Roman Imperial Mounted Bodyguard 'Equites Singulares' Military Diploma Fragment

Dated 8 April 133 AD

The second known example of the earliest recorded diploma for the equites singulares, precisely dated to 8 April 133 AD and issued to a member of the imperial mounted bodyguard; Latin text to both sides; for the restoration of the text, preserved letters are in bold capitals (diplomas repeat the same text obverse and reverse):

Obverse: [Imp(erator) Caesar divi Traiani Parthici f(ilius) / divi Nervae nepos Traianus Hadria/nus Aug(ustus) pont(ifex) max(imus) trib(unicia) pot(estate) XVII co(n)s(ul) III p(ater) p(atriae) / equitib(us) qui inter singular(es) milita/ver(unt) quibus pr]A(e)EST CLOD[ius Gallus / quinis et vic]EN(is) PLVRIB[usve stipen/di(i)s emeritis di]MISS(is) HON[esta mis/sione quorum no]MIN(a) SVB[scripta / sunt ipsis liberis posteri]SQ[ue eorum / civitatem dedit et

Reverse: conub(ium) cum uxorib(us) / quas tunc habuissent cum est civi/tas i]IS DATA AVT S[i qui caelibes essent / cum] IIS QVAS POST[ea duxiss(ent) dumtaxat] / SINGVL(i) SIN[gulas a(nte) d(iem) VI] IDVS A[pr(iles) M(arco) Ant]ONIO [Hibero / P(ublio) Mummio Sisenna co(n)s(ulibus) / ------ name of individual soldier ------ / descript(um) et recognit(um) ex tabula aenea / quae fixa est Romae in muro post / templum divi Aug(usti) ad Minervam // ------ q/uas tunc habuissent cum est civitas i(i)s / data aut siqui caelibes essent cum i(i)s / quas postea duxiss(ent) dumtaxat singuli sing(ulas) // Ti(beri) Claudi Menandri / P(ubli) Atti Severi / P(ubli) Atti Festi / L(uci) Equiti Gemelli / Q(uinti) Lolli Festi / T(iberi) Villi Agath--- / C(ai) Vettieni Hermetis]

Translating to: ‘Emperor Caesar, son of the deified Trajan Parthicus, grandson of the deified Nerva, Trajan Hadrian Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, holding tribunician power for the 17th time, three times consul, father of the nation, grants to the cavalrymen who have fulfilled service among the (emperor’s) personal corps, commanding officer being Clodius Gallus, for twenty-five years or more and received honourable discharge, whose names are written below, to themselves and their children and their descendants, (Roman) citizenship and legal recognition of their liaison with wives they have had up to the time when citizenship was granted to them, or - if they be unmarried - with those they may thereafter have taken as wives, provided only one wife for each veteran at any given time; the 8th day of April, when Marcus Antonius Hiberus and Publius Mummius Sisenna were consuls [AD 133]; [name of the individual veteran recipient of the grant]; copied from and checked against the original bronze tablet which is displayed in Rome on the wall behind the temple of the deified Augustus, by (the statue of) Minerva. [Text then repeated on reverse, ending with names of six witnesses to the document]’. 7.75 grams, 46mm (1 3/4"). Condition
Fine condition. Diplomas issued to the equites singulares of the Praetorian Guard are very rare.

Provenance
Property of a London, UK collector; acquired London market, 1990s.

Literature
For the first known fragment of another diploma with the same text, the earliest known diploma for the equites singulares, see: AE 1994, 1519 = Roxan, Margaret M., Roman Military Diplomas 1985-1993, UCL/IoA, Occasional Publication 14, 1994, no.158 (a photocopy of the entry is included for reference), or here online: https://edh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/inschrift/HD055911; also cf. commentary by W. Eck & A. Pangerl in ZPE 193 (2015), 258 (in German).

Footnotes
The equites singulares were the personal cavalry of the emperor being the mounted arm of the Praetorian Guard and were based in Rome at the Caelian Hill; they also formed part of the personal escort to the emperor when he travelled. It is believed that the unit comprised about 1000 horsemen in the time of Hadrian, divided into turmae or squadrons and, from the Trajanic Frieze in the Arch of Constantine, their emblem was a scorpion.