Dacia/Dacians: a people occupying lands centred on what is today Romania. The Greeks and Romans believed them to be kin to the Getae. They were perceived by the Romans as a significant threat under King Burebista, a rough contemporary of Julius Caesar. The latter was planning a Dacian campaign at the time of his murder. For several generations Dacia appears to have been weakened by internal divisions, until emerging again as a powerful independent kingdom under Decebalus.
decurion: the cavalry equivalent to a centurion, but considered to be junior to them. He commanded a turma.
equestrian: the social class just below the Senate. There were many thousand equestrians (eques, pl. equites) in the Roman Empire, compared to six hundred senators, and a good proportion of equestrians were descendants of aristocracies within the provinces. Those serving in the army followed a different career path to senators.
falx: a long, curved sword employed by the Dacians and some of their neighbours. They could be wielded with one or both hands, which gave the blow considerable force. The edge was on the inside of the curve and the pointed tip seems to have been designed to punch through helmet or armour.
frumentarii: soldiers detached from their units with responsibility for supervising the purchase and supply of grain and other foodstuffs to the army.
galearius (pl. galearii): slaves owned by the army, who wore a helmet and basic uniform and performed service functions, such as caring for transport animals and vehicles.
Getae: were a group of people of similar language and customs (at least to outside observers), living in the wider Balkan area.
gladius: Latin word for sword, which by modern convention specifically refers to the short sword used by all legionaries and most auxiliary infantry. By the end of the first century most blades were less than two feet long.
legate/legatus (legionary): the commander of a legion was a legatus legionis and was a senator at an earlier stage in his career than the provincial governor. He would usually be in his early thirties.
legate/legatus (provincial): the governor of a military province like Britain was a legatus Augusti, the representative of the emperor. He was a distinguished senator and usually at least in his forties.
legion: originally the levy of the entire Roman people summoned to war, legion or legio became the name for the most important unit in the army. In the last decades of the first century BC, legions became permanent with their own numbers and usually names and titles. In AD 98 there were 28 legions, but the total was soon raised to 30.
lillia: lilies were circular pits with a sharpened stake in the centre. Often concealed, they were a comman part of the obstacles outside Roman fortifications.
lixae: A generic term for the camp followers of a Roman army.
medicus: an army medical orderly or junior physician.
Monâkon: a single armed catapult described in Hellenistic manuals. The type was widely used in Late Antiquity, when it was often known as the onager, and continued in use throughout the Middle Ages.
omnes ad stercus: a duty roster of the first century AD from a century of a legion stationed in Egypt has some soldiers assigned ad stercus, literally to the dung or shit. This probably meant a fatigue party cleaning the latrines – or just possibly mucking out the stables. From this I have invented omnes ad stercus as ‘everyone to the latrines’ or ‘we’re all in the shit’.
optio: the second in command of a century of eighty men and deputy to a centurion.
pileatus (pl. pileati): the ‘cap wearers’ were the nobles in Dacian society as opposed to the long haired mass of the population.
pilum: the heavy javelin carried by Roman legionaries. It was about six to seven feet long. The shaft was wooden, topped by a slim iron shank ending in a pyramid-shaped point (much like the bodkin arrow used by longbowmen). The shank was not meant to bend. Instead the aim was to concentrate all of the weapon’s considerable weight behind the head so that it would punch through armour or shield. If it hit a shield, the head would go through, and the long iron shank gave it the reach to continue and strike the man behind. Its effective range was probably some 15 to 16 yards.
praesidium: the term meant garrison, and could be employed for a small outpost or a full-sized fort.
prefect: the commander of most auxiliary units was called a prefect (although a few unit COs held the title tribune). These were equestrians, who first commanded a cohort of auxiliary infantry, then served as equestrian tribune in a legion, before going on to command a cavalry ala.
procurator: an imperial official who oversaw the tax and financial administration of a province. Although junior to a legate, a procurator reported directly to the emperor.
res publica: literally ‘public thing’ or state/coomonwealth, this was the way the Roman referred to their state and is the origin of our word republic.
Roxolani: or ‘red alans’ were one group of Sarmatians, but are likely to have consisted of many subsections rather than a coherent and politically united tribe. At times they were allied with Decebalus, at times with the Romans, and often hostile to both.
sacramentum: the military oath sworn to the emperor and the res publica.
salutatio: traditional ceremony where people came to greet a Roman senator – and especially a governor – at the start of a working day.
Sarmatians: another blanket term used by the Romans and similar to the Greek use of Scythians. Reality was no doubt more complicated, but broadly speaking there were nomads originating from the Steppes. They were famed as formidable cavalry, employing bows and lances. Some were heavily armoured.
scorpion (scorpio): a light torsion catapult or ballista with a superficial resemblance to a large crossbow. They shot a heavy bolt with considerable accuracy and tremendous force to a range beyond bowshot. Julius Caesar describes a bolt from one of these engines going through the leg of an enemy cavalryman and pinning him to the saddle.
seplasiarius (or seplasiario): a military pharmascist working in a fort’s hospital.
sica: a curved, one-handed sword particularly associated with Thracians and Dacians. The edge was on the inside of the curve, like a sickle and like the larger falx.
signifer: a standard-bearer, specifically one carrying a century’s standard or signum (pl. signa).
Silures: a tribe or people occupying what is now South Wales. They fought a long campaign before being overrun by the Romans. Tacitus described them as having curly hair and darker hair or complexions than other Britons, and suggested that they looked more like Spaniards (although since he misunderstood the geography of Britain he also believed that their homeland was closer to Spain than Gaul).