Roman Military Diploma, Customized

Roman Military Diploma

This Roman military diploma is created completely according to your specifications! Individual wishes such as a special emperor's titulature, date of issue, province, stationed units, the name of the beneficiary and his relatives as well as the names of the witnesses on the front will be taken into account. An exceptional gift for veteran Romans!

Roman military diplomas

The modern term military diploma refers to ancient certificates awarded on the discharge of soldiers and containing special rights. The ancient name is unknown, possibly the document was called tabula or diploma. They are two bronze tablets containing an imperial edict (constitutio) on the inside, which is a copy of a public tablet (tabula aenea or aerea) in the Capitol of Rome. The tablets were folded together, closed with wire and sealed to prevent tampering. On the outer pages is a copy of the text and a list of the witnesses in whose presence the military diploma was closed and sealed.

If there was any suspicion of tampering with the outside, the plaque could be opened, for example, during a court case, to check the original text.

Different military diplomas exist with standardised texts for soldiers of the infantry, cavalry, marines, praetorians and urbaniciani. What these documents have in common is that the recipients were granted Roman citizenship. Since a Roman citizen could not enter into a legally binding marriage with a non-Roman woman and the offspring were thus illegitimate, the conubium was usually awarded as well, with which such a marriage was subsequently legitimised. Thus, the future offspring automatically received citizenship and could legally inherit their father.

The content of a military diploma follows a standardised structure:

- The full imperial titulature
- A list of the units of privileged soldiers
- The province and the governor, or in the case of naval diplomas, the respective prefect
- The privileges conferred, usually citizenship and the right to marry
- Date
- The unit of the recipient and its commander (not in the case of fleet diplomas)
- The recipient of the diploma and his or her dependants
- Certification formula and place of publication