Roman Bronze Military Diplomas for Marcus Aurelius Posidonius

Formed of two rectangular tablets, once joined by two central binding holes, each engraved in Latin on both sides, reading: ‘The Emperor Caesar, son of the deified Antoninus Magnus Pius (Elagabalus), grandson of the deified Severus Pius Felix Augustus, pontifex maximus, holding tribunician power for the tenth year, consul three times, father of his country, has (appended) the names of the soldiers who have served in the ten Praetorian cohorts Alexandriana (Nos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10), loyal protectors, who have loyally and bravely completed their service, and has granted the right of legal marriage with the first wives (one each only) so that even if they have married women of peregrine status they may raise children as if they had been born of two Roman citizens. On the seventh day before the Ides of January (7th January 231) when L. Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus and Titus Flavius Sallustius Peilignianus were consuls. The eighth Praetorian cohort, loyal protectors, to Marcus Aurelius, son of Marcus, Posidonius from Augusta Traina. Copied and checked from the bronze tablet which is fixed to the wall at Rome behind the temple of the deified Augustus, near the shrine of Minerva. Witnessed by: C. Iulius Romanus, M. Aurelius Montanus, T. Claudius Marcellus, M. Aurelius Valens, M. Aurelius ----ius, C. Iulius ----ens, M. Aurelius ----ulnus” From the reign of Severus Alexander.