Gallia Invicta mm-3
Page 54
Fronto laughed.
“You are as expert a manipulator as any politician in Rome, Lucilia.”
She smiled as he finally approached her and reached out, taking her in his arms and enfolding her in them tightly.
There was silence for a long moment until finally she loosened her own grip and pushed her head back, looking up into his eyes.
Fronto smiled and leaned down to meet her kiss.
This was going to be a winter to remember.
Full Glossary of Terms
Actuarius: Clerks, both civil and military. In the legions, Actuarii existed from the very top command levels, down to century levels, where excused duty soldiers served in the role.
Ad aciem: military command essentially equivalent to ‘Battle stations!’
Amphora (pl. Amphorae): A large pottery storage container, generally used for wine or olive oil.
Aquilifer: a specialised standard bearer that carried a legion’s eagle standard.
Armilustrium: Festival of Mars in October, traditionally the date the Roman military campaigning season ends and weapons are purified and stored for winter.
Aurora: Roman Goddess of the dawn, sister of Sol and Luna.
Bacchanalia: the wild and often drunken festival of Bacchus.
Buccina: A curved horn-like musical instrument used primarily by the military for relaying signals, along with the cornu.
Burial Club: A fund looked after by the standard bearer that each legionary pays into to cover costs of funerals and monuments to fallen colleagues.
Caligae: the standard Roman military boot. A sandal-style of leather strips laced to above the ankle with a hard sole, driven through with hob-nails.
Capsarius: Legionary soldiers trained as combat medics, whose job was to patch men up in the field until they could reach a hospital.
Carnarium: a wooden frame covered in hooks for hanging sides of meat.
Celeusta: The naval officer who, with pipe or drum, times the oar strokes of a vessel.
Civitas: Latin name given to a certain class of civil settlement, often the capital of a tribal group or a former military base.
Cloaca Maxima: The great sewer of republican Rome that drained the forum into the Tiber.
Contubernium (pl. Contubernia): the smallest division of unit in the Roman legion, numbering eight men who shared a tent.
Cornu: A G-shaped horn-like musical instrument used primarily by the military for relaying signals, along with the buccina. A trumpeter was called a cornicen.
Corona: Lit: ‘Crowns’. Awards given to military officers. The Corona Muralis and Castrensis were awards for storming enemy walls, while the Aurea was for an outstanding single combat.
Curia: the meeting place of the senate in the forum of Rome.
Cursus Honorum: The ladder of political and military positions a noble Roman is expected to ascend.
Decimation: the worst (and fortunately rarest) form of Roman military punishment, saved generally for insurrection or cowardice of a whole unit. The entire unit would be lined up; the officer would walk down the line and mark every tenth man, who would then be beaten to death by his comrades.
Decurion: 1) The civil council of a Roman town. 2) Lesser cavalry officer, serving under a cavalry prefect, with command of 32 men.
Dolabra: entrenching tool, carried by a legionary, which served as a shovel, pick and axe combined.
Duplicarius: A soldier on double the basic pay.
Equestrian: The often wealthier, though less noble mercantile class, known as knights.
Equisio: A horse attendant or stable master.
Foederati: non-Roman states who held treaties with Rome and gained some rights under Roman law.
Forum Holitorium: The vegetable and flower market of Rome.
Fossa: Defensive ditches, such as those constructed round a Roman camp or fort.
Furca: T-shaped pole carried by legionaries which held all their standard travelling kit.
Gaesatus: a spearman, usually a mercenary of Gallic origin.
Galician: Breed of horse from the north of the Spanish peninsula, strong, hardy and short, bred from a mix of Roman and native Iberian horses.
Gladius: the Roman army’s standard short, stabbing sword, originally based on a Spanish sword design.
Groma: the chief surveying instrument of a Roman military engineer, used for marking out straight lines and calculating angles.
Haruspex (pl. Haruspices): A religious official who confirms the will of the Gods through signs and by inspecting the entrails of animals.
Honesta Missio: A soldier’s honourable discharge from the legions, with grants of land and money, after a term of service of varied length but rarely less than 5 years.
Immunes: Soldiers excused from routine legionary duties as they possessed specialised skills which qualified them for other duties.
Kalends: the first day of the Roman month, based on the new moon with the ‘nones’ being the half moon around the 5th-7th of the month and the ‘ides’ being the full moon around the 13th-15th.
Labrum: Large dish on a pedestal filled with fresh water in the hot room of a bath house.
Laconicum: the steam room or sauna in a Roman bath house.
Lanista: Trainer of gladiators, or owner of a gladiatorial school.
Laqueus: a garrotte usually used by gladiators to restrain an opponent’s arm, but also occasionally used to cause death by strangulation.
Latrunculi: Roman board game involving stones of two colours on a board, resembling the Chinese game of Go.
Legatus: Commander of a Roman legion
Lilia (Lit. ‘Lilies’): defensive pits three feet deep with a sharpened stake at the bottom, disguised with undergrowth, to hamper attackers.
Ludus: 1) a game, 2) a Gladiatorial School.
Magna Mater: The Goddess Cybele, patron of nature in its most raw form
Mansio and mutatio: stopping places on the Roman road network for officials, military staff and couriers to stay or exchange horses if necessary.
Mare Nostrum: Latin name for the Mediterranean Sea (literally ‘Our Sea’)
Marius’ Mules: nickname acquired by the legions after the General Marius made it standard practice for the soldier to carry all of his kit about his person.
Mars Gravidus: an aspect of the Roman war god, ‘he who precedes the army in battle’, was the God prayed to when an army went to war.
Miles: the Roman name for a soldier, from which we derive the words military and militia among others.
Nones: the half moon around the 5th-7th of the Roman month, with the Kalends being the first day of the month and the ‘ides’ being the full moon around the 13th-15th
Octodurus: now Martigny in Switzerland, at the Northern end of the Great Saint Bernard Pass.
Oppidum: The standard Gaulish hill town of the pre-Roman period. A walled settlement, sometimes quite large.
Optio: A legionary centurion’s second in command.
Patrician: The higher noble class of Rome, often Senatorial.
Phalanx: Greek/Macedonian infantry tactic in which rows of men form a hedge of long spears, backed with a shield wall.
Phalerae: (sing. Phalera) set of discs attached to a torso harness used as military decorations.
Pilum: the army’s standard javelin, with a wooden stock and a long, heavy lead point.
Pilus Prior: The most senior centurion of a cohort and one of the more senior in a legion.
Plebeian: The general mass and populace of Roman citizens.
Plumbata: Heavy military darts utilised largely in the Greek world of the east.
Pomerium: The sacred boundary of the city of Rome, within which weapons were forbidden on the streets.
Praetor: a title granted to the commander of an army. cf the Praetorian Cohort.
Praetorian Cohort: personal bodyguard of a General.
Praetorium: The area in the centre of a temporary camp reserved for the tent of the commander and where the legion’s eagle and the signifers’ s
tandards were grounded.
Primus Pilus: The chief centurion of a legion. Essentially the second in command of a legion.
Pteruges: leather straps that hang from the shoulders and waist of the garment worn under a cuirass.
Pugio: the standard broad bladed dagger of the Roman military.
Quadriga: a chariot drawn by four horses, such as seen at the great races in the circus of Rome.
Rudis: The wooden sword given as a gift and symbol upon the manumission of a Gladiator.
Samarobriva: oppidum on the Somme River, now Amiens.
Scorpion, Ballista amp; Onager: Siege engines. The Scorpion was a large crossbow on a stand, the Ballista a giant missile throwing crossbow, and the Onager a stone hurling catapult.
Sica: A curved sword with a Thracian origin, used by gladiators to circumvent the large shield.
Signifer: A century’s standard bearer, also responsible for dealing with pay, burial club and much of a unit’s bureaucracy.
Subarmalis: a leather garment worn under armour to prevent chafing and rust, to which the pteruges are attached.
Subura: a lower-class area of ancient Rome, close to the forum, that was home to the red-light district’.
Tablinum: The office or reception room in a Roman house or villa.
Tabularium: The records office. In Rome the Tabularium is in the Forum, though each fort had its own based in the centre of the camp.
Tarpeian Rock: Cliff on the Capitoline Hill of Rome from which traitors were hurled.
Testudo: Lit- Tortoise. Military formation in which a century of men closes up in a rectangle and creates four walls and a roof for the unit with their shields.
Tolosa: Roman town in southwest France conquered at the end of the second century b.c., now Toulouse.
Tribunal: A platform, carefully constructed in forts, or temporarily made from turf or wood, from which a commander would address or review troops.
Triclinium: The dining room of a roman house or villa
Trierarch: Commander of a Trireme or other Roman military ship.
Tullianum: Rock-cut prison in the Roman forum used for high profile prisoners.
Turma: A small detachment of a cavalry ala consisting of 32 men led by a decurion.
Valetudinarium: The military hospital in a camp.
Vexillum (Pl. Vexilli): The standard or flag of a legion.
Via Decumana: The main street running east-west in a Roman town or fort.
Vindunum: later the Roman Civitas Cenomanorum, and now Le Mans in France.
Vineae: moveable wattle and leather wheeled shelters that covered siege works and attacking soldiers from enemy fire.
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