Brigantia
Page 39
singulares: the legate of a province had a picked bodyguard formed of auxiliary soldiers seconded from their units.
spatha: another Latin term for sword, which it is now conventional to employ for the longer blades used mainly by horsemen in this period.
speculator: a soldier tasked with scouting.
tesserarius: the third in command of a century after the optio and signifier. The title originally came from their responsibility for overseeing sentries. The watchword for each night was written on a tessera or tablet.
thetatus: the Greek letter theta was used in some military documents to mark the name of a man who had died. This developed into army slang as thetatus meaning dead/killed.
tiro (pl. tirones): a new recruit to the army.
tribune: each legion had six tribunes. The most senior was the broad-stripe tribune (tribunus laticlavius), who was a young aristocrat at an early stage of a senatorial career. Such men were usually in their late teens or very early twenties. There were also five narrow-stripe or junior tribunes (tribuni angusticlavii).
triclinia: the three-sided couches employed at Roman meals.
tubicen: a straight trumpet.
Tungrians: a tribe from the Rhineland. Many Tungrians were recruited into the army. By ad 98 a unit with the title of Tungrians was likely to include many men from other ethnic backgrounds, including Britons. In most cases, the Roman army drew recruits from the closest and most convenient source. The Batavians at this period may have been an exception to this.
turma: a troop of Roman cavalry, usually with a theoretical strength of 30 or 32.
valetudinarium: a military hospital.
venator (pl. venatores): a type of gladiator who specialised in fighting animals in the arena.
vexillum: a square flag suspended from a cross pole. Detachments were known as vexillations because in theory each was given its own flag as a standard.
via praetoria: one of the two main roads in a Roman fort. It ran from the main gate to join the other road at a right angle. On the far side of the other road, the via principalis, lay the main buildings of the fort, including the praetorium and principia.
vicus: the civilian settlement outside a Roman army base.
vitis: the vine cane carried as a mark of rank by a centurion.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adrian goldsworthy studied at Oxford, where his doctoral thesis examined the Roman army, and became an acclaimed historian of Ancient Rome. He is the author of numerous books, including Caesar, The Fall of the West, Pax Romana, and most recently Hadrian’s Wall. Brigantia completes the trilogy of novels about Flavius Ferox including Vindolanda and The Encircling Sea. He is currently working on a new trilogy of Roman stories.
Visit adriangoldsworthy.com
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