 18, 1868, 417-430.
• C. Whately, Senior Officers, in: ERA III, 866-867.
• E. L. Wheeler, The Legion as Phalanx in the Late Empire [pt. II], Revue des Études Militaires Anciennes 1, 2004, 147-175.
• U. Wilcken – L. Mitteis, Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde I, Berlin 1912.
• S. Williams, Diocletian and the Roman Recovery, Oxford 1985.
• C. Zuckerman, Du village à l’Empire: autour du Registre fiscal d’Aphroditô (525/526) (Monographies du Centre de recherche d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance 16), Paris 2004.