Cohors V Delmatarum c.R.

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Cohors V Delmatarum civium Romanorum was a Roman auxiliary infantry regiment of about 480 men. It first appears in AD 14 and was in service in Mauretania Tingitana from at least AD 88 to 158. The unit was named for the Dalmatae (Delmatae), an Illyrian-speaking people from Dalmatia along the Adriatic coast. Strabo described them as rugged and warlike shepherds, and they fought Rome in the Illyrian Revolt of AD 6–9, which Suetonius called Rome’s hardest war since the Punic Wars. After the revolt, the Dalmatae supplied many recruits to Rome.

Several Delmatarum cohorts were raised after the revolt; by Claudius’s time there were about 12 in two batches (7 and 5), with nine surviving into the 2nd century. The V Delmatarum civium Romanorum was probably raised by Augustus after AD 9 and is attested in Mauretania Tingitana from AD 88 to 158. The c.R. (civium Romanorum) title was an emperor-granted honor for valor, giving citizenship to all the regiment’s men but not automatically to later recruits; the unit kept the title in perpetuity. Before 212 only a minority of the empire’s inhabitants were citizens; many were peregrini who could join the auxilia and could earn citizenship after 25 years of service.