HOW WE CAN ACCEPT 'ARMATOS' ON THE LUCIUS ARTORIUS CASTUS MEMORIAL STONE

Sarmatian on Trajan's Column

"He accordingly delivered up the prefect to very soldiers whose commander he was, and had not the courage to scorn fifteen hundred men, though he had many times that number of Praetorians."

- Dio Cassius on Commodus giving Perennis to the

1500 Sarmatian cavalrymen (?) under the command of Lucius Artorius Castus

In the following recent blog post, I presented my argument for accepting the ARMATOS reading proposed by Dr. Linda Malcor and her colleagues for the ARM[...]S found on the memorial stone of Lucius Artorius Castus:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/03/1500-lanciarii-and-eagle-eliwlad-why-i.html

I would like to discuss the idea a little further here.

It is important for me to begin by stating that I have, in the past, put up strong resistance to adopting the ARMATOS reading.  There are many reasons for this, and I have detailed them in past blog posts.  My continuing conversations with Latin epigraphers and Roman military historians has done nothing to endear me to the reading - quite the contrary.  For LAC to have boasted about leading detachments of three British legions against 'armed men' is considered unsatisfactory in the extreme.  It is thought to be vague and nonspecific, as no foe is named and no location is given for that foe, and the idea that one would be fighting armed men is a given in any context.  In the words of Professor Roger Tomlin, 

"Did any Roman officer ever boast instead of marching against INERMES [unarmed men]? That they were 'armed' would not need to be stated."

So why stick with ARMATOS?  

Well, I'm now as convinced as I can be that Eliwlad son of Madog son of Uther is a reflection of Matoc Ailithir son of Sawyl of the Sarmatian Ribchester fort. If the sub-Roman Arthur came from this place, then the name Artorius had been remembered and passed down among the Sarmato-British inhabitants of the Ribchester region.  And that, in turn, suggests that the 2nd century Lucius Artorius Castus, twice prefect of the Sixth Legion in Britain, had some special relationship with the Sarmatian troops there.

If all that holds true, and I don't think it's an unreasonable supposition, then the 1500 contus-bearers who go to Rome to kill Perennis may well have been Sarmatians.  Their number fits perfectly three 500 man vexillations drawn from each of the three British legions.  According to Richmond (https://www.jstor.org/stable/297275?seq=1), the 5,500 Sarmatians sent to Britain by Marcus Aurelius would have been divided up and stationed in different places, especially in the frontier zone.  That fits there being 500 (at least) in each of the province's legions.

So the question I keep asking myself is this: if LAC did lead 1500 Sarmatian cavalrymen to Rome (and even this is not certain, as there are a couple of conflicting reports on Perennis' end) and ended up executing Commodus' second in command, how would he have recorded that on his memorial stone?

The most obvious answer would be "ADVERSUS Perennis." But the quote from Dio I have above suggests another possibility.  In going against Perennis, LAC was setting himself and his troops up for a potentially disastrous confrontation with the emperor's Praetorian Guard.  Perennis was prefect of that very guard.  It is possible, therefore, that LAC wished to be diplomatic as to  how he bragged about his blatant act of aggression against the authority of the Praetorians.  Rather than refer to them by name, he opted for the safer use of the generic ARMATOS. Armatus meant soldier as well, and we find 'praetorianus miles', and milites used of praetorians. 

As with the apparent Eliwlad-Ailithir identification, I don't think we can afford to ignore the 1500 Sarmatians (?) who go against Perennis.  This is the only record of three vexillations from British legions being brought to bear on anyone anyplace for the period under consideration for LAC.  Because that is an undeniable fact, I am going out on a limb (!) not only with Eliwlad the eagle, but with the ARMATOS reading for the LAC memoral stone.