The Ancients - Roman Military Tombstones: Uncovering the Unknown Warriors

Episode Date: January 28, 2021

From Northern Britain to the Near East, Roman tombstones have been uncovered on various far flung frontiers of the Roman Empire. Dedicated to those auxiliaries and legionaries that perished far from home, guarding a distant border of this ancient empire. These objects provide an extraordinary insight into the lives of these fallen soldiers and how they were honoured. But these memorials don’t just provide information about the tomb’s deceased occupant. They can tell us so much more. About variation in tombstone designs, about the larger military community stationed on that frontier and about the importance of memory for these soldiers. To talk through this astonishing topic, Tristan was delighted to be joined by Ewan Coopey, from Macquarie University in Sydney. A Roman tombstone fanatic, Ewan has done a lot of research into funerary monuments on Roman frontiers, particularly regarding those belonging to Legio VII, based in Dalmatia.

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like The Ancients ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and today's podcast we are talking about tombstones. We are talking about the tombstones of Roman soldiers situated on far-flung frontiers of the Roman Empire, from Northern Britain to Syria. Now, joining me to talk

through this amazing topic, looking into the tombstones, their variety, in their shape, in their size, in what's inscribed upon them, what they can tell us about the units stationed on that frontier, and so much more. To talk through this topic, I was delighted to get on the show Ewan Coopy from Macquarie University in Sydney. Ewan is a rising talent. He is a tombstone fanatic in the nicest way possible. This was a great chat. It was great to get Ewan on the show. And without further ado, here he is. Ewan, it's great to have you on the show. Thanks. Great to be here. Now, we're talking about Roman military tombstones, and these seem to me astonishing pieces of archaeological and epigraphic evidence

that can tell us so much about the identities of fallen Roman soldiers that we'd otherwise never have heard about at all. I couldn't agree more. I think that's why I'm so attracted to military tombstones and tombstones in general. I think the great archaeologist Valerie Hope mentioned that for once we seem to have an insight into the everyday individual, be it mainly from a often a socio-economic status of a high degree. We also see some freedmen as well. So it's really an entry point into a straddle of society we don't usually get

to look at absolutely absolutely i can really see the appeal of looking at something like that the ordinary soldiers as it were but first of all no such thing as a silly question particularly from someone like myself what are roman military tombstones that's a great question i mean on a basic level they are very similar to the regular Roman funerary tombstone. They are often an inscribed rectangular stone slab or stela or stelae in the plural with simple or complex motifs and decorations. The epitaph, which has the inscription inside, is usually topped by a triangular or perhaps circular pediment. And the text is most frequently in Latin, especially in a military context, it's almost exclusively in Latin. But in Eastern provinces, we do see some Greek inscriptions

either by themselves or perhaps bilingual form as well. And you mentioned the word stela there. What does that word mean? Does that mean the type of material that's used? So stela, stelae, they, as I said, are inscribed stone rectangular slabs. And in the Mediterranean, the ancient Mediterranean, in the classical world, they could have public decrees, political announcements, religious dedications, things like that. But we see them a lot in a funerary context as well. And that's essentially why we call them a tombstone, because for us, they look like a tombstone, this stela in a funerary context. It's also fascinating what you were saying there about, you said there's the inscription, so there's the writing, but you also use the word pediment. And when I think of pediment, I normally think of a temple or that kind of monumental architecture, but they use that sort of design on these military tombstones too. Indeed, one of the characteristic features of a military tombstone in the Roman

world is usually the triangular top, which is actually referred to as an idicula, which is a shrine, a triangular shrine. And it's thought that that's indeed where the motif originated, and therefore why it's so common upon monuments within this funerary context. why it's so common upon monuments within this funerary context. And as I was saying, it's an identifying feature of military monuments. And the other main identifying feature of a funerary monument is in fact in the epitaph in the formulaic inscription. Typically it follows quite a strict order and the information is very common across the empire and across periods as well. So we see the inclusion of the person's name, the serviceman's name, their tribe, their domicilium, which is their place of origin, their unit or units if they've served in multiple different

stations, their office, then their years of service, the stipendia as it's known, and then their age of death, and as well as, as it's known, and then their age of death, and as well as perhaps some information about maybe where they served or any accolades they gained during their time of service. And then finally, the majority also have the name or at least a reference to a commemorator who may be akin or perhaps ambiguously referred to as a frater or a herez, an heir and a brother. Once again, that's really interesting. First of all, you're mentioning the longevity, as it were, of these monuments seem to span centuries, but also the fact that across the

frontiers of the empire, there are elements of these Roman military tombstones that stay the same. Yes, I think that's one of the main reasons we should understand these as a product of a distinct community and as evidence for a distinct community amongst military servicemen and ex-servicemen as well. However, it is important to remember that while certain features stay the same, there is also at the same time a kind of provincial or even unit spin on both the style and sometimes the content. As I was saying, we had bilingual inscriptions or Greek inscriptions in the eastern provinces and certain motifs may be common. And we see provincial influence in the realism of portraits, for instance, and lots of influences and motifs throughout the many periods and many

provinces. So as an example then, a Roman military tombstone from, let's say, Hadrian's Wall or the Antonine Wall in Britain may share very similar basic features to a Roman military tombstone, let's say, near Palmyra or in the Far East. But as you say, there are certain differences that you can realise, that you can see based on the provincial differences. Yes, definitely. Or sometimes it's not provincial, it's actually the influence of the servicemen themselves or the unit. You might see a similarity between a Palmyrene serving on Hadrian's Wall and one very close to home. There may be stylistic similarities in the STLA as well, which may suggest some form of Palmyrene stonemason living in Britain at the time, for instance.

I love that. Once again, it really emphasises that interconnected nature of the Roman Empire, doesn't it? Absolutely fascinating. I believe it was also talked about in a previous podcast as well. Yes. About house steds. That's one of the things that Roman funeral Estile

more generally can reveal is this interconnectivity, the social mobility of the Roman Empire. So from what you're saying, do we normally find these tombstones either nearby or within places that we know to be Roman frontier forts? For servicemen who die during active service, they're very commonly found in the road-hugging necropolis, referred to as the Grabberstrasse in German, which means streets lined with tombs. We love a good German word like that. And yes, typically outside these frontier forts, these military necropolis would form and military stelae would be erected alongside other military stelae. However, over time, perhaps as the borders move, we see an integration of the general public. For instance, at Mainz in Germany, over time, civilian monuments increase.

And what was originally a purely military necropolis becomes a bit more cluttered, shall we say. Remarkable. And on to the all-important big first question. These military communities, these soldiers who've been sent to guard or maintain this far-flung frontier, what can these military tombstones tell us about these military communities? They can tell us so much, as we've already hinted at. And as I was saying, they are typically found outside fortresses. However, the veterans themselves also erect military monuments. So they can tell us that this community, or at least this attachment to this facet, this period of your life, remained for a number.

Of course, there were those who did not mention it on Tombstone. Therefore, we do not realize they were in the military. But for a particular population of veterans, it remains an important part of their identity after their dismissal. In Dalmatia, for instance, which is modern eastern Adriatic coastline, we see in a settlement referred to as Pegus Skunasticus, which is in Lujaburski, modern Bosnia-Herzegovina. And we can see that there is a veteran community here who is still very connected to their time in the military. They have military weapons freezers upon their funerary stelae. Some were erected by fellow soldiers, even though family members

are also recorded on the stelae. And all of them have age and stipendia upon them as well, which while I said it was common, it's not always there. And so we can see within this community, perhaps the fact that they served in the army and the length of time was important for this community. Upon closer examination, you realize they were all disbanded around 14 CE together after the revolt of the Pannonian legions, who had been serving so long and revolted because of this. So these members are actually from that time period. We see that perhaps this long service time became kind of an accolade, and they wanted to express it upon their stelae. So I mean, there's a deep dive into one small nuance of the Roman military community

that we can find out just by looking at the inclusion of certain information upon Stelae. On a more broader level, the choice to erect Stelae, a funerary monument, was actually, especially in the first century CE, a military action in that there were lots of other social groups that did it, but particularly on the frontiers of newly conquered provinces, the military are frequently the first, or at least the members of the military, sorry, are the most common individuals to erect stelae. And they're a main driver of what we refer to as the epigraphic culture in these provinces, at least initially. For instance, in Britain and Dalmatia, we see this. and Dalmatia, we see this. And in these newly conquered provinces, why do you think there is such an influx in the creation of Roman military tombstones on the frontiers by these soldiers,

especially at the beginning? Do they want to be able to assert their military identity in this foreign land? Yes, I think definitely to a degree. These soldiers are in an area which perhaps only years before they were conquering and they need to assert or felt the need to assert the Roman dominance. But in a sense, it's the military dominance. They wanted to assert their identity, this superiority of their community. And as well, they may have been quite isolated from other, particularly in Northern Britain as well, isolated from other Roman communities and want to express their Romanitas in a particularly foreign space. Absolutely, absolutely. And I was loving what you were saying there, particularly,

it sounds, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds very much like this ancient band of brothers on the frontier, as it were, these soldiers who developed such this strong bond during the army, during their service on these frontiers, that even in the aftermath of their service on their tombstones, they still proudly put in the inscription that they were part of that military unit at that point in time. Yeah, I think that that's a key feature of this Roman military community that is being acknowledged in scholarship and has been for some time. We must, of course, acknowledge that there were quite large, especially once again in Britain, non-servicemen who were within this military community in the broader sense, sometimes within the settlement as we see at

Vindolanda, but also sites like Vindanissa. However, this brotherhood almost intersects that and within what some scholars refer to as the community of the soldier, which is specifically the sense of community felt amongst the soldiers, we do see this almost fraternity. And they refer to themselves metaphorically as frater, which may have had a more friend sense in antiquity. And they erect steles for their comrades and we can almost see a community mourning a lost comrade a lost soldier and it definitely was a key part of this community to the point that vegetius writing in the fourth century records that it was part of the military system to have a pot of money that everyone would contribute to as a sort of tombstone fund for when

a serviceman would pass away. So obviously, who knows how representative this may be, but it was at least existing in some of these military communities that it was this important that you would contribute to this fund in case you died before you could plan it yourself. Well, that definitely goes on to the next question, because in a case scenario, let's say a soldier, he's fighting on the frontier and unfortunately he's killed. But you kind of hinted at it there, his comrades, his fellow soldiers, they want to commemorate a tombstone for him. And from what you were saying, is it normally the fellow soldiers who would commemorate the memorials for these fallen soldiers? commemorate the memorials for these fallen soldiers? First, it's also, again, important to point out that it seems that, as again, Valerie Hope observed, when dying in actual conflict,

we're not exactly sure whether these tombstones represent people who died in conflict, particularly when the conflict may have been on campaign, far away from a Roman garrison. And they may have just, like the soldiers who died in the Varian disaster in Teutoburg Forest, may have just been commemorated en masse with a gravesite. So these soldiers may have died on small skirmishes, or if the campaign was close to a fort, they could have been brought back. But these tombstones probably represent more people who died during service on the more peaceful periods but nonetheless when they are erected in the first century we see as has been noted by Salah and Shaw and academics like Sarah Fang there seems to have been at least a small majority of either unrelated or comrades or should should I say, fellow soldiers,

erecting these stelae for their fallen brethren in the first century. However, we do see firstly regional differences with higher numbers in the first century in Germany, let's say, than Africa. However, over time across all the provinces in the second and third centuries, we see an increase in the nuclear family erecting these monuments, which obviously you can tell a number of things about in terms of the permanence of these garrisons, the increased normality of having a family because the garrisons are staying in one place for more time than they used to. And because you're staying in one place, your son can join the same unit and erect a monument for you, and so forth. Yes, so we can see in these Roman military tombstones, in some

cases, examples of generations of soldiers. Yes, definitely. You see them across the empire as well. And while I did say they were in the second and third centuries, you do see it in the first century as well. There's a number of stele erected by the seventh legion in Dalmatia, whom you can see they are either at least brothers, but also a father and son are found in the same site I mentioned earlier, Pegus Gunasticus, the father erecting the tombstone for the two of them. Well, we'll definitely go on to Dalmatia in a moment because I know you've done some excellent work on that subject. But first of all, let's just focus on the differences

between these tombstones. We mentioned earlier how there definitely seem to be certain stylistic differences between tombstones in, let's say, Britain, then in the East, then in Africa, then in Asia Minor. But can we also see differences in the tomb style design between various, I'm not going to say units, I'm going to say various style, military styles in the tomb style design between various, I'm not going to say units, I'm going to say various

style, military styles in the army, let's say between legions and auxiliary units? Yes, we definitely can. And there's been a lot of studies done on the differences between auxiliary and legionary tombstones. Particularly, these studies are usually on the northern provinces. And in Germania and the Germanic provinces, we do see a distinct pattern between the two types, the auxiliary being the non-citizen, at least early on in the empire, non-citizen soldier, and the legionary being the citizen soldier. And what we see is the auxiliaries actually typically have more elaborate tombstones, especially in terms of portraiture. And the legionary, while still wanting to express membership within this military community and their military

identity, we perhaps see less portraiture from them and freezers with weapons and stuff like that the auxiliaries are the ones who especially in the first century are using for instance the rider stele which is a man upon horseback riding down a naked barbarian and we see this way more with auxiliaries than we do with legionaries we do see it with legionary equates horsemen but we don't see it anywhere nearly as much i I mean, that's interesting. You wouldn't have thought that initially, would you? These auxiliary soldiers, they're the ones who are creating the more elaborate tombstones and, as it were, trying to express their own manitas more than the legionary soldiers themselves. Indeed. And there's, again, been some work on this. And

what seems to be a popular hypothesis is that it comes into play with this identity, the importance of identity and the monument as a means of constructing and articulating and expressing your ideal identity, because you're not going to put stuff that you don't want on your tombstone, right? And it seems that these auxiliaries are trying to, perhaps of while on paper they may not have been completely lower class citizens they may have received the same pay for instance they were not citizens or even if they were citizens they were an auxiliary citizen not a legionary so it even then has this stigma even after you see them being granted citizenship. So they're trying to almost reconstruct their perhaps either one or two, three generations ago, barbarian identity and create this hybrid auxiliary identity as a Roman,

perhaps expressing their Roman-ness more than a citizen legionary by ironically, perhaps, writing down what would represent one of their ancestors you know could be their grandfather and you know obviously not on purpose but it's this is the generation you're talking about and they're trying to create almost a hybrid and want to stress their roman nature more than the legionaries who kind of maybe perhaps didn't perceive the need to because they were a citizen you know i don't need to stress this more on my epitaph. Absolutely. This stressing this cultural conversion,

this idea that everyone wanted to be Roman idea again, which seems to be so popular. looking at these rider portraits you've described what they show with the running down of the barbarian and all that this horseman over the barbarian who's fallen. Do we see this design? Is it widespread around the empire? Yes, it's very popular in the first century in the northern provinces, as I said. In Britain, we see it move from the Rhineland across to Britain. And also we do see it in the more southeastern European provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia and then the Danubian provinces and it does trickle down as well into the Syrian provinces as well but perhaps from the influence of the legionary or soldier themselves so perhaps a Danubian serving in Syria but again we see the importance of this motif for the auxiliary because again even across

all of these provinces is usually the auxiliary soldier who is erecting such a tombstone. And when we're looking at Roman Britain, for instance, you could have a Palmyrene. So you got someone from another part of the empire who's not a citizen and another frontier with these other barbarians. So in a sense, it might have made it more easy to come to terms with this, my generations were there three years ago, three generations ago, you know, this disassociation. And we see with these military auxiliary groups, but also legionary groups, erecting these types of portraits, again, at frontiers, because these are the regions where your identity perhaps comes

into conflict with other identities. Or as I said, you may feel isolated from more Roman communities and feel the need to express oneself as a Roman in these liminal spaces, let's say. And of course, and I'm guessing on the frontiers where speed and mobility is key for patrols and all that, the importance of cavalry is evident. And the Roman army, I think, uses auxiliaries mainly as their cavalry detachment. So I guess that further emphasises why there are so many rider portraits on the frontiers that belong to auxiliary soldiers. Yeah, I mean, that's one reason that a lot of these stelae are also erected, which I probably should have mentioned, is that they're also

probably erected by or commemorate someone who was an equest, a cavalryman. But sometimes they're not, which is even more interesting because you see the horse as a status symbol as well. But the status symbol coming from perhaps the usefulness of cavalry on the battlefield. And a lot of cavalry by the early empire is not necessarily Italic. It's auxiliaries. It's those famous Batavians from modern Netherlands, for instance. Of course, of course. And you mentioned status just there and prestige. And was there, in these military tombstones, was there this idea of status and prestige?

Say if you were a cavalry commander, would your stelae have a notable difference, maybe an increase in quality compared to that of a cavalry trooper or an auxiliary soldier compared with an auxiliary optio or something like that? Yes, this is one of the areas where it's quite interesting in that while you do see a lot of centurions and signifers and eagle bearers and cavalrymen and perhaps a first spear centurion or a camp prefect erecting elaborate tombstones the top dogs in the military hierarchy the optios we don't see as many from them and this is perhaps because of the mobility of these individuals whereas centurions are likely to stay within one legion perhaps two obviously we have rare cases where you see eight different units but typically they didn't move around as much so

they have this sense of community with this particular legion for instance whereas with the optios they are less likely to erect one and of course it's a chicken and egg if your your niche does not deem the erection of a stele as an important facet of the community, i.e. the high officers, then you may not feel the need to erect one. Whereas within this, let's say like middle, the lower officers, you do see them as an indicator of status. But as I've mentioned, you see them with legionaries and auxiliaries as well. However, one can presume they were the ones who had more money and were better off, but either because they decided

to save for this specifically, who knows? Sometimes it was actually placed in the will. It'll write according to the deceased person's will. So that heir who wants that money so badly would have to erect this tombstone to get their hands on the money. So there are different things that come into play beyond purely status, but it was definitely a factor. Of course, yes. The will, the importance of the will. Indeed. Let's never forget that. Okay, let's go on to the legions and let's go on to Dalmatia, because as I mentioned earlier, I know you've done a lot of work on that, so let's definitely do some focus on that.

And the 7th Legion in Dalmatia, well, first of all, where is Dalmatia and what do we know about the 7th Legion in this frontier region? So Dalmatia, as I said, is the Roman province, which was on the eastern Adriatic, covering modern countries such as Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. And initially it was the province of Illyricum, which was then split. The date of the split is in fact contested, but at some time, perhaps in the first century AD, maybe early second, and then you have Pannonia above. And this time here in the first century is when we see the seventh legion come into the province, which at that time may have been Illyricum. From probably Galatia, but also perhaps Macedonia, as always, there's a bit of controversy about where they come from, but they come from this place of active service during the Batonian Revolt, which was a revolt from 6 to 9 AD with two different leaders called

Bato, revolting in Pannonia and the Del Marte, who later the province was named after. And they helped quell this rebellion and are then stationed in the province at the camp of Tullurium, which is near modern day Split at a place called Gardun in Croatia. And they then leave the province sometime in the 50s, late 50s, to Moesia Superior. And within this day, they are actually part of a plot to dispose of Claudius. However, they get cold feet. This is in 42 CE. And they retract from the plot alongside the 11th Legion as well, and are rewarded for this cold feat and given the title Claudia Pia Fidelis. So we actually have a nice datable marker as well, which is very convenient for these stelae,

which are erected by the soldiers of the 7th Legion while they're in Dalmatia, for before 42 and beyond 42. The inclusion of the title beyond 42, obviously. So it sounds like the 7th Legion's experience in Dalmatia is quite a tumultuous time with revolts and external threats, but also this internal plotting, as it were. And does Dalmatia, for the whole duration of the 7th Legion, stay in the region or on the frontier, as it were? Does it stay quite a hostile frontier throughout?

Well, after the Bretonnian revolt, there is no major uprisings. However, half of the soldiers, particularly before the provision of the title in 42, would have fought in this revolt. So there would have definitely been a degree of hostility with the locals. But it wasn't a frontier for too much longer, hence why the Legion was actually removed in the 50s, because they decided to only leave one garrison, the 11th. That said, it was a frontier province when they were initially put into the province. And that is another reason why we see these stelae being erected, as well as the fact they coincide nicely with the beginning of the so-called epigraphic culture that I was talking about. Of course, of course. And what is so extraordinary about these stelae from the 7th Legion in Dalmatia?

There's a number of things that are very extraordinary about the stelae. One of them is the fact that there's quite a large corpus of around 100 monuments, which could, and at least 70 which are definitely monuments of the 7th legion what is particularly interesting is the various ways in which community and military identity are expressed through these stelae some of it being more plain and apparent for instance we see the weapons freezers that i mentioned which are shields and armor and weapons presented in below the triangular radicula that I mentioned earlier, therefore reinforcing the military nature of the funerary monument and the identity of the individual. But also we see these interesting motifs called the porta inferis or the four-paneled door,

in Ferris, or the four-paneled door, which features upon Stelae from the three major sites which we find 7th Legion monuments at, which is Salona, which is modern Solin right next to Split, which was the capital of the province, and then Tellurium, the site I mentioned previously, the camp, and finally Pagus Gnasticus, the one I mentioned even earlier, which was the veteran settlement after 14 AD. And what it is, is essentially, as the name suggests, four panels on a door. And there is no military meaning behind these doors. In fact, there's a lot of scholarship debating about where they come from, possibly Asia Minor, possibly from Italy. But what is interesting is that you have these veterans down in Pagus Gnasticus,

you have these soldiers in Salona, and you have these, most of them usually retired veterans as well, but some still serving, and these soldiers in Tellurium all picking the same motif on their stelae. And while it is seen on other units as well, particularly the ones that take residence within Tellurium after Legio VII leave, we see here this non-military motif becoming a sign of a membership within this community. So it takes on communal importance and these veterans down south in Pagus Gunasticus, you can see them as members of the same military group as the ones who erect the stelae in Tellurium. And it's nothing to do with the military in terms of the same military group as the ones who erected the stelae in Tullurium. And it's nothing to do with the military in terms of the actual motif itself.

So this motif on the Roman military tombstone is so common, it seems to link all these soldiers of the 7th Legion together. But as you were saying there, it doesn't seem to have any military connotations associated with it. Yeah, indeed. And it's originally thought that perhaps it actually came from the stonemasons who were originally situated in Salona, a civilian settlement, who then moved to Tellurium. So perhaps it could have had no significance to the community. However, it's hard to tell initially. But once the workshop was set up at Tellurium, all the soldiers are getting these stelae with

the four doors on them so that's what i want you know and then the ones that are particularly interesting are the ones there's this two in salona one of them being the funeral monument of lucius fabius which seems to be made in a different workshop it's a nicer cut it's on a different stone and we even have an altar as well with the four-door motif belonging to a soldier from the seventh legion so you can see the request almost for this motif even though they're not getting it from the same workshop presumably as these other veterans or servicemen so once again that emphasizes how they're not all going to the same stonemason as it were to create it they were going to these different stonemasons

located on the frontier region to get the same motif so they bring the all going to the same stonemason as it were to create it. They were going to these different stonemasons located on the frontier region to get the same motif. So they bring the same design to the person to say, right, make this. There's some scholars who think that the stonemasons decided to follow the veterans down and make a workshop there because it would have been quite a lucrative venture to do so. Because you have a community who you know will want tombstones being ex-servicemen and they will want your type of tombstone because you're the ones who used to make them back at Tullerium. However it was only two days march away so they could have been you know delivered but it's hard to tell. Is this a perfect case study at showing how for these military veterans who did decide to stay in this border region

after their service, how they really wanted to emphasise their shared military identity to the world. I definitely think so. I think sometimes we do see family members, other family members mentioned on these stelae. But nonetheless, the military facet of their life typically takes precedence over this, especially when erected by fellow servicemen or while the individual was alive, and especially when they're serving soldiers and at Tellurium, and then the particularly interesting side of Pegas Gnasticus. The ones in Salona you see have maybe become more integrated into civilian life and perhaps more detached from the serving community. And they don't have these motifs

perhaps. But even then, some members in Salona choose to have this motif. So definitely, you have this demonstration of how important it was for certain members. And on a broader level, how much it's all about the individual and the choice of the individual and what they would like or what their commemorators would like them to have on their stelae and how they want to be remembered in death. Absolutely. It sounds like very much an ancient memorial, as it were. Yes, yeah, definitely. I think one of the main functions of the stela or funerary monuments in general in the Roman world was the creation of a memory, you know, and on the

frontiers, it could be seen as an almost like, I want to name stamp, you know, Ewan was here, you know, it's just the same as Quintus Metius Valens was here in Tellurium before 42 AD. And these frontiers may have been quite alien to these people. So there's a need to, with the social mobility of the time, the ability to be in this place and that, you need to just assert that this is me, this is who I am. This is why perhaps we see so many erected during life of the individual as well. Absolutely, because so much of ancient history, particularly ancient Mediterranean history, we know more about the elites, let's say. They're the people who are written about. They're the people who order the construction of monumental structures that still

stand in awe today. They're the people who construct these amazing tombs. But it sounds like these Roman military tombstones, at least in the military aspect, they do give us more of an insight into the everyday soldiers of the frontiers. Yes, definitely. And we must preface this with the fact that there are a number of flaws with the epigraphic corpus, or should I say the inscribed monuments, which means they do not, of course, represent a cross section, a nice snapshot. But what they do is they tell us about the members within the military community who wanted to erect Stelae. This is what we can learn about them.

There may have been a certain group in a certain legion who didn't erect Stelae, therefore we never will know about them. But therefore, when they did choose to erect one, it's important for us as historians, for we have this record of these individuals or communities who did serve within these communities and otherwise we may never have heard about. We've been talking quite a lot about the military aspect and for good reason given the topic but you did mention earlier how some of these tombstones do include family, wives, children, parents. Do we often hear about an ex-serviceman's wife or their children? Or is this something that we just see occasionally? No, there's definitely a number of monuments which are erected by or for family members. As I was saying, they increase in the second and third centuries. However, in the first

century, they do exist. And this has been used by a number of scholars to challenge the originally held consensus that marriage was banned within the Roman military community. And if it was, it wasn't banned very well. We see, at least unofficial, what we can presume are female partners. So freed women, for instance, referenced on Stelae in the first century. But we do see some wives. And in the second and third, this only increases as well. So we can learn a lot about the extended community within the military as well from these monuments

and the lives after service for these veterans. They do sometimes indeed settle down, have a family, and this becomes a more important facet of their identity than the military service they had beforehand. They realize there's more than simply military life, you know? Yes, I guess for those people who do outlive their military service, who then have this civilian life, you can see how they, although they retain this sense of military identity, you also see them rejoining civilian life. No, definitely. And you see upon their tombstones, the intersection between their various identities as a military man, but also as a now a family man and a civilian who is no longer an active serviceman. So they may have, depending on how long after service they died or decided to erect

a tombstone, if they were forward thinking, depending on this period of time, they may have indeed started to do something else, maybe become a stonemason, you know, started a new life, which is why these veterans in Pegasus Gunasticus, I find them so interesting, is that they were given plots of land. They weren't just settled in the city, but they still, despite this isolated settlement of them

in different plots of land, they still maintain this sense of military identity. But yes, you definitely see veterans who do maybe just simply pen, I was in the 7th Legion, and that's the only piece of military information you receive. And their stelae has floral designs and is what we may refer to as simply a Roman funerary tombstone. But it still remains as an eighth asset of their identity. but it still remains as a facet of their identity.

It sounds like Dalmatia and those towns you were mentioning, they seem like prime places to really understand this part of Roman history. And I've got to ask about Roman Britain and the military tombstones in Roman Britain. It feels like the amount of military tombstones on the frontiers and in Roman Britain, there seems to be much less of them than in other places of the empire. Yes, this is something that has been noted by scholars. And the thought is that not necessarily because of a lack of the means to do so to create tombstones or the literacy to create an inscription, but in fact, just the lack of a group wanting to erect such stelae, at least a group within a situation that makes them want to erect such stelae. So we see

as the front lines move upwards and northwards, that's where the tombstones are erected. And of course, there are some still erected at the sites lower in Britain, but it seems to be these men at the frontiers who are erecting these tombstones. But it seems to be these men at the frontiers who are erecting these tombstones. And that seems to be why there are less tombstones, because only these individuals or predominantly these individuals feel the need or felt the need to erect such a monument to themselves. And it must have been related to the life on the frontier, which, especially in the earlier centuries was one of the wildest frontiers out there, you know, one of the furthest of the Roman Empire.

Ewan, that was a fantastic chat on Roman military tombstones. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you so much for inviting me. I've had a wonderful time.