Roman military Diploma from Beleg, Hungary

  During the Imperial period the Roman army became professional and the serving time was 25 years at least until the era of Septimius Severus. During these years soldiers could not engage in a legal marriage. Soldiers of the some 27-30 legions were all Roman citizens but other non-Roman, but free-born men could become soldiers of the some 200000 strong auxiliary troops. These latter ones were awarded Roman citizenship after they served their time and their children who were born from a same spouse also became Roman citizens. Every soldier received a personalized document of this important legal decision in a form of a pair of bronze sheets with a copy of the decision (that was otherwise put on display in Rome) carved onto it. This is now called military diploma for practical reasons. This diploma that can be seen in this photo was given to Fronto, son of Scenus of the Iasus tribe in 85 AD. He was an infantryman of the cohors I Lusitanorum. The site of this diploma indicates that during the era of Vespasian or Domitian an auxiliary troop stationed at Beleg or nearby and the owner of this particular diploma could have been a soldier of that unit.