This system is heartily commended by von Domaszewski, on the ground that the auxilia were thus commanded by more skilful officers, and were more under Roman (i.e. Italian) control than was the case in the second century.[286] The assertion, however, seems far too sweeping, since by no means all the auxiliary regiments were commanded by men of this class; there were, on the contrary, many _praefecti_ at this period who came neither from Italy nor even the more Romanized provinces. The _Histories_ of Tacitus show clearly that at the end of the pre-Flavian period a number of auxiliary regiments, particularly those drawn from the more independent border tribes, were commanded by their own chiefs. This practice had not sprung up during the reign of Nero, but was a natural consequence of the development of these corps from contingents supplied by states nominally ‘in alliance’ with Rome.[287] The eight Batavian cohorts who play such an important rôle in the rebellion of 69 were so commanded,[288] as well as an ala of the same tribe.[289] Iulius Civilis himself was a _praefectus cohortis_,[290] and two Treveri, Alpinius Montanus and Iulius Classicus, commanded a cohort and ala respectively.[291] All these officers, as their names show, had doubtless received the franchise, but they were employed in their capacity as tribal chiefs, not as Roman citizens, and are to be distinguished from the _praefecti_, who were drawn at this period from the Romanized districts of Spain and from Gallia Narbonensis. It is chiefly as commanders of cohorts that officers of this type appear, since many of the alae dated back, as we have seen, to the period of the civil wars, and had long lost their original character as tribal regiments. This explains the fact that among Italian officers of this period, the title _praefectus alae_ or _praefectus equitum_ appears far more frequently than _praefectus cohortis_, although the cohorts were of course more numerous than the alae. During the first half of the first century, therefore, we have a system which differs widely from that revealed by the equestrian _cursus honorum_. The establishment of the equestrian monopoly of the auxiliary commands was, in fact, only completed by a series of reforms carried out during the period which began with the administrative activity of Claudius, and ended with the reorganization of the army by Vespasian after the disastrous Civil War of 69.