Martialis (P. Aelius) was a Roman soldier of the mid-3rd century AD. He is known to us from a lapidary inscription on his sarcophagus dating from the early 260s found at Aquincum (i.e. Budapest) in the Roman province of Pannonia Inferior. This was dedicated to Martialis and his wife, Flavia Agathe, by his son, Aelianus (P. Aelius), and it designates him as the ex custode armorum (i.e. 'formerly in charge of the Weapons') of Legio II Adiutrix.[1]
The nomen Aelius suggests that Martialis’s family became Roman citizens in the first part of the 2nd century and, possibly when the future Emperor Hadrian was governor of the province of Pannonia and established Aquincum as a municipium — i.e., a town-settlement of citizens awarded the Latin Right — around the turn of the century. The original Aelius is, therefore, likely to have been a soldier in a unit of auxilia who received the citizenship together with his diplomata (i.e. certificate of honourable discharge from the service). His descendants no doubt continued the connection with the local legion, II Adjutrix. (Martialis’s son, Aelianus, became the first equestrian commander of that unit in the early 260s following the exclusion of senators from military commands). Martialis would, therefore, have been one of the Illyricani, who provided the officer cadres of the garrisons of Pannonia and Upper Moesia.
The ‘Custos Armorum’ of ‘Legio II’ would have earned several times the basic military salary with official pay and perquisites and, no doubt, tolerated corruption. Martialis would, therefore, have been a man of substance and local consequence in Aquincum. He was probably one of the small land-owners who seem to have dominated the society of Pannonia Inferior, but his standing would have depended on the high level of government expenditure on the provincial garrison which could not be justified by Pannonia’s contribution to the Public Purse.[2] He is, therefore, likely to have been sympathetic to the aims of the Illyricani of which by birth and profession he was an associate and would have been concerned to ensure that the Imperial Government remained in the hands of men who were prepared to maintain a very high level of military expenditure in the Illyrian provinces. Only thus could their social position and the security of their land-holdings from barbarian incursions be maintained. It was men such as this who supported successive military revolts in the middle years of the 3rd century until they got their way in the form of a succession of Illyrian soldier Emperors who were to dominate the Imperial government from Claudius Gothicus to Valentinian I.
Whatever his Illyrian sympathies it seems safe to assume that Martialis did not actively support the mutineers who came out in favour of Ingenuus, Regalianus, and Macrianus in the revolts against the Emperor Gallienus in the troubled era 258-261. This deduction is supported by his relationship to P. Aelius Aelianus who was obviously much trusted by the regime. (It may, of course, have been the case that he had retired from active service by that time).