Roman, Pannonia Inferior (present-day Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina), reign of Antonius Pius, ca. September 5, 152 CE. A rare and historically significant Roman military diploma, this complete set of inscribed leaded bronze tablets conferred Roman citizenship and marriage rights to Leccaio, son of Dasantis, an auxiliary soldier from Sirmium in Pannonia Inferior. Originally bound by fastening holes, this diploma was issued on September 5, 152 CE under the reign of Antoninus Pius and the authority of the provincial legate Marcus Nonius Macrinus - a real-life Roman general whose name and career inspired the character Maximus Decimus Meridius, played by Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's 2000 film Gladiator. This diploma is a rare and powerful testament to life, service, and status in the Roman world - both a personal honor for a soldier and a document of empire, discipline, and reward forged in bronze and still speaking across two millennia. Size (both about the same): 4.8" W x 3.8" H (12.2 cm x 9.7 cm); of frame: 11" W x 15" H (27.9 cm x 38.1 cm)

The two bronze plates are each pierced by sets of fastening holes used to bind the tablets together with wire in antiquity. Tabella I retains its incised double-line frame, while Tabella II preserves the names of seven official witnesses arranged in two columns. The exterior of Tabella I features the consular date engraved after assembly - evidence of the administrative process in which diplomas were finalized only once publication was confirmed.

This diploma was issued to soldiers who had served in the auxiliary units of Pannonia Inferior, including four cavalry alae and ten cohorts. Though the inscription mentions five alae and thirteen cohorts, not all are listed, a discrepancy explained by Eck and Pangerl in their thorough 2009 study. Leccaio's final posting was in the cohors II Augusta Thracum, a provincial infantry unit based at Ad Militare on the Danube frontier. His commanding officer, Lucius Sempronius Honoratus, may be the same individual later recorded as a tribune of legio II Traiana in Egypt during the 160s CE.

The diploma also mentions the acting governor, Marcus Nonius Macrinus, whose name is explicitly included in the Latin text. Macrinus was a prominent senator and military figure, known from inscriptions across the empire. His historical presence in this document links the piece not only to Roman provincial governance but to a modern cultural imagination that continues to fascinate.

Scientific analysis of the tablets revealed they are composed of leaded bronze, with Tabella II exhibiting areas of up to 90% lead content - a material choice likely intended to facilitate inscribing. The relatively small dimensions and light weight of the plates correspond with a standardized format common to diplomas issued during the later years of Antoninus Pius.

Scholars Werner Eck and Andreas Pangerl first published this diploma in 2009, identifying it as a new and complete copy of an imperial constitution previously known only from a damaged fragment (RMD III 167). Their reconstruction affirmed the original reading, refined the list of military units, and offered deeper insight into second-century administrative procedures and personnel.

Tabella I - Outer Side: To the Emperor Caesar, son of the deified Hadrian, grandson of the deified Trajan Parthicus, great-grandson of the deified Nerva, Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, Pontifex Maximus, in the 15th year of tribunician power, acclaimed Imperator for the second time, Consul for the fourth time, Father of the Fatherland: To the cavalrymen and foot soldiers who have served in five alae and thirteen cohorts, namely: Ala I Praetoria Civium Romanorum, Ala I Civium Romanorum, Ala Augusta Britannica, Ala I Alpina (cavalry), Ala Thracum Germanica, Cohors I Alpina (infantry), Cohors I Noricorum, Cohors III Lusitanorum, Cohors VII Breucorum, Cohors I Lusitanorum, Cohors II Augusta Thracum, Cohors I Montanorum, Cohors I Thracum Civium Romanorum stationed in Pannonia Inferior under Nonius Macrinus, imperial legate of the emperor, who have served twenty-five or more years, and have been honorably discharged, whose names are listed below. He has granted Roman citizenship to them and to their children, and the right of legal marriage to their wives, with whom they were married at the time citizenship was granted, or if they were unmarried, to those whom they later marry, as long as it is only one wife per man. Given on the 5th of September when [Caius] Novius Priscus and Lucius Iulius Romulus were consuls. From Cohors II Augusta Thracum, in which served Lucius Sempronius Honoratus as commanding officer. [To the soldier:] Leccaio, son of Dasantis, from Sirmium. Copied and checked from the bronze tablet which is set up in Rome on the wall behind the temple of the deified Augustus near the Minerva.

Tabella I - Inner Side: To the Emperor Caesar, son of the deified Hadrian, grandson of the deified Trajan Parthicus, great-grandson of the deified Nerva, Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, Pontifex Maximus, in the 15th year of tribunician power, acclaimed Imperator for the second time, Consul for the fourth time, Father of the Fatherland: To the cavalrymen and foot soldiers who have served in five alae and thirteen cohorts and are stationed in Pannonia Inferior under Nonius Macrinus, imperial legate of the emperor, who have served twenty-five or more years and have been honorably discharged, whose names are listed below: He has also granted Roman citizenship to their children, and the right of legal marriage to the wives they had when citizenship was granted, or to those they later marry - provided it is only one wife per man.

Tabella II - Outer Side: Names of the seven official witnesses (listed in two columns), likely military clerks or representatives serving as legal attestation to the document: Marcus Servilius Getae, Lucius Pullius Chresimus, Marcus Sentilius Iasi, Titus Iulius Felicis, Gaius Iulius Silvani, Lucius Pullius Velocis, Publius Priscus

Tabella II - Inner Side: From Cohors II Augusta Thracum, in which Lucius Sempronius Honoratus served as commanding officer. Expedited for: Leccaio, son of Dasantis, from Sirmium.

This piece was published in: Werner Eck and Andreas Pangerl. "Ein Diplom Für Die Auxiliartruppen von Pannonia Inferior Vom 5. September 152 n. Chr." Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 171 (2009): 221–30.

Provenance: private Boca Raton, Florida, USA collection, February 2017; ex-Baidun Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel, 2015; ex-P. Austria collection; ex-H.E. Munich, Germany collection, acquired on the German art market before 1990

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