in Roman antiquity, denote soldiers who attended the chief officers of the army, being exempted from other duty. Beneficiarii were also soldiers discharged from the military service or duty, and provided with beneficia to subsist on. These were probably the same with the former, and both might be comprised in the same definition. They were old experienced soldiers, who, having served out their legal time, or received a discharge as a particular mark of honour, were invited again to the service, where they were held in great esteem, exempted from all military drudgery, and appointed to guard the standard, &c. These, when thus recalled to service, were also denominated evocati; before their recall, emeriti.

Beneficiarii was also used for those raised to a higher rank by the favour of the tribunes or other magistrates. The word beneficiarius frequently occurs in the Roman inscriptions found in Britain, where confulsus is always joined with it; but besides beneficiarius confulsus, we find in Grutae beneficiarius tribuni, praetorii, legati, praefetti, proconsulfs, &c.