. . . received the franchise before their discharge,126 and honorary epithets, such as pia, fidelis, or fida.127 The title Augusta seems also to have47 been granted at all periods honoris causa, although some of the regiments bearing it may date back to the beginning of the Empire.128 Titles derived from the names of later emperors, on the other hand, while they were doubtless granted occasionally as marks of distinction, seem often to indicate nothing more than the reign during which a regiment was raised. Finally, from the time of Severus Antoninus onwards, every regiment employs a secondary title, derived from the name of the reigning emperor. A remarkable series of dedicatory inscriptions of the Cohors I Aelia Dacorum, which was stationed during the third century at Birdoswald (Amboglanna), on the British frontier, shows us this regiment successively assuming the titles Antoniniana, Gordiana, Postumiana, and Tetriciana.129

Purely descriptive titles might be deriv. . . Read More