Late Romans cohorts not from named recruitment area

[aligern]

Synesius of Cyrene writes this in 411. It reads as though the Cohort of Dalmatians is made up of locals from Africa rather than its original Dalmatians. Of course, if Dalmatae is a fighting style there is the slightly less likely possibility that they were never dalmatians
courtesy of Livius.org

The man to whom I have given this letter is a paymaster and quartermaster of the Dalmatian cohort. I love all the Dalmatians as if they were my own children, because they are the people of the city to which I was appointed bishop. This is all that I had to tell you. It is for you now to give a welcome to my friends, as if they were your own.

Roy

[Duncan Head]

"The people of the city" need only mean that they are residents of Ptolemais, not that they were recruited from there. Though one would not necessarily expect a late Roman cohort with a regional name to be recruited from that region anyway - it might well depend how old a unit it was. "Dalmatian" for a fighting style would be plausible for cavalry - all those equites delmatae in the Notitia - but less so for a cohort.