Warfare is under-reported in our sources for the army on the Wall, but even so we can confidently state that it was an occasional or rare experience for most Roman soldiers. Even during a major campaign, many troops spent far more time marching and waiting, or drilling and preparing, than they spent in combat. Some men would never meet the enemy in battle or skirmish in their entire twenty-five years in the army, whereas others no doubt had more than their fair share of fighting. The bulk of a man’s military service was spent in the routines of peace, with conflict a more or less distant prospect. Yet for all that, Hadrian’s Wall and the communities around it existed because of the army, and the regulations and habits of the Roman army were at the heart of life there.
In one sense the army never slept, for sentries were always on duty at any time of day or night, but its day formally started around sunrise with trumpet calls to rouse the garrison, and then parades and a gathering of officers in the principia. Among the Vindolanda tablets are many formulaic morning reports dating to the early years of the second century: ‘15th April. Report of Cohors VIIII Batavorum. All who should be are at duty stations, as is the baggage. The optiones and curatores made the report. Arcuttius, optio of the century of Crescens, delivered it.’2
The optio was second in command to the centurion in charge of each century, and the curator fulfilled the same role for the decurion in charge of a turma of cavalrymen. It seems that one of them would act as spokesman for the day and deliver the report, which was based on a roll call taken of each sub-unit. Documents from other frontiers make it clear that a statement of overall numbers serving in the unit and their availability was given each morning and written down to be filed in the records. A new password for the day was issued, as well as other orders. A duty roster for a century from a legion stationed in Egypt records the fatigues assigned to its soldiers over a period of ten days, including such things as ‘Gate Guard’, ‘Baths’, ‘Escort to Centurion Serenus’, ‘Street cleaning’, and ‘Latrines’.
A soldier’s entire career was tracked and recorded, starting with enlistment: ‘Caius Longinus Priscus, aged 22, scar on left eyebrow.’ The final record was death or discharge: ‘Released from service,… Tryphon son of Dionysius,… suffering from cataract and impaired vision.’ The recording of animals acquired by the army was almost as full: ‘Enter in the records according to regular procedure a horse, four years old, reddish, masked, without brands, approved by me, assign it to Julius Bassus, trooper.’
Pay generated considerable documentation. Soldiers were supposed to be paid in three instalments each year, each of 100 silver denarii (or 400 of the smaller sesterii) for legionaries in Hadrian’s day, although the rate received by auxiliaries is unclear. A pay receipt from Egypt gives a breakdown of the numerous deductions made from the money a soldier was supposed to receive. This dates to a time when legionaries received only 225 denarii a year; auxiliary pay is unlikely to have been higher and may have been lower. Also, in this case the pay and accounting were done in the local drachma coin, which was roughly the equivalent of the sesterius:
IN THE CONSULSHIP OF LUCIUS ASINIUS (AD 81) QUINTUS JULIUS PROCULUS FROM DAMASCUS
RECEIVED THE FIRST SALARY INSTALMENT OF THE THIRD YEAR OF THE EMPEROR, 247.5 DRACHMAS, OUT OF WHICH:
hay 10 drachmas
for food 80 drachmas
boots & straps (poss. socks) 12 drachmas
Saturnalia of the camp 20 drachmas
? 60 drachmas
expenditure= 182 drachmas
balance deposited to his account 65.5 drachmas
and had from before 136 drachmas
making a total of 201.5 drachmas
RECEIVED THE SECOND INSTALMENT OF THE SAME YEAR 247.5 DRACHMAS, OUT OF WHICH:
hay 10 drachmas
for food 80 drachmas
boots & straps (poss. socks) 12 drachmas
to the standards 4 drachmas
expenditure= 106 drachmas
balance deposited to his account 141.5 drachmas
and had from before 201.5 drachmas
making a total of 343 drachmas
RECEIVED THE THIRD INSTALMENT OF THE SAME YEAR 247.5 DRACHMAS, OUT OF WHICH:
hay 10 drachmas
for food 80 drachmas
boots & straps (poss. socks) 12 drachmas
for clothes 145.5 drachmas
expenditure= 247.5 drachmas
balance deposited to his account 343 drachmas
Table 2. Return of Quintus Julius Proculus from Damascus. Robert O. Fink, Roman Military Records on Papyrus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), number 68.
Other men show deductions made for lost or newly issued clothing and gear, but some of the charges—for instance, for food—appear to be standard. Equally detailed accounts were kept for all the hundreds of men in every unit, giving some idea of the vast amount of documentation generated by the army and stored in the principia of each fort.
Apart from men and animals, equipment was also inspected, and a writing tablet from Carlisle dating to a generation before Hadrian’s Wall deals with shortages in a cavalry ala, listing men turma by turma: ‘Docilis to Augurinus his prefect greetings. As you ordered, we have attached below all the names of lancers who are missing lances, either who did not have fighting lances, or who [did not have] the smaller subarmales [probably a type of jerkin worn with a cuirass] or who [did not have] regulation swords.’ Much documentation also followed the huge amounts of supplies required by the army. Another text from Carlisle lists the grain supplied to an ala of cavalry, in total 669 bushels of barley and 2,267 bushels of wheat, broken down into the amount allocated to each of the sixteen turmae in the unit.3
The number of soldiers actually present at a garrison varied considerably and is rarely likely to have matched its theoretical size and organisation. A strength report of cohors I Tungrorum stationed at Vindolanda in the late first century AD states that it had 752 men, including six centurions on its books—a high proportion of its probable establishment of some 800 men. However, of these, only 296 and one centurion were at the fort, and 31 of these were unfit for duty. One centurion was in Londinium, 2 others off at other locations, each with a very small detachment of soldiers, while 45 men were on a long-term posting serving with the foot bodyguard of the provincial governor. The largest group of 337 men under two centurions was at Coria (almost certainly Corbridge), within a day’s march, so relatively close. Flavius Ceralis, prefect of VIIII Batavorum, referred to Vindolanda as his ‘winter-quarters’ (hiberna), using a term familiar from Caesar, and it is likely that many units spent the colder months at their bases but were often serving elsewhere in spring and summer.4
The same pattern of dispersal is reflected in other strength returns from units in other provinces, with officers and men away from their parent cohort or ala—sometimes a long way away, even in different provinces—and for long periods of time. Wherever they were, the army’s bureaucracy kept track of them. Milecastles and turrets needed manning by detachments, and even if the distances involved were short and the men were not too far away from the main garrison, they were still not available instantly. The legionary presence at Corbridge and Carlisle, and perhaps at times other bases, brought men for months and perhaps longer up from the fortresses at Caerleon, Chester, and York. Detachments or vexillations from legions in other parts of the empire came to northern Britain at times, and elements of the army of Britannia, presumably including units stationed on the Wall, were similarly posted away to other provinces as required.
Life in the garrison continued, however many or few soldiers were actually present. Records needed to be kept up to date, not least those tracking pay and the issuing of equipment and rations, which in turn meant supervision of the granaries and stores. Most forts also had their workshops (fabricae), where weapons, armour, helmets, harnesses, horse fittings and saddles, tents, shield covers, and a host of other things were manufactured and repaired, and soldiers were required to work in these and to run
them. Horses could not spend all their time in their boxes and needed to be exercised and cared for, as did the mules, ponies, and oxen used as pack and draught animals. Some of these tasks were performed by the army slaves or personal slaves owned by some soldiers, especially cavalrymen, but much was done by the legionaries and auxiliaries themselves. Maintenance of the forts’ buildings and the Wall and its other installations was a common task, with periodic new constructions or wholesale rebuilding creating bigger projects. Each task was underpinned by such things as tile making, quarrying and shaping stone, felling trees and working timber, as well as moving men and materials to where they were needed, so that behind the matter-of-fact inscriptions recording the erection or repair of a building lay a hive of activity.
The administrative heart of a Roman fort was the principia, or headquarters building. This cutaway illustration shows the principia at Housesteads in the second century AD. In front is a courtyard surrounded by a covered verandah. This led to the cross hall, which was roofed but which appears to have been open to the elements on one side. There was probably space in the hall for the entire cohort to parade if necessary. On the far left were offices and a strong room, underground where possible, and in the centre the aedes, the shrine where the unit’s standards were kept alongside portraits of the emperor and his family. Even if a large part of a unit was away from the fort, it is probable that its records were kept and maintained in the principia.
Hadrian was an advocate of rigorous military training, as were all good emperors, and a series of inscriptions from North Africa records the speeches he gave to several army units after watching them at manoeuvres. One cavalry ala ‘filled the training ground with your wheelings, you threw spears not ungracefully, though with short and stiff shafts. Several of you hurled lancea spears with skill. Your jumping onto horses was lively and yesterday swift. Had anything been lacking, I would note it.… You pleased equally throughout the whole manoeuvre.’ Afterwards, he watched the horsemen from a cohors equitata, who were paid less and were less well mounted than the prestigious cavalry in the alae. Hadrian began by telling them that ‘it is hard for the horsemen of a cohort to please, even as they are, and harder still not to displease after a show by the horsemen of an ala: the training field differs in size, spear throwers are fewer,… the build of horses and the shine of weapons in keeping with the pay level. But you have banished weariness by your eagerness, by doing briskly what had to be done. Moreover, you both shot stones from slings and fought with javelins; everywhere you jumped nimbly onto your horses.’ Praise was occasionally leavened with constructive criticism, for instance when some archers formed into ranks too slowly, and some cavalry pursued too fast during a mock battle so that they fell into disorder.5
No doubt, long preparation underlay the good performance of the army in Africa, as it was likely to have had plenty of warning of an imperial visit and would have done its best to impress him. Provincial legates were expected to inspect the troops under their command and report on their condition, but the opportunity for all types of training had to compete with many other demands on soldiers’ time, and there was the tendency for units to be heavily under strength and dispersed over a wide area. In ideal conditions there was an emphasis on physical fitness and individual weapons skills—fencing at a post and sparring with an opponent, throwing javelins, shooting at targets for archers, while cavalry practiced vaulting into and out of the saddle (something especially important before the invention of the stirrup), horsemanship, and throwing javelins on the move. A cow skull from Vindolanda was put on a post and used as a target by soldiers practicing with a scorpio, or small, bolt-shooting ballista.
However, in general it is hard to identify the army’s parade grounds and training areas archaeologically, so we do not know much about where such things took place. Literary sources also speak of group training, including route marches, formation drill, building temporary camps, and mock battles. Josephus, who was one of the leaders of the Jewish Revolt (against the Romans) and thus had actually fought against the Roman army in the first century AD, spoke of an army always preparing for war and claimed that its ‘drills were bloodless battles and their battles bloody drills’. One of the provincial governor’s duties was to inspect the units under his command and report on their condition, ordering any problems to be rectified. The ideal state of readiness was seldom achieved, for it was a question of balancing all the tasks given to the army with keeping it ready for its military role. More than once the Romans were caught unprepared when a major war developed unexpectedly. If they had advance warning, then there was time for intensive training to bring units to a much higher state of readiness.6
WHETHER TRAINING, WRITING AND FILING documents, building a road, repairing a spearhead, or cleaning out the latrines, soldiers needed to eat and rest. The army issued a daily ration of grain, usually wheat, often supplemented by meat, such as beef, mutton, or bacon. Legionaries seem to have received more pork than auxiliaries, reflecting traditional Italian tastes, even though by Hadrian’s reign very few soldiers were recruited into the legions from Italy. Bone finds from auxiliary forts including those on the Wall show auxiliaries eating substantial amounts of beef, but even more mutton and lamb, much of this probably sourced locally. Most troops had a mixed diet of meat and vegetables, especially lentils, although analysis of the drain from a latrine at the fort at Bearsden on the Antonine Wall suggested that its garrison was almost wholly vegetarian.
Food was issued raw or unprepared. With wheat, for instance, it was up to the soldiers to grind the grain to flour and cook it. Often this was done as a group by the men who shared a pair of barrack rooms, perhaps assisted by slaves if they owned them or their wives if they had them. There was no equivalent to the canteen or mess hall, and men ate in and around the barracks. The army had two basic meals in the day, breakfast (prandium) in the morning and dinner (classicum) at the end of the day. Wine was issued, usually the sour vinegar-like acetum or the cheap posca, although beer (cervesa) appears to have been more popular, especially with troops recruited from northern Europe. One of the Vindolanda tablets consists of a letter written by a decurion to his prefect asking for orders but at the end adding, ‘My fellow soldiers have no beer. Please order some to be sent.’ On campaign, hard-tack biscuit (bucellatum) and salted bacon were common.7
Diet was supplemented by hunting and fishing, where this was possible, and by the purchase of extras, including better wine, fruit, eggs, meat of various sorts, fish, and oysters. A great variety of products was available to be bought in the forts and vici and in towns like Corbridge and Carlisle. Requests for leave are common in the Vindolanda tablets, and it is unclear whether these were for long periods and meant to allow an auxiliary to return to his homeland in the Netherlands, or for short passes to visit a much closer town and enjoy its pleasures. After the Wall had been built, the population of the whole area grew considerably, making even more goods and services available to soldiers who were careful to save their pay.
Cutaway reconstruction of the second and larger bathhouse built outside the fort at Vindolanda. Bottom left and without a connecting door to the main building is a latrine. The entrance to the baths was on the left of the main building, opening into the changing room (apodyterium). Bathers then entered the cold room (frigidarium), which had a cold plunge bath on one side. Next was the warm room (tepidarium), which is in the top right corner of the building and not shown cutaway. In front of this, where the naked bathers are shown, was the hot steam room (caldarium), with a hot plunge bath in the apse on the right. In the centre is the hot dry room (laconicum). Bottom right is the furnace room, which again had no connecting door with the main baths. Bathing was a highly social activity, and many people would spend a long time talking, exercising, gaming, or in other activities. Often these were bustling, loud, and echoing places. Bathers used wooden bath shoes to protect their feet from the heat.
Officers and their households inevitably ate better and more exotic
food than the ordinary soldiers. One of the Vindolanda tablets was written by the slave Severus to another slave, Candidus, owned by the prefect Genialis, arranging for him to purchase goods that included radishes. Another letter, again probably from slave to slave, gave instructions for the purchase of a range of goods needed by a large household, including ‘bruised beans, two modii, chickens, twenty, a hundred apples, if you can find nice ones, one hundred or two hundred eggs, if they are for sale at a fair price,… 8 sextarii of fish sauce… a modius of olives.’8
Although less able than officers to afford many luxuries, it is striking just how many types of food, drink, and other goods were widely available to ordinary soldiers on Hadrian’s Wall and at other outposts of the empire. Soldiers generally owned more than one pair of shoes, with boots for their uniform, lighter shoes for indoors, and wooden sandals for going to the bathhouse with its heated floors. This is in contrast to most people in the Middle Ages, who owned just a single pair of shoes, only replacing them when they were worn out. Even in the late first and early second century, the Vindolanda tablets show an army base fully connected to the long-distance trade that flourished under the empire.
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