Aux origines de la cohorte urbaine de Carthage

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reconsider the date of the settlement of an urban cohort in Carthage, which is less certain than it seems. Whereas the arrival of the XIIIth urban cohort in the African capital is usually put at the beginning of Vespasian's reign, the same unit seems to have taken part about fifteen years later, in Domitian's Danubian wars, during which two of its officers were decorated. It seems hardly probable that the urban cohort of Carthage was sent as a reinforcement in the Danubian provinces, as the majority of experts agree. A first solution would be that the two officers, centurio Q. Vilanius Nepos (C.I.L., VIII, 1026=I.L.S., 2127) and primipilaris C. Velius Rufus (I.G.L.S., VI, 2796=I.L.S., 9200), had been decorated in another unit. The study of their careers does not exclude this, but the hypothesis which dates their decorations to their sojourn in the XHIth urban cohort, is still the most satisfactory, especially as Velius Rufus is concerned. A second solution must be considered which would postpone the arrival of the unit to Carthage until the beginning of the nineties A.D., after the end of the Danubian wars. The chronology of the inscriptions of the XHIth cohort in Italy and in Africa (the text of which is given in appendix) better argues this solution.