The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial ArmyCheesman, George Leonard
History
The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army
Cheesman, George Leonard
Rome -- Army; Rome -- Colonies
These calculations show that during the period in question the
auxiliary troops amounted to 47,500 cavalry, 15,375 mounted infantry,
and 129,925 infantry, giving a total establishment of 191,800 men. It
is probable, however, that this puts the proportion of mounted men
too low. Arrian’s _Ectaxis_ shows that nearly every cohort of the
Cappadocian garrison was _equitata_, and although the proportion of
mounted men was doubtless higher on the eastern frontier than on the
Rhine or in Britain, it is probable that if we possessed more documents
similar to the _Ectaxis_ dealing with the other garrisons we should
find a higher proportion of _cohortes equitatae_ than our present
evidence suggests. It is equally probable that the total figure arrived
at falls below the reality. For no province is it likely that the list
is complete; in some cases, such as Mauretania Tingitana and Africa,
the garrison is obviously put far below its real establishment, while
for Arabia and Cyrenaica we have no evidence at all. The deficiency is
certainly too great to be made good by the few regiments of uncertain
habitation which conclude the list. Probably we may reckon on a total
figure of about 220,000 men, of whom at least 80,000 would be mounted.
The twenty-eight legions in existence at this time, if we follow
Suetonius in assigning 5,600 men to a legion,[504] would only have a
total establishment of 156,800, so that clearly in dealing with the
army at this period we must disregard Tacitus’s statement that the
auxilia were approximately equal in number to the legionaries.
The total military establishment of the Empire at the accession
of Marcus including the Household Troops, that is to say the ten
Praetorian and six Urban[505] cohorts and the Equites Singulares, and
the complement of the fleets in the Mediterranean and the Channel and
on the Rhine, Danube, and Euphrates, must thus have amounted to some
420,000 men. This total, however, was to be still further increased
before the decline began. At the beginning of the third century when
additions had been made to the Household Troops, when the legions had
been increased to thirty-three[506] and scores of _numeri_ added to the
frontier guards, there may have been nearly half a million men serving
with the colours, a larger disciplined force than was at the disposal
of any one state before the nineteenth century, and the largest
professional army which the world has ever seen.
Footnotes:
[446] See above, pp. 53-5.
[447] Any one desirous of further information on any particular
regiment will find a summary of the evidence, in so far as it was then
available, in Cichorius’s articles in Pauly-Wissowa., s.v. _ala_ and
_cohors_, to which I am deeply indebted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account