A closer look
Surviving twenty-five years in the Roman auxiliary forces earned you the ancient equivalent of a golden parachute: actual Roman citizenship. But instead of a flimsy paper certificate, retiring veterans were issued military diplomas consisting of two heavy, inscribed bronze tablets wired together. These unforgeable metal passports granted the bearer and his children incredible legal privileges across the empire. It was Rome's brilliant bureaucratic strategy to ensure the fierce loyalty of conquered barbarian tribes by turning their greatest warriors into legally registered taxpayers.
