Marius Mules III: Gallia Invicta (Marius' Mules) (74 page)

Amphora
(pl. Amphorae):
A large pottery storage container, generally used for wine or olive oil.

Aquilifer
:
a specialised standard bearer that carried a legion’s eagle standard.

Armilustrium
: Festival of Mars in October, traditionally the date the Roman military campaigning season ends and weapons are purified and stored for winter.

Aurora
: Roman Goddess of the dawn, sister of Sol and Luna.

Bacchanalia
: the wild and often drunken festival of Bacchus.

Buccina
:
A curved horn-like musical instrument used primarily by the military for relaying signals, along with the cornu.

Burial Club
: A fund looked after by the standard bearer that each legionary pays into to cover costs of funerals and monuments to fallen colleagues.

Caligae
:
the standard Roman military boot. A sandal-style of leather strips laced to above the ankle with a hard sole, driven through with hob-nails.

Capsarius
: Legionary soldiers trained as combat medics, whose job was to patch men up in the field until they could reach a hospital.

C
arnarium
:
a wooden frame covered in hooks for hanging sides of meat.

Celeusta
: The naval officer who, with pipe or drum, times the oar strokes of a vessel.

Civitas
: Latin name given to a certain class of civil settlement, often the capital of a tribal group or a former military base.

Cloaca Maxima
: The great sewer of republican Rome that drained the forum into the Tiber.

Contubernium
(pl. Contubernia): the smallest division of unit in the Roman legion, numbering eight men who shared a tent.

Cornu
:
A G-shaped horn-like musical instrument used primarily by the military for relaying signals, along with the buccina. A trumpeter was called a cornicen.

Corona
: Lit: ‘Crowns’. Awards given to military officers. The Corona Muralis and Castrensis were awards for storming enemy walls, while the Aurea was for an outstanding single combat.

Curia
: the meeting place of the senate in the forum of Rome.

Cursus Honorum
: The ladder of political and military positions a noble Roman is expected to ascend.

Decimation
:
the worst (and fortunately rarest) form of Roman military punishment, saved generally for insurrection or cowardice of a whole unit. The entire unit would be lined up; the officer would walk down the line and mark every tenth man, who would then be beaten to death by his comrades.

Decurion
: 1) The civil council of a Roman town. 2) Lesser cavalry officer, serving under a cavalry prefect, with command of 32 men.

Dolabra
: entrenching tool, carried by a legionary, which served as a shovel, pick and axe combined.

Duplicarius
: A soldier on double the basic pay.

Equestrian
: The often wealthier, though less noble mercantile class, known as knights.

Equisio
: A horse attendant or stable master.

Foederati
: non-Roman states who held treaties with Rome and gained some rights under Roman law.

Forum Holitorium
: The vegetable and flower market of Rome.

Fossa
: Defensive ditches, such as those constructed round a Roman camp or fort.

Furca
: T-shaped pole carried by legionaries which held all their standard travelling kit.

Gaesatus
: a spearman, usually a mercenary of Gallic origin.

Galician
: Breed of horse from the north of the Spanish peninsula, strong, hardy and short, bred from a mix of Roman and native Iberian horses.

Gladius
:
the Roman army’s standard short, stabbing sword, originally based on a Spanish sword design.

Groma
: the chief surveying instrument of a Roman military engineer, used for marking out straight lines and calculating angles.

Haruspex
(pl. Haruspices): A religious official who confirms the will of the Gods through signs and by inspecting the entrails of animals.

Honesta Missio
: A soldier’s honourable discharge from the legions, with grants of land and money, after a term of service of varied length but rarely less than 5 years.

Immunes
:
Soldiers excused from routine legionary duties as they possessed specialised skills which qualified them for other duties.

Kalends
: the first day of the Roman month, based on the new moon with the ‘nones’ being the half moon around the 5
^th
-7
^th
of the month and the ‘ides’ being the full moon around the 13
^th
-15th.

Labrum
: Large dish on a pedestal filled with fresh water in the hot room of a bath house.

Laconicum
: the steam room or sauna in a Roman bath house.

Lanista
: Trainer of gladiators, or owner of a gladiatorial school.

Laqueus
: a garrotte usually used by gladiators to restrain an opponent’s arm, but also occasionally used to cause death by strangulation.

Latrunculi
: Roman board game involving stones of two colours on a board, resembling the Chinese game of Go.

Legatus
: Commander of a Roman legion

Lilia
(Lit. ‘Lilies’): defensive pits three feet deep with a sharpened stake at the bottom, disguised with undergrowth, to hamper attackers.

Ludus
:
1) a game, 2) a Gladiatorial School.

Magna Mater
: The Goddess Cybele, patron of nature in its most raw form

Mansio and
mutatio
: stopping places on the Roman road network for officials, military staff and couriers to stay or exchange horses if necessary.

Mare Nostrum
: Latin name for the Mediterranean Sea (literally ‘Our Sea’)

Marius’ Mules
: nickname acquired by the legions after the General Marius made it standard practice for the soldier to carry all of his kit about his person.

Mars Gravidus
: an aspect of the Roman war god, ‘he who precedes the army in battle’, was the God prayed to when an army went to war.

Miles
: the Roman name for a soldier, from which we derive the words military and militia among others.

Nones
: the half moon around the 5
^th
-7
^th
of the Roman month, with the Kalends being the first day of the month and the ‘ides’ being the full moon around the 13
^th
-15th

Octodurus
: now Martigny in Switzerland, at the Northern end of the Great Saint Bernard Pass.

Oppidum:
The standard Gaulish hill town of the pre-Roman period. A walled settlement, sometimes quite large.

Optio
: A legionary centurion’s second in command.

Patrician
: The higher noble class of Rome, often Senatorial.

Phalanx
:
Greek/Macedonian infantry tactic in which rows of men form a hedge of long spears, backed with a shield wall.

Phalerae
: (sing. Phalera) set of discs attached to a torso harness used as military decorations.

Pilum
: the army’s standard javelin, with a wooden stock and a long, heavy lead point.

Pilus Prior
: The most senior centurion of a cohort and one of the more senior in a legion.

Plebeian
: The general mass and populace of Roman citizens.

Plumbata
: Heavy military darts utilised largely in the Greek world of the east.

Pomerium
: The sacred boundary of the city of Rome, within which weapons were forbidden on the streets.

Praetor
: a title granted to the commander of an army. cf the Praetorian Cohort.

Praetorian Cohort
:
personal bodyguard of a General.

Praetorium
:
The area in the centre of a temporary camp reserved for the tent of the commander and where the legion’s eagle and the signifers’ standards were grounded.

Primus Pilus
: The chief centurion of a legion. Essentially the second in command of a legion.

Pteruges
:
leather straps that hang from the shoulders and waist of the garment worn under a cuirass.

Pugio
:
the standard broad bladed dagger of the Roman military.

Quadriga
: a chariot drawn by four horses, such as seen at the great races in the circus of Rome.

Rudis
: The wooden sword given as a gift and symbol upon the manumission of a Gladiator.

Samarobriva
: oppidum on the Somme River, now Amiens.

Scorpion, Ballista & Onager
: Siege engines. The Scorpion was a large crossbow on a stand, the Ballista a giant missile throwing crossbow, and the Onager a stone hurling catapult.

Sica
: A curved sword with a Thracian origin, used by gladiators to circumvent the large shield.

Signifer
:
A century’s standard bearer, also responsible for dealing with pay, burial club and much of a unit’s bureaucracy.

Subarmalis
: a leather garment worn under armour to prevent chafing and rust, to which the pteruges are attached.

Subura
: a lower-class area of ancient Rome, close to the forum, that was home to the red-light district’.

Tablinum
: The office or reception room in a Roman house or villa.

Tabularium
: The records office. In Rome the Tabularium is in the Forum, though each fort had its own based in the centre of the camp.

Tarpeian Rock
: Cliff on the Capitoline Hill of Rome from which traitors were hurled.

Testudo
: Lit- Tortoise. Military formation in which a century of men closes up in a rectangle and creates four walls and a roof for the unit with their shields.

Tolosa
: Roman town in southwest France conquered at the end of the second century b.c., now Toulouse.

T
ribunal
: A platform, carefully constructed in forts, or temporarily made from turf or wood, from which a commander would address or review troops.

Triclinium
: The dining room of a roman house or villa

Trierarch
: Commander of a Trireme or other Roman military ship.

Tullianum
: Rock-cut prison in the Roman forum used for high profile prisoners.

Turma
: A small detachment of a cavalry ala consisting of 32 men led by a decurion.

Valetudinarium
:
The military hospital in a camp.

Vexillum
(Pl. Vexilli):
The standard or flag of a legion.

Via Decumana
:
The main street running east-west in a Roman town or fort.

Vindunum
: later the Roman Civitas Cenomanorum, and now Le Mans in France.

Vineae
: moveable wattle and leather wheeled shelters that covered siege works and attacking soldiers from enemy fire.