Commanipulares / commanipuli in Roman Dacia and the fragmentary preserved forms. Terminology

Abstract

To designate the concept “member of a maniple”, the epigraphic sources center attention on two basic forms - commanipularis and commanipulus -, which appear in a variety of vulgar variants in the inscriptions from the Roman Empire. Th e term is attested three times in Dacia (twice at Potaissa, and once at Apulum). It seems that there is a preference here for the use of the corrupt form commanuculus, which has analogies only at Rome. Most of the vulgar forms of this term occur in the Roman province Italia (Rome and some regions of Italy). Dacia is one of the other three provinces in which the term is attested in a vulgar form.