Ethnic Roman Bucellarii on an Egyptian papyrus of 612 AD
This is an interesting papyrus from 612 AD from Egypt containing a list of payment receipts for Roman army Bucellarii.
Some Bucellarii gave a plain name, most gave their name and patronymic ("I am X the son of Y"), some gave their name and place of origin ("I am X from the place Y" ) and, finally, some were identified ethnically ("I am X from the Y ethnicity"). Among those Bucellarii who were identified ethnically: "the Persian", "the Goth" two people, "the Saracen", "
the Slav", "the Armenian";
there are five Bucellarii who self-identified as the Roman.
(In an earlier similar document from 561 AD, two Bucellarii are ethnically identified as "Bessi", indicating that the Bessian-Thracian ethnic identity still survived in the 6th century.)
A description of this interesting papyrus can be found in the following recent article by Antonis Kaldellis which you can read online here, starting on p. 21:
https://www.academia.edu/44506116/P...je_INI_2020_keynote_lecture_Anthony_Kaldellis
Anthony Kaldellis, ‘Byzantine Identity Interrogated, Declared, Activated,’ in M. Panov, ed., Identities: Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium “Days of Justinian I,” Skopje, 15-16 November, 2019 (Skopje 2020) 21-36.