| Cohors I Ulpia Dacorum | |
|---|---|
 Roman infantry helmet (late 1st century) | |
| Active | AD c. 110 to at least 156 |
| Country | Roman Empire |
| Type | Roman auxiliary cohort |
| Role | infantry |
| Size | 480 |
| Garrison/HQ | Syria |
Cohors prima Ulpia Dacorum ("1st Ulpian cohort of Dacians") was an infantry regiment of the Auxilia corps of the Imperial Roman army. It was founded by the Roman emperor Trajan (r. 98-117), probably in preparation for his planned war against Parthia (113-6).[1] The regiment's honorific title Ulpia refers to the emperor's gens, or clan-name (Marcus Ulpius Traianus). The regiment is attested (as such) in a single record, a Roman military diploma dated 156/7, which shows that the unit was at this time based in the Roman province of Syria: most likely, it had remained in the East after the end of the Parthian War.[2] The regiment's original recruits were mainly ethnic Dacians from the recently conquered province of Dacia. The cohort consisted of 480 infantrymen, divided into 6 centuriae of 80 men each.
Two other auxiliary units attested in the epigraphic record, the cohorts II Aurelia Dacorum and III Aurelia Dacorum have been linked to I Ulpia Dacorum by some scholars. As their title implies, these units were established by the emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-180), and it has been suggested that I Ulpia Dacorum was merged into one or both of these.[3]
See also[]
Citations[]
References[]
- Holder, Paul: Studies in the Auxilia of the Roman Army (1980)
- Holder, Paul: Auxiliary Deployment in the Reign of Hadrian (2003)
- Spaul, John COHORS 2 (2000)
The original article can be found at Cohors I Ulpia Dacorum and the edit history here.