§131 Doubtful Reference to cohors Sebastenorum

Doubtful Reference to cohors Sebastenorum

(0131) Text: […] | Arr[untianus] | tess(erarius) f[actus] | coh(orte) V [Gemella or “Augusta”] | c(ivium) R(omanorum) [“Sebastenorum” …] | per C(aium) […] | Sabin[um …]

Translation: […] Arruntianus made tessarius of cohors V Gemella c.R. […] by Gaius […] Sabinus […] (Trans. Christopher B. Zeichmann)

Commentary: “Sebastenorum” is an entirely conjectural emendation and not generally accepted; more likely is cohors V Gemella c.R. Cohors V Gemella c.R. is well attested in military diplomas beginning 139 CE (§§211224).  Arruntianus is an Etruscan name (see Gracey). Regardless, this inscription comes from after the period of interest.

Provenience: Sebaste, Syria Palaestina 150-200 CE

Bibliography: AE 1948.150; M. Avi-Yonah, “Newly Discovered Latin and Greek Inscriptions,” Quarterly Department of Antiquities of Palestine 12 (1946): no. 11; M. H. Gracey, “The Roman Army in Syria, Judaea and Arabia” (D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University, 1981), 256; Michael P. Speidel, “The Roman Army in Judaea under the Procurators: The Italian and the Augustan Cohort in the Acts of the Apostles,” Ancient Society 13-14 (1982-83): 234 n. 4; James Russell, “A Roman Military Diploma from Rough Cilicia,” Bonner Jahrbücher 195 (1995): 94; Werner Eck, “Zu Militärinschriften im römischen Iudaea: Epigraphische Vorarbeiten zum CIIP,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 197 (2016): 235-236.