This is a vast subject, but it is worth making a few points for those new to the topic. In AD 98 the Roman army consisted of twenty-eight legions – two more would soon be added by Trajan – each with a paper strength of some 5,000 men. Each one was divided into ten cohorts of heavy infantry and had a small contingent of some 120 horsemen. Legionaries were Roman citizens. This was a legal status without any ethnic basis and by this time there were over four million Roman citizens scattered throughout the empire. We may think of St Paul, a Jew from Tarsus in Asia Minor, but a Roman citizen and entitled to all the legal advantages that brought.
Supporting the legions were the auxiliaries who were not citizens, but received citizenship at the end of their military service. These were organised as independent cohorts of infantry and similarly sized cohorts of cavalry. There were also the mixed cohorts (cohortes equitatae) like the Batavians, which included both infantry and cavalry in a four to one ratio. Legionaries and auxiliaries alike served for twenty-five years. Most were volunteers, although conscription did occur and was probably especially common with some auxiliary units.
We know a good deal about the Roman army, about its equipment, organisation, command structure, tactics, ranks and routine, although it must be emphasised that there are also many gaps in our knowledge. As a historian it is my duty to stress what we do not know, but a novelist cannot do this and must invent in order to fill in these gaps. Some aspects of the depiction of the Roman army in this book may surprise some readers, but often this will be because some of the evidence for it is not well known outside academic circles. I have invented as little as possible, and always done my best to base it on what we do know. As an introduction to the army, I am vain enough to recommend my own The Complete Roman Army published by Thames and Hudson. I would also say that anything by the late Peter Connolly is also well worth a look. Once again, for more specific recommendations, I refer readers to my website.
ENDPAPERS
GLOSSARY
ala: a regiment of auxiliary cavalry, roughly the same size as a cohort of infantry. There were two types: ala quingenaria consisting of 512 men divided into sixteen turmae; and ala miliaria consisting of 768 men divided into twenty-four turmae.
auxilia/auxiliaries: over half of the Roman army was recruited from non-citizens from all over (and even outside) the empire. These served as both infantry and cavalry and gained citizenship at the end of their twenty-five years of service.
Batavians: an offshoot of the Germanic Chatti, who fled after a period of civil war, the Batavians settled on what the Romans called the Rhine islands in modern Holland. Famous as warriors, their only obligation to the empire was to provide soldiers to serve in Batavian units of the auxilia. Writing around the time of our story, the historian Tacitus described them as ‘like armour and weapons – only used in war’.
Brigantes: a large tribe or group of tribes occupying much of what would become northern England. Several sub-groups are known, including the Textoverdi and Carvetii (whose name may mean ‘stag people’).
burgus: a small outpost manned by detached troops rather than a formal unit.
canabae: the civilian settlements that rapidly grew up outside almost every Roman fort. The community had no formal status and was probably under military jurisdiction.
centurion: a grade of officer rather than a specific rank, each legion had some sixty centurions, while each auxiliary cohort had between six and ten. They were highly educated men and were often given posts of great responsibility. While a minority were commissioned after service in the ranks, most were directly commissioned or served only as junior officers before reaching the centurionate.
centurio regionarius: a post attested in the Vindolanda tablets, as well as elsewhere in Britain and other provinces. They appear to have been officers on detached service placed in control of an area. A large body of evidence from Egypt shows them dealing with criminal investigations as well as military and administrative tasks.
cohort: the principal tactical unit of the legions. The first cohort consisted of 800 men in five double-strength centuries, while cohorts two to ten were composed of 480 men in six centuries of eighty. Auxiliaries were either formed in milliary cohorts of 800 or more often quingeniary cohorts of 480. Cohortes equitatae or mixed cohorts added 240 and 120 horsemen respectively. These troopers were paid less and given less expensive mounts than the cavalry of the alae.
consilium: the council of officers and other senior advisors routinely employed by a Roman governor or senator to guide him in making decisions.
curator: (i) title given to a soldier placed in charge of an outpost such as a burgus who may or may not have held formal rank; (ii) the second in command to a decurion in a cavalry turma.
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.
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 2 feet long.
legate (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 (see below). He would usually be in his early thirties.
legate (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 twenty-eight legions, but the total was soon raised to thirty.
medicus: an army medical orderly or junior physician.
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’.