Although some legionary veterans settled outside the area of their last posting, sometimes returning to their homes, most did not. Evidence for this is provided not only by inscriptions, but also by Tacitus (Anmles 14.27) who says that most veterans scattered themselves in the provinces where they had completed their military service. Studies of the military diplomas issued to discharged auxiliaries indicate different patterns of veteran settlement in different parts of the Empire. Some auxiliary veterans valued family and kinship ties enough to return to their homelands. This seems particularly to be the case with many Thracian veterans who, based on the find-spot of discharge diplomas, settled in their homeland. Other auxiliaries retired to the tribal areas of their wives which were often identical with the province or region in which the soldiers were last stationed. After long postings in one area, new family ties and a familiarity with the surroundings certainly played a major role in the veteran’s decision to remain where he was. Twenty-five years was a long time to be away from one’s original home, and circumstances could have changed dramatically to make a homecoming not a viable option. Furthermore, if solders were bom on the frontier and had served there, as their families may have done before, there was little incentive to move elsewhere after retirement. Increasingly, the more sedentary soldiers in the later Roman period may have felt greater allegiance to the region they defended, their homes and family groups than they did to the central Roman government.
Legionary soldiers were either given sums of money or land grants upon retirement. These land grants could be in a region completely different from the last posting. The
50 Early first-century gravestone of Polio Matidia
RIC XITA H. sT
(Olympia), wfe of a legionary veteran, from Moers-Asberg, Germany. Courtesy Rhein isches Landesmuseum Bonn
Allotments, however, could be sold and the veteran was free to move to the area of his choice, According to Tacitus’ accounts (Annales 1.17), veterans did not react favourably to being forced to settle in unfamiliar or remote underpopulated areas to which the government sent them. Many of the veterans of the fleet at Misenum sent to Paestum in the government’s attempt to repopulate parts of Italy in AD 71 did not stay there, but moved to other parts of Italy or to the provinces.
The post-military careers of veterans can be followed in some cases. After retirement one Italian-born legionary veteran from Ostia settled in the early colony at Cologne and became a duovir in the city’s administration. The unknown Italian(?) veteran, whose monumenul tomb was found in Wesseling, probably established a farming estate there, either bought with his retirement bonus or as a development of his land grant. At least one Batavian auxiliary veteran certainly returned to his native village at Hoogeloon where he built a Romanised villa in the early second century (27). A fragmentary discharge diploma was found on the site. Judging by the amount of military equipment found in sanctuaries of Hercules Magusanus on the northern Rhine, many Batavians returned home after
Being discharged, commemorating their release from military duty by dedicating no longer needed equipment to the tutelary god of the tribe. Other veterans may have been active in the commercial sector of civilian life. One of them, a former benejlciarius, became a merchant involved in North Sea trade and dedicated an altar to Nehalennia at Colijnsplaat in the late second or early third century. Q. Attilius Primus was an interpreter and centurion with Legio XV before he retired in the first century and went into business as a negotiator in Germanic territory north of the Danube. His knowledge of the area and of the languages spoken there will have been of enormous benefit to him as a private merchant in cross-frontier trade.
Not only did military service secure a regular salary before retirement, but the bonuses and citizenship received upon retirement paved the way for advancement in society in a number of ways. A military career was surely viewed as a positive step tovrards social mobility. The legionary veteran could be ceitain of an elevated position within society, especially if he retired on the frontier where men like him were a cut above the native population. Assuming a magisterial post in local government or investing his accumulated wealth to excel in the commercial sector may have been far more possible in the provinces than in his homeland. The auxiliary veteran left the army a Roman citizen, had seen the world, learned many skills and become fluent in Latin, all of which opened doors for him in society. In praise of the possibilities Rome opened to non-Romans, Aelius Aristides in his ode To Rome (74) - wrote that in an Empire-wide policy of army recruitment no one was classed as an alien and anyone could be accepted for any employment and do well. As to be expected in a panegyric flagging the thoroughly positive aspects of the Roman Empire, this comment cannot be taken at face value, yet there is more than a grain of truth to the claim that ethnic origin and non-Roman status did not hinder a career. This applied to the highest office of emperor, no less than to the common man rising through the ranks of the military. What impact the retiring auxiliary soldier had in the long run on his native community is difficult to assess. His status in his native society was surely positively influenced, and he returned with a familiarity with Roman culture. The retired soldier who went back to his rural community at Hoogeloon in the early second century visibly expressed this familiarity and status in the building of a Romanised house that stood out from all the others. But he appears to have given only a limited Roman ‘flair’ to the village as far as we can tell by the physical remains at the site. None of the other houses was rebuilt along these lines, and by AD 200 the veteran's house had been abandoned and replaced by a more modest one of native type.
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