Julius Valerius Tenes
(0005) Text: Val(erius) [Tenes] Eptace[nti]s f(ilius), | o(ptio) alae I Thracum | Aug(ustae). Q(uintus) V[eases] | frater eius fecit. | Ἰ(ούλιος) Οὐ(αλέριος) Τένες Ἐπτακέντου υἱός· | Κ(όιντος) Οὐεάσης ἐπο(ί)ησεν ὁ ἀδελ- | φὸς αὐτοῦ.
Translation: Julius Valerius Tenes, son of Eptacentes, optio of ala I Thracum Augusta. Erected by his brother Quintus Veases. (Trans. Fred Baxter)
Commentary: Name is Thracian (see Kennedy). It is not certain when the unit arrived in Gerasa. Holder dates the Gerasene inscriptions before the Judaean War on the unfounded assertion that the unit must have left Syria by 70 CE, estimating a transfer under the reign of Nero. Gracey more plausibly suggests its arrival after the Judaean War – a date that corresponds with the unit’s presence on Syrian diplomas in the years 88-90 CE. Regardless, ala I Thracum Augusta left Gerasa before 107 CE, as it is attested upon a diploma from Raetia in that year (CIL 16.55) and also after. This would correspond well to the annexation of the Decapolis to the newly formed province of Arabia in 106 CE. The inscriptions are functionally synonymous in both of the languages.
Provenience: Gerasa, Decapolis (Jerash, Jordan) 66-106 CE
Bibliography: IGR 3.1374; CIL 3.14159.1; AE 1899.27; Gerasa 199; Paul A. Holder, Studies in the Auxilia of the Roman Army from Augustus to Trajan, BARIS 70 (Oxford: BAR, 1980), 159; David L. Kennedy, The Roman Army in Jordan, 1st ed. (London: Council for British Research in the Levant, 2000), 106-107.