1. CIL X 5064= ILS 2667 (Atina): M.Tillio M.f. | Ter(etina tribu) Rufo (centurioni) leg(ionis) | XX Val(eriae) Vict(ricis) ex (trecenario) | coh(ortis) IIII Pr(aetoriae) P(iae) V(indicis) prin|cipi castror(um) eq(uo) p(ublico) | exor(nato) et donis do|nato ab imp(eratoribus) Seve|ro et Antonino Aug(ustis) | hasta pura corona au|rea (centurioni) coh(ortis) XII Urb(anae) et I Vig(ilum) | evoc(ato) Aug(ustorum) divor(um) M. Anto|nini et Commodi patrono | municipi liberti l(ocus) d(atus) d(ecreto) d(ecurionum).

(on the reverse)

‘To Marcus Tillius Rufus, son of Marcus, of the Teretine voting-tribe, centurion of the Twentieth Legion Valeria Victrix, trecenarius of the Fourth Praetorian Cohort Pia Vindex, princeps castrorum, raised to Equestrian status and decorated by the Emperors Severus and Antoninus Augustus with the ceremonial spear and the gold crown; centurion of the Twelfth Urban Cohort and of the First Cohort of Vigiles, evocatus of the divine Augusti Marcus Antonius and Commodus; patron of the municipum (Atina); space given by decree of the town-councillors.

He dedicated (this) himself, the 10^th day before the Kalends of June (23^rd May) in the third consulship of the Emperor Antoninus (AD208) and gave a gift of 12 sestercii (each) to the town-councillors and 6 sestercii (each) to the people of the town.’

2. CIL XIII 6762 (Mainz):

H]ono|[ri aquilae l]eg(ionis) XXII | [Pr(imigeniae) P(iae) F(idelis) Antoni]nian(ae) | [Marcus Tillius M(arci) f(ilius)] Tere|[tina Rufus A]tinae | [p(rimus) p(ilus) leg(ionis) s(upra) s(criptae) ex] | CCC(trecenario) d(onum) [d(edit)...]r A|vito [leg(ato) Aug(usti) pr(o) pr(aetore) G(ermaniae) s(uperioris)] | d(omino) n(ostro) Im[p(eratore) Antonino] | Aug(usto) [IIII et] | Balbin[o II co(n)s(ulibus)]

‘To the Honour of the Eagle of the Twenty-second Legion Primigenia Pia Fidelis Antoniniana, Marcus Tillius Rufus, son of Marcus, of the Teretine voting-tribe, from Atina, primuspilus of the above-mentioned legion, trecenarius, gave this as a gift to … Avitus, governor of Germania Superior and to our lord the Emperor Antoninus Augustus, consul for the fourth time, and Balbinus, consul for the second time.’ =AD213

The career of Marcus Tillius Rufus as preserved in the epigraphic record is remarkable not only for the detail in which it has come down to us, but also for the clear chronological indications which it contains. It is a career of some 50 years, encompassing a period of civil.war and great turmoil, not least among the Rome cohorts in which he spent most of his service.

Rufus was from the town of Atina, some 100 miles east of Rome. He began his career in the Praetorian Guard in the early 160s. After 16 years in the ranks he was retained as evocatus during the joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus (176-180). Such men could serve a number of years in this post even if they proceeded thereafter to a centurionate (cf M. Caesius Verus, AE 1990.896 who served 7 years) which might be held in one of the legions or, as in the case of Rufus, with the Rome cohorts (Dobson and Breeze 1969, 101). The years 167-180 saw almost continuous warfare on the Danube frontier against the Marcomanni, Quadi and others. Much of it was under the personal direction of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, and it is probable that the Praetorian Guard was in the field for much of this time. Rufus’ promotion to the centurionate probably falls in the mid 180s after the conclusion of these wars. He held his first post with the Vigiles, as was usual, followed by centurionates in the Twelfth Urban Cohort and the Fourth Praetorian Cohort, in the latter case probably attaining the rank of princeps castrorum (the post is only attested once otherwise (L. Velius Prudens; XI 7093a) also in the career of a trecenarius, and is unsurprisingly little understood; v. Dobson and Breeze 1969, 119). Trecenarius, as Mann points out (1983, 139) appears to denote the rank (which is to say status) of the man who had passed through the three grades of the Rome centurionates rather than being a specific post in itself. It was a prestigious position nonetheless, for the trecenarius could expect to move on to a legionary centurionate, probably among the primi ordines (only in the case of Q. Trebellius Maximus, III 7354, is this explicit; Petolescu 1995), and thence the primipilate.

Rufus was serving in the Rome cohorts during the turbulent events of 193 following the murder of Commodus. Septimius Severus, the governor of Upper Pannonia, with the weight of the Danubian legions behind him, ultimately prevailed but not before Pertinax and Didius Julianus had briefly occupied the Imperial throne. The Praetorian Guard had been complicit in the murder of Pertinax and the elevation of Didius Julianus and was not trusted by Severus. According to Dio (74.1), who was an eye-witness to events in Rome, the entire guard was dismissed and reconstituted with men drawn from the legions. That the newly reconstituted and enlarged Rome cohorts were not wholly provincial is convincingly argued by Birley (1969) and many of the officers may have been retained, for it is likely that the co-operation of some at least would have been necessary in the dismissal of the rank and file (ARBirley 1971, 164). Certainly, the career of Rufus shows no sign of interruption (cf. Laelius Fuscus, VI 32709a – 42 years to > LEG; Trosius Maximus, VI 2755 – 33 years to > VRB) and if he was not already serving in the Guard, then his Italian origin was no bar to his transfer soon after. The scale and likely context of his decorations seems to indicate that he was a centurion of the Praetorian cohorts by 197 (Maxfield 1981, 248).

Rufus’ elevation to equestrian status and award of the hasta pura and corona aurea falls under the joint reign of Severus and Caracalla, 198-211, presumably in recognition of service in the Parthian wars of 197-8 which resulted in the fall of the Parthian capital Ctesiphon and the annexation of Mesopotamia. If his service as centurion of the Guard begins earlier then he might also have taken part in the battles of Issus (194) and Lugdunum (197) at which the rival claimants Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus were defeated. It is not until ten years later that his dedication as Patron of his home town was erected by which time he was, or had been, centurion with legio XX Valeria Victrix. Where this record stands in his career is not immediately clear. As indicated above, the trecenarius normally proceeded, via a legionary centurionate, to the rank of primus pilus. A dedication from Mainz (XIII 6762) has been restored to suggest that he held that post in legio XXII Primigenia in 213. The dedication Honori Aquilae, to the honour of the Eagle of the legion, was normally made by the primus pilus; the identification with Rufus depends on his being the only trecenarius from Atina in this period (which we can perhaps allow, for the post was not common; Dobson and Breeze (1969, 120ff.) list twenty-one such; Maxfield 1981, 245 accepts the identification).

What we do not know, for there are no other examples in which the chronology is even this clear, is whether this career path normally involved continuous service or whether an interval might be allowed between the final two posts. Dobson and Breeze (op. cit. 107) decide to treat this case as atypical, arguing that conditions were not so favourable for guardsmen under and after Severus. Whether any such prejudice might have affected someone so far advanced in their career, and with distinguished service in the Parthian wars, is another question. In fact it seems quite unlikely that a man decorated and raised to equestrian status by Severus could in any way be seen to be disadvantaged by his Praetorian connections. Either he received his centurionate in the Guard from Severus, or he was already serving, retained his post and was decorated for that service.

The minimum interval, on this chronology, is 5 years, supposing that we take the dedication of 208 as arising out of the receipt of the legionary commission. This is a tempting proposition, for it coincides (perhaps rather too neatly) with Severus’ British expedition of 208-211 allowing us to envisage Rufus, the long-serving, experienced and decorated trecenarius being promoted to a senior centurionate with the Twentieth Legion for the purposes of that expedition and the campaigns into Caledonia. The alternative would seem to imply a return from Britain in or before 208 and a period of semi-retirement before final appointment to the primipilate. This latter seems unlikely, for no such gap is evident in the careers of the other trecenarii known to us (Dobson and Breeze 1969, 120-122) and although three such individuals are commemorated in Italy having only attained the legionary centurionate, i.e. not at their respective legionary bases, and therefore not necessarily in service at the time of their deaths (XI 7093a, VI 33033 = 6.98 below, VI 32709a), there is no reason to suppose that this career path was a guaranteed route to the primipilate and that some might not be retired before reaching that post.

It is interesting to note that this route to the primipilate could hardly be seen as a fast-track. 16 years in the ranks of the Guard were followed by a further period as evocatus, perhaps as much as 7 years, at least 20 years in Rome centurionates, some 5 years as centurion with the Twentieth Legion in a 49-year career culminating in the primipilate with the Twenty-Second.