The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army, by G. L. Cheesman, M.A.

158 The distinction was not necessarily connected with the position of civitas foederata in the technical sense. Several important civitates foederatae, such as the Aedui and Remi in Gaul, did not, so far as we know, give their name to regiments, and many of the tribes which did were not civitates foederatae.

159 In Asturia, however, the administrative conventus formed the recruiting districts; hence the regiments of Astures, Bracaraugustani, and Lucenses. Mommsen, Conscriptionsordnung, p. 47.

160 We find regiments of Batavi, Canninefates, Cugerni, Frisii, Lingones, Menapii, Morini, Nemetes, Nervii, Sunuci, Sugambri, Tungri, Ubii, Usipi, and Vangiones. In the other Gallic provinces the only tribal names which occur are the Bituriges and Aquitani from Aquitania and the Vocontii from Narbonensis.

161 A Cohors II Augustia Nervia Pacensis Brittonum is mentioned on a Pannonian diploma for 114 (D. xxxix) and the name of Cohors I of the series should probably be restored on the Dacian diploma dated 145-61 (D. lxx). This title is unintelligible; it does not seem possible to connect it with the Emperor Nerva.

162 For further information as to the evidence on which this table is based see Appendix II.

163 Including one ala and four cohorts of Batavians who replace the regiments which mutinied under Civilis.

164 Including all the alae with titles derived from proper names but no racial title. Inscriptions show that they were mostly recruited in Gaul, but some should perhaps be given to Belgica.

165 Including all the cohorts which bear the general title Galli.

166 The Ala Vocontiorum which appears in Britain is to be distinguished from the regiment of the same name in Egypt.

167 The cohorts of Alpini, Montani, and Ligures, which represent the contingents of all the little Alpine provinces.

168 Four cohortes miliariae which appear late in the second century and were probably raised at the time of the Marcomannian War.

169 The regiments of Bosporani. Some of the auxilia of Moesia are perhaps included among the regiments of Thracians.

170 The Ala Vespasiana Dardanorum and the cohorts I and II Aurelia Dardanorum.

171 A cohors Macedonum E. (A. E. 1909. 58), and two regiments of Cyrrhestici.

172 The mysterious Ala VII Phrygum. When this regiment was only known by one inscription (vi. 1838) the number was naturally emended. It has, however, been confirmed by the diploma for 139 and a Greek inscription (A. E. 1899. 177). The explanation is still uncertain. It is incredible that Phrygia really contributed seven alae, six of which have mysteriously vanished.

173 Three cohorts of Paphlagonians and three of Galatians raised by Trajan.

174 Including two alae Parthorum.

175 Including the three ‘cohortes sagittariorum’.

176 Including the Ituraean regiments.

177 There is no reason why these regiments should not have been raised between 40 and 70, but they do not appear on inscriptions until much later.

178 Some of the cohorts of Hispani may of course have come from Baetica.

179 Conscriptionsordnung, p. 56.

180 It appears on diplomata of 93 and 103. D. ciii and A. E. 1912. 128.

181 A cohors IV Cypria is mentioned on the Dacian diploma of 110 (xxxvii), and a cohors Cypria appears in the Crimea.

182 We find on inscriptions Cohors I Cyrenaica, II Augusta Cyrenaica, III Cyrenaica sagittariorum, and III Augusta Cyrenaica. (See Cichorius in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. cohors). The difficulty is that Cyrenaica is sometimes used as a purely descriptive title to indicate previous residence in the province. It is thus borne by the Cohors II Hispanorum scutata and the Cohors I Lusitanorum. Arrian, however, had Κυρηναῖοι, both cavalry and ὁπλῖται, in the army under his command in Cappadocia in Hadrian’s reign, so that in some cases at any rate Cyrenaica = Cyrenaeorum, just as Gallica is sometimes used for Gallorum. A levy in Cyrenaica is mentioned by Tacitus (Ann. xiv. 18), but he does not say whether legionaries or auxiliaries were required.

183 Gardthausen, Augustus, p. 631. Liebenam in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. dilectus.

184 The crucial passage is of course Tac. Ann. xvi. 13 ‘eodem anno dilectus per Galliam Narbonensem Africamque et Asiam habiti sunt supplendis Illyrici legionibus’, which appears to come from the acta senatus. But the evidence for imperial control is very strong, and the Senate may merely have been consulted as a matter of courtesy. Tiberius used to bring military questions before the Senate in the same way—‘de legendo vel exauctorando milite ac legionum et auxiliorum descriptione’, Suet. Tib. 30—without giving up his prerogative.

185 Later, of course, the franchise became as widely spread in Africa as in Spain. In the first half of the first century, however, this was not yet the case, and the example of Tacfarinas (‘natione Numida, in castris Romanis auxiliaria stipendia meritus’, Tac. Ann. ii. 52) shows that auxilia were recruited in this province while it was still completely under senatorial control.

186 xiii. 6860, 6864. Dio, lxxiv. 2, brackets Italy, Spain, Macedonia, and Noricum together, as the ‘civilized’ provinces from which the Praetorians were recruited before the reforms of Severus.

187 If the cohortes voluntariorum be excluded from the reckoning.

188 Strabo, p. 196 κρείττους δ’ ἱππόται ἢ πεζοί, καὶ ἔστι Ῥωμαίοις τῆς ἱππείας ἀρίστη παρὰ τούτων.

190 See the boastful words of the Gascon Antonius Primus. Tac. Hist. iii. 2 ‘Duae tunc Pannonicae ac Moesicae alae perrupere hostem: nunc sedecim alarum coniuncta signa pulsu sonituque et nube ipsa operient ac superfundent oblitos proeliorum equites equosque’. Cf. also Tac. Ann. xv. 10 ‘alaris Pannonios, robur equitatus’.

191 Arrian, loc. cit.

192 The list shows that the majority of the oriental regiments were not raised until after 70.

193 Two cohorts numbered III and VII bear this title, for which I can find no explanation. To be distinguished from these is the Cohors I Campanorum voluntaria (vi. 3520), which was stationed first in Dalmatia, then in Pannonia. Apparently it really was originally a regiment of Campanians, since a soldier gives Suessa as his birthplace (iii. 14246¹). The statement of Cichorius that the Dalmatian Cohors I Campanorum is identical with the Pannonian Cohors I Campestris is misleading. On no Pannonian inscription does the title occur otherwise than in the abbreviated form ‘Camp.’ On the other hand, the Roman inscription cited above speaks plainly of the coh(ortis) primae voluntariae Campanorum in Pannonia Inferiore.

195 Dio, lv. 31, lvi. 23; Velleius, ii. 111; Suet. Aug. 25. Similar regiments may have been raised at a later date, e.g. the cohorts I and II Italica c. R., which seem to form a fresh series and appear only in the East. Can they represent the remainder of the 4,000 oriental freedmen whom Tiberius enrolled to put down the brigands in Sardinia (Tac. Ann. ii. 85)? If any survived, the Eastern provinces would have been the natural place to send them to.

196 Cf. the previous passages with Macrobius, Sat. i. 11, 32 ‘Caesar Augustus in Germania et Illyrico cohortes libertinorum complures legit, quas voluntarias appellavit’.

197 There were at least thirty-two cohortes voluntariorum, among which VI is the highest number borne by a cohors ingenuorum (xiii. 8314, 8315). At about this point the supply of free-born recruits probably gave out, since cohors VIII does not bear this designation.

198 Seeck suggests that, as the Western legions were recruited mainly in Italy at the beginning of the first century, these cohorts represent the contribution of the enfranchised communities in the provinces. Rheinisches Museum, xlviii. 611. This, however, is not only opposed to the literary evidence, but inscriptions also show us soldiers of Italian origin. Cf. iii. 9782 (Cemenelium) and A. E. 1909. 130 (Placentia).

199 The original mutineers in Dalmatia seem to have been militia rather than regulars, cf. Dio, lv. 29 καί τινα καὶ σφεῖς δύναμιν πέμψαι κελευσθέντες, συνῆλθόν τε ἐπὶ τούτῳ καὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν σφῶν ἀνθοῦσαν εἶδον, but the phraseology of Velleius (ii. 110) leaves little doubt that regular auxiliaries were also implicated.

200 Tac. Ann. ii. 17.

204 ‘Immissa cohorte Thraecum,’ Tac. Hist. i. 68.

205 ‘Praemissis Gallorum Lusitanorumque et Britannorum cohortibus,’ Ib. i. 70. The regiments referred to are probably the Cohors III Britannorum and the Cohorts VI and VII Lusitanorum which appear in Raetia at a later date. Cf. D. lxxiii, I. G. R. R. iii. 56.

206 Early inscriptions mention Cohorts VII and VIII Breucorum (xiii. 7801, 8313, 8693), IV Delmatarum (Ib. 7507, 7508, 7509), I Pannoniorum (Ib. 7510, 7511, 7582), I Ituraeorum (Ib. 7040, 7041, 7042, 7043), I Sagittariorum (Ib. 7512, 7513, 7514), and Silauciensium (Ib. 8593). The last title is unintelligible, and possibly corrupt. The soldier mentioned is a certain Tib. Iulius Sdebdas from Tyre, so the regiment clearly came from the East, and its title should perhaps read Seleuciensium—i.e. from Seleucia.

207 Tac. Ann. ii. 52.

208 Josephus, Ant. xx, 6, 1. Bell. Iud. ii. 12, 5. The small garrisons maintained in the provinciae inermes seem also to have been of local origin; cf. the Ligurum cohors, vetus loci auxilium stationed in the Alpes Maritimae, Tac. Hist. ii. 14. See also D. xx and xxvi for the composition of the garrison of Sardinia.

209 Tac. Ann. iv. 46. See above, p. 19.

210 ‘Flavus aucta stipendia, torquem et coronam aliaque militaria dona memorat,’ Tac. Ann. ii. 9.

211 ‘Non tulit ala Picentiana gaudium insultantis vulgi, spretisque Sancti promissis aut minis Mogontiacum abeunt,’ Tac. Hist. iv. 62. I follow the diplomata in using the form Picentiana—not Picentina, which Tacitus preferred.

214 This supports the statement of Macrobius, already cited, that some of the cohorts voluntariae were stationed in Illyricum.

215 The list given above probably does not contain all the regiments originally sent to the Rhine. A large proportion of the auxilia stationed in Britain are of Danubian origin, and these troops are more likely to have come from Germany, than, as has been sometimes suggested, with Legio IX Hispana from Pannonia.

216 It seems that all the eight Batavian cohorts which supported Civilis were dismissed, and that the Cohorts I and II Batavorum, which we meet on second-century inscriptions, were new creations. The Alae Petriana and Sebosiana and two cohorts of Tungrians, which had formed part of the Rhine army in 69, appear later in Britain. But they had left the Rhine to take part in the civil war in Italy, and were not guilty of complicity in the mutiny.

217 Legio IV Scythica remained permanently in Syria; V Macedonia and XV Apollinaris were in the East from 62 and 63 respectively to 70. Auxiliary regiments probably accompanied these legions, and some in all likelihood remained with the first named.

218 It is true that although five legions (I Adiutrix, X Gemina, XI Claudia, XIV Gemina, and XXI Rapax) were transferred from the Rhine to the Danube between 70 and 107 the list of auxilia does not alter so much as might be expected. Still the transference of some regiments can be traced, e.g. the Ala Claudia Nova and the Cohors V Hispanorum were sent to Moesia Inferior between 74 and 82 and remained there. Cf. D. xi, xiv, and ciii.

219 In 1884 Mommsen collected the existing evidence in Eph. Ep. v. pp. 159-249, and stated his conclusions in the Conscriptionsordnung. Later epigraphical discoveries, while clearing up many points of detail, have left his main argument unaffected, and it forms the basis of the following discussion.

220 e.g. a certain T. Flavius Draccus of the Ala I F(lavia) D(omitiana) Brit(annica) M(iliaria) c(ivium) R(omanorum) describes himself as a civis Sequanus (iii. 15197). Now the title D(omitiana) shows that the inscription must have been erected between 81 and 96, and Draccus, who had served 22 years, was enrolled, therefore, between 60 and 74. But his regiment, which formed part of the Vitellian army in 69 (Tac. Hist. iii. 41), must have been in Germany or Britain before that date. Probably it was sent in 70 to Germania Inferior, won its title, like other regiments of that province, for loyalty at the time of the rebellion of Saturninus in 89, and was transferred to Pannonia shortly afterwards.

221 The regiment was in Moesia Inferior by 99 (D. xxxi) and remained there. The Pannonian inscriptions therefore probably belong to the pre-Flavian period, as the soldiers had served 30 and 17 years respectively.

222 This soldier, T. Flavius Bonius, was apparently given the franchise by one of the Flavian emperors, but might then have been serving some time.

223 Allectus into the Equites Singulares Imperatoris. A date is indicated by his name Ulpius Titius.

224 The soldier bears the name Aurelius, and the style of the monument suggests a third-century date. See below, p. 128, n. 4.

225 Allectus into the Equites Singulares at Rome.

226 The soldier has the Thracian name of Mucapor.

227 Probably a corps d’élite formed originally for the Dacian War and placed afterwards on a permanent footing. In the reign of Antoninus Pius it seems to have been given the title of Ala Illyricorum.

228 The Pannonian to whom D. ii belonged cannot have been enrolled later than 35, and owner of D. ci was probably enrolled earlier still.

230 Unfortunately the name of the cohort to which the men belonged has been lost. The names of some men of the Cohors II Batavorum are preserved, but without their nationalities.

231 iii. 2016, 4227. The regiment may of course have been sent to Spain and have returned only after a long absence, say with Legio VII Gemina in 69 (Tac. Hist. ii. 11).

232 viii. 18084. The majority come from the Eastern provinces.

233 There is evidence for a garrison of at least 25,000 men in the second century, but it probably reached a higher figure. See Appendix I.

234 xiii. 7024, 7025, 7579, D. xxxv.

235 viii. 3101. For the recruiting of Legio III Augusta cf. Cagnat, L’Armée romaine d’Afrique, 2nd edition, pp. 287-303.

236 We find the Ala I Ulpia Dromedariorum, the Cohorts I, III, IV, V and VI Ulpia Petraeorum, II and III Ulpia Paflagonum, I and II Ulpia Galatarum, and I Ulpia Sagittariorum all in Cappadocia, Syria, or Palestine in the second century, and only one of this series of regiments, the Cohors III Ulpia Galatarum, can be traced elsewhere.

237 iii. 6580. The non-Egyptians all come from the Eastern provinces, except two from Africa.

238 iii. 14507. 7 come from Dacia, 7 from Pannonia, 5 from Dalmatia, 3 from Thrace, 6 from Macedonia, and 1 from Pergamum.

239 It is impossible to go into this question here. The soldiers mentioned on vi. 31138, who were discharged in 118, must, if they served their full time, have been enrolled before Trajan’s accession. The corps seems to have replaced the old Germani corporis custodes, disbanded by Galba; Suet. Vit. Gal. 12.

240 In the hundred cases only five men are actually described as allecti from an ala, but the fact may not always have been mentioned on the tombstones.

241 I have taken the first hundred inscriptions on which nationality is recorded, beginning with vi. 3173.

242 The contingents of the two Pannonian and the two Moesian provinces cannot be distinguished, because in a large number of cases the deceased is simply described as Pannonius or Moesus.

243 Using this term to apply only to the contingents of Lugdunensis. The inhabitants of Belgica still appear.

244 Between 70 and 107 the garrison of the Danubian provinces was increased to ten legions, chiefly at the expense of the Rhine army, in which the legions were reduced from eight to four.

245 In 69, when Antonius Primus boasted of the superiority of the Danubian cavalry, there were, according to Tacitus, sixteen alae in Pannonia and Moesia (Tac. Hist. iii. 2). In the second century seventeen regiments can be traced in the two Pannonias and Moesia Inferior, while in Dacia, which covered Moesia Superior, were ten more. These figures, moreover, are probably below the real total. See Appendix I.

246 It appears in a Pannonian diploma for 98 (D. xxvii) and in the first Dacian diploma for 110 (D. xxxvii).

247 See Archaelogiai Ertesitö, 1905 and following, and for the inscriptions A. E. 1906 and following.

248 D. lviii (138-46), iii. 3331.

249 iii. 10316, 10318. A. E. 1906. 110. Ib. 1909. 150. Ib. 1910. 137.

250 D. lviii. The name of the town is missing.

251 A. E. 1910. 141. Cf. 133.

252 D. xxvii, xxxvii; iii. 4371. Another inscription (iii. 4368) mentions a Batavian, but he is a decurion who may have been transferred on promotion from another corps.

253 For orientals on the Rhine, cf. xiii. 7512, 7514.

254 Throughout the Empire the archer regiments seem to have been exclusively Thracians or orientals, but the latter alone preserved their national character in the second century.

255 iii. 10315, 10316.

256 The difficulty is to establish clear cases of men who must have entered a regiment after its original formation. The ‘Britto’ of the Dacian diploma for 145-61 (lxx) seems to be one.

257 ‘Nectovelius natione Brigans’ in the Cohors II Thracum. The inscription comes from Mumrills and probably dates, therefore, from between 142 and 180. Eph. Ep. ix. 623.

258 The numeri have been discussed by Mommsen in the latter part of the Conscriptionsordnung, a discussion which naturally forms the basis of the following pages.

259 xiii. 6526, 6542, 6592, 6622, 6629, 6642, 7749. Elantienses—6490. Gurvedenses—7343. Murrenses—6471. Triputienses—6502, 6511, 6514, 6517, 6518, 6599, 6606.

260 A. E. 1910. 152.

261 viii. 2486, 2505, 18007, 18008, 18026, &c.

262 iii. 837, 907, 7999, 14216.

263 The Palmyrene vexillarius, whose tombstone was found at Corbridge in 1911, is most likely to have belonged to a numerus formed from his countrymen. Eph. Ep. ix. 1153a.

265 Eph. Ep. ix. 1191, where all the references are collected.

267 viii. 21015, 21017.

269 If Mommsen’s interpretation of Eph. Ep. vii. 957 as n(umerus) m(ilitum) S(urorum) S(agittariorum) be correct.

270 Hyginus, 29. Accepting this emendation for the meaningless Getati of the manuscripts.

271 iii. 12601 a and b, 12605. The inscriptions date from the reign of Hadrian, showing that this usage was an early one.

273 Praepositus is more usual, and probably the original title. Later we find the title praefectus, and the inclusion of this post at the bottom of the equestrian census, below the previous three posts, gave rise to the phrase a quattuor militiis. Cf. xiii. 6814 and von Dom. Rangordnung, p. 131.

274 Von Dom. Rangordnung, pp. 60, 61.

275 viii. 2505, 2515. The latest inscription is a dedication to Malagbel, the native god of Palmyra, for the safety of Gordian III.

276 iii. 907, 14216 (Oriental names).

277 If the Brittones were really, as has been suggested, transported wholesale to Germany, these numeri also would have preserved their national character.

278 These disappeared during the period, which came in the history of almost every regiment, when it contained drafts from different nationalities.

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