''Stationarius'' (Greek στατιωνάριος, ''stationarios'' or στατιονάρικος, ''stationarikos'') was a temporary assignment of guard duty or policing functions for lower-ranking soldiers in military police detachments of the

Imperial Roman army The Imperial Roman army was the military land force of the Roman Empire from about 30 BC to 476 AD, and the final incarnation in the long history of the Roman army. This period is sometimes split into the Principate (30 BC – 284 AD) and the Do ...

. Small detachments of ''milites stationarii'' held posts throughout

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and the

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

where the military presence might otherwise be minimal. They take their name from ''statio'', a general term for "post" or "station". While individual soldiers were typically transitory, the stations themselves seem to have been permanent, and ''stationarii'' were often identified by what station they held (for example, "''stationarius'' of the Claudianus road"). Although it has sometimes been assumed that local people would resent a police presence, in fact the evidence suggests they turned to ''stationarii'' for protection or intervention in criminal cases, and even at times set up inscriptions in their honor. ''Stationarii'' are recorded in a number of varying inscriptions, and are first attested by a collection of ''

ostraka An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeology, archaeological or epigraphy, epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer ...

'' dating 108–117, during the reign of

Trajan Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...

. An assignment as ''stationarius'' appears to have been "grunt work," and it never appears among an officer's ''

cursus honorum The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The '' ...

.'' Either the post was assigned to men of little potential, or it was considered too lacking in distinction to include in a résumé. Other types of military police were the ''

frumentarii The ''Frumentarii'' were an ancient Roman military organization used as an intelligence agency. They began their history as a courier service and developed into an imperial spying agency. Their organization would also carry out assassinations. T ...

'', ''regionarii'', and ''beneficiarii''. As an

adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...

, ''stationarius'' has other uses that might imply private guards.Fuhrmann, ''Policing the Roman Empire,'' pp. 207, 210.

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