Legions of Rome (5 page)

XI. LEGIONARY TRAINING

First-century Jewish general and historian Flavius Josephus described the training of Rome’s legions as bloodless battles, and their battles as bloody drills. “Every soldier is exercised every day,” he said, “which is why they bear the fatigue of battles so easily.” [Jos.,
JW
, 3, 5, 1]

The legionary’s training officer was his
optio
, who ensured that his men trained and exercised. The Roman soldier’s sword training involved long hours at wooden posts. He was taught to thrust, not cut, using the sharp point of his sword. “A stab,” said Vegetius, “although it penetrates just 2 inches [5 centimeters], is generally fatal.” [Vege.,
MIR
,
I
]

A legionary also learned to march in formation, and to deploy in various infantry maneuvers. In standard battle formation soldiers would form up in ranks of eight men deep by ten wide, with a gap of 3 feet (1 meter) between each legionary, who, in the opening stage of a battle, would launch first his javelins then draw his sword. Withdrawing auxiliaries could pass through the gaps in the ranks, until, on command, the legionaries closed ranks. In close order, compacted against his nearest comrades, the legionary could link his shield with his neighbor’s for increased protection. His century might run to the attack, or steadily advance at the march.

In battle order, the century’s centurion was the first man on the left of the first rank. The century’s
tesserarius
was last on the left in the rear rank, while the optio stood at the extreme right in the rear rank, from where it was his task to keep the century in order and to prevent desertions. Basic battle formations included the straight line, oblique and crescent. For defense against cavalry, the wedge or a stationary hollow square would be employed, or a partial hollow square with the men on three sides facing outward while the tightly packed formation continued to shuffle forward. The
orbis
, or ring, was a formation of last resort for a surrounded force.

Apart from route marches, legionaries, from the time of the consul Marius, were also trained to run considerable distances carrying full equipment. In addition, the legionary learned defensive and offensive techniques, and to rally round his unit’s standard, or any standard in an emergency. The famous
testudo
, or tortoise, involved locked shields over heads and at sides, providing protection from a rain of spears, arrows, stones, etc. The testudo, “most often square but sometimes rounded or oblong,” was primarily used when legions were trying to undermine the walls of enemy fortresses, or to force a gate. [Arr.,
TH
,
II
] Double testudos are also known, with one group of men standing on the raised shields of a formation beneath them and in turn fixing their shields over their own heads.

XII. LEGIONARY RATIONS AND DIET

Cassius Dio wrote of the diet of legionaries: “They require kneaded bread and wine and oil.” [Dio,
LXII
, 5] Legionaries were given a grain ration, which they were expected to grind into flour using each squad’s grinding stone. They cooked their own loaves, typically round and cut into eight slices, one for each member of the squad. Legionaries drizzled their bread with olive oil. They also ate meat, but this
was considered supplementary to their bread ration. Coffee, tomatoes and bananas were unknown to the Romans, as was sugar; honey was their only sweetener.

The quantity of grain provided for the troops depended on the available supply and the generosity of commanders. In Polybius’ day it was half a bushel per legionary a month, and the cost was deducted from the soldier’s pay. In imperial times, the legionary’s grain ration was free. Much of the general population of Rome at that time was also provided with free grain by the government, although bakers, pastry cooks, and other commercial operators had to pay for it.

Like the upper class, Roman soldiers ate with their fingers. They used their dagger to cut bread and meat. The fork was unknown to all classes. Romans drank wine with their meals, but it was diluted with water; legionaries are rarely recorded drunk in camp. Breakfast for Romans was often just a cup of water. Lunch,
prandium
, was a cold snack at noon, or a piece of bread at the end of the day’s march. For legionaries, the day’s main meal was in the evening.

By late in the first century, with legions based in permanent winter camps, rations were being acquired from local merchants who themselves sourced food and wine from the far corners of the empire. Some of those foods could be quite exotic, and both legionaries and auxiliaries ate well. Parts of the handwritten labels on amphorae have been found on pottery shards discovered in a fort which housed the cavalry of the Ala Augusta at Carlisle, Roman Luguvalium, in Britain. One had contained the sweet fruit of the doum palm from Egypt. Another reads: “Old Tangiers tuna, provisions, quality, excellent, top-quality.” Tuna fish (
cordula
) netted in the Straits of Hercules (off Gibraltar) was processed at Tingatitanum, today’s Tangiers, being chopped up and packed in its own juice into amphora for shipment. The resultant fish paste was a great delicacy; at the Carlisle base it was probably exclusively consumed by officers. [Tom.,
DRA
]

Amphorae containing provisions were also marked with the age of the contents in years, the capacity of the container, and the name of the firm that had produced it—a label found at Colchester named the firm of Proculus and Urbicus. Another label from the very same firm was also found in the ruins of Pompeii in Italy. [Ibid.]

XIII. FURLOUGHS AND FURLOUGH FEES

During the first century, and probably for much of the imperial era, when a legion went into winter quarters each year one legionary in four could take leave. The job of
recording leave details fell to each unit’s records clerk, who was “exact in entering the time and limitation of furloughs.” [Vege.,
DRM
,
III
] To receive their leave pass, the enlisted men of each legion had to pay their centurion a furlough fee, which the centurions retained.

Until
AD
69, centurions could set the fee at any amount they chose, and this became a source of great complaint from legionaries. Tacitus wrote, “A demand was then made [to new emperor Otho] that fees for furloughs usually paid to the centurions be abolished. These were paid by the common soldiers as a kind of annual tribute. A fourth part of every century could be scattered on furlough, or even loiter about the camp, provided they paid the fees to the centurions.” The officers had not given any attention to these fees, said Tacitus, and the more money a soldier had, the more his centurion would demand to allow him to go on leave. [Tac.,
H
,
I
, 46]

Otho did not want to alienate the centurions by abolishing furlough fees, a lucrative source of income for them, but at the same time wanted to ensure the loyalty of the enlisted men. So he promised in the future to pay to centurions the furlough fees on all legionaries’ behalf from his own purse. [Ibid.] Within months, Otho was dead, but his successor as emperor, Vitellius, kept his promise to the rank and file: “He paid the furlough fees to the centurions from the imperial treasury.” [Tac.,
H
,
I
, 58] “This was without doubt a salutary reform,” Tacitus observed, “and was afterward under good emperors established as a permanent rule of the service.” [Ibid., 46]

Men on furlough often went far afield, and could not easily be recalled in emergencies. [Tac.,
A
,
XV
, 10] It seems that while the men left their helmets, shields, javelins and armor back at base when they went on furlough, they habitually continued to wear their military sandals and traveled armed with their swords on sword-belts wherever they went, even in towns, where civilians were forbidden to go armed. Petronius Arbiter, in his
Satyricon
, written in the time of Nero, has his narrator strap on a sword-belt when staying in a seaside town in Greece. While walking through the town’s streets at night, illegally wearing his sword, he was challenged.

“Halt! Who goes there?” a guard demanded. Seeing the sword on his hip, the guard assumed the man must be a legionary on leave, and asked, “What legion are you from? Who is your centurion?” The guard then noticed that the man was
wearing Greek-style white shoes. “Since when have men in your unit gone on leave in white shoes?” In response, Petronius’ narrator lied about both centurion and legion. “But my face and my confusion proved that I had been caught in a lie,” he went on, “so he [the guard] ordered me to surrender my arms.” [Petr., 82]

XIV. LEGION MUSICIANS

To relay orders in camp, on the march, and in battle, unarmed musicians were attached to all legions to play the lituus, a trumpet made of wood covered with leather, and the cornu and buccina, which were horns in the shape of a “C.” Legion musicians wore leather vests over their tunics, and bearskin capes over their helmets. There is no record of them playing music on the march. Their role was exclusively that of signalers.

XV. THE STANDARD-BEARER, TESSERARIUS AND OPTIO

Every legion, maniple and century had a standard behind which its men marched, and it was a great honor to be the official bearer of the sacred standard. It was the greatest honor of all to be the
aquilifer
, the man who carried the legion’s golden eagle standard, the
aquila
. Ranking above ordinary legionaries, the standard-bearer had much influence with the rank and file and was sometimes involved in councils of war by their generals. Standard-bearers also managed the legion banks.

The
tesserarius
was the man in each century whose task it was to circulate the
tessera
, a wax tablet containing the daily watchword, to sentries in camp, and to all ranks prior to battle.

In the infantry, the
optio
was the deputy to a century’s centurion. In the cavalry, he was deputy to a decurion. The equivalent of a sergeant-major today, the optio was responsible for the century’s records and training, and in battle was required to keep his century in order—several trumpet calls were directed specifically at optios for this purpose. An optio was a centurion-designate, and when a vacancy arose for a new centurion, an optio would be promoted to fill it.

XVI. THE DECURION

With his title literally and originally relating to the command of ten men, the
decurio
was a junior officer, subordinate to a centurion, who commanded a troop of cavalry in both the legions and auxiliary mounted units, which in turn was commanded by a squadron’s most senior decurion. Typically, decurions of auxiliary cavalry had previously served as legionaries and were transferred to the alae.

A second-century decurion, Titus Calidius, joined a legion at the age of 24 and rose to become a decurion with the cavalry squadron of the 15th Apollinaris Legion. He was subsequently transferred, as a senior decurion, to the 1st Alpinorum Cohort,
an auxiliary equitata unit based at Carnuntum with the 15th Apollinaris during the reign of Domitian. When Calidius completed his enlistment with the 1st Alpinorum he re-enlisted with the unit, which continued to be based at Carnuntum after the 15th Apollinaris Legion was transferred to the East in
AD
113 for Trajan’s Parthian War. Calidius went back to the 1st Alpinorum Cohort at the reduced rank of optio of horse. He died at the age of 58, having served in the Roman military for thirty-four years, and was buried at Carnuntum. [Hold.,
DRA
, ADRH]

XVII. THE CENTURION

The
centurio
was the key, middle-ranking officer of the Roman army. Julius Caesar considered the centurion the backbone of his army, and knew many of his centurions by name. Apart from some centurions of Equestrian rank during the reign of Augustus, the imperial centurion was an enlisted man like the legionary, promoted from the ranks. One centurion of Equestrian rank was Clivius Priscus, a native of Carecina in Italy, who ended his military career as a first-rank centurion. His son Helvidius Priscus, born around
AD
20, became a quaestor, legion commander and praetor.

The centurion originally commanded a century of one hundred men. Centurions commanded the centuries, maniples and cohorts of the legion, with each imperial legion having a nominal complement of fifty-nine centurions, across a number of grades. Julius Caesar’s reward for one particular centurion who had pleased him was to promote him eight grades. The centurion could be identified—by friend and foe alike—by a transverse crest on his helmet, metal greaves on his shins, and the fact that, like all Roman officers, he wore his sword on the left, unlike legionaries, who wore their swords on the right.

The first-rank centurions, or
primi ordines
, of a legion’s
1st cohort, were the most senior in the legion. Promotion came with time and experience, but many centurions never made it to first-rank status. One first-rank centurion in each legion held the title of
primus pilus
—literally “first spear.” He was chief centurion of the legion, a highly prestigious and well-paid position for which there was always intense competition among centurions. The vastly experienced
primi pili
always received great respect and significant responsibility, not infrequently leading major army detachments.

Promotion up the various centurion grades involved transfer between various legions. One centurion typically served with twelve different legions during his forty-six-year career throughout the empire. Centurions were also detached from legions to serve as district officers in areas where no legions were based, and were also sent to other legions and auxiliary units as training officers. In
AD
83, after a centurion and several legionaries were sent to train a new cohort of Usipi German auxiliaries in Britain, the trainees rebelled, killed their trainers, stole ships and sailed to Europe. The mutineers were subsequently apprehended.