The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial ArmyCheesman, George Leonard
History
The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army
Cheesman, George Leonard
Rome -- Army; Rome -- Colonies
The facts disclosed by these inscriptions are very significant. In the
first list, as is natural, we find traces of the troops transferred
into Pannonia from other provinces after the great rebellion. It is
more important, however, to notice that before the end of the reign
of Tiberius natives of the province were already being accepted for
service in these imported regiments.[228] In fact there is nothing here
to suggest that any attempt was made to preserve the national character
of these Spanish and Alpine corps by obtaining fresh drafts from the
districts in which they were originally raised. Those recruits who do
not come from Pannonia itself are drawn merely from the neighbouring
provinces of Dalmatia and Thrace.
But it would perhaps be misleading to infer from this evidence alone
that local recruiting was universally adopted in the first century,
although it was certainly common. It is possible that in the Flavian
period, when the memory of the rebellion of Civilis was still fresh,
some attempt was made to check a national cohesion by combining drafts
from different provinces in the same regiment. This at least is
suggested by the nationalities of twenty-one soldiers of an auxiliary
regiment which are recorded on a sepulchral inscription at Tropaeum
Traiani in Moesia Inferior.[229] This monument was erected in memory
of men killed in action during one of the Dacian campaigns either of
Domitian or Trajan, so that its evidence applies to the recruiting of
the Flavian period. Twelve of these men came from the Lower Rhine, two
from Lugdunensis, and three from Spain, while Raetia, Noricum, Britain,
and Africa supply one each.[230] In Pannonia, too, some Spanish
soldiers appear rather mysteriously in an Ala Pannoniorum on two
inscriptions which can hardly be later than the beginning of the second
century.[231] There are even traces of a similar policy having been
pursued in the recruiting for the legions during the same period. In a
list of seventy-six soldiers who were apparently enrolled in Legio III
Augusta towards the end of the first century, we find men from seven
different provinces.[232] In any case, however, no attempt seems to
have been made to preserve any connexion between an auxiliary regiment
and the tribe from which its title was derived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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