Honesta missio
Honorable discharge from Roman military service with financial and land benefits.
The honesta missio was the honorable discharge from military service in the Roman Empire, carrying specific privileges known as praemia militiae. An honorably discharged legionary received discharge money from the aerarium militare, a treasury established by Augustus, with amounts reaching 12,000 sesterces for common soldiers and around 600,000 sesterces for the primus pilus until the Principate of Caracalla.
Quick Facts
- Discharge payment (common soldier)
- 12,000 sesterces
- Discharge payment (primus pilus)
- around 600,000 sesterces
- Service length for discharge
- approximately 20 to 26 years
- Financial compensation equivalent
- 10 to 13 years of wages
- Treasury name
- aerarium militare
- Founder of treasury
- Augustus
Facts from the source article.
Specific privileges
Honorably discharged legionaries presumably received a certificate after roughly 20 to 26 years of service, though few such tabulae honestae missionis survive, likely because most were made of ephemeral materials. Emperor Augustus began granting retired soldiers a missio nummaria, providing financial compensation equivalent to 10 to 13 years of wages, alongside a land grant called the missio agraria. Auxiliary soldiers, peregrini who were non-Roman citizens, typically received Roman citizenship and conubium (permission to marry) for themselves and their descendants with the honesta missio. Imperial orders about these grants, often later documented on bronze military certificates not necessarily directly tied to the discharge, could also include rights to cash and land, poll tax exemption for up to four people, and immunities from various duties. Recipients desiring to set up a business could receive a cash grant, while those wanting land might be given a sizable plot with two oxen, cash, and 100 measures of assorted grains, though these benefits were reduced over time. Soldiers of all branches who completed their regular term or received premature discharge due to invalidity or imperial goodwill were considered veterans, sometimes granted tax relief (privilegia veteranorum). Veterans, as honestiores, fulfilled important functions in local civil administration of mostly rural homes, contributing to the empire's stability and the Hellenization or Romanization of subjugated areas, and could be called back as evocatus at a commander's request with their consent.
Other types of discharge from military service
Besides the honesta missio, there was premature discharge for health reasons (missio causaria), due to serious injury in battle, and dishonorable discharge (missio ignominiosa). Men discharged for health reasons were usually treated like honorably discharged, with allowances based on service length. Dishonorable discharge punished soldiers guilty of serious crimes, forbidding them from living in Rome or entering imperial service, and they could be branded or tattooed, receiving none of the rights of honorably discharged soldiers.
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