THREE OSTRACA FROM LATOPOLIS
59
that where these ostraca were found. The cohort presumably supplied
men for a number of posts. The editor's text reads as follows.
Domitio Respecto praef(ecto) suo
Severus (centurio) salutem.
Onnuphin Panamae e
4 turma Proclidis misi excursu. VIII K(alendas) lanuarias.
Opto te, domine,
multis annis felicem
8 videre.
1 Respectus, surely a praefectus cohortis rather than the praefectus castrorum in Nicopolis, is an addition to the equestrian officers
known to have served in Egypt.14 His cognomen is especially common
in the Danubian provinces.'" His name comes first as the senior officer.
It is worth observing that a note addressed to the prefect was found in
Latopolis, but one need not conclude that the cohort's headquarters
were there at that time. For instance, the prefect may have been
moving about inspecting detachments and outposts. For praef(ecto)
suo cf. d TrrapXoc ]tao0v in no. 10 and praef(ectus) meus in C.P.Lat. 221,
line 30.
3-5 Above and to the left of -in in the first name is what I take
to be the cap of r, in ligature with the preceding letter. This improves
the spelling of a common name, found also in no. 3. Its peregrine
form confirms a date earlier than the Constitutio Antoniniana. The
editor translates these lines, "I have sent Onnuphis, son of Panameus
from the turma of Proclis on an expedition." But the meaning of this
if considered more than fleetingly becomes rather hard to grasp.
A soldier ordinarily remained a member of his own turma or centuria
when sent out on detached duty and special missions,16 and if transferred would be assigned to another, not to an "expedition." Further,
14 They are collected and discussed by H. Devijver, De Aegypto et exercitu romano
sive prosopographia militarium equestrium quae ab Augusto ad Gallienum seu statione seu origine
ad Aegyptum pertinebant. (Louvain 1975) = Studia Hellenistica XXII.
15 I. Kajanto, The Latin Cognomina (Helsinki 1965) 355. Whatever his exact origin
may have been, it seems likely that he came from a Latin speaking area.
16 Cf. e.g. the Dura texts cited above in n. 3. As they suggest, it was more usual for
a detachment to be drawn from more then one century or turma.
0
