The Unknown Warrior (8 page)

One can picture the bored legionary trying to pass the hours in the barracks by gaming, but the pursuit may also have taken place in quieter moments on campaign – for example, when camp was struck. The Kalkriese excavations have recovered glass gaming counters (
latrunculi
) (Schlüter, 1999: 148).

Gambling by the Roman infantryman might not have been restricted to board games. Placing money on animal fights might be attested to by the large number of leg bones of fighting cocks still with spurs in place at Caerleon, in what was, perhaps, a cock-fighting pit (Zienkiewicz, 1986b: 20). Certainly this would not be a surprise given the occurrence of amphitheatres at some of these military sites, Caerleon being a case in point. Not only would legionaries have been able to watch combat in these amphitheatres, it seems likely that they would have used these sites for training.

Writings

Although I have been concentrating, insofar as is possible, simply on archaeological evidence rather than evidence provided by the classical authors, certain archaeological finds have important written elements. As we have seen, inscriptions on objects have provided clues as to the lives of the common soldier and tantalising evidence as to their names, thus deviating from the ‘unknown' soldier of this work. We also see a degree of literacy among some of the soldiers – indeed a stylus for writing was found on the site of the barrack block of the II Legion at Caerleon, though this may not have been the property of a legionary (Evans and Metcalf, 1992: 169).

The work of the archaeologists Professor Robin, Andrew and Eric Birley at Vindolanda, on Hadrian's Wall, has resulted in some of the most important finds relating to life in the Roman legions. The Vindolanda writings are a series of texts, including letters and military documents, which were written on wooden tablets preserved in the waterlogged levels of the fort and retrieved by archaeologists. They are mostly between 1mm and 3mm thick and were discarded in a short period of time in the area of the
praetorium
and later barrack block workshop (Bowman, 2003: 30). As stated above, some of these tablets discuss the provisions of the troops, but they also provide the names of those who served: in this case generally of men of two auxiliary cohorts – the Ninth Cohort of Batavians, and the First Cohort of Tungrians – from
AD
90 to 125. ‘Some of the names are conspicuously Germanic (though several are not elsewhere attested) and we are certainly dealing with the ordinary rankers here: Tagarminis (or perhaps Tgarannis), Gambax son of Tappo, Ammius, Messor, Hue … (a version of Vettius?), Tullio, Butimas' (
ibid.
: 35).

The troops corresponded with one another – surely as a way of passing dull hours – and if no reply was forthcoming would rebuke the recipient for their rudeness. One such writer was Chrauttius, who admonishes his brother (comrade) and former messmate Veldeius for not writing back to him (
ibid
.: 107). Tablet 131 again reproaches a soldier for not returning correspondence, this, ‘from a man called Collemnis to his “brother”, i.e. comrade, Paris, opens with a half-joking but obviously seriously meant complaint that Paris had not written to him: “So that you may know that I am in good health, which I hope you are in turn, you most irreligious fellow, who haven't even sent me a single letter – but I think I am behaving in a more civilised way by writing to you!”' (
ibid.
: 106). As a soldier, perhaps one was expected to make use of one's literacy by fellow messmates, peer pressure within the fighting unit helping to alleviate boring moments.

Other written elements, known as Military Diplomas, recovered from the archaeological record give us details on the auxiliary troops serving alongside the legions. These diplomas were issued to auxiliary soldiers on their completion of twenty-five years' service and act as a token of proof of the granting of citizenship (Denison, 2003: 7). Some of these diplomas relate to Legio I and Legio II Adiutrix, legions that were unusual in accepting non-citizen soldiers. A number of writing tablets (
cerae
) were recovered from the great wooden chest that held the hoard at Corbridge (Allason-Jones and Bishop, 1988: 83).

In addition to inscriptions on weaponry and armour discussed above, written evidence for the presence of particular troops is also to be found on tile stamps located at the bases of particular units. In Britain, for example, there are many tiles that proclaim to be the property of the II Legion (stamped ‘
LEG
.
II
.
AVG
') at their fort of Caerleon. These were probably made in the legionary kilns, which made use of the clays of the River Severn and its tributaries, such as the Usk (Brewer, 2000: 20–1). These tiles can also be seen in situ at the legionary fortress baths, alongside others which have the mark of the bottom of a hobnailed boot (having been walked on when the tile was still wet). Sea Mills, close to Bristol on the other side of the Severn, also has similar tiles and bricks, illustrating the legion's presence and movement (Ellis, 1987: 94). South Shields fort incorporated a stone with
leg vi
carved into it in the front wall of the headquarters (de la Bédoyère, 2001: 71). Throughout the rest of the Empire we can see the presence of certain legions through their graffiti inscribed, for example, on their projectiles, such as an iron catapult head from Oberammegau (Wiegels, 1997: 8). In addition to the ability of contemporary logisticians to link material to particular units, was this, perhaps in some way, also a message of delivery in the same manner that armourers often scrawl messages on ordnance delivered to targets by bomber aircraft?

Accommodation

The Roman army built large forts in the lands they occupied to provide bases for their legions.

Table 2.2.
The size of Roman forts

Source
: from Manning (1989: 161).

Within these forts, individual barrack blocks were laid out to house the soldiers. Several Roman barracks have been excavated and their layout is quite familiar to archaeologists. Indeed, extant barracks are still to be found at Caerleon, base of the II Legion Augusta. These bases were built by the military and depictions of men wearing
lorica segmentata
(articulated plate armour) undertaking this task are to be found on Trajan's Column (Feugère, 2002: 211). Timber in vast quantities was required for the first phases of a fort's construction. This was yet another task of the Roman infantryman, a fact revealed by the excavation of a wooden writing tablet at Caerleon, which referred to guards being sent to fetch pay, and also of parties collecting building timber (Brewer, 2000: 16).

The size of individual barrack room cells for the Roman infantrymen were far from huge, some of the best examples being at Caerleon. Here, within the Prysg Field, lie the remains of barrack blocks – one for each century. The blocks are narrow, L-shaped buildings, which have twelve pairs of rooms fronted by a veranda. ‘Each century was divided into ten mess units (contubernia), each of eight men, who shared a pair of rooms in the barracks or on campaign. In theory, only ten pairs of rooms should be needed for the 80 men in the century, but there are often extra rooms and these were probably needed for storage, or new recruits, or the junior officers' (Brewer, 2000: 35). Caerleon's barrack buildings seem to have been timber constructions in their earlier phases, with more substantial stone-built structures following later. These clay-floored dwellings would have housed between 5,000 and 6,000 soldiers (Evans and Metcalf, 1992: 2). In the first phase of this fort (first century
AD
), the average internal room sizes in this barrack block were 4.2m
×
3.4m (Block A) and 4.4m
×
3.4m (Block B) – hardly palatial (Evans and Metcalf, 1992: 79).

Fragments of military tents have been recovered from Birdoswald (Wilmott, 1997: 114, 340–1), Carlisle and Vindolanda (Haines
et al.
, 2000: 121–2), and these would have been used in the field when the army was on campaign – indeed, the term
sub pellibus
(under tenting) was used to mean ‘on campaign' (de la Bédoyère, 2001: 45).

Excavations within the Roman fort at the Carlisle Millennium site (1999–2001) yielded the remains of a leather tent (Jones and Watson, 2003: 12) from Carlisle stamped
sdv
. This was found in a partially waterlogged trench and is thought to date from late first to second centuries
AD
. Tents must have been fairly large as they had to accommodate a
contubernium
– a unit of men who shared rooms at barracks at base, or tents on campaign (Wells, 2003: 95–6).

Early twentieth-century excavations of the Roman fort at Newstead in Scotland also discovered elements relating to tents used by the Roman infantryman. On this site a large number of tent pegs were recovered from the ditch of the early fort. ‘They were made of oak, and varied in length from 10 inches to 20 inches. They were triangular in section, and pointed at both ends, and had a well-defined notch for the attachment of the ropes. The same type has been found at the Saalburg, and also at the fort of Coelbren in Wales' (Curle, 1911: 210).

Curle believed that the subdivision of long barrack blocks showed that the ‘tent tradition', as he called it, survived (
ibid.
: 74). Wooden tent pegs have been found in a well at Velsen (Morel and Bosman, 1989: 174) and at Annetwell Street fort in Carlisle and Melandra Castle, Derbyshire (P. Robinson, 2001: 80).

Initially a series of circular holes within the Roman Marching Camp at Rey Cross, in the North Pennines, were thought, perhaps, to be the remnants of tent peg holes demarcating the layout within the camp. However, as the authors discussed, the fact that these holes were circular rather than triangular would suggest that the features are in fact something else (
ibid.
: 80). This marching camp was located in an area with such little soil above the bedrock that most of the protecting rampart was created from turfs (
ibid.
: 83). On this site there was no evidence of the wooden stakes carried by the legionaries and taken by some as being lashed into large wooden caltrops and forming a barrier at the top of marching camp banks. One of these stakes has been recovered from an excavation at Welzheim (Feugère, 2002: 44, fig. 27). In many ways, a similar arrangement existed for Roman soldiers besieging sites. At Masada in Judea troops built huts with low stone walls to be roofed with their tents. In some locations there were, perhaps, even storage rooms for their equipment ‘similar to the pairs of rooms occupied in a permanent barrack block' (Goldsworthy, 2003: 172).

Religion

There was no state requirement for the Roman legionary to follow a single, set religion. Artefacts excavated at military sites attest the presence of some variety in those of the pantheon of gods favoured by soldiers. At Caerleon, for example, an inscription records the restoration of the temple of Diana (Brewer, 2000: 40), while an altar to Salus, goddess of health (
ibid.
: 41), and a bust of Mars, the god of war and thus most suitable for the legionary, were also found (Evans, 1988: 27).

A number of the eighty-eight gems dating from the first to early third centuries
AD
, found dropped into the drains of the fortress baths at Caerleon, also portray a variety of divinities: Mercury, Minerva, Roma and others (Brewer, 2000: 42–3). In the later levels of the barrack block at Caerleon, a small statuette or
Genius Paterfamilias
– traditionally associated with the head of a household – was found, perhaps forming part of the shrine of a late-Roman soldier. Evans (1988: 23) believes that this might even indicate the later incorporation of married quarters for the ordinary soldier within the fortified area.

As we shall see below, a figure of Victory was found with a presumed legionary cremation by the fortress at Exeter. Rather unsurprisingly, Victory and Mars feature in statuary and carvings recovered from many military sites, as with Caerleon (de la Bédoyère, 2001: 20, 80, 146).

Perhaps the best known of the religious cults associated with the army was that of Mithraism. This secret cult, originating in Iran, had seven ranks for its devotees, including that of
miles
or soldier (Sumner, 2003: 46), and often cave-like places of worship beneath the ground. At the cult's core was a promise of an afterlife, of the triumph of light over darkness. Evidence for legionary involvement in the cult is present on sites throughout the Empire, from Carnuntum in Pannonia (Clauss, 2001: 34) north to Carrawburgh on Hadrian's Wall (Goldsworthy, 2003: 112). Carvings of Mithras wearing a phrygian cap and slaying a bull are some of the most enduring images from these temples. Furthermore, one of the Mithraic carvings at London identifies the man responsible for its commissioning, Ulpius Silvanus, a veteran of the II Legion Augusta (de la Bédoyère, 2001: 147).