Hadrian, Pater Patriae, and the cohors I Ulpia Dacorum. A New Fragment of a Military Diploma from AD 128

Abstract

This article presents an unpublished fragment of a Roman military diploma preserved in the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, dated to AD 128. The fragment belongs to tabula I of a diploma issued during the reign of Hadrian. The significance of the document lies in the fact that it constitutes one of the earliest epigraphic testimonies that can be dated with precision in which Hadrian is granted the title Pater Patriae, definitively accepted by the emperor in that same year. Furthermore, the study of the extrinsecus allows the diploma to be attributed to a soldier of the cohors I Ulpia Dacorum, a unit raised under Trajan and stationed on the Syrian front. The possible identification of the prefect Tiberius Claudius Maximinus suggests that the fragment may correspond to the earliest known discharge of this cohort, thus providing new evidence for the administrative and military history of the Roman East.