How would a Roman soldier address his superior officer? Reversely, how would a superior officer address a lower ranking Roman soldier?
Upvote:8
I can access the work cited by njuffa in a comment, R. Ferri: Language Use in the Roman Army, here (it says you have to pay, but if you scroll down, you can see at least enough of the text to get to the forms of address).
It says under chapter 3, point C (p. 162):
The standard form of address is domine. Letters from the equivalent of non-commissioned officers (principales, beneficiarii) to their superiors use the bare domine […] There are cases in which the simple domine is paired with other honorifics.
Of those other honorifics, two somewhat curious cases where the superior is also addressed as rex (king) are cited, and one Greek example, so I would not put too much weight on that.
A short note on the Latin: The word is dominus and is declined according to context, so when directly addressing someone, it would be domine (vocative), or in a letterhead it would be domino (dative). While the cited work makes no mention of this, in letterheads the word would definitely be combined with the name, and we can see this in one of the examples the author cites, if we look up the whole quotation:
Cl(audius) Tiberian[u]s Longino Prisco domin[o] et regi suo plurimam salutem
(Emphasis mine.) Please remember that, if it used together with a name, the name must be in the same case, so it would be Domine Auguste if the interlocutor is indeed named Augustus (Marcus was a very common Roman name, Augustus definitely not.)
Dominus means “master” or “ruler,” and was also an honorific for later Emperors (and in Christian Latin is a standard word for God, like the English “Lord”), but it was also a mildly polite greeting for everybody, as explained in this previous answer.
Regarding the opposite case (commander addressing a simple soldier), under point A, Ferri says:
both miles and commilito are used
Miles, of course, means “soldier,” and commilito means “comrade, fellow soldier.” As one might imagine, the author reports that miles seems to have been used when shouting orders, and commilito more in cases where superiors wanted to emphasize their own soldierly status, in particular when giving encouraging speeches, but also in relatively neutral cases.
No example is given in which any of these is combined with a name, but by its nature the evidence rarely contains addresses of individual soldiers. When commanders addressed soldiers, they will also often not have known the individual's name. In my opinion there is no particular reason why miles Marce should not be possible.
More post
- 📝 Was the Maltese Falcon a real historical artifact?
- 📝 Did they really have individual telephone wires going from a central tower to each customer in Sweden in the late 1800s?
- 📝 How much of a effect did linguistic relativism play in ancient Europe?
- 📝 Did Roman gladiators use axes?
- 📝 Why did Native Americans die from European diseases while Europeans didn't catch serious diseases from the New World?
- 📝 Did early American settlers have to buy their land from the government?
- 📝 Are there alternatives to tripartite periodisation of history?
- 📝 How reliable is a Maya codex facsimile?
- 📝 Did Brahms really leave Germany because he was dissatisfied with the political realities of that time?
- 📝 What is the minimum safe speed when dropping depth charges?
- 📝 Have breasts been proudly and publicly uncovered, in any culture, without general disapproval?
- 📝 What are the origins of Pakistani laws on "blasphemy?"
- 📝 Why was the the sack of cities acceptable?
- 📝 Which crown features on the Japanese Order of the Precious Crown?
- 📝 What sorts of things would a 16th century explorer document?
- 📝 Did Soviet cars have seatbelts or laws enforcing them?
- 📝 How did (riverine) toll castles operate?
- 📝 Who first conceived and developed the acoustic homing torpedo, and when?
- 📝 Had the Chinese leadership considered the famine in Soviet Union in 1930s before starting the Great Leap Forward?
- 📝 Why did Argentina seize South Georgia immediately prior to the Falklands invasion?
- 📝 What kind of object is pictured in these two Roman fresco wall paintings?
- 📝 How did East Indies oil lose its "top billing" in the Pacific War as the war went on?
- 📝 What are the stages of traversals of the Mediterranean Sea?
- 📝 Found picture, want to know more about. It
- 📝 Historical examples of energy wars
- 📝 Is this 60's Atlanta airport security picture geniuine, and if so, what is happening here?
- 📝 Why was the Tulsa Port placed at Catoosa?
- 📝 How many digits of Pi did the old Egyptians know?
- 📝 What lands have been called by names chosen to disassociate those lands from its inhabitants
- 📝 Did ancient/medieval Indians produce and consume alcohol?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How would a Roman soldier address his superior officer? Reversely, how would a superior officer address a lower ranking Roman soldier?
- 📝 How would the family of a soldier killed in WW1 recieve his Victoria Cross?
- 📝 How would a Spartan have held his shield?
- 📝 How likely it is that a nobleman of the eighteenth century would give written instructions to his maids?
- 📝 What would a Roman slave be legally required to do if his master vanished?
- 📝 How long would it take to build 30 miles of Roman road?
- 📝 How did Hitler imagine his succession? (for the case nazis would win the war)
- 📝 How would an American returning from international travel prove his citizenship before 1914?
- 📝 In France, 1916, would a soldier who was invalided out of the army, e.g. as an amputee, still get his army pay?
- 📝 How would an SS officer travel from Auschwitz to Berlin?
- 📝 What proof would a Roman patrician have of his status?
- 📝 How would Zenobia's associates and servants address her?
- 📝 How deep would a Roman Marian cohort's battle line be, in a melee?
- 📝 What rectangular object would is this Boer War era officer carrying on his left hand side?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 How would a 16-year-old girl from Cleopatra's era curse?
- 📝 How did the Roman state verify citizenship?
- 📝 How would a king's servants prove that they are on a task given by the king?
- 📝 How much would 300 pounds (money value) weigh in Medieval England?
- 📝 In the Medieval period, how long would an average swordsmith need to forge an average sword?
- 📝 How much did it cost to attend events at the ancient Roman colosseum?
- 📝 How would slaves have addressed their masters in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 How would a family travel from Indiana to Texas in 1911?
- 📝 How would you accurately use older British currencies when writing a story?
- 📝 How did William the Conqueror consolidate his military victory?
- 📝 How long would it take to cross the Channel in 1890's?
- 📝 How did Roman armies survive in the desert?
- 📝 Why would Jesus' parents travel to their birthplace for a Roman census?
- 📝 How did Hitler behave towards all those whom he knew in his childhood and youth after he rose to power?
- 📝 How quickly could the Roman legions march? How did it compare to their cavalry?