The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial ArmyCheesman, George Leonard
History
The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army
Cheesman, George Leonard
Rome -- Army; Rome -- Colonies
_Total number of the auxilia._ This section should naturally conclude
with some statement of the total number of auxilia in the imperial
service. Unfortunately, no clear and direct evidence can be obtained
on this point either from literary or epigraphical sources. Tacitus,
in his survey of the military resources of the Empire in the reign of
Tiberius, after enumerating the legions in detail, contents himself
with a vague sentence suggesting that the auxiliaries were as numerous
as the legionaries and Household Troops.[149] This phrase is perhaps
accurate enough for the period to which he is referring, but it is
obviously not meant to be precise, and must certainly not be taken
to express any principle habitually followed in the composition of
the imperial army. If we endeavour to check the statement from other
sources we have the remark of Velleius that in 6, at the time of the
great Pannonian revolt, the ten legions concentrated under Tiberius’s
command were accompanied by 70 cohorts and 14 alae.[150] If we allow
for a few regiments being _miliariae_, this would represent a little
over 50,000 men, a number about equivalent to that of the legionaries.
If we may assume a similar ratio in other provinces, the total for
the auxilia at this period would amount to 150,000 men.[151] It must
be remembered, however, that at this date and throughout the whole
pre-Flavian period the government relied upon the troops of the client
kingdoms and levies of border militia to supplement the imperial
troops. With the gradual elimination of these secondary forces,
which has already been described, the number of regular units was
proportionately increased. More than twenty regiments were raised in
the old kingdom of Thrace after its annexation in 46, and five alae
and nineteen cohorts are found in 69 garrisoning the two provinces
which had been formed from the kingdom of Mauretania.[152] We need not,
then, be surprised if the figures supplied by Tacitus and Josephus show
that so early as 69 the number of the auxiliaries considerably exceeds
the figure suggested for the end of the reign of Augustus. According
to Josephus, Vespasian entered Judaea in 67 with at least 20,000
auxiliaries, which probably represents two-thirds of the total number
available in the Eastern provinces.[153] In the Danubian provinces in
69 there were, according to Tacitus, sixteen alae.[154] On the basis of
the information given in the diplomata, we can safely reckon that there
would be at least three cohorts to every ala, and that one regiment in
four would be _miliaria_. Some 40,000 auxiliaries, therefore, must have
been stationed in the Danubian provinces at this period. In the same
year Vitellius entered Rome with twelve alae and thirty-four cohorts,
that is to say some 30,000 men, which represented probably two-thirds
of the auxilia in the Rhine armies and Raetia.[155] The garrison of the
two Mauretanias, to which allusion has already been made, would amount
to about 15,000 men.
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