Honesta missio

Military diploma with Honesta missio issued under the Principate of Claudius

Military diploma with Honesta missio issued under the Emperor Titus

Honesta missio referred to the honorable discharge from military service in the Roman Empire . It was associated with special privileges (praemia militiae) . Among other things, the legionnaires were paid a release money from a state treasury set up by Augustus , the Aerarium militare, which up to the Principate Caracallas amounted to 12,000 sesterces .

Presumably, the discharged soldiers received a certificate, of which only a few specimens, which modern research calls tabulae honestae missionis , have survived , as they were mostly made from perishable material.

Auxiliary soldiers were usually together with the honesta missio the Roman citizenship and marriage license ( conubium ) for themselves and their offspring. The imperial ordinance on these awards were often documented on bronze military diplomas, but these were not necessarily directly related to the dismissal.

In addition to the honesta missio , there was also early discharge for health reasons (missio causaria) and in dishonor (missio ignominiosa) .

literature

• Eric Birley, Géza Alföldy , Brian Dobson, Werner Eck (eds.): Emperor, Army and Society in the Roman Empire . Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-515-07654-9 , pp. 39, 42, 144, 155 ff., 161, 312, 387 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Yann Le Bohec  : Tabulae honestae missionis. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 11, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01481-9 .
• Peter Weiß : Missio [1]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 .

Remarks

1. ^ Wilhelm Kubitschek : Aerarium 3 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 672-674 (partly out of date).
2. ↑ Hans-Joachim Drexhage , Heinrich Konen, Kai Ruffing : The economy of the Roman Empire (1st-3rd century): An introduction . Akademie Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-05-003430-0 , pp. 51 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
3. ↑ Against the abbreviated representation of military diplomas that can sometimes be found as “certificates of discharge” cf. z. B. Géza Alföldy : On the evaluation of the military diplomas of the auxiliary soldiers . In: Roman Army History: Contributions 1962-1985 . Gieben, Amsterdam 1987, p. 51 - 65 ( online; PDF - first 1969). The document is no longer available online.