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anyone know of a first hand description of a roman legionaries military experience from enlistment to discharge,a chronological order of events starting from enlistment to discharge,minute details would be nice
Salvatore Petruso/TITVS PVLLO
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Hi Salvatore,
Sadly our records almost never allow such minute reconstructions. Extensive career inscriptions are rare. Papyri sometimes provide the minute details you'd like, but never span a full career.
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Salve Salvatore,
may-be the best summary of a special soldier's career and military actions is the tombstone of TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS MAXIMUS. Well-known to us as the man who caught the Dacian king Decebalus.
He started his career as legionary infantryman, later changed to a cavalry ala and was promoted up to decurio. All is summarized by Peter Connolly in his two books:
[url:2oatq6gt]http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0199104255/ref=sib_dp_pt/202-7576415-9118232#reader-link[/url]
[url:2oatq6gt]http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0199104247/ref=sib_dp_pt/202-7576415-9118232#reader-link[/url]
You can find his fine tombstone in Jasper's excellent image database:
[url:2oatq6gt]http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/option,com_imagebase/task,view/cid,121/Itemid,94/[/url]
The stone shows the incident that was the highlight in his career; the same does this image on Traian's column:
[url:2oatq6gt]http://cheiron.mcmaster.ca/~trajan/images/hi/3.38.h.jpg[/url]
Greets - Uwe
Greets - Uwe
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Kate Gilliver pointed this one out (Spurius Ligustinus):
link from old RAT
There are also firsthand accounts in the letters discussed here (Claudius Terentianus):
link from old RAT
Not as detailed as I think you're after, but as good as it gets.
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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Those letters are indeed some of the glimpses one can catch from the life of Roman soldiers, but they do not describe complete careers.
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True. But you could take both of the main correspondents, Terentianus and Tiberianus together, and get a glimpse of both miltary and everyday life in the same province at the same time, from pre-enlistment to post-retirement as speculator.
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
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