Original scientific paper
The ala Parthorum and the ala Pannoniorum in inscriptions from Salona
Ivan Matijević
orcid.org/0000-0002-9417-4698
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split, History Department
Abstract
The paper is dedicated to the Salonitan stele of the
decurion [Tiberius] Julius Maximus from ala Parthorum
(CIL 3, 8746; EDH HD050401) and the stele of
the duplicarius Cloutius from ala Pannoniorum (CIL
3, 2016; EDH HD054712) as the only epigraphic confirmations
of these auxiliary cavalry units in the Roman
province of Dalmatia. The prevailing opinion is
that they should be dated to the closing years of the
Augustan era or the early years of the reign of Tiberius.
It is suggested that these cavalry units were posted
in the immediate vicinity of Salona in the years following
the Pannonian-Dalmatian uprising (6-9 AD).
The discovery of the stele of Maximus at Pleštine,
southwest of the Klis mountain pass, may indicate that this was exactly where ala Parthorum, or a part of
it, was positioned with the task of securing the communication
route between Salona and the mainland.
The author discusses the social status and origin of
the decurion [Tiberius] Julius Maximus, the son of
Gaius Julius Tiridates, a Roman-born member of the
Parthian aristocracy. The duplicarius Cloutius, the son
of Clutamus, came from the Asturian Susarri people
of southwest Hispania and was not the only Hispanian
admitted at the time to the unit originally composed of
Pannonian cavalrymen. The author attempts to determine
the time when the alae left Dalmatia. At roughly
the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, ala Pannoniorum
was transferred to Pannonia, where it kept watch
over the roads to the camp in Arrabona. The ala
Parthorum was believed to have been transferred to
Germania in the first half of the 1st century, where
it was confirmed as ala Parthorum et Araborum, but
more recent finds from Pisoraca suggest that it was
transferred to northwest Hispania at the outset of the
Claudian era.
Keywords
Decurion; duplicarius; ala Parthorum; ala Pannoniorum; Salona; Klis
Hrčak ID:
234759
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2019.
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