Eager for Glory

by Philip Lindsay Powell

  82 A legio is approximately equivalent to a brigade or “large regiment” in the British and Canadian armies or a division in the US Army, though a division may number 10,000–20,000 men, which is substantially more than a legion.

  83 Dio 55.23.1 lists 23 legions but omits the three lost at saltus Teutoburgiensis during the Bellum Varianum/clades Variana of 9 CE.

  84 G.R. Watson, The Roman Soldier, London, 1969, p. 31. The legions did not need to conscript men during the period of Drusus’ campaigns. See Chapter 1, note 71 about abuses of unwilling volunteers and deserters investigated by Tiberius as a quaestor in 23 BCE.

  85 The statistic is based on studies of tombstones dated to the Principate of Augustus through Caligula by G. Forni who identified the origin of 215 men as Italian compared to 134 as coming from the Provinces: of the Provinces 31 individuals or 9 per cent came originally from Gallia Narbonensis – cited in Y. Le Bohec, The Imperial Roman Army, London, 1994, Table 16, p. 83.

  86 Le Bohec 1994, p. 37; Lawrence Keppie, The Making of the Roman Army, London, 1984, p. 176.

  87 Nic Fields, The Roman Army of the Principate 27 BC – AD 117, Oxford, 2009, p. 34; Keppie, p. 176; Le Bohec, p. 38.

  88 Fields 2009, p. 34; Le Bohec 1994, p. 39; Keppie 1984, p. 176, notes the earliest recorded evidence for the rank of praefectus castrorum that has come down to us dates to 11 CE, and it was not in existence in the late Republic, though Keppie states on p. 99 that there is mention of a praefectus fabrum responsible for engineering in Republican legions, but no mention of the title in Caesar’s own accounts (see note 90).

  89 Tacitus, Annales 12.38.3, 13.39.2.

  90 Keppie 1984, p. 177: an aide-de-camp, praefectus fabrum, assisted the legate in the field.

  91 Le Bohec 1994, p. 39.

  92 Le Bohec 1994, p. 39.

  93 The centuria is broadly equivalent to a company in the Australian, British and US armies. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure: see note 95.

  94 In practice with nightwatch duties, fewer would sleep in the goatskin or leather tent at a time. The British Army section now consists of eight soldiers, while in the Australian army under the new structure of the infantry platoon sections are made up of eight men divided into two four man fire-teams. In the United States Army, a squad consists of two fireteams of four or five soldiers each, as well as a squad leader.

  95 The centurio should be thought of as a company commander, Keppie 1984, p. 179.

  96 The name of one of the most notorious centurions to have come down to us is Lucilius whom his men nicknamed “cedo alteram” – ‘old gimme another’ – for his habit of striking the back of a soldier with his vinestaff so hard that it would shatter, and immediately demanding a replacement: Tacitus, Annales 1.23.

  97 Keppie 1984, p. 179.

  98 Fields 2009, p. 36 cites adoptandum; Varro, de Lingua Latina 5.91; Festus 201.23.

  99 Watson 1969, pp. 77–86, 92.

  100 Watson 1969, p. 52 and p. 79.

  101 Keppie 1984, p. 98; a cohors is approximately equivalent to a battalion in the British, Canadian and US armies.

  102 In battle, each tribunus angusticlavius commanded two cohorts or 1,000 men: Le Bohec 1994, p. 39 citing CIL 5.2637, though Keppie 1984, p. 176 sees no specific unit command for the five tribuni.

  103 These were named according to their battle positions, from the rear the pilani (triarii or ‘third rank men’), principes (‘chief men’) and the men of the main battle line hastate (‘spear men’), Fields 2009, p. 34; Keppie 1984, p. 20.

  104 Fields 2009, p. 34; Keppie 1984, p. 174.

  105 Keppie 1984, p. 173.

  106 Plutarch, Marius 19.

  107 Keppie 1984, p. 179: completion of the year promoted the man into the ordo equestris and made him eligible for promotion to praefectus castrorum. Rotating out the primus pilus annually created the incentive for other centurions to perform well in the hope of being rewarded with promotion.

  108 Keppie 1984, p. 179, cites the ground plan of the excavated Roman fortress at Inchtuthil in Scotland as evidence.

  109 The decorative backing disc of an imago was found at Newstead, the site of Trimontium Roman fort, and is on display at The Scottish National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh: see photo in Fields, p. 37.

  110 Watson 1969, p. 44–50; for an example of the sacramentum, see AE 1988, 723.

  111 The image of the princeps from Augustus – and of his successors – on the silver, bronze and brass coins in which the troops were paid also significantly asserted his ubiquitous presence.

  112 Keppie 1984, pp. 181–182.

  113 Watson 1969, pp. 38–42.

  114 Dio 55.24.8.

  115 Le Bohec 1994, p. 224.

  116 Le Bohec 1994, p. 121.

  117 This style of helmet is called ‘Montefortino F’ by historians of arms and military equipment: M.C. Bishop, Roman Military Equipment, second edition, Oxford, 2006, pp. 101–102 and fig. 59.

  118 Helmets of this style include the ‘Coolus C’ and ‘Imperial Gallic A’ as classified by historians of Roman arms and military equipment: Bishop 2006, pp. 101–102 and fig. 59. For an attempt at an ‘evolution of the legionary helmet of the first century AD’ see Peter Connolly, The Roman Army, London, 1975, p. 49.

  119 Mail or link armour appears to have been issued to Roman troops from the time of Marius on: Bishop 2005, p. 63 and p. 96 and fig. 51. It is believed to have been borrowed and adapted from the Gauls: see the sculpture known as ‘the Vechères warrior’ in the Musée Calvet, Avignon, France, reproduced in Graham Sumner, Roman Military Dress, Stroud, 2009, fig. 111. Discussion continues among military historians about whether leather armour was used as an alternative to mail or scale or hammered bronze. The crux of the issue is how to interpret carved stele and tombstones which are the main source of representations and which would have been painted in Roman times but the paint of which has not survived: for a review of the arguments, see Raffaele D’Amato and Graham Sumner, Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier: From Marius to Commodus, Barnsley, 2009, pp. 135–137.

  120 Connolly 1975, p. 55: based on experiments conducted by the Ermine Street Guard, it takes around 200 hours to assemble a mail suit, and that of a simpler type that does not require riveting the alternate rows. The finished mail shirt weighs around 11.8kg (26lb) and the weight is largely born by the shoulders from which the shirt, in effect, hangs. My thanks to Chris Haines MBE for confirming the weight of this and other forms of body armour below.

  121 The scale armour shirt is made of small metal scales of copper alloy measuring 1–5cm in length, each scale having four punched side-link holes and one lacing hole at the top so that it could be sewn on a linen or leather backing material in overlapping rows. This type of armour weighs 13.2kg (29lbs). Bishop 2005, pp. 95–97 and fig. 54. D’Amato and Sumner 2009: bronze scale armour: pp. 123–128; bone/ivory scale armour: pp. 141–142.

  122 D’Amato and Sumner 2009: muscled cuirass: pp. 38–43 and pp. 122–123.

  123 The term lorica segmentata – by which it is commonly known today – is a recent invention: the name coined by the Romans for it has not survived.

  124 Bishop 2005, pp. 95–100 and figs. 55 and 57. D’Amato and Sumner 2009: metal banded armour: pp. 130–134; leather banded armour: pp. 141–144.

  125 Reconstructions by the Ermine Street Guard prove the versatility of the articulated segmented plate armour. It weighs around 9.9kg (22lbs).

  126 M.C. Bishop, Lorica Segmentata Volume 1: A Handbook of Articulated Plate Armour, Duns, 2002, p. 23.

  127 Bishop 2005, pp. 106–109 and fig. 62.

  128 Bishop 2005, pp. 109–110 and fig. 63.

  129 Bishop 2005, pp. 83–88 and figs. 42, 43, 44 and 45.

  130 Bishop 2005, pp. 78–83 and figs. 39, 40 and 41; Connolly 1975, p. 51; Fields 2009, p. 29. Two of the most complete examples are the famous ‘Sword of Tiberius’ and ‘Fulham Sword’ in the posse
ssion of the British Museum: see Fields 2009, p. 45 and p. 30 respectively.

  131 Bishop 2005, pp. 61–62 and fig. 30; cf. pp. 91–94 and figs. 49 and 50.

  132 The later version was fully rectangular which greatly facilitated close fitting formations like the cuneus or testudo.

  133 Bishop 2005, p. 92 and fig. 49.

  134 Bishop 2005, p. 61 and fig. 30.

  135 Bishop 2005, p. 92 and fig. 50.

  136 Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes 2.37. Watson 1969, pp. 54–57.

  137 Le Bohec 1994, p. 113; Watson 1969, p. 57. An example of a practice wooden sword dating to the first century CE is on display at the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle, England and was found at the nearby Roman fort.

  138 Bishop 2005, pp. 73–76 and figs. 36 and 37; Watson 1969, p. 58–59, citing Polybius 6.23.8 and Caesar Bellum Gallicum 1.25.

  139 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.41: Caesar employed 900 native Gallic cavalry as his bodyguard.

  140 Adrian K. Goldsworthy, The Roman Army at War 100 BC – AD 200, Oxford, 1996, p. 71, suggests that it was not until Tiberius became emperor that unit names were formalised and that up to that time locally recruited auxilia fought under their own commanders to whom they remained loyal, and were called the ‘unit of such-and-such’, e.g. Ala Scaevae or Scaeva’s Wing.

  141 Goldsworthy 1996, p. 19; N.J.E. Austin and N.B. Rankov, Exploratio: Military and Political Intelligence in the Roman World from the Second Punic War to the Battle of Adrianople, London, 1995, pp. 40–43, citing Caesar, Bellum Civilum 3.38.2; Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 7.56.4, Polybius 3.41.8–9 and Tacitus, Historiae 3.52.

  142 Fields 2009, pp. 14–15.

  143 Fields 2009, pp. 16–17.

  144 Fields 2009, p. 18.

  145 Fields 2009, p. 20–21; Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 7.65.5, 8.36.4; Tacitus, Germania 6.

  146 Fields 2009, p. 22 and Keppie 1984, p. 150 cite ILS 2690 as evidence.

  147 Le Bohec 1994, p. 219.

  148 Scenes VII and VIII shown as plates IX and X in Frank Lepper and Sheppard Frere, Trajan’s Column, Gloucester, 1988.

  149 Le Bohec 1994, pp. 49–50 and p. 239.

  150 One of the best surveys of Roman officers’ equipment is D’Amato and Sumner 2009: parazonium: pp. 92–95; Attic helmet: pp. 111–112; muscled cuirass and greaves: pp. 38–43 and pp. 122–123; garments worn under a muscled cuirass: pp. 143–149; paludamentum: p. 54 and p. 145 (fig. 195).

  151 For an example, see Agricola’s address before the Battle of Mons Graupius, 84 CE in Tacitus, Agricola 33–4; and the address of Emperor Hadrian to the troops of Legio III Augusta at Lambaesis, Numidia in 128 CE survives in an inscription, ILS 2487.

  152 Bellum Alpinum: see Ancient Sources – the via Claudia Augusta milestone from Cesiomaggiore at Feltre (CIL 5.8002; ILS 208) was discovered in 1786 near the Villa Tauro alle Centenère; and the other was discovered in 1552 at Rablà (CIL 5.8003) near Merano (South Tirol, Italy) – Czysz et al. 2005, p. 528 fig. 232. Bellum Noricum: Florus 2.22.

  153 Dio 54.22.3.

  154 For the range of competing theses see Wells 1972, pp. 59–79.

  155 Strabo 4.6.8; Augustus, Res Gestae 5.26; Horace, Carmina 4.14.10ff. P. Silius Nerva had already subdued the three eastern Alpine tribes the previous year: Dio 54.20.1–2.

  156 Strabo 4.6.9.

  157 Florus 2.22 (drawing from Livy’s now lost account); Strabo 4.6.8; Horace, Carmina 4.14.34ff.

  158 CIL 5.8002 (Cesamaggiore), 8003 (Rablan); Walser 1994, p. 30.

  159 Goldsworthy 1996, p. 131, citing Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.23 and 7.45. Consilia are mentioned in Josephus, Jewish War 3.161–162; 4.366–378; 5.491–502; 6.236–243.

  160 Cf. Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.41; Caesar had scouts a full day’s ride away who intercepted his enemy under Ariovistus.

  161 Frontinus, Stratagemata 2 and 8.

  162 Velleius Paterculus 97.2–3: “adulscenti tot tantarumque virtutum, quot et quantas natura mortalis recipt vel industria perficit. Cuius ingenium utrum bellicis magis operibus an civilibus suffecerit artibus, in incerto est”.

  163 Velleius Paterculus 97.2–3: “morum certe dulcedo ac suavitas et adversus amicos aequa ac par sui aestimatio inimitabilis fuisse dicitur: nam pulchritudo corporis proxima fraternae fuit”. The translators chose to use the phrase “unassuming demeanour” where the Latin “sui aestimatio inimitabilis” literally means ‘just assessment of himself’.

  164 Polybius 34.10.

  165 Livy 5.33; Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 3.24.20.

  166 La Tène is a village on the northern shore of Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland where a rich trove of distinctive Iron Age artifacts was discovered in 1857 by Hansli Kopp. It is generally believed that Celtic La Tène culture developed and flourished from 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the first century BCE and it has been identified in eastern France, Switzerland, Austria, southwest Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

  167 Livy 5.33.

  168 Strabo 4.6.9.

  169 Anne Ross, Everyday Life of the Pagan Celts, London, 1970, p. 44; Nora Chadwick, The Celts, London, 1970, p. 111 and p. 117.

  170 Strabo 4.4.4.

  171 Diodorus Siculus 5.31.2.

  172 Diodorus Siculus 5.31.3.

  173 Diodorus Siculus 5.31.5.

  174 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 6.13; Diodorus Siculus 5.31.3.

  175 Chadwick 1970, p. 113 and p. 116.

  176 Ross 1970, p. 46.

  177 Ross 1970, p. 45.

  178 Ross 1970, p. 13 and p. 82.

  179 W.F. Ritchie, Celtic Warriors, Aylesbury, 1985, p. 14.

  180 Diodorus Siculus 5.30.1. See chapter 5, note 143.

  181 Strabo 4.4.3; Diodorus Siculus 5.30.1; Propertius 5.10.39.

  182 Strabo 4.4.3.

  183 Diodorus Siculus 5.30.1; Strabo 4.4.3.

  184 Diodorus Siculus 5.30.3.

  185 Peter Connolly, Hannibal and the Enemies of Rome, London, 1978, p. 65.

  186 Diodorus Siculus 5.30.3; Simon James, The World of the Celts, London, 1993, p. 76.

  187 Diodorus Siculus 5.30.2.

  188 Diodorus Siculus 22.11.1. Strabo 4.4.3; Ritchie 1985, p. 38; Barry W. Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts, Oxford, 1997, p. 181: a well-preserved example survives from the Fayum oasis in Egypt where a detachment of Celtic mercenaries found a home in the third century BCE. Examples of different shield patterns are shown on the Roman triumphal arch at Orange, France and include crescents, circles, torcs, curling lines and rosettes.

  189 The Pfatten helmet is on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Bolzano, Italy. Connolly places the design of helmet in position 11 in his evolution chart in Connolly, 1978, p. 62. Its design is similar to the helmet from Amfreveille, France, shown in James 1993, p. 76; and another from Agris, Charante, France on display at the Musée de la Société Archéologique et Historique de Charante, Angoulème shown in Cunliffe 1997, plate XIIIb.

  190 Ritchie 1985, p. 47, fig. 26; cf. Diodorus Siculus 5.30.2.

  191 Ritchie 1985, p. 49, fig. 29. The helmet is featured in a reconstruction of a Gallic warrior in Connolly 1978, p. 67; cf. the reconstruction of a Gallic warrior wearing a different style of helmet in Connolly, 1978, p. 65.

  192 Strabo 4.4.3; Diodorus Siculus 5.30.4.

  193 Diodorus Siculus 5.30.4.

  194 Ritchie 1985, pp. 45–46 and fig. 25.

  195 Diodorus Siculus 5.30.3; Strabo 4.4.3.

  196 Strabo 4.4.3.

  197 Ritchie 1985, pp. 41–45.

  198 Polybius 2.30–31.

  199 For a comparative chart of sword designs see Connolly 1978, p. 58.

  200 Strabo 4.4.3.

  201 Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 7.81.

  202 Tim Newark, Celtic Warriors 400 BC – AD 1600, Poole, 1986, p. 15.

  203 Polybius 3.114.

  204 Polybius, Fragment 21; Polybius 3.65, 3.115.

  205 Newark 1986, p. 15.

  206 Pausanias 10.19.5.

  207 Newark 1986, p. 17; Ritchie 1985, pp. 35–6.

/>   208 Connolly 1975, pp. 60–1; 1978, pp. 56–7. For a fuller discussion of the design of the four-horned saddle design, see P. Connolly, “Experiments with the Roman Saddle,” Exercitus: The Bulletin of the Ermine Street Guard 2.5, pp. 71–76; and Peter Connolly, Carol van Driel-Murray, “The Roman Cavalry Saddle,” Britannia 22, 1991, pp. 33–50.

  209 Newark 1986, p. 17.

  210 The last recorded use of chariots by the Iron Age Celts on Continental Europe was at the Battle of Telamon in 225 BCE, James 1993, p. 78 and pp. 84–85.

  211 Connolly 1978, p. 57: the Roman triumphal arch at Orange, France shows both types of standards.

  212 Connolly 1978, p. 57: the head of a carnyx was found in Deskford, Scotland and has an upturned snout like a pig’s but large staring eyes like a fish’s.

  213 Diodorus Siculus 5.30.3.

  214 Velleius Paterculus 2.95.2.

  215 Dio 54.22.3.

  216 H. Wolff, “Raetia,” in CAH, p. 535: Tridentum (Trento) in northern Italy was an affluent municipium Iulium on the road to the Brenner and Reschen Passes. It is known to the English as Trent and famed for the Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church, which met there in the 16th Century.

  217 The Adige River is the second longest river in Italy.

  218 The mountains include the Vigolana (2,150 metres), the Monte Bondone (2,181 metres), the Paganella (2,124 metres), the Marzola (1,747 metres) and the Monte Calisio (1,096 metres). Lakes nearby include the Lago di Caldonazzo, Lago di Levico, Lago di Garda and Lago di Toblino.

  219 Diodorus Siculus 5.29.3, 5.31.1; Ritchie 1985, pp. 27–28.

  220 Caesar marched his legions in three rows (triplex acies) to cover ground quickly and reduce exposing his army to the high risk of ambush in hostile territory, see Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 4.14.

  221 N.J.E. Austin and N.B. Rankov, Exploratio: Military and Political Intelligence in the Roman World from the Second Punic War to the Battle of Adrianople, London, 1995, p. 45, citing Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.41.5 and 1.21.1; cf. 1.15.5.

  222 Le Bohec 1994, p. 107.

  223 Ross Cowan, Roman Legionary 58 BC – AD 69, Oxford, 2003, p. 20.

  224 Cowan 2003, p. 23.

  225 Tacitus, Agricola 35.

  226 Caesar, Bellum Africum 75; Goldsworthy 1996, p. 146.