A note on the auxilia in the Roman province of Pontus and Bithynia

Abstract · Inspired by the 2022 edition of an epitaph dedicated to a soldier of the fourth cohors Cypria died in Sinope, the author ofers an update on the epigraphic evidence concerning auxiliary cohortes and alae from the province of Pontus and Bithynia. Since it was an unarmed province, the presence of these soldiers, as well as of legionaries, must be considered only temporary and connected to the passage of Roman troops towards the eastern border of the Empire. It is worth considering, in this regard, that most of the inscriptions date to the 2nd or 3rd century. Only those relating to the soldiers of the cohors Cypria seem to be earlier, but they could be connected with the expedition against Mithridates king of the Bosphorus in the time of Claudius or with the momentary annexation of the Bosphoran kingdom under Nero.