Lucius Nonius
(0042) Text: L(ucium) Nonium M(arci) [f(ilium) Splein-] | didum pra[efectum coh(ortis) …] | trib(unum) coh(ortis) ∞ T[hrac(um) III …] | Ɔ coh(ortis) s(upra) s(criptae) patr[onum suum]
Translation: To Lucius Nonius, son of Marcus, son of the tribe of Splendidus, prefect of the […] cohort, tribune of cohors III Thracum milliaria. […], centurion of the latter cohort dedicates this to his patron.
Commentary: This inscription derives from the time after the death of Agrippa II, when his former kingdom was annexed to Syria – as auxiliaries were unlikely to be in his kingdom before then. John Spaul (Cohors2: The Evidence for and a Short History of the Auxiliary Infantry Units of the Imperial Roman Army, BARIS 841 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2000), 374) observes that cohors III Thracum was building forts in the nearby Druze mountains of Lebanon at Um-el-Quottein – likely in preparation for the Parthian campaigns of Trajan and Lucius Verus’ Parthian War.
Provenience: Paneas/Caesarea Philippi, Syria (Baniyas) 97-120 CE
Bibliography: IGLS 21.22; Zvi Uri Ma’oz, Baniyas in the Greco-Roman Period: A History Based on the Excavations, Archaostyle Scientific Research Studies 3 (Qazrin: Archaostyle, 2007), 25-26*.