Knucklehead443 Posted September 5, 2011 Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 Ok guys here's the thing. I've been searching myself to death trying to find the Legionnaires Surrectum Dicere. The oath they take upon entrance to the legion and every January 3rd i believe it is. If anyone knows what it is or where to find it. Please help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted September 5, 2011 Report Share Posted September 5, 2011 There is a late Roman version in Vegetius which discusses the Sacramentum (military oath). The recruits having thus been carefully chosen with proper attention to their persons and dispositions, and having been daily exercised for the space of four months at least, the legion is formed by the command and under the auspices of the Emperor. The military mark, which is indelible, is first imprinted on the hands of the new levies, and as their names are inserted in the roll of the legions they take the usual oath, called the military oath. They swear by God, by Christ and by the Holy Ghost; and by the Majesty of the Emperor who, after God, should be the chief object of the love and veneration of mankind. For when he has once received the title of August, his subjects are bound to pay him the most sincere devotion and homage, as the representative of God on earth. And every man, whether in a private or military station, serves God in serving him faithfully who reigns by His authority. The soldiers, therefore, swear they will obey the Emperor willingly and implicitly in all his commands, that they will never desert and will always be ready to sacrifice their lives for the Roman Empire. I do not think that any earlier or what may possibly have been unit specific versions have survived from either the Republican period consular armies or the Early Principatye period but you may find these discussions elsewhere in UNRV of related interest on: Enlisting in the Roman Military Joining a Legion Has some earlier references to the sacramentum in Livy, who tells us It had also been the custom among the soldiers, when the infantry were formed into companies of 100, and the cavalry into troops of 10, for all the men in each company or troop to take a voluntary oath to each other that they would not leave their comrades for fear or for flight, and that they would not quit the ranks save to fetch or pick up a weapon, to strike an enemy, or to save a comrade. This voluntary covenant was now changed into a formal oath taken before the tribunes. Livy, Ab urbe condita ,22.38 Translation found at McAdams I have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knucklehead443 Posted September 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 Wow Melvadius i have to say that was all very helpful. A lot of the time i was putting into it was like yours, really sources as to about the nature of the Legionnaires oath or around what time it started. No one really knew the what it was the Legionnaires actually really said as far as i could tell. Apparently no complete records of the Oath could be found, many assume because the oath changed a little from legion to legion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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