[357] Cf. Dio’s remarks on the impression made by the provincial legionaries in Rome in the reign of Septimius Severus, lxxiv. 2. The following sketch applies only to the troops on the Western frontiers, concerning whose life we have considerable evidence. The locally raised troops in the East started as a rule at a higher level of culture, but possibly a similar advance was made by Trajan’s regiments of Paphlagonians, Galatians, and Arabians, although here Hellenization, not Romanization, was of course the goal. [358] For the importance of Mithras in the army, cf. Cumont, _Les Mystères de Mithra_. Toutain, _Les Cultes païens dans l’Empire romain_, cc. ii and iv, gives a classified list of the inscriptions of Mithra and Dolichenus. [359] H. Jacobi, _Führer durch das Römerkastell Saalburg_, 1908, gives a summary of the latest results. [360] Excavations so far have been confined to the fort itself, in which the buildings were in an exceedingly good state of preservation, and the Mithraeum. [361] xiii. 7800 ‘Petronius Athenodorus prae(fectus) coh(ortis) I Fl(aviae) horologium ab horis intermissum et vetustate colabsum suis inpendis restituit’. The date is 218. [362] Herodian iii. 8, 5. [363] _Rheinisches Museum_, xlviii. 616 ff. [364] viii. 18067. [365] _A. E._ 1910. 75. [366] Cagnat, _L’Armée romaine d’Afrique_, pp. 380-3 and 505-7. [367] e.g. D. iii (64), a wife, son, and daughter; D. xcviii (105), a wife, son, and two daughters; D. xxxvii (110), three sons. See above, p. 32. [368] iii. 3271. The approximate date of the inscription is sufficiently indicated by the names employed. [369] This very comprehensive dedication comes from the shrine of Mandoulis, the source of many military inscriptions. [370] The possibility that cives had already been admitted into the auxiliary regiments before this date has already been discussed. See above, p. 33. [371] iii. 10316 and _A. E._ 1910. 144. [372] The campaigns between Severus and his rivals (193-7) were fought out by vexillations; hence at the end of the war we find all the regiments on both sides, so far as they can be traced, in their old quarters. [373] _Historia Augusta, Vita Alex. Sev._ 58 ‘Sola, quae de hostibus capta sunt, limitaneis ducibus et militibus donavit, ita ut eorum essent, si heredes eorum militarent, nec umquam ad privatos pertinerent, dicens attentius eos militaturos, si etiam sua rura defenderent’. The theory of the self-sufficiency of each provincial garrison could not be more clearly expressed. SECTION IV ARMS AND ARMOUR The chief sources of information are the sculptured reliefs on the sepulchral monuments of the soldiers themselves and on the columns of Trajan and Marcus. Excavations have also yielded specimens, very badly damaged in most cases, of the weapons and armour in use at different periods. The literary authorities contain little that is valuable, with the exception of Arrian’s description of cavalry uniform and equipment in his own day.[374]