The Roman Cavalry: From the First to the Third Century AD

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Presenter: The fort here at Vindolanda was the home to 800 soldiers and their job was to guard the wall against people they described as barbarians. a b Roth, Jonathan P. (2009). Roman warfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521537261. OCLC 231745643.

If one examines the deployment of auxiliary units, it can easily be seen that it was rare to deploy units from the same province together. It was also the aim that units wouldn’t serve in their own province. This was intended to reduce the chance of rebellion: if the biggest formation in any given province was a Roman legion, it was likely to prevail in the case of any of the auxiliary units revolting. Overall, senators and equites cooperated smoothly in the running of the empire. In contrast to the chaotic civil wars of the late Republic, the rule of this tiny oligarchy achieved a remarkable degree of political stability. In the first 250 years of the Principate (30 BC – AD 218), there was only a single episode of major internal strife: the civil war of 68–69. Centuries of capital accumulation, in the form of vast landed estates ( latifundia) across many provinces resulted in enormous wealth for most senators. Many received annual rents in cash and in kind of over 5,000lbs of gold, equivalent to 360,000 solidi (or 5 million Augustan-era denarii), at a time when a miles (common soldier) would earn no more than four solidi a year in cash. Even senators of middling wealth could expect an income 1,000–1,500lbs of gold. [87] There is some debate about the strength of the turma between 30 and 32 men. 30 was the size of a turma in the Republican cavalry and in the cohors equitata of the Principate (early empire) auxilia. Against this is a statement by Arrian that an ala was 512 strong. This would make an ala turma 32 men strong. Personally, I suspect it simply comes down to whether one counts the commander and standard bearer, or just the troopers, in the total.During the Roman Kingdom and the first century of the Roman Republic, legionary cavalry was recruited exclusively from the ranks of the patricians, who were expected to provide six centuriae of cavalry (300 horses for each consular legion). Around 400 BC, 12 more centuriae of cavalry were established and these included non-patricians ( plebeians). Around 300 BC the Samnite Wars obliged Rome to double the normal annual military levy from two to four legions, doubling the cavalry levy from 600 to 1,200 horses. Legionary cavalry started to recruit wealthier citizens from outside the 18 centuriae. These new recruits came from the first class of commoners in the Centuriate Assembly organisation, and were not granted the same privileges. The included rulebook contains all the rules for the game, as well as scenarios tailored for every warband. There is huge scope for customisation with the expansive campaign progression system. This set provides an ideal starting point for Caesar’s Legions collection. Giving your army missile capability is another facet of the Auxiliary’s flexibility. We have two types of Auxiliary archers available – the Western Archers, dressed in traditional Roman gear above…

The cavalry role of equites dwindled after the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), as the number of equestrians became insufficient to provide the senior officers of the army and general cavalrymen as well. Equites became exclusively an officer-class, with the first class of commoners providing the legionary cavalry. This was the main road in the middle and it would have been humming with activity with the soldiers coming out and washing themselves in the morning and at the end of the day. Romulus supposedly established a cavalry regiment of 300 men called the Celeres ("the Swift Squadron") to act as his personal escort, with each of the three tribes supplying a centuria (century; company of 100 men). This cavalry regiment was supposedly doubled in size to 600 men by King Tarquinius Priscus (conventional dates 616–578BC). [1] According to Livy, Servius Tullius also established a further 12 centuriae of cavalry, [2] but this is unlikely, as it would have increased the cavalry to 1,800 horse, implausibly large compared to 8,400 infantry (in peninsular Italy, cavalry typically constituted about 8% of a field army). [3] This is confirmed by the fact that in the early Republic the cavalry fielded remained 600-strong (two legions with 300 horse each). [4] [ full citation needed] In the imperial administration, equestrian posts included that of the governorship ( praefectus Augusti) of the province of Egypt, which was considered the most prestigious of all the posts open to equites, often the culmination of a long and distinguished career serving the state. In addition, equites were appointed to the governorship ( procurator Augusti) of some smaller provinces and sub-provinces e.g. Judaea, whose governor was subordinate to the governor of Syria. [55]Sagittarii (archers) – alae sagittariiorum (mounted archers), cohors sagittariiorum and cohors sagittariiorum equitatae (mixed mounted and foot archers) – just one unit is listed for Britannia, The First Cohort of Hamian Bowmen; Now, for the Romans, barbarians were local tribes who lived on the other side of the wall in what’s now, northern England and Scotland.

Under the reforming emperor Diocletian ( r.284–305AD), himself an Illyrian equestrian officer, the military equestrian "takeover" was brought a stage further, with the removal of hereditary senators from most administrative, as well as military posts. Hereditary senators were limited to administrative jobs in Italy and a few neighbouring provinces (Sicily, Africa, Achaea and Asia), despite the fact that senior administrative posts had been greatly multiplied by the tripling of the number of provinces and the establishment of dioceses (super-provinces). The exclusion of the old Italian aristocracy, both senatorial and equestrian, from the political and military power that they had monopolised for many centuries was thus complete. The senate became politically insignificant, although it retained great prestige. [79] Justin Blake: The undoubted highlight from Vindolanda are the amazing writing tablets that we find and these are tiny little postcard sized scraps of birch and alderwood that the Roman soldier have written to each other and further afield with an old fashioned iron pen that they dip into the ink and write straight on top of the bits of wood. Breeze, David. 1969. "The organization of the legion: The first cohort and the equites legionis". Journal of Roman Studies, 59:50–55. The SPQR A Clash of Heroes set gives you everything you need to begin waging war with both Caesar’s Legions and Warriors of Gaul. You’ll find all the necessary rules for creating your warbands and setting them loose on the field of battle, as well as a whole host of models with which to start your collection or enhance an existing one. Equites Maurorum(Moorish horsemen), though how many units of these fought in their traditional ‘barbaric’ fashion, and how many fought, and dressed, as ‘regular’ auxiliary cavalry is unknown;

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Bury, J.B. (1898). The History of the Roman Empire from its Foundation to the death of Marcus Aurelius (27 BC-180 AD). Cambridge University Press. (Bury (1898)):

Spear ( hasta): during the Roman Kingdom and much of the Roman Republic the hasta was used by the cavalry. It was very good when charging into enemy infantry. As their name implies, equites were liable to cavalry service in the legion of the mid-republic. They originally provided a legion's entire cavalry contingent, although from an early stage (probably from c. 400 and not later than c. 300 BC), when equestrian numbers had become insufficient, large numbers of young men from the first class of commoners were regularly volunteering for the service, which was considered more glamorous than the infantry. [29] As hoplite warfare was the standard early in this era, cavalry might have not played a substantial role in battle except for chasing after routed enemies. [11] Republican cavalry (338–88BC) [ edit ] North face of the Mausoleum of Glanum, southern France, showing a cavalry battle, c. 40 BC Recruitment [ edit ] The swords were appraised by Professor Simon James from Leicester University who says that these weapons are middle imperial Roman swords commonly referred to as a spatha. They were in use in the Roman world probably by the 160s, through the later second century and far into the third century AD.

That big building that you can see at the end there, that was basically the posh bit, that was where the centurions slept so they were the bosses keeping their eyes on all the soldiers down here. By the time of the 3rd century, the Constitutio Antoniniana granted all peoples citizenship rights, and citizen cavalry was in use technically. Gallienus in 260 created a mobile reserve cavalry corps to respond to the empire's threats. Responding to Persian cavalry known as the Grivpanvar, large numbers of heavily armored cavalry units such as cataphractarii, clibinarii, started to appear by the 4th century. These units were armed with a large spear, a sword and a bow. [11] However, the primary strength of the Roman army remained the infantry. Dromedarii – camel-mounted units: just one of these is attested from the 2nd century, ala I Ulpia dromedariorum milliaria in Syria, but surely there must have been more to patrol the deserts of Arabia and North Africa;