Missio
The Roman term for the dismissal of soldiers from service, whether on account of illness
(
missio causaria) or of some dishonourable offence (
missio ignominiosa), or at the expiration of their period of service. The
last-mentioned,
missio honesta or honourable dismissal, carried with it,
under the Empire, the maintenance of the dismissed soldier. At first a fixed sum of money was
given him; afterwards a parcel of land in Italy or the provinces was assigned. He also
received the rights of citizenship, if he did not already possess them, and the privilege of
contracting a legal marriage. The imperial decree which contained a list of those dismissed,
arranged according to the subdivisions of the army and with the privileges granted, was posted
on a public building on the Capitol or in the Forum, and each one of those specified received
an extract from this document, made out in the presence of seven witnesses and inscribed on a
bronze
diptychon (q. v.). Sixty-two such military diplomas have been
preserved completely or in part. (See
Exercitus.)
The same term was used of the release of gladiators from the gladiatorial school. See
Gladiatores, p. 733.
