This tombstone comes from Carnuntum, the most important archaeological site in Austria. Surmounted by a triangular pediment with a rosette, the high rectangular stele bears the inscription: T(itus) Calidius / P(ublii filius) Cam(ilia) Sever(us) / eq(ues) item optio / decur(io) coh(ortis) I Alpin(orum) / item leg(ionis) XV Apoll(inaris) / annor(um) LVIII stip(endiorum) XXXIII / h(ic) s(itus) e(st) / Q(uintus) Calidius fratri / posuit, which in translation says: “Titus Calidius Severus, son of Publius, from the tribe of Camilia, horseman, then optio and finally decurio of the Cohors I Alpinorum, then centurio of the Legio XV Apollinaris, 58 years old, 34 years of service, lies buried here. Quintus Calidius erected this tombstone to his brother.”
Titus Calidius came from Italy, as we know from his tribe (tribus), his district fortaxation and military service. According to the inscription, he began his military career in a unit of auxiliary troops, the Cohors I Alpinorum, where he was first a horseman (eques), serving later as a subaltern of the rank of an optio and a decurio. Finally he became a centurion of the 15th Legion, which with some interruptions was stationed in Carnuntum from 39/40 to 114 AD. The two panels of the lower half of the tombstone depict the equipment of a centurion, the commander of the 80 to 100 soldiers who made up a centuria. On the upper of the two panels is a shirt of scale armour (lorica squamata) on the left, in the middle a staff (vitis) as the insignia of the centurion’s rank, and at the right a helmet with earpieces and a transverse crest as well as greaves (ocreae). In the lower panel, a groom is holding the officer’s saddled horse by the reins.
71-80 A.D., found in Carnuntum (Bad Deutsch Altenburg, Austria)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien
