The Roman Cavalry: From the First to the Third Century AD

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In conclusion, there were few significant differences in training, fighting capability or tactical role between legionary infantry and their auxiliary counterparts – it seems as though either could fight in the main battle- line or act as light infantry. I suspect that the auxiliaries were often given the ‘dirty jobs’ where taking a few casualties wouldn’t matter (it was probably bad form to get citizens killed unnecessarily). The legions, on the other hand, were more or less guaranteed to be reliable and would be used where success was imperative, regardless of casualties. Long sword ( spatha): in the latter part of the Roman Republic the spatha replaced the hasta due to its superior hand to hand capabilities.

Berry, D. H. 2003. "Eqvester Ordo Tvvs Est: Did Cicero Win His Cases Because of His Support for the Eqvites?" The Classical Quarterly 53, no. 1: 222–34. doi: 10.1093/cq/53.1.222. Of course, a lot of auxiliary units recruited new troops in the provinces they were stationed in, as well as (sometimes?) receiving some from their ‘home’ province, so the original ethnic character gradually became diluted. To these pools of recruits can be added the sons of the veterans.Their professionalism led emperors to rely on them ever more heavily, especially in difficult conflicts such as the Marcomannic Wars (166–180). But because they were only equestrians, they could not be appointed to the top military commands, those of legatus Augusti pro praetore (governor of an imperial province, where virtually all military units were deployed) and legatus legionis (commander of a legion). In the later 2nd century, emperors tried to circumvent the problem by elevating large numbers of primipilares to senatorial rank by adlectio. [76]

In cavalry, auxiliaries were superior, as they were combat-capable, whereas it seems that the small contingent of legionary cavalry were not (they seem mostly to have served as messengers). In archery, legions seemingly had no capability at all. See (iii) above. Roughly twenty major battle scenes are shown on Trajan’s column. Despite the column’s seeming bias against the auxilia, they take part in nineteen of these, and in twelve they are unaccompanied by legionaries. And from those letters we just have an enormous amount of information about the Roman soldiers but others as well and exactly what they thought about living right at the edge of the empire on Hadrian’s Wall. Alternatively, they could themselves move to the sides and perform an enveloping manoeuver against an opponent.

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Beyond equites with equus publicus, Augustus' legislation permitted any Roman citizen who was assessed in an official census as meeting the property requirement of 100,000 denarii to use the title of eques and wear the narrow-striped tunic and gold ring. But such "property-qualified equites" were not apparently admitted to the ordo equester itself, but simply enjoyed equestrian status. [48] [49] Phil: The aim of this article is to show that Auxilia are much better troops than most wargamers believe them to be. We will examine the reasons wargamers have for believing that they are so inferior and examine the reality, as far as we know it, of the Auxilia – their nature, the structure of their units, and why wargamers need them. In 218 BC, the lex Claudia restricted the commercial activity of senators and their sons, on the grounds that it was incompatible with their status. Senators were prohibited from owning ships of greater capacity than 300 amphorae (about seven tonnes) – this being judged sufficient to carry the produce of their own landed estates but too small to conduct large-scale sea transportation. [37] A type of heavily armoured Roman cavalry Routed Sarmatian cataphracts (right) flee from Roman auxiliary cavalrymen, during the Dacian Wars (AD 101-6). Note full-body scale armour, also armoured caparison for horses (including eye-guards). As depicted, the body hugging scale armour (especially covering the horses' legs) is entirely impractical and must reflect artistic licence based on an oral description. In the period following this war the Romans established the first of their own regular units of cataphracts, they were most likely equipped like the Sarmatians. Panel from Trajan's Column, Rome The average life expectancy of horses belonging to the Roman cavalry was only around six to ten years old.

The normal route was election to the post of quaestor, the most junior magistracy (for which the minimum eligible age was 27 years), which carried automatic membership of the Senate. Twenty quaestors were appointed each year, a number that evidently broadly matched the average annual vacancies (caused by death or expulsion for misdemeanours or insufficient wealth) so that the 600-member limit was preserved. Under Augustus, senators' sons had the right to stand for election, while equestrians could only do so with the emperor's permission. Later in the Julio-Claudian period, the rule became established that all candidates required imperial leave. Previously conducted by the people's assembly ( comitia centuriata), the election was in the hands, from the time of Tiberius onwards, of the Senate itself, whose sitting members inevitably favoured the sons of their colleagues. Since the latter alone often outnumbered the number of available places, equestrian candidates stood little chance unless they enjoyed the special support of the emperor. [50] Equestrians exclusively provided the praefecti (commanders) of the imperial army's auxiliary regiments and five of the six tribuni militum (senior staff officers) in each legion. The standard equestrian officer progression was known as the " tres militiae" ("three services"): praefectus of a cohors (auxiliary infantry regiment), followed by tribunus militum in a legion, and finally praefectus of an ala (auxiliary cavalry regiment). From the time of Hadrian, a fourth militia was added for exceptionally gifted officers, commander of an ala milliaria (double-strength ala). Each post was held for three to four years. [53]

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It is widely accepted that the Roman monarchy was overthrown by a patrician coup, probably provoked by the Tarquin dynasty's populist policies in favour of the plebeian class. [Note 2] Alfoldi suggests that the coup was carried out by the celeres themselves. [10] According to the Fraccaro interpretation, when the Roman monarchy was replaced with two annually elected praetores (later called "consuls"), the royal army was divided equally between them for campaigning purposes, which, if true, explains why Polybius later said that a legion's cavalry contingent was 300 strong. [11] Cavalry horses also placed a large strain on an army's resources. They required large amounts of food and water; consuming a kilo of barley and twenty-five liters of water each day. Julius Caesar’s eventual victory in the Gallic Wars would give him the powerbase to eventually reform the republic into an Empire. In the battle line, each man should have three feet of space, while the distance between the ranks is given as six feet. The Roman auxilia was established in around 30 BCE, much of Rome's cavalry forces would be recruited from the auxiliary's ranks. The 'alae' were the cavalry units of the auxilia. The auxilia were usually organized into units of 500 cavalrymen commanded by a Roman born prefect. Double strength units had a total of 800 riders. There were also part cavalry part infantry auxilia units (600 soldiers in total: 480 infantrymen and 120 cavalrymen.