SOME FUN WITH THE ARM.GENTES READING FOR THE LAC STONE

A few days ago I wrote this post:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-new-reading-for-arms-lacuna-of-l.html?m=1

After thinking about the ARM[...]S lacuna, I turned my attention to another later gap:

PROC CENTENARIO PROVINCIAE loo

LI [...] GLADI loo

It has always been assumed that LI- had to represent Liburnia, as no other entity beginning with LI- fulfilled the requirement of the procurator rank. The Libyan provinces formed under Diocletian were each governed by a praeses. 

Yet, it is also true that the LAC stone is our only evidence for the actual existence of a Liburnian province. The possibility that such a province was real is suggested by the presence of LAC's estate in Dalmatia, as well as Artorii in Salona. Still, neither his estate nor Salona are in Liburnia.

What if LAC were merely born in Dalmatia (something several leading scholars hold to be a distinct possibility) and then retired there after his service was completed? What if he was never a procurator of Liburnia because such a province never existed?

Suppose we did this with the LI[...] GLADI lacuna instead... Allowing for standard abbreviations, we substitute  for LIB(URNIAE) IURE GLADII the following:

LIBERAT(AE) GLADIO

"freed by the sword"

The LAC inscription would then say something like this:

LAC was prefect of the Sixth Legion when he was appointed dux. He led British legions (or legionary troops) against armed tribes. As we are not told these armed tribes are external to the province of Britain, we are to assume they are northern British tribes (as is usual for the Sixth, and as fits the context of northern campaigns against tribes under Commodus and Severus). LAC is then made procurator of the province he has just freed by the sword.

Now, before anyone gets too excited (or outraged) by this, let me quickly say that scholars find the whole thing objectionable for any number of reasons. Dr. Benet Salway, for instance, has told me that

"Very unlikely, not least because one would have to assume a one-letter abbreviation of gladio to gladi."

Professor Lawrence Keppie on the same proposed phrase:

"The inscription is filled with official jargon, so I can't imagine unofficial or colloquial phrases will feature."

And as for Tomlin:

"I am not convinced by your 'province freed by the sword' (LIBERTO GLADI!). Libertus doesn't mean this – you need liberatus, and you need it to be feminine and genitive; i.e. LI[BERATAE], which won't fit in the space available. And you can't make genitive GLADI into ablative gladio. And I don't think this is an expression the Romans would have used any way: they would refer to a province being 'recovered' or 'redeemed' (compare the somewhat fanciful restoration of RIB 1051). And in this very explicit inscription, it is suddenly obscure what province is meant."

Prof. Roger Tomlin has no problem with Liburnia for LI-:

"PROVINCIAE spelt out surely requires that the next word will be that of the 'province', and abbreviation isn't much of a problem, since it would adjoin that of the province in which the stone was read. Most US inhabitants would know what was meant by STATE OF CAL.

Certainly LIB IVRE GLADII suggests nothing else to me."

The most critical flaw in seeing Castus as procurator of Britain is that procurators were chosen by the Emperor for smaller provinces. Larger provinces, such as Britain, had governors elected by the Senate. So to have Castus, of the equine class, made Procurator of Britain, something very unusual would have had to have happened. What that would be I can't say. With the execution of Perennis, it is believed the senatorial legates were restored to their positions. And, in any case, Castus would have referred to himself as governor or acting governor, given that Britain was not a procuratorial province.

Having said this, however, it is true that we have some instances of procurators being appointed to assist governors. These procurators were responsible for fiscal matters. For example, Sextus Varius Marcellus was sent as procurator to help the governor Virius Lupus.

As per my previous post, for Castus to be in command of the Sixth and leading other legionary troops within Britain we must account for the absence of the legionary legate. We cannot have him merely removed by Perennis, as Castus is a prefect when appointed dux. Dux at this stage in Roman military history is merely a temporary position given to a junior officer.

Thus we must assume the legate is dead or incapacitated, and thus I feel scholars are right in identifying the general who perished c. 180 on the Wall at the hands of invading tribes as the legate of the Sixth legion.

As second in command, Castus is put in charge of the legionary forces sent north under Ulpius Marcellus. There was simply no time in this emergency situation to find another legate for the Sixth. 

At some point thereafter Castus becomes procurator under a British governor. Castus does not refer to himself as an acting governor (vice-legate).

Really, my only reason for putting this outlandish idea out there is to demonstrate just how ambiguous inscriptions with major lacunae can be. Given that the Romans were particularly adept at condensing texts, often each lacuna can be subjected to several possible reconstructions.

The goal of the epigrapher is to look at possible readings in the hope of eventually settling on what is the most probable one.  The most probable - and the simplest - for the LAC stone is that we have a career Roman officer who served with distinction under Statius Priscus in Armenia. This officer was then made a procurator with the right of the sword for the newly formed and short-lived province of Liburnia, an emergency measure taken at the onset of the Marcomannic Wars.