The Career of Centurion Marcus Sabidius Maximus

On a recent visit to Elbasan I spotted this fragmentary inscription in the Ethnographic Museum.  It is a commemoration of the career of Marcus Sabidius Maximus who served forty years in the Roman army, twenty of which as centurion. 

These types of inscriptions are fascinating because they give us lots of information about the careers of soldiers serving in the Roman army. I liked this one in particular as it illustrated the geographical range of a serving soldier, and also because, in a surprising way, it connects my two realms: Albania and England.

Maximus was part of the Tribus Aemilia and was probably from Dyrrachium (modern Durrës, where I live). He joined Legio XI Claudia in Moesia as private and after several promotions became Centurion.  

 

Under Hadrian (117–138) he transferred to the Legio III Gallica, in Syria and received various decorations from the Emperor for his services during the Bar Kochba revolt in Judea (132-136). 

 

He then served as a centurion in the Legio IIII Scythica, at Zeugma in Syria, and in another legion. Under Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) he served in three more legions, the last being Legio XIII Gemina in Dacia superior. 

 

Maximus’s tomb was built in Scampa by someone named Valerius. The inscription is dated to the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) and Maximus's career as a centurion has been dated to between 132 and 152. So he had some time to enjoy his retirement in Scampa, on the Via Egnatia, along which he must surely have travelled as soldier. 

And now for the English connection: a fragmentary inscription on an altar from Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencester in England) reads ‘To the god Silvanus, [.] Sabidius Maximus …’. 

The person who dedicated the altar to Silvanus, the Roman god of the countryside, may be the same Sabidius Maximus as our centurion from Illyria. 

What a career Maximus had, which had taken him from the Balkans, to the Middle East, and perhaps to Britain, and then finally back to Illyria.

Further Reading 

Summerly, J. R., Studies in the legionary centurionate. Dissertation Durham University 1992 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1503/

https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/104