British Museum picspam: the Roman army in Britain
Okay, so in my post on the Julio-Claudians, I sort of went off on a tangent about Claudius' invasion of Britain in AD 43. And the Roman army and Roman Britain are a particular obsessions of mine, so this is just another excuse for me to obsess. :P
The military strength in Britain changed from time to time, with legions and auxiliary forces being transferred in and out, but from the time of the invasion there seems to have been no less than three legions stationed here at any one time. Proportionately, this made it the province with the highest military presence in the whole Empire. (For a bit of perspective, there was just one legion for the whole of Spain.) The legions were based in permanent fortresses, from where they acted as a sort of de facto police force during peacetime, or took part in campaigning during war. There were also auxiliary cohorts, which were generally more flexible and, in Britain at least, seem to have done most of the battling and manning of frontiers.
The legions are easy to track, since they left so much behind him, all with their names on it, so we've got a good idea of just which legions were kicking around and where. The two most permanent fixtures in the history of Roman Britain were the Twentieth Legion, and the Second.
A tile antefix (for decorating a tile roof) from Clwyd (northeast Wales), with the mark of the Twentieth Legion (LEG XX) on it. Its full name was Legio XX Valeria Victrix - "the Twentieth Legion, Valiant and Victorious" - and its emblem, shown here, was a boar. I have a tendency to get ever-so-slightly angirly where this particular legion is concerned, as the heroes of two of my novels are a legionaries of the Twentieth. It was probably involved in the Claudian invasion, though we can't say for sure. Its earliest known attestation in Britain is from c. AD 61, for its successful action during the Boudiccan revolt. It's also likely to have been involved in Gnaeus Julius Agricola's invasion of Caledonia (roughly, northern Scotland) between c. AD 79 - c. AD 83. It began building work on a legionary fortress at Inchtuthil in Perthshire at this time, which was probably intended to be its new station, but the site was abandoned in c. AD 88, before the fortress was finished. The occupation of Caledonia was falling apart, and the Twentieth was moved back south and stationed at Deva (Chester), which remained its permanent base. The eventual fate of the legion is unknown, but it appears to have lasted till at least the first decade of the fifth century. By that point, the tottering Western Empire was being invaded from every side, and Britain was a hotbed of unrest, with several commanders, in quick succession, deciding they were going to try for the job of emperor themselves: Marcus, Gratian, Constantine III, and his son Constans II. In 407, Constantine took some, maybe most, of the Romano-British army across to Gaul with him to battle the Western Emperor Honorius in his bid for power. It's possible, but not certain, that the Twentieth was included, and ended its days on the continent, fighting against the barbarian peoples.
This building stone from Hadrian's Wall records construction work by the other old faithful, the Second Augusta. (It's not very distinct in the photo, but at the bottom is the identifying legend LEG II AVG.) On either side of the standard in the centre are the emblems of the legion: that thing on the left is a Capricorn (honest!), and on the right is a much more distinct Pegasus. The epithet "Augusta" indicates that it was raised by Octavian, and it was one of the legions which fought under him at Philippi. We know that the Second definitely was involved in the Claudian invasion, under the command of the future Emperor Vespasian, and its permanent base became Isca Silurum (Caerleon in the south of Wales). Unlike the Twentieth, however, it didn't fare nearly so well during the Boudiccan revolt, as its acting commander, Poenius Postumus, ignored orders for assistance from the governor Suetonius Paulinus, disgracing both himself and the legion (Postumus later committed suicide). It was later involved in Septimius Severus' invasion of Caledonia (c. AD 208 - 211), where it was stationed at the military base at Carpow on the River Tay. It later moved back down to Isca. Like the Twentieth, its eventual fate is unknown.
Also stationed in Britain was the Second Legion Adiutrix, a legion levied by Vespasian which was transferred to Dacia in c. AD 87 to assist in the Emperor Domitian's war. Perhaps the most (in)famous of the legions stationed in Britain, however, was the Ninth Hispana, stationed at Eboracum (York). It had a hell of a time in Britain: it took a pummelling in the Boudiccan revolt, then again during Agricola's invasion of Caledonia, when its camp was attacked during the night by part of the army of the allied tribes. Later, at the beginning of the second century, it pretty much disappears off the records, and for ages it was thought that the legion had been annihilated in some sort of Teutoberg-style disaster in Caledonia (the premise for Rosemary Sutcliff's YA novel The Eagle of the Ninth, one of my favourite books of all time). More recent scholarship, however, suggests that this is merely the result of some patchy documentation, and that the Ninth actually transferred to the continent, replaced at Eboracum by the Sixth Victrix. (Still a good story, though!)
(Okay, there's been a severe lack of pics so far in this picspam. Sorry about that. They're coming.)
And now, the legionaries (or what's left of them!). The legionaries provided the heavy artillery of the Roman army, and unlike auxiliary soldiers, a legionary had to be a Roman citizen before enlistment. Maximum age for enlistment seems to have been about forty-five; minimum, somewhere about seventeen. They served for twenty-five years, after which they would receive a pension and/or a plot of land. Until Septimius Severus' army reforms, they were also forbidden to marry, though many men had unofficial wives and children living in the towns and villages (vici) that grew up around army bases. Further perks of being a legionary involved access to high-quality health care and better pay than an ordinary workman. It was also good to know a practical trade that could be put to use around the base. Such men were immunes, let off from doing crappy fatigues.
The basic unit in the legion was the contubernium, a unit of eight men who would live together, sharing a barrack-room in the fort, or a tent whilst on campaign. Tombstone dedications from the Empire shows that these men often referred to each other as "frater" ("brother"), showing how close the life of the contubernium was. Ten contubernia formed a century (centuria), which seems a bit of a misleading name, but I think they were originally made up of a hundred men before the number was reduced to eighty. The century was commanded by a centurion. Six centuries (480 men) made up a cohort, and there were ten cohorts to a legion. Cohorts also seem to have been arranged according to fighting skill, with the First Cohort being comprised of the elite, and the Seventh and Ninth Cohorts containing the weaker fighters and raw recruits, with the others being something in between. The exact strength of a legion is debatable, but would have been between five and six thousand men.
Here's some bits and pieces of legionary equipment recovered from various places, including armour fittings, a helmet, a javelin head, belt, dagger, and shield. Close-up:
The metal fittings are from the lorica segmentata, the classic segmented armour that usually springs to mind when we think of a Roman legionary. The fittings themselves would have been attached to leather straps and thongs which would fasten the armour on the front and back (re-enactment societies have shown that you'd need a friend to help you). Legionaries originally more mailshirts, but by the latter part of the first century AD, lorica segmentata appears to have become the norm. It should be noted that "lorica segmentata" is actually a modern name for it; we don't know what the Romans called it. The legionary's dagger (pugio) would be worn along with his sword (gladius), but it wouldn't have made a very effective weapon. It probably got used more to peel vegetables around the campfire or ovens!
Here we have a cheekpiece from a legionary helmet (galea), which was designed to protect as much of a face as possible whilst allowing clear vision. The helmet also provided protection for the ears, and a wide neck-guard at the back. There's some debate over whether the helmets of the legionaries were crested - officers were certainly known to wear horsehair crests to denote drank - but usually they are depicted without.
The legionary's javelin (pilum) was one of his most deadly pieces of equipment, and could be thrown to up to thirty metres. The long, iron shank would be about sixty centimetres long, and had incredible penetrative power. It was also designed to break after hitting its target, to prevent it from being picked up again and hurled back by the enemy. (Damn Romans thought of everything!)
Detail of the shield boss. The wooden shield (scutum) was large and slightly curved to provide ample body cover for the legionary in battle, but was also an offensive weapon in its own right. The metal boss protected the legionary's hand where the held the shield, but could also knock the wind right out of an opponent if you used it to ram them with. Shields were also formidable defences when used together, as in the famed testudo ("tortoise") formation, where they were used to shield the soldiers from above, as well as from the sides.
And here, for reference, is an artist's impression of a legionary and his kit:
Also, more optional, are these:
These are the bronze backings of some phalerae, that is, medals of valour, which would be worn on a harness of leather straps over the armour. The phalerae themselves would be decorated and more showy. Units, as well as individual soldiers, could be awared phalerae, and these would be displayed on the unit's standard.
Another significant part of the army was the cavalry, which was better at flexible manoeuvres than the legions. Cavalrymen also received higher pay than their legionary counterparts. There were several specialist auxiliary cavalry units know in the Roman Empire; for example, the Sarmatian cavalry from Scythia. Moorish (North African) cavalrymen were also known, and are depicted on Trajan's Column. The main unit of the cavalry was the ala ("wing") of five hundred men, and commanded by a prefect (praefectus). Plenty of cavalry equipment has been found, such as horse fittings etc., but here is a rather striking (and ever so slightly sinister) example from Britain:
This is the Ribchester Helmet, one of the finest examples of one of a masked sports helmets. It's bronze, and contains fittings for a crest, and would have been worn during cavalry sporting events and military ceremonies rather than in battle. Masked cavalry helmets have also been found at Newstead fort (Trimontium) in the Borders, and elsewhere in the Roman Empire.
And now, if you've made it this far through my wittering, you deserve a reward for your pains! :D And since a lot of you on my flist are fans of Night at the Museum, here's something I think you'll like:
Yep, it's a diorama! :D More specifically, it's a diorama of the fort at Housesteads (Vercovicium) on Hadrian's Wall, which I've visited. The fort, and the civilian settlement (vicus) outside the south gate. Another view:
As you can see, Housesteads is on a hill. And let me tell you, it is a bloody evil hill to climb at three in the afternoon on a hot summer's day. But it was worth it, as it is an amazingly preserved fort.
The fort shows Housesteads as it would probably have looked in the second century, when it was the base for a 1000-strong auxiliary garrison. Since the Romans were organisation freaks (and, hey, it worked out for them!), their forts are built to the same standard plan, with four gates (one in each rampart, the northern rampart being the Wall itself), two intersecting main streets, and the same sort of buildings inside. In the above photo, the red-roofed building in the foreground is the praetorium, the house for the commanding officer and his family, which was built around a central courtyard in the Mediterranean style. Behind it, the red-roofed building on the right is the principia, the fort HQ, which contained the administrative offices and the fort shrine. The red-roofed building next to it is the hospital (valetudinarium). A lot of Roman forts in Britain don't actually have evidence of a hospital building (raising obvious questions about how the sick and injured were cared for), so Housesteads is quite exceptional in that regard. The two long buildings immediately behind the principia are the granaries, the sturdiest buildings in the fort. The rest of the fort is made up of the long barrack-blocks, each occupied by a single century. The contubernia each lived and slept in a two-room dorm, while at the end of each block is a small house for the centurion and any family and slaves he might have (unlike the rank and file, centurions were allowed to marry during their period of service).
I can't really mention Housesteads without mentioning the "Murder House". In the '30s, archaeologists working in the vicus unearthed an ancient crime scene: the remains of a man and a woman who had been buried beneath the newly-laid clay floor of one of the houses. The fact that Roman law forbade burial within the boundaries of a settlement, and that the man still had part of a blade between his ribs, immediately pointed to the fact that the archaeologists had just dug up two ancient murder victims. Their identities, and those of their killer(s), will never be known, nor will the motive for their murder. There's a story waiting to be written there, I think!
And that, as they say, is that, at least for this post. If you managed to read all of this without your eyes glazing over, I salute you. Have some more tiny Romans (so tiny, in fact, that I think even wee Octavius would be a giant in comparison!):
Next time, the Romans of the northern frontier - in their own words!
The military strength in Britain changed from time to time, with legions and auxiliary forces being transferred in and out, but from the time of the invasion there seems to have been no less than three legions stationed here at any one time. Proportionately, this made it the province with the highest military presence in the whole Empire. (For a bit of perspective, there was just one legion for the whole of Spain.) The legions were based in permanent fortresses, from where they acted as a sort of de facto police force during peacetime, or took part in campaigning during war. There were also auxiliary cohorts, which were generally more flexible and, in Britain at least, seem to have done most of the battling and manning of frontiers.
The legions are easy to track, since they left so much behind him, all with their names on it, so we've got a good idea of just which legions were kicking around and where. The two most permanent fixtures in the history of Roman Britain were the Twentieth Legion, and the Second.
A tile antefix (for decorating a tile roof) from Clwyd (northeast Wales), with the mark of the Twentieth Legion (LEG XX) on it. Its full name was Legio XX Valeria Victrix - "the Twentieth Legion, Valiant and Victorious" - and its emblem, shown here, was a boar. I have a tendency to get ever-so-slightly angirly where this particular legion is concerned, as the heroes of two of my novels are a legionaries of the Twentieth. It was probably involved in the Claudian invasion, though we can't say for sure. Its earliest known attestation in Britain is from c. AD 61, for its successful action during the Boudiccan revolt. It's also likely to have been involved in Gnaeus Julius Agricola's invasion of Caledonia (roughly, northern Scotland) between c. AD 79 - c. AD 83. It began building work on a legionary fortress at Inchtuthil in Perthshire at this time, which was probably intended to be its new station, but the site was abandoned in c. AD 88, before the fortress was finished. The occupation of Caledonia was falling apart, and the Twentieth was moved back south and stationed at Deva (Chester), which remained its permanent base. The eventual fate of the legion is unknown, but it appears to have lasted till at least the first decade of the fifth century. By that point, the tottering Western Empire was being invaded from every side, and Britain was a hotbed of unrest, with several commanders, in quick succession, deciding they were going to try for the job of emperor themselves: Marcus, Gratian, Constantine III, and his son Constans II. In 407, Constantine took some, maybe most, of the Romano-British army across to Gaul with him to battle the Western Emperor Honorius in his bid for power. It's possible, but not certain, that the Twentieth was included, and ended its days on the continent, fighting against the barbarian peoples.
This building stone from Hadrian's Wall records construction work by the other old faithful, the Second Augusta. (It's not very distinct in the photo, but at the bottom is the identifying legend LEG II AVG.) On either side of the standard in the centre are the emblems of the legion: that thing on the left is a Capricorn (honest!), and on the right is a much more distinct Pegasus. The epithet "Augusta" indicates that it was raised by Octavian, and it was one of the legions which fought under him at Philippi. We know that the Second definitely was involved in the Claudian invasion, under the command of the future Emperor Vespasian, and its permanent base became Isca Silurum (Caerleon in the south of Wales). Unlike the Twentieth, however, it didn't fare nearly so well during the Boudiccan revolt, as its acting commander, Poenius Postumus, ignored orders for assistance from the governor Suetonius Paulinus, disgracing both himself and the legion (Postumus later committed suicide). It was later involved in Septimius Severus' invasion of Caledonia (c. AD 208 - 211), where it was stationed at the military base at Carpow on the River Tay. It later moved back down to Isca. Like the Twentieth, its eventual fate is unknown.
Also stationed in Britain was the Second Legion Adiutrix, a legion levied by Vespasian which was transferred to Dacia in c. AD 87 to assist in the Emperor Domitian's war. Perhaps the most (in)famous of the legions stationed in Britain, however, was the Ninth Hispana, stationed at Eboracum (York). It had a hell of a time in Britain: it took a pummelling in the Boudiccan revolt, then again during Agricola's invasion of Caledonia, when its camp was attacked during the night by part of the army of the allied tribes. Later, at the beginning of the second century, it pretty much disappears off the records, and for ages it was thought that the legion had been annihilated in some sort of Teutoberg-style disaster in Caledonia (the premise for Rosemary Sutcliff's YA novel The Eagle of the Ninth, one of my favourite books of all time). More recent scholarship, however, suggests that this is merely the result of some patchy documentation, and that the Ninth actually transferred to the continent, replaced at Eboracum by the Sixth Victrix. (Still a good story, though!)
(Okay, there's been a severe lack of pics so far in this picspam. Sorry about that. They're coming.)
And now, the legionaries (or what's left of them!). The legionaries provided the heavy artillery of the Roman army, and unlike auxiliary soldiers, a legionary had to be a Roman citizen before enlistment. Maximum age for enlistment seems to have been about forty-five; minimum, somewhere about seventeen. They served for twenty-five years, after which they would receive a pension and/or a plot of land. Until Septimius Severus' army reforms, they were also forbidden to marry, though many men had unofficial wives and children living in the towns and villages (vici) that grew up around army bases. Further perks of being a legionary involved access to high-quality health care and better pay than an ordinary workman. It was also good to know a practical trade that could be put to use around the base. Such men were immunes, let off from doing crappy fatigues.
The basic unit in the legion was the contubernium, a unit of eight men who would live together, sharing a barrack-room in the fort, or a tent whilst on campaign. Tombstone dedications from the Empire shows that these men often referred to each other as "frater" ("brother"), showing how close the life of the contubernium was. Ten contubernia formed a century (centuria), which seems a bit of a misleading name, but I think they were originally made up of a hundred men before the number was reduced to eighty. The century was commanded by a centurion. Six centuries (480 men) made up a cohort, and there were ten cohorts to a legion. Cohorts also seem to have been arranged according to fighting skill, with the First Cohort being comprised of the elite, and the Seventh and Ninth Cohorts containing the weaker fighters and raw recruits, with the others being something in between. The exact strength of a legion is debatable, but would have been between five and six thousand men.
Here's some bits and pieces of legionary equipment recovered from various places, including armour fittings, a helmet, a javelin head, belt, dagger, and shield. Close-up:
The metal fittings are from the lorica segmentata, the classic segmented armour that usually springs to mind when we think of a Roman legionary. The fittings themselves would have been attached to leather straps and thongs which would fasten the armour on the front and back (re-enactment societies have shown that you'd need a friend to help you). Legionaries originally more mailshirts, but by the latter part of the first century AD, lorica segmentata appears to have become the norm. It should be noted that "lorica segmentata" is actually a modern name for it; we don't know what the Romans called it. The legionary's dagger (pugio) would be worn along with his sword (gladius), but it wouldn't have made a very effective weapon. It probably got used more to peel vegetables around the campfire or ovens!
Here we have a cheekpiece from a legionary helmet (galea), which was designed to protect as much of a face as possible whilst allowing clear vision. The helmet also provided protection for the ears, and a wide neck-guard at the back. There's some debate over whether the helmets of the legionaries were crested - officers were certainly known to wear horsehair crests to denote drank - but usually they are depicted without.
The legionary's javelin (pilum) was one of his most deadly pieces of equipment, and could be thrown to up to thirty metres. The long, iron shank would be about sixty centimetres long, and had incredible penetrative power. It was also designed to break after hitting its target, to prevent it from being picked up again and hurled back by the enemy. (Damn Romans thought of everything!)
Detail of the shield boss. The wooden shield (scutum) was large and slightly curved to provide ample body cover for the legionary in battle, but was also an offensive weapon in its own right. The metal boss protected the legionary's hand where the held the shield, but could also knock the wind right out of an opponent if you used it to ram them with. Shields were also formidable defences when used together, as in the famed testudo ("tortoise") formation, where they were used to shield the soldiers from above, as well as from the sides.
And here, for reference, is an artist's impression of a legionary and his kit:
Also, more optional, are these:
These are the bronze backings of some phalerae, that is, medals of valour, which would be worn on a harness of leather straps over the armour. The phalerae themselves would be decorated and more showy. Units, as well as individual soldiers, could be awared phalerae, and these would be displayed on the unit's standard.
Another significant part of the army was the cavalry, which was better at flexible manoeuvres than the legions. Cavalrymen also received higher pay than their legionary counterparts. There were several specialist auxiliary cavalry units know in the Roman Empire; for example, the Sarmatian cavalry from Scythia. Moorish (North African) cavalrymen were also known, and are depicted on Trajan's Column. The main unit of the cavalry was the ala ("wing") of five hundred men, and commanded by a prefect (praefectus). Plenty of cavalry equipment has been found, such as horse fittings etc., but here is a rather striking (and ever so slightly sinister) example from Britain:
This is the Ribchester Helmet, one of the finest examples of one of a masked sports helmets. It's bronze, and contains fittings for a crest, and would have been worn during cavalry sporting events and military ceremonies rather than in battle. Masked cavalry helmets have also been found at Newstead fort (Trimontium) in the Borders, and elsewhere in the Roman Empire.
And now, if you've made it this far through my wittering, you deserve a reward for your pains! :D And since a lot of you on my flist are fans of Night at the Museum, here's something I think you'll like:
Yep, it's a diorama! :D More specifically, it's a diorama of the fort at Housesteads (Vercovicium) on Hadrian's Wall, which I've visited. The fort, and the civilian settlement (vicus) outside the south gate. Another view:
As you can see, Housesteads is on a hill. And let me tell you, it is a bloody evil hill to climb at three in the afternoon on a hot summer's day. But it was worth it, as it is an amazingly preserved fort.
The fort shows Housesteads as it would probably have looked in the second century, when it was the base for a 1000-strong auxiliary garrison. Since the Romans were organisation freaks (and, hey, it worked out for them!), their forts are built to the same standard plan, with four gates (one in each rampart, the northern rampart being the Wall itself), two intersecting main streets, and the same sort of buildings inside. In the above photo, the red-roofed building in the foreground is the praetorium, the house for the commanding officer and his family, which was built around a central courtyard in the Mediterranean style. Behind it, the red-roofed building on the right is the principia, the fort HQ, which contained the administrative offices and the fort shrine. The red-roofed building next to it is the hospital (valetudinarium). A lot of Roman forts in Britain don't actually have evidence of a hospital building (raising obvious questions about how the sick and injured were cared for), so Housesteads is quite exceptional in that regard. The two long buildings immediately behind the principia are the granaries, the sturdiest buildings in the fort. The rest of the fort is made up of the long barrack-blocks, each occupied by a single century. The contubernia each lived and slept in a two-room dorm, while at the end of each block is a small house for the centurion and any family and slaves he might have (unlike the rank and file, centurions were allowed to marry during their period of service).
I can't really mention Housesteads without mentioning the "Murder House". In the '30s, archaeologists working in the vicus unearthed an ancient crime scene: the remains of a man and a woman who had been buried beneath the newly-laid clay floor of one of the houses. The fact that Roman law forbade burial within the boundaries of a settlement, and that the man still had part of a blade between his ribs, immediately pointed to the fact that the archaeologists had just dug up two ancient murder victims. Their identities, and those of their killer(s), will never be known, nor will the motive for their murder. There's a story waiting to be written there, I think!
And that, as they say, is that, at least for this post. If you managed to read all of this without your eyes glazing over, I salute you. Have some more tiny Romans (so tiny, in fact, that I think even wee Octavius would be a giant in comparison!):
Next time, the Romans of the northern frontier - in their own words!