EVOCATI

Form: those who are summoned or called out.

The term applied in the Roman army to soldiers who had served their time and obtained their dismissal, but who, on the general summoning them by name, returned to the service on condition of receiving certain privileges. These were, exemption from all service except in battle, a rank and pay equal to those of the centurions, and prospect of advancement. The enlistment of evocati was especially common in the civil wars. Sometimes they were distributed in the legion, sometimes they formed a special and select troop, divided into centuriae. We sometimes find them, in isolated instances, under the early Empire. On the difference between them and the veterani, see VETERANI.