Caracalla: A Military Biography

Chapter One

Background

1.1. Roman Society

Roman society was a class-based society that consisted of judicial and social hierarchies. The judicial hierarchy divided the populace into freemen and slaves. The freemen in their turn consisted of freeborn men and freedmen, with the former consisting of Roman citizens and tribesmen with varying rights. Slaves could become freedmen when they either managed to buy their freedom or their master granted them freedom. The freedmen had no political rights, but their children were freeborn men with full rights. In addition to this, there existed a third class of freeborn: the provincials, who did not have Roman citizenship. Their legal position varied greatly according to the treaties their nations or cities had made with Rome and according to the legal systems they had in place in their own territories.

The official social categories consisted of the senatorial order, the equestrian order and the plebs. The senatorial order was hereditary but could receive new blood when the emperor so desired. Its members consisted of Roman citizens with a minimum property of 1 million sesterces. The most important military and civilian offices of the empire were the privilege of the senatorial class. One of the ways in which the emperors rewarded their supporters was to nominate them as senators. As a result of this, most of the senators consisted of provincials by the beginning of the third century

AD

. Since it was dangerous for emperors to allow the wealthy senators to be anywhere near the legions, senators had an obligation to reside at Rome and to invest one third of their property in Italy. Senators were allowed to travel away from Italy only with the approval of the emperor. Senators wore toga laticlavius (broad-stripe) as a sign of their social standing. They were liable to pay only donatives (paid every five years, or when the army campaigned, or to celebrate some important occasion) and very small inheritance taxes. This meant that the wealthiest citizens, who owned most of the property, contributed only a very small proportion of the imperial taxes.

The equestrian order was a non-hereditary order, the members of which consisted of Roman citizens with a minimum property of 400,000 sesterces, who had successfully applied to be enrolled into its ranks. The reason for the willingness to be enrolled among the order was that some of the positions in the imperial administration and armed forces were reserved for equestrians. The most successful of the equestrians could hope to be enrolled among the senatorial order. The equestrians consisted of those who had inherited money or who were selfmade men. They wore the toga angusticlavius in public as an indication of their rank. Ever since the first century, the emperors had promoted the relative position of the equestrian order vis-à-vis the senatorial order by increasing its role in the imperial administration and the military. The reason for this was that the emperors considered the members of the heterogeneous equestrian order to be generally more loyal and professional than the senators. The most important demonstration of this was that the emperors had reserved the most important military positions – the two or three praetorian prefects – for the members of the equestrian order. As we shall see, the trust that the emperors placed on the loyalty of the equestrians and praetorian prefects was entirely misplaced.

The vast majority of the free population consisted of the plebs. This order included both rich and poor. The richest members of the plebs (decurions with citizenship) were allowed to wear the toga praetexta to separate them from the middle-class and poor. The rest of the plebs consisted of the rich (businessmen, merchants and bankers etc.), the ‘middle-class’ plebs (artisans, boutique keepers, merchants, bakers, artists, intellectuals/philosophers etc.) and the poor plebs (peasants, carriers, labourers etc.).

The civilian and military officers followed in theory the so-called cursus honorum. This system reserved certain posts for the members of the senatorial order and others for the equestrian order, with the very highest posts the prerogative of the former. However, in practice the emperors often bypassed these requirements and appointed equestrians or even imperial freedmen to the highest offices. Even more importantly, the top military commands of the empire, the posts of the praetorian prefects, were reserved for members of the equestrian order, as noted above. The same was true with the very important post of the prefect of Egypt and with the new prefectures of the three Parthian legions created by Septimius Severus.

In truth, the class structure of society was not as clear as the official divisions would imply. In practice, the emperor and the imperial family formed a separate privileged class above the rest, just as did the members of the former imperial families. The friends of the emperor – who could consist of senators, equestrians, freedmen and even trusted slaves – and the imperial women could also wield unofficial power far in excess of their official standing, thanks to their closeness to the emperor. In addition to this, from about the mid-second century onwards, the old judicial and social standings and divisions started to disappear. The older divisions were superseded partially by a new form of class division which divided the people into honestiores and humiliores. The honestiores consisted of the senators, equestrians, veterans and decuriones. They had legal privileges and exemptions from the harsher punishments to separate them from the humiliores. This is believed to have resulted from decisions undertaken by Hadrian, Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius. At about the same time as the emperors created the honestiores class, they also created honorary ranks with judicial privileges. It is usually assumed that Marcus Aurelius was the first emperor to do so, but it is possible that this decision was already made under Hadrian. The praetorian prefects obtained the rank of viri eminentissimi, the senators the rank of clarissimus and the officials of the court the rank of perfectissimi. The aim of this policy was clearly to reward those members of society who contributed most to the state in the form of taxes and/or administrative and military duties. The goal was to secure their loyalty to the emperor. This was very important in light of the fact that an emperor’s position depended on his ability to retain the loyalty of his military officers and administrators, and his ability to collect taxes through the civilian decurions. The latter position was becoming less and less desirable in the eyes of the rich city dwellers because the members of the city councils were required to pay any tax arrears.

Agriculture formed the basis of the Roman economy, but in contrast to most of its neighbours the empire also had very significant artisan and merchant classes. This meant that most of the tax income was collected from the peasants through the city councils for use by the imperial administration. It was thanks to this that the Romans were always eager to settle foreign tribes within their borders to till the land and provide soldiers. The emperors could not rely solely on the taxes obtained from the peasants, because it varied from one year to another depending on the size of the crops. It was due to this that the emperors tapped other sources of income. These consisted of the produce of the imperial estates and mines, donatives, extraordinary taxes levied when needed, confiscation of the property of the rich with various excuses like faked charges, conscription of soldiers (or its threat to produce money) and tolls and customs (collected from internal and external trade). The customs collected from long-distance trade with Arabia, Africa, India and China formed one of the most important sources of revenue for the emperor. It should not be forgotten that the emperors needed money for the upkeep of the imperial machinery and armed forces, the latter of which consumed most of the revenue. If everything else had failed, emperors even resorted to the selling of imperial property or on loans or forced loans from the wealthy senators, equestrians and bankers.

1.2. Governing the Empire

The Emperor

The Roman Empire was officially a republic in which the emperor, the princeps (the first among equals/first citizen), possessed executive (proconsul) and legislative powers (people’s tribune). He also acted as commander-in-chief of the armed forces (proconsul and imperator) and was the high priest of the empire (pontifex maximus). In addition to this, the emperor possessed informal power over the senators and people, which was publicly recognized under the name auctoritas (influence) and with the official surname Augustus. On his death, the emperor would also become a god. In practice, the emperor therefore possessed the executive, legislative and judiciary powers, and controlled Rome’s foreign policy and military forces, appointed all civil and military functionaries, proposed and legislated imperial legislation and acted as the Supreme Court. However, in truth, the emperor’s powers rested solely on his control of the military machinery. The soldiers had already learnt in the first century

AD

that they could nominate their own commanders as emperors. The latest example of this was obviously the rise of Septimius Severus.

There were several inherent weaknesses in this system, but the most important were: 1) the principate did not establish an orderly system of succession; and 2) the emperors could not place any gifted commander in charge of large military forces without the risk of being overthrown by this general. It should still be stressed that even if the emperor’s right to rule rested solely on his control of the military forces, as was so well understood by Septimius Severus and Caracalla, it was still necessary for the emperor to court the important members of the senatorial and equestrian classes because their members still formed the moneyed elite of the society, members of which filled up almost all of the important administrative and military positions. The emperors could achieve this by showing proper respect to tradition.

The Central Administration

The imperial central administration of the Roman Empire was initially only an extension of Augustus’ own private household, which was located at his palatial residence on the Palatine Hill. Consequently, the central administration of the empire consisted of the emperor, imperial family, consilium (private council) and the household staff. Therefore, the private council of the emperor was also initially only an informal body of advisors, but at some point during the second century

AD

it was reorganized to become an official body of advisors. It is usually thought that this reform was the handiwork of Hadrian.

The advisors of the emperor consisted of persons considered competent and loyal, but outsiders could also be called in to attend meetings when needed. The advisors were initially only given the titles amici (friends) or comites (companions), but after the council became an official body of permanent advisors they could also be called the consiliarii (counsellors/advisors). The comites formed an inner circle of trusted friends who also accompanied the emperor on his travels and military campaigns. The consilium advised the emperor on matters of domestic and foreign policy, on all military matters, and in cases requiring legal expertise. It is therefore unsurprising that the counsellors usually included well-known jurists (often one of the praetorian prefects). It is not known whether the protectores (bodyguards) of Septimius Severus and Caracalla were already considered part of the emperor’s comites, as they were during the latter half of the third century. The emperor and his body of advisors can roughly be considered to have been the Roman equivalent of the modern government, with ministers and prime minister/president, but with the difference that it was the emperor who made all the decisions. It should be stressed that even though the members of the consilium had official positions as advisors of the emperor, his decisions could also be influenced by ‘outsiders’, the most important of whom were his wife (when he had one), relatives, the staff of the imperial bedchamber and others, depending on the situation.

The next administrative layer below the emperor and his advisors consisted of the emperor’s household staff, which was essentially an imperial chancellery consisting of bureaus, departments and ministries. The chancellery/household put into effect the wishes of the emperor so that the empire’s resources and military forces were allocated where desired. The household staff originally consisted solely of domestics (imperial freedmen and slaves dressed in white clothes), but from the reign of Hadrian onwards the heads of the departments were equestrian procurators. The staffs of freedmen and slaves below the procurators were organized hierarchically into separate decuries. The procurators of the imperial household were: 1) a rationibus (in charge of the imperial accounts, treasury and finances, which included the payments to the troops etc.) assisted by magister rei privatae (in charge of emperor’s personal finances); 2) a libellis (in charge of the petitions to the emperor); 3) ab epistulis (imperial correspondence) divided into Greek and Latin sections; 4) a cognitionibus (hearing of judicial matters); 5) a studiis (preparation of files, reports and dossiers for the emperor); 6) a censibus (examination of the financial standing of persons seeking to become senators or equestrians); 7) a commentariis (archives); 8) a memoria (secretarial services). In addition to this, the emperor’s household included many other functionaries, the most important of which were the cubicularii of the imperial bedchamber. Thanks to their closeness to the emperor, it was possible for the cubicularii (usually eunuchs) to gain considerable influence on the emperor, his wife (when he had one) and children. It should be noted that the teachers usually had the greatest influence upon the children of the emperor, which meant that their actions too had a direct influence upon destiny of the empire.

The Senate, made up of the senators, was still officially the legislative body of the empire which nominated the administrators and the emperor, and voted about treaties with foreign powers and so forth. In truth, its role had already become largely ceremonial under Octavianus Augustus. In practice, the Senate only confirmed the appointment of the emperor, and acted as an advisory body and confirmed the emperor’s decisions when he so desired. Officially, the Senate retained control of Italy and the provinces left under its jurisdiction, but in truth the emperor could intervene in their affairs at his will. The emperor controlled every bit of land in the empire as he wished, so long as he retained control of the armed forces.

The Administrative Areas

The administration of the Roman Empire consisted of geographical areas: 1) Rome; 2) Italy; 3) the Provinces. The city of Rome, the capital of the empire with about a million inhabitants, was controlled and fed by the emperor through his representative, the Praefectus Urbis Romae/Praefectus Urbi (Urban Prefect of Rome). The feeding of the population was a massive undertaking and required a huge logistical network to transport the necessary foodstuff from Egypt, North Africa, Sicily, Italy and other places. The city of Rome was particularly reliant on Egyptian and North African corn, which meant that the emperor sought to control and protect these sources of revenue. The city itself was divided into regions, each of which was controlled by a curator. The curators in their turn were under the control of the Urban Prefect. The Urban Prefect controlled the administration of the capital and was responsible for the upkeep of public order.

Italy, which ranked second in the hierarchy, was formally under the jurisdiction of the Senate, but this was a mirage. In practice, the emperor controlled everything through his own representatives. Regardless of this, Italy had some very real advantages over the provinces. The Italians possessed Roman citizenship and were usually not ruled by governors, and, with the exception of the naval forces and Legio II Parthica (after its creation by Septimius), they did not have to billet troops in their cities.

Ever since the days of Augustus, the provinces had been divided into imperial and senatorial provinces. The imperial provinces were ruled by imperial legates (legati Augusti pro praetore), the length of whose term was dictated by the emperor. The legates in their turn were divided into two categories: 1) senatorial legates; 2) equestrian legates. The senatorial provinces were governed by proconsuls (proconsulares) who were chosen by lot from among the senators for a one-year term. All provinces possessed at least small numbers of military forces to enable their governors to perform their duties, but naturally most of these were posted along the frontiers. Either Septimius Severus or Caracalla limited the number of legions per province to two to make usurpation more difficult.¹ The provinces provided the bulk of the taxes and were subjected to the whims of the often-corrupt governors, which the emperors sought to limit.

The Municipal Administration

In their administration of territories, the Romans relied on the services performed at a local level by the city councils. The city council controlled the people, taxation and movement of goods, valuables and money on their territories on behalf of the Roman state. The people living in the Eastern provinces had already been urbanized by the time the Romans conquered them, but in the West it had been the Romans who had founded new cities to perform the necessary duties. The municipal administration of all of the cities of the empire consisted of three levels: 1) the popular assembly of citizens, which was no longer functioning in the third century; 2) the municipal council or Order of Decurions (also called Senate), which consisted of the former magistrates and/or wealthy citizens with the unenviable duty of paying the taxes when those collected fell short of the requirement; 3) the magistrates with executive powers.

1.3. The Armed Forces and the Security Apparatus in c.

AD

200

At the beginning of the third century

AD

, the Roman Empire was ruled by the Emperor Septimius Severus. He had obtained the throne through a civil war in which he had crushed his rivals with the help of his network of North African compatriots and other friends and clients. These men and women had formed Septimius’ network of spies and supporters in Italy, at Rome and in the provinces. After having gained the throne, Severus secured his own and his family’s position further by taking full advantage of the official arms of the Roman secret services, which consisted of the imperial messengers (frumentarii) and other spies (peregrini), and of the select trusted members of the bodyguard units. These acted as Severus’ eyes and ears, and as his personal assassins. His son, Caracalla, eventually inherited this network of friends and security organs, but unfortunately for him, its loyalties were divided.

The Land Forces

After the reforms of Septimius Severus, the Roman land forces consisted of: 1) the forces posted in or near the capital; 2) regular legions (citizens); 3) regular auxiliary forces (non-citizens and citizens); 4) national numeri²; 5) veterans called for service; 6) urban and rural paramilitary militias; 7) the allies.

After the first century

AD

, most of the regular forces (legions, auxiliaries, numeri) had been posted close to the borders of the empire to provide a zone of preclusive security for the provinces and the interior. During the Late Empire, these forces were known by the name limitanei. The first recorded instance of the use of the term limitanei comes from the SHA, which states that there were limitanei under Pescennius Niger (Pesc. 7.7) and Alexander Severus (Alex. Sev. 58.4). Unless the term in the SHA is an anachronism, it is therefore possible that the frontier forces may already have received the nickname limitanei by the end of the second century, because it was actually an apt description for the forces posted close to the limes. The frontier forces, together with the fortifications, walls and forts posted along the border, served four strategic purposes: 1) their presence deterred would-be invaders; 2) the garrison forces could engage the enemy in the border region; 3) the garrisons could be used for surprise attacks over the border and as staging posts for major invasions/raids; 4) they gathered intelligence. The forces posted in or near the capital formed the mobile reserve army at the disposal of the emperor, the numbers of which he could bolster with detachments (vexillationes) drawn from the frontier armies, newly raised legions and allies.

The deployment pattern was defensive. The emperors expected that the forces posted along the borders would be sufficient for the task, but when this was not the case it required the transfer of forces from other sections of the frontier, which in turn weakened these sections. It should be remembered that the armed forces posted along the borders and the reserve forces were not the only means at the disposal of the emperor to secure the empire’s borders. In addition to these, the emperor employed a network of alliances, spies and diplomacy to provide a secure environment for his subjects, and if everything else failed he sought to divide his enemies, first through diplomacy and then by employing a combination of alliances, diplomacy and military action to secure the relevant section of the frontier. When the emperor felt that his own prestige or the prestige of Roman arms required offensive military action, he usually assembled an army consisting of his bodyguard units, detachments drawn from the frontier forces and the allied forces, and then either invaded or even conquer enemy territory. The goals of Roman foreign and military policy obviously varied according to the personality of the emperor and his political needs.

When the frontier installations and garrisons proved insufficient for the task and the neighbours were able to invade or raid Roman territory, the Roman strategic doctrine demanded that fear of Roman arms had to be reinstated with punitive raids and campaigns, that also brought booty and glory for the emperor. Contrary to modern popular opinion among Classicists, the spoils of war and military glory were (and are) also valuable goals in their own right, because both served to make the position of the emperor more secure in the eyes of the army and people, and also made him look more formidable in foreign eyes. In the absence of true reserve armies, the concentration of significant numbers of men on one spot meant the dispatch of detachments of forces from other sections of the frontier. The mobile reserve forces posted in and around the city of Rome were in themselves insufficient to meet major crises. The only way to avoid this was to raise new legions in Italy, as had been done for example by Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and Septimius Severus, but the quality of these new legions was obviously not the same as veteran formations, unless the core around which each new legion was formed included significant numbers of troops transferred from existing legions. The quality of each existing legion diminished in the same proportion as they recruited/enlisted/conscripted new recruits/conscripts to replace the men they had sent to form the new legions.

Legions

After the reforms of Septimius Severus, the legionary forces appear to have been organized for combat in three different manners, all of which were based on a basic file of eight men. The reason for this was that the size of the legionary units varied according to the type of force. The legionary forces when on campaign consisted of the complete old-style regular legions, legionary detachments and the new type of legions adopted by Septimius Severus for his Parthian legions.

It is usually assumed that the regular legion had a paper strength of about 5,120 heavy infantrymen, plus the recruits, servants, horsemen and specialists. On the basis of Josephus’ text, it is also usually assumed that the legionary cavalry consisted of 120 or 128 men, but this is a mistake. In truth, the relevant part of Josephus’ text referred only to the number of horsemen accompanying each legion in the marching formation, but at the same time Josephus stated that there were other horsemen in front and rear. Consequently, it is more than likely that the typical cavalry component of each imperial legion still consisted of the traditional ala of 512 horsemen. This system appears to have been adopted when Marius (John Lydus, De Magistr. 1.16) reformed the legions so that they consisted of 6,000 infantry and 600 cavalry, which seems to have served as the model for Augustus when he formed his imperial legions. The 6,000 footmen and 600 horsemen would have also included recruits, servants, specialists and officers, so that the actual fighting strength of the legion would have been probably about 4,800 infantry and 512 cavalry. The size of the legion was increased during the latter half of the first century so that the first cohort of the legion became a military cohort and its actual fighting strength became the 5,120 footmen as stated above.

The referrals to the different-sized cavalry units in Pseudo-Hyginus (5.30) and John Lydus (De Magistr. 1.46) suggest the possibility that by the end of the second century the size and type of legionary cavalry may have varied. The reason for this conclusion is that Pseudo-Hyginus does not include any equites legionis for his three legions, but mentions 1,600 vexillarii legionum, which suggests that these vexillarii were the legionary cavalry of the three legions in question. Pseudo-Hyginus’ figures are consistent with the 500-horseman turmae of mounted archers, 500-horseman vexillationes and 600-horseman alae mentioned by John Lydus (De Magistr. 1.46), hence the possibility that three legions may have had three different types of cavalry (alae, vexillationes, turmae) attached to them.

The only anomaly is Vegetius, who claims that the legions had three different totals of 726, 732 and 736 horsemen, plus the supernumeraries. My own educated guess is that the regular component consisted of 726 men (one of the figures), which was made up of twenty-two turmae (22 x 32 + 22 decurions) and when one adds to this figure seven centurions and a standard-bearer, trumpeter and cape-bearer, one reaches the figure of 736 (the last of the numbers), but in addition to this there would have been a separate tribune or prefect who would have served as the overall commander of the entire cavalry unit. Vegetius’ figure may represent the size of the cavalry units among Septimius Severus’ reformed Parthian legions, or the strength of the cavalry component after the reforms of Gallienus or the enlarged cavalry component under Gallienus’ successors. My own belief is that Vegetius’ enlarged cavalry component was adopted by Septimius Severus.

The traditional infantry component of the regular legion consisted of ten cohorts, of which the first cohort had 800 legionaries (plus 100 recruits and 100 servants), with the rest of the cohorts having 480 (plus recruits and servants). Each of the regular cohorts from two to ten consisted of six centuries (eighty men plus recruits and servants), which were grouped as maniples of 160 men for combat, when the men used pila-javelins. The first cohort consisted of five double-strength centuries of 160 men. The legion therefore consisted of fifty-nine centuries. The tent group called contubernium was the basic building block of the army and its combat formation. It consisted of ten men, of whom eight were grouped together to fight as a single eight-man deep file in the rank-and-file battle formation. The commander of the contubernium and eight-man file was called a decanus (commander of ten). In battle, the decanus served as the front ranker for the seven-man file behind him. The rest of the contubernium consisted of one green recruit (tiro) and one servant (with a mule or ass), who were usually left to protect the marching camp when the eight men advanced to fight. In addition to the soldiers making up the contubernia, the legions also included artillerymen, medics, doctors, clerks, logistical services, engineers, architects and artisans, among others, to support their operations.

Septimius Severus’ reforms did not stop at the reorganization of the strategic dispositions and recruiting of new forces, but also included measures that improved the attractiveness of serving in the armed forces, the auxiliaries included. He increased the salary (with the donatives doubled), allowed the men to marry and allowed the legionaries to wear a golden ring which symbolized their ability to rise through the ranks to the equestrian positions. He also instituted the regular distribution of donativa to keep the men happy (paid when the emperor ‘assumed the purple’ and every five years after that; on family anniversaries like when a child was born; on the calends (first day) of January; to celebrate military victories; and just before and during a campaign to improve the loyalty and morale of the army). The normal length of service for the legionaries was still about twenty-six years, but the new privileges more than compensated for this. It is therefore not surprising that Septimius Severus managed to buy the loyalty of the soldiers for the Severan Dynasty, which after all was the principal goal of his actions.

The highest command positions in the armed forces were reserved for members of the senatorial class, and the positions below them to the equestrians. This meant that commanders of the legions were almost always senators, the exceptions to the rule being the Praetorian Guard, Parthian legions and the legions posted in Egypt, which were all commanded by equestrians. The officers of the regular legion consisted of: 1) one imperial propraetor legate (senatorial rank, in command of the legion or legions, if governor); 2) one laticlavian tribune (senatorial rank, second-in-command, a young nobleman learning the soldiering); 3) one camp prefect (third-in-command, an experienced veteran in charge of the camp); 4) five angusticlavian prefects (equestrian rank, in charge of cohorts etc.); 5) one (?) sexmenstris tribune possibly in charge of the legionary cavalry. The noncommissioned officers of the first cohort, in order of seniority, consisted of the centurions primus pilus, princeps prior, hastatus prior, princeps posterior and hastatus posterior. The rest of the centurions, in order of seniority, consisted of pilus prior, princeps prior, hastatus prior, pilus posterior, princeps posterior and hastatus posterior. The soldiers were also hierarchically ranked.³ See the diagram of the organization which is based on my monograph A Military History of Late Rome 284–361 Volume 1 and Bohec (1994).

Probable command structure of the regular legion c.

AD

90–260

- 1 Legate (S) until the reign of Gallienus, who abolished the office; or prefect (E) for the Egyptian and Parthian legions. After Gallienus, the commanders were prefects (E); commander of the legion.

- 1 Laticlavian tribune (S) changed by Gallienus into tribunus maior (E); in charge of one cohort and second-in-command of the legion.

- 1 Praefectus Castrorum (camp, medics, siege equipment etc.) (E).

- 1 Praefectus Fabrorum (workmen, construction etc.) (E).

- 5 tribunes (E), each in charge of one cohort of 480 men.

- 1 tribunus sexmenstris (in charge of cavalry?) (E).

- 5 centurions of the first cohort (incl. primus pilus who could act as praepositus for the cohort).

- 54 centurions (called centenarii by the end of the third century):

5 unattached centurions that could be detailed for variety of purposes; these could be used as e.g. acting praepositi (commanders for the cohorts of 480 men).

9 centurions, each in charge of two centuries (2 x 80 men).

9 x 4 centurions, each in charge of one century (80 men).

4 cavalry centurions in charge of 128 horsemen.

- 64 infantry decani, one of whom was optio/second-in-command to a centurion (each decanus part of and in charge of their 8-man file/contubernium, in addition to which came a tiro/recruit and one servant used for the guarding of the camp).

- 16 cavalry decurions (each in charge of their 32-horseman turma).

- First cohort of 800 men (5 centuries of 160 men) plus 100 recruits and 100 servants.

- Cohorts 2–10 = 9 x 420 footmen (including the decani, 480) plus 60 recruits and 60 servants per cohort.

- 496 horsemen (with the decurions, 512; Vegetius may have been wrong in adding the decurions to the strength of the turma, because the Roman cavalry organization was based on the Greek one. However, if Vegetius is correct, then these should be added to the total for a total of 512, plus 16 decurions and about 128 servants/squires.

- At least about 715 artillerymen in charge of the 55 carroballistae (cart-mounted bolt/arrow shooters) and 10 onagri (single-armed stone-throwers).

- 10 speculatores (formerly scouts), but now couriers, police officers and executioners. Proculcatores and exploratores scouted the roads. It is not known whether these counted as part of the cavalry or were separate from it. In practice, the mensores could also act as scouts.

- Unknown numbers of military police with the title of stator, and unknown numbers of guard dogs. Inside each camp there was also a police station, called a statio, under a tribune. Some of the soldiers were also used as sentinels (excubitores) and there were other specific guards for various tasks.

- In addition, there were unknown numbers of other specialists and bureaucrats, consisting of surveyors, campidoctor (chief instructor), haruspex (read the entrails prepared by victimarius), pullarius, actuarii, librarii (librarius a rationibus also worked for the state post and could act as a spy), notarii (could act as spies on the activities of the commander), commentariensis (archivist, under a head curator), heralds, standard-bearers, draconarii, cape-bearers, trumpeters, drummers, engineers, workmen, artisans, hunters, carters and cartwrights, doctors, medics etc.

- the legates/prefects were also guarded by a unit of singulares (both infantry and cavalry), which consisted of detached auxiliaries. (Confusingly the staff officers in training could also be called singulares.) These bodyguards were replaced by protectores detached by the emperor from his staff, at the latest during the reign of Gallienus, as a safety measure against usurpations.

- The legion also included beasts of burden (depending on the units, these could be horses, asses, mules, camels or oxen).

N.B: (S) = senatorial office; (E) = equestrian office

It is quite probable that when Septimius Severus raised his three new Parthian legions in c. 193, he organized those in the manner that can be found in Vegetius. There are four pieces of evidence to back this up, but all are unfortunately inconclusive. Firstly, Dio (86.12.5) refers to a 550-man group of soldiers, which should probably be equated with the size of the 555-man cohort in Vegetius. The problem with this is that we do not know whether the 550-man group is a cohort. Secondly, Modestus includes the same legionary organization in his treatise which is dedicated to the Emperor Tacitus. The problem with this treatise is that some historians consider it a fifteenth-century forgery. Thirdly, the legion was commanded by a prefect, as were the newly raised Parthian legions. Fourthly, the Romans may have adopted from the Germans a new infantry wedge which was called caput porci/caput porcinum (the Viking Svinfylking) and was quite unlike any previous wedge because it was actually a hollow rhombus, or the array could have been invented by Septimius Severus or by one of his subordinates at a time he created the Parthian legions, or the Germans just used the unit organization they had copied from the Romans. The problem with this is that we do not know for certain when or if the Romans even adopted this formation. The later Viking Svinfylking consisted of 1,110 men, which would therefore have consisted of two 555-man cohorts, which does suggest the possibility that the Romans had copied a Germanic unit organization in order to be able to form the 1,110-strong caput porcinum, or that the Romans invented it in the second century and the Germans then copied it. Once again this is not conclusive because the evidence is late, but at least it has the advantage of explaining why the Romans would have adopted a new type of wedge with a new unit organization. The reason for the adoption of this new wedge could have been that the eastern Germans had achieved some successes with the caput porcinum during the Marcomannic Wars, or that it was a good formation against the Germans, but I am inclined to believe that it was actually adopted only after c. 267 as a result of Odin’s conquests because the earliest and only evidence for the use of this type of formation by the Romans comes from Vegetius’ text. For further details, see my Odin the Man article included on the academia.edu website. Consequently, when one keeps these caveats in mind there is reason to believe that Septimius Severus did organize his new legions according to the model presented by Vegetius and Modestus, and that it is possible that he may have introduced the hollow rhombus-wedge. This would also mean that the Marcomannic Wars would have brought home the need to increase the size of the cavalry component, because Vegetius’ legions had 726 horsemen and not 500 or 600 as previously.

The following list, which is based on my monograph A Military History of Late Rome Vol. 1, presents the legionary organization of Vegetius.

Vegetius’ Ancient Legion (Epit. 2.6ff.) with additional comments in brackets

- 1 praefectus legionis, formerly legatus; commander of the legion.

- 1 tribunus maior; appointed by the emperor, in charge of one cohort (probably the 1st; second-in-command of the legion).

- 1 Praefectus Castrorum (camp, medics, siege equipment etc.).

- 1 Praefectus Fabrorum (workmen, construction etc.).

- tribuni minores from the ranks (6 tribunes{?} put in charge of the cohorts and cavalry alongside with the praepositi).

- 5 centurions of the 1st Cohort (Vegetius’ list differs from the other known lists of officers and is also 100 men short of the 1,100 men he gives for the 1st Cohort):

primus pilus in charge of 4 centuries/400 men (probable standard organization and deployment of 320 heavy infantry deployed 8 deep and 80 light infantry deployed 2 deep)

primus hastatus ‘now called ducenarius’ in charge of two centuries/200 men (probably 160 heavies and 40 light)

princeps 1.5 centuries/150 men (probably 120 heavies and 30 light)

secundus hastatus 1.5 centuries/150 men (probably 120 heavies and 30 light)

triarius prior 1 century/100 men (probably 80 heavies and 20 light)

- 5 centurions for the cavalry.

- 45 centurions of the 2nd–10th Cohorts each in charge of 100 men, ‘now’ called centenarii.

- 1st Cohort: 1,105 footmen (990 footmen, 110 decani and 5 centurions; possible organization behind the numbers could be 800 legionaries incl. the decani deployed 8 ranks deep, 200 light infantry deployed two ranks deep and 100 recruits, or 880 heavies deployed 8 ranks deep and 220 light deployed 2 ranks deep plus recruits).

132 horsemen (128 horsemen and 4 decurions; in truth, the decurions may have been part of the 128 horsemen, in addition to which came one centurion, 2 musicians and one standard-bearer; when trained to do so, the 128 horsemen could form up a rhombus so that at each apex stood one decurion).

- 2nd–10th Cohorts: 9 x 555 footmen (495 footmen, 55 decani and 5 centurions; possible organization behind the figures could be 400 legionaries inc. the decani deployed 8 ranks deep, 100 light infantry 2 ranks deep and 50 recruits, or 440 heavies deployed 8 deep and 110 light deployed 2 deep plus recruits).

9 x 66 horsemen (64 horsemen and 2 decurions; as noted above, the decurions should probably be included as part of the 64 horsemen; the 64 men could be formed either as a wedge or two rank-and-file oblongs).

- artillerymen (55 carroballistae, each with 11 men and 10 onagri per legion), ‘squires’, servants and various kinds of standard-bearers and musicians, and other specialists like clerks, medics, wood-workers, masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, siege-equipment builders, armourers etc. (aquiliferi, imaginarii/imaginiferi, signiferi/draconarii, tesserarii, optiones, metatores, librarii, tubicines, cornicines, buccinators, mensores, lignarios, structores, ferrarios, carpentarios, pictores etc.).

- On the basis of my above hypothesis regarding the organization behind Vegetius’ figures, a possible overall fighting strength of Vegetius’ legion may have been: 4,400 heavy infantry; 1,100 light infantry; 726 cavalry; at least 660 artillerymen with 55 carroballistae and 10 onagri; at least 550 recruits left to defend the marching camp, together with the servants and workmen. The extra men on top of the older paper strengths may actually represent the recruits not normally included in armed strengths, but one cannot be entirely sure of that. It is possible that the recruits also accompanied the legion into combat, as Dio’s referral to 550 men does suggest this. The obvious problem with Vegetius’ information and my reconstruction based on it is that we have practically no evidence to corroborate it, but if one presents the information in this manner it does make sense and is therefore plausible. Vegetius notes that the legion could also include several milliary cohorts, which probably refers to the Praetorians (which had milliary cohorts after Septimius’s reign) or to the practice of Vegetius’s own day to group together different units to form ‘temporary legions’ that were later called mere by the Eastern Romans (sing. meros/division).

In practice, the actual fighting strength of the legions rarely reached the paper strength because of injuries, sickness, wounds, deaths and problems with recruiting, but when the Romans were planning to conduct a military campaign, they usually bolstered the numbers with additional recruits so that the units could actually be above their paper strength. However, we should still remember that the legions rarely marched out in their entirety, even when fighting close to their own base. In most cases the legions would have left at least a skeleton force behind to protect their camp, and if the legions operated further away it was far more usual for the legions to dispatch detachments there rather than march the whole legion away from its base. It is possible that the sixth-century author John Lydus describes the organization of such legionary detachments, because none of the other sources give any evidence for such an organization. On the other hand, it is possible that the list proves that the names of the units had changed to reflect the armament carried by the different legionaries so that only those who carried the heavier panoply were considered to belong to the cohorts. It is clear that his list predates Constantine the Great because it fails to mention the limitanei and comitatenses and includes the praetoriani. This means that we can use it to shed light on the earlier practices.

The sixth-century author Lydus (De Magistr. 1.46) states that the professional Roman army consisted of units (speirai) of 300 aspidoforoi (shield-bearers)⁴ called cohorts, cavalry alae (ilai) of 600 horsemen, turmae of 500 horsemen, vexillationes of 500 horsemen and legions of 6,000 footmen and the same numbers of horsemen. It is likely that the 6,000 infantry and the same numbers of cavalry refer to the situation that prevailed during the reign of Gallienus, who apparently organized independently operating cavalry units consisting of cavalry detachments. The referrals to the 600-horseman alae, 500-horseman turmae and 500-horseman vexillationes seem to refer to the earlier situation in which each legion was accompanied by one such detachment of cavalry (see above). It also seems probable that we should round up the cohort of 300 aspidoforoi to 320 men, so that each detachment/cohort consisted of four centuries of eighty shield-bearers for a total of 320 men (in a depth of four or eight men). Notably, the SHA (Pert. 11.1) refers to a wedge/globe (cuneus/globus) of 300 Praetorians who attacked the Imperial Palace in 193. It is possible that this 300-man group should be equated with the 300-man (i.e. 320-man) cohort of John Lydus, but the problem with this is that the Epitome of Dio claims that only the 200 boldest attacked the palace. If one assumes that Dio’s shortened text is accurate, it is still possible to reconcile the sources if one assumes that only 200 men out of the 300 made the final attack. Regardless, the uncertainty remains. On the basis of this incomplete evidence, I would still suggest that it is probable that in the course of the second century

AD

, the Romans started to separate the differently armed soldiers within the legion into different units, so that only the 320 shield-bearers were considered part of the cohort. The actual combat strength of the unit would have