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Married Soldiers ? !
#1
I'm aware that a normal soldier was unable to get married until he had completed his militairy duties but how about the higer officers like Tribuuns who where after all of noble birth did they get married and go back to their legion/did their wife move with them or did a Tribuun as a nobleman and higher officer have the privlage to return home on occasion to settle his affairs (I'm askin cuz im sthe sory I'm writing the leading man Tribuun Marcellus Emachius Tullius is the 2nd son so that would releave him from political duties (right?) and I have plans on letting him get married but I need to know if this would ruin his militairy carrier or if he and his wife would just say: buy a house in the province where her husband is stationed (in this case Judea) ?)<br>
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hope someone can answer this one cuz...well it's a big deal as far as the story goes plus I'just curious cuz of my love for Roman History. <p></p><i></i>
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#2
He could very well have his wife with him on the frontier, but I doubt they're buy a house. They're probably just use their Roman expansion come into play and live in someone else's house until they had another one built or he was transferred to Britania or Germania or somesuch. <p><BR><p align=center><font color=gold><font size=3>
__________________<BR>
CASCA TARQUINIUS<BR>
<a href=http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org> LEGIO IX HISPANA</font></font><BR><font color=gold><font size=3>
__________________</font></font></p><i></i>
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#3
When is this story? Trouble is, during the empire the military career of senatorial families became quite short, interspersed with other adminstrative and political duties. If you want an officer career, take an eques.<br>
<p>Greets<BR>
<BR>
Jasper</p><i></i>
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#4
Thx for the info, to answer your question the story takes place from 8ad and spans roughly 20 years, problem for me is the main char is a Senators son so he porbably wouldnt become a simple soldier what other ranks would a nobleman get something Like Centurion and...would he be able to join the Preatorian Guard, I read somewhere they didnt enlist people from the highest born to prevent corruption or would a second son be unimportant enough<br>
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ps<br>
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Can someone tell me something more about the Preatorians or refer me to a site where I can find some more (I'm off to the bookstore tomorrow to look at some cheap 2nd hand books but knowing my luck I probably wont find annything usefull) <p></p><i></i>
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#5
Just about the only - available - book about the praetorians would be the Osprey one by Rankov, Guardians of the Empire.<br>
The site? Well Romanarmy.com of course. See www.romanarmy.com/Elite.htm#Praetorian%20Guard%20Intro<br>
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<p>Greets<BR>
<BR>
Jasper</p><i></i>
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#6
Ha!<br>
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Praetorians?!<br>
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Bah...<br>
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Peacocks! ODE EM <p><BR><p align=center><font color=gold><font size=3>
__________________<BR>
CASCA TARQUINIUS<BR>
<a href=http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org> LEGIO IX HISPANA</font></font><BR><font color=gold><font size=3>
__________________</font></font></p><i></i>
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#7
the fact that he was a second son shouldn't intheory make htat much difference, and probably less of a difference under hte Empire than during the Republic, as the favour of the Emperor came to overshadow the importance of hte favour of the Roman people as the electorate. The norion of primageniture, ie First son inheriting everything, is a medieval European one, the Ancient greeks and Romans divided everything up equally between sons in their wills, division of property in this way was a major problem as you can imagine, as wealth was spread thinly. in the Republic this might mean that a second son was prevented by financial difficulties from pursuing a public career. This also lead to a tendency among the Roman aristocracy to have fewer children, as they couldn't afford to divide up their wealth.<br>
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The military hierarchy may have had some Centurions from direct commisions, but not many of senatorial rank, if any, they'd have been equites. Each legion had 6 tribunes, 5 of whom were on short commisions to get some military experience for forms sake, before returning to Rome to pursue a career. There was one more experienced tribune, but IIRC he was generally equestrian as well. If you're spanning 20 years and looking at a senatorial character then he would perhaps first of held a comission as a junior tribune on the staff of a legion, then served in various political offices in Rome and the provinces before promotion to a governorship of a province, possibly first a non military one and later a province with legions to command. If you want a 20 year military career you're going to have to go with hte centurions I htink, senators in general just weren't attatched to the military for htat long. <p></p><i></i>
In the name of heaven Catiline, how long do you propose to exploit our patience..
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#8
Thx for all the info everyone, guess I'll leave the militairy part to my other Roman story and let my Senators son get a nice and lazy political carrier, what kind of carrier whould this be btw?<br>
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and...(man I;ve asked more questions on this board in the last 2 days then I asked the past 2 years LOL) say my Tribuun is back in Rome following his political carrier and there would be trouble in one of the provinces could he be asked to (temporarily) help out cuz the commanderof a legion wanted a experianced and trusworhy man at his side? <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/umarcellusemachiustullius.showPublicProfile?language=EN>Marcellus Emachius Tullius</A> at: 12/14/01 1:07:07 pm<br></i>
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#9
All the more reason to get him into all kinds of intrigue, murder, mayhem!<br>
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Good luck writing!<br>
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<p>Greets<BR>
<BR>
Jasper</p><i></i>
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#10
yep <p></p><i></i>
In the name of heaven Catiline, how long do you propose to exploit our patience..
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#11
Uhoh, I've gone and got everything the wrong way round. very embarrasing. I should have said that the 5 tribunes were equites of more military experience, and the sixth tribune was there doing a short period of military service. He was ussually someone accepted as a candidate for the senate, hence his title, the tribunus laticlavus, literally broad stripe tribune. Senators wore wide purple/crimson stripes on their tunics, equites narrow ones.<br>
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it should also be remembred that infact they were all equites, they may come from a senatorial background but until election to the senate through a public magistracy was acheived they retained the rank of equites. <p></p><i></i>
In the name of heaven Catiline, how long do you propose to exploit our patience..
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#12
Salve,<br>
<br>
The ban on marriage according to Roman law did not extend to officers. The centurions and senior officers could legally contract marriages in the period that the rank and file could not (though this did not prevent them from taking common law wives). Officers could have their wifes accompanying them on duty, some even going along on campaign. What evidence there is indicates that they would live with their husbands in the officer's housing.<br>
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Aah, I see Catiline has rectified his earlier statement before I could cut an paste my answer. But here is a short overview on the legionary tribunate anyway.<br>
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The Roman legion had six <i> tribuni</i> on strength. Originally twenty four such officers were elected by the popular assembly to serve in the four legions, assigned two apiece to the consuls, that formed the normal establishment strength of the Roman army in republican times. There was some distinction within the group for some were required to have served in ten campaigns before they could stand for office, while others had to have just five campaigns. As the Roman empire grew it became usual to put more units into the field than the regular four, but this does not seem to have resulted in an increase of the number of elected <i> tribuni militum</i>. Those elected became for this reason known as the <i> comitiati</i>, while the others that were appointed by the commanders of any legionary force assembled eventually received the nickname of <i> Rufuli</i>. At first the position of tribune had much prestige and could be held even by former consuls. By the later republican period though the standards had decreased and such offciers could be young and inexperienced. Nevertheless they remained the most important officers for commanding the legion since the legates appointed by late republican era commanders had not yet evolved into true legionary commanders.<br>
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During the empire the organisation of the legion was changed. With the exception of the units stationed in Egypt command of each legion was given to a <i> legatus legionis</i> drawn from the senatorial order. The six <i> tribuni</i> were subordinate to this new officer. Again with the exception of units based in Egypt one of these six was a senator at the start of his public career. Known as a <i> tribunus laticlavius</i> from the broad purple decorative tunic stripes that indicated his social standing this officer served as second in command of the unit. The other tribunes were drawn from the equestrian order and because of their narrow tunic stripes were known as a <i> tribunus angusticlavius</i>. Unlike the senatorial tribune, for which this post was usually the first military position, most equestrians had previously served as commander of an auxiliary infantry cohort. The average tenure of office was some three to four years, though this could at times be considerably longer. Shorter stints were served by a socalled <i> tribunus sexmenstris</i>, who served for just six months. Despite older publications claims that the latter functioned as commander of the legionary cavalry, there is absolutely no evidence in the extant source material to support that. Some officers served double tours instead of the usual one, and in exceptional cases even three. Age of a legionary tribune in the imperial army could be as low as sixteen, though most would be in their twenties or early thirties. There are frequent references to the use of tribunes to command the legion in combat, so their duties were not purely administrative. Nevertheless since the army would only occasionally be called upon to engage in battle, tribunes would like the rest have been busy with a host of other tasks. In peacetime they were responsible to oversee the readiness of the troops and to judge proficiency of recruits in addition to taking care of supply matters. Some could be employed to financially audit the administration.<br>
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<i> Dig</i> 49.16.12.2<br>
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Macer 1 <i> de re militari</i><br>
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<i> Officium tribunorum est vel eorum, qui exercitui praesunt, milites in castris continere, ad exercitationem producere, claves portarum suscipere, vigilias interdum circumire, frumentationibus commilitonum interesse, frumentum probare, mensorum fraudem coercere, delicta secundum suae auctoritatis modum castigare, principiis frequenter interesse, querellas commilitonum audire, valetudinarios inspicere</i><br>
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'The task of the tribunes or those, who are at the head of an army, is to keep the soldiers in camp, lead them to training, to take care of the keys of the gates, to inspect the watches, to be present at the distribution of rations of their fellow soldiers, to check on the grain, to take action against fraud with measurements, to punish offences in accordance with their seriousness, to be frequently at headquarters, to hear legal cases of their fellow soldiers, to inspect the sick bay'<br>
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Regards,<br>
<br>
Sander van Dorst <p></p><i></i>
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#13
Yes, Sander, very short indeed! LOL <p>Greets<BR>
<BR>
Jasper</p><i></i>
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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