05-01-2009, 02:37 PM
It's more to do with coastal defence, rather than just evidence of some random militia. Chester Starr wrote about this in American Journal of Philology 64 (1943).
As well as your Spanish example, there was a praefectus orae maritimae Mauretaniae, too. Probably to combat smuggling and that sort of thing. Starr reckons that "the praefect directed first one and then two cohorts of tirones or local militia recruited in part perhaps from Tarraco" (citing Cichorius, who presumably suggested this). Starr also points to other localised commands, which were more to do with keeping order in isolated locations (praefectus montis Berenicidis, apparently patrolling the Red Sea coastal area, is another one), rather than defence against external enemies.
As well as your Spanish example, there was a praefectus orae maritimae Mauretaniae, too. Probably to combat smuggling and that sort of thing. Starr reckons that "the praefect directed first one and then two cohorts of tirones or local militia recruited in part perhaps from Tarraco" (citing Cichorius, who presumably suggested this). Starr also points to other localised commands, which were more to do with keeping order in isolated locations (praefectus montis Berenicidis, apparently patrolling the Red Sea coastal area, is another one), rather than defence against external enemies.
