A Roman military diploma was a document inscribed in bronze certifying that the holder was honourably discharged from the Roman armed forces and/or had received the grant of Roman citizenship from the emperor as reward for service.
The diploma was a notarised copy of an original constitutio (decree) issued by the emperor in Rome, listing by regiment (or unit) the eligible veterans. The constitutio, recorded on a large bronze plate, was lodged in the military archive at Rome (none such has been found; presumably they were melted down in later times).
Read more about Roman Military Diploma: History, Rights Granted, Description, Research Significance
Famous quotes containing the words roman, military and/or diploma:
“Brutus. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true.
Messala. Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell,
For certain she is dead, and by strange manner.
Brutus. Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Nothing changes my twenty-six years in the military. I continue to love it and everything it stands for and everything I was able to accomplish in it. To put up a wall against the military because of one regulation would be doing the same thing that the regulation does in terms of negating people.”
—Margarethe Cammermeyer (b. 1942)
“A New York divorce is in itself a diploma of virtue.”
—Edith Wharton (1862–1937)