Novensia: Studia i Materiały (15.2004)

Radu Ardevan
Cluj-Napoca

NOTE ON THE CENTURION P. TENACIUS VINDEX
[CIL III 1481,6265]

Introduction

Two inscriptions from Apulum] mention a centurion who is also buleuta from
a town named Nicopolis, and a freedman of his wearing the title of augustalis
coloniae Apulensis as well. The texts are as follows:
— CIL III 1481 = IDR III/2, 120
[P(ublio)] Tenac(io) P(ublii) f(ilio) / [P]ap(iria tribu) Vindici / (centurioni)
leg(ionis) (vicesimae alterae) Pri/mig(eniae) buleutae / civitatis Ni/
copolitanor(um) / P(ublius) Tenac(ius) Gemel/linus aug(ustalis) col(oniae) /
Apul(ensis) libertus / t(itulum) p(onendum) c(uravit) l(oco) d(ato) d(ecreto)
d(ecurionum).
— CIL III 6265
Cocceiae / Valeriae / P Tenacius / Gemellinus / aug(ustalis) col(oniae)
Apul(ensis) / ex testamen/to P(ublii) Tenaci(i) / Vindicis (centurionis) / leg(ionis)
[(vicesimae alterae)] P[rimi]g(eniae) / l(oco) d(ato) d(ecreto) d(ecurionum).
It is obvious that the both texts attest the existence of a centurio P. Tenacius
Vindex from the legio XXII Primigenia. This legion camped at Mogontiacum in
Upper Germany [Ritterling 1924, 1803-1804; Parker 1958, 132, 141, 146, 151,
153, 155, 158; Domaszewski-Dobson 1967, 177-179], One has said that he would
be member of the town council at Nicopolis ad Istrum, a civitas located between
the Danube and the Balkans. The astonishing emergence of an official from a
Rhenan legion as local aristocrate in a Moesian town was explained through his
participation in any Oriental expedition, which could have put him in connection
with that civitas. Most probably, such a participation could have occurred during