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[German version] In the Republican Period a centurio primi pili, later described as primipilus or primus pilus, was the highest ranking centurio in a Roman legion. He was in command of the outmost manipulus of the triarii or pilani on the right flank. Normally he was a member of the general's c onsilium and like other centuriones had served several years as a soldier. As legions were originally recruited year by year, a p. served only for one year and was then a simple centurio again; a p. could hold the position several times, however. In 171 BC Spurius Ligustinus reports that du…

[German version] were auxiliary cavalrymen armed with a heavy lance ( contus) about 3.5m long. They held the lance across the withers of the horse, with both hands either on top of or underneath the lance, and were thus not protected by a shield. This lance was probably adopted from the Sarmatians. From the time of Trajan or Hadrian there were separate units of C., as for example the ala I Ulpia contariorum milliaria. Although the C. initially wore no armour, they probably contributed to the development of mailed cavalry. Campbell, J. Brian (Belfast) Bibliography 1  J. W. Eadie, The develop…

[German version] [1] The term dux, which had already appeared in the Republican period with the general meaning of ‘a leader in a military action or of a troop of soldiers’ (cf. e.g. Cic. Dom. 12: seditionis duces), was in the 2nd cent. AD occasionally used in a semi-official way as the title for the commander of a military unit established for a particular purpose and not necessarily subordinate to the governor of a province. Thus Ti. Claudius Candidus was dux exercitus Illyrici in the war waged by Septimius Severus against Pescennius Niger in AD 193-195 (CIL II 4114 = ILS 1140); dux was also u…

[German version] Under the centuriation system, which the historiographical tradition ascribed to king Servius Tullius, the Roman people were divided into classes according to the wealth of individual citizens. It was simultaneously used for political and military purposes. Each class consisted of two groups of citizens: the iuniores (men of 17-46 years), who had to perform military service and fight where and whenever it was demanded of them, whereas it was the duty of the seniores (men of 46-60 years) to defend the town itself against attacks (Pol. 6,19,2; Liv. 1,43,1f.: seniores ad…

I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. History With the development of the skill of driving teams of horses in the 1st half of the 2nd millennium BC, the methodological foundations of riding also were in place ( Horse III,  Horsemanship). Although there is definite evidence of mounted messengers and scouts from as early as the 14th/13th cents. BC onwards (Akkadogram LÚPETḪALLUM ‘rider’ in Hittite texts; Egyptian pictorial evidence [10]), the use of the cavalry as an armed force did not develop until during the 9th/8th cents. Decisive in this was the diff…

[German version] During early Republican times, the  allies placed units of 500 men under the command of the Roman army, which were later called cohortes and came under the command of a prefect of the relevant town. It remains unclear when the cohortes were integrated into the army as tactical units. Polybius called a cohort a unit consisting of three  maniples (Pol. 11,23; Battle of Ilipa 206 BC), but in his famous description of the Roman army, cohortes are not mentioned. Livy mentions cohortes in his representation of the campaigns in Spain during the 2nd cent. BC, sometime…

[German version] A. Republic In early times, the Roman military contingent probably consisted of 3,000 soldiers in total, each of the three tribus of the royal era providing 1,000 men (Varro, Ling. 5,89) - a military force described as ‘the levy’ ( legio). The division of the Roman people into six classes of wealth, ascribed by historiographical tradition to Servius Tullius (Liv. 1,42,4-43,13; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4,15-18) also had a military purpose: a citizen's assets dictated with which weapons he was to equip himself. Those without property ( capite censi) were excluded from mili…

[German version] In late antiquity, bucellarii described groups of barbarian soldiers in the service of respected warriors, who from time to time deployed them in the interest of Rome. Eventually, the term bucellarii developed a particular meaning: an armed retinue, who served large landowners as bodyguards, a practice which -- despite being banned by Leo -- was frequently encountered. Bucellarii could also be found around high-ranking officials, mostly officers; they swore an oath of allegiance to both their lord and the emperor, which seems to indicat…

[German version] Exploratores were the scouts of the Roman army. They reconnoitred the movements and deployments of the enemy as well as the terrain and positions of camps. In the early years of the Principate, soldiers selected from the   auxilia were commandeered from their units for a certain length of time to act as scouts. In the Dacian War (AD 105-106), Ti. Claudius Maximus, then serving in an ala, was selected by Trajan himself as a scout and brought the princeps the head of King Decebalus. In the mid 2nd cent. there is evidence of small reconnaissance units called explorationes. They w…

[German version] Since the Roman senate in the Republican Period was unwilling to support the soldiers after they left the army with provisions of land or money ( praemia), certain commanders took care of it on their own account. This contributed to the development of armies that owed personal allegiance to an individual leader and helped to undermine political stability, beginning with the dictatorship of Cornelius [I 90] Sulla. When the younger Augustus (C. Octavius) established himself against his adversaries in the civ…

[German version] ( cohortes praetoriae). In the Roman Republic, the cohors praetoria was a small military unit which guarded the praetorium and acted as an escort for the commander. According to Festus (Fest. 223M.), Cornelius [I 71] Scipio Africanus was the first to have selected 'the bravest' for his protection. Freed from other duties, they also drew higher pay. In the late Republic, powerful commanders had strong bodyguards; thus in 44 BC, M. Antonius [I 9] assembled a bodyguard of 6,000 from his veterans. In 27 BC, Augustus [1] created a standing corps of praetorians who…

[German version] (κατάφρακτοι; katáphraktoi). The term kataphraktoi refers to the armoured cavalry, which was first encountered by the Romans in 190 BC, in the war against Antiochus III (Liv. 37,40,5). At Carrhae, the army of Crassus was defeated, in 53 BC, by the Parthian cavalry whose men and horses were armoured (Plut. Crassus 24f.). From AD 69 on, the Romans were confronted with the armoured cavalry of the Sarmatians on the lower Danube (Tac. Hist. 1,79). In the Roman army, the first unit of armoured cavalrymen was probably deployed by Hadrian ( ala I Gallorum et Pannoniorum catafr…

[German version] [1] Hasta, hastati In the Roman army of the middle Republic, the hasta served primarily as a thrust lance for close combat although it could also be thrown; it had a wooden shaft and an iron point. The hasta was adapted to the fighting style of the  phalanx, but it remained in use when, in the 4th cent. BC, the Romans adopted a more flexible set-up in maniples (  manipulus ). According to Livy (Liv. 8,8,5-13), whose account, however, is not without its problems, in 340 BC the Roman army consisted of three battle rows, the hastati, the principes and the triarii. The triarii were a…

[German version] According to Polybius (Pol. 2,22,1; 2,34), the G. were a Gallic tribe, living in the Alps and along the Rhône; G. went into service as mercenaries, hence their name (Pol. 2,22,1). They took part in the Gallic invasion of Italy in 225 BC, but were beaten off, and subsequently defeated in 222 BC. Gaesum is also the name of a Gallic spear (Caes. B Gall. 3,4), sometimes carried by lightly armed Roman troops (Liv. 8,8,5). In the early Principate, auxiliary troops recruited from Raetia and apparently equipped with this kind of spear were referred to as gaesati. They were stationed…

[German version] The praetorium  was the tent of the commanding officer of a Roman army in the Republic. The term betrays the fact that the praetor was originally the supreme Roman commander. Once camp was reached on the march, the location of the praetorium was first decided (Pol. 6,27; cf. Caes. B Civ. 1,76,2); it occupied centre stage in the camp (Castra) and was flanked by an open square serving as the market and by the tent of the quaestor . The via praetoria and the porta praetoria were probably the street and gate adjoining the praetorium. The word praetorium also denoted the advisory m…

[German version] In a military context, this term denotes a soldier who has received special training for a certain special tasks or roles. There is epigraphical evidence that among soldiers serving in a legion were some who had received special training to prepare them for service as cavalry (CIL VIII 2882 = ILS 2331), medical orderlies, architects, or to act as standard or eagle bearers ( discens aquiliferu(m) leg(ionis) III Aug(ustae), CIL VIII 2988 = ILS 2344). It is not clear whether the discentes were of the same rank and standing as the immunes, i.e. soldiers who had special resp…

[German version] From the 2nd cent. BC at the latest, Roman commanders had an elite unit composed of mounted troops and foot soldiers, its members drawn from the contingents of the Italian socii, as was the case with the   extraordinarii . Towards the end of the Republic the elite units were recruited from the   auxilia ; it is unknown whether these, too, had a particular name. Similar units appear to have existed at the beginning of the Principate. During the German campaign of Germanicus (AD 11-14), Fabricius Tuscus commanded an ala praetoria, by which is probably meant the commander'…

[German version] I. Greece In geometrical and early archaic Greece, mainly nobles and their dependents took part in wars. With the rise of the phalanx in the 7th cent. BC, the Greek polity also levied free farmers, who could provide their weapons themselves. However, details about conscription are first known from the Classical period, especially from Athens and Sparta. In Athens, all citizens - probably with the exception of the thetai until the middle of the 4th cent. BC - were liable for military service between their 18th and 59th year; o…

[German version] During the last two centuries of the Republic, Rome forcibly recruited or enlisted as mercenaries members of non-Italian peoples with particular military skills e.g. Cretan archers, slingers from the Balearics and horsemen from Numidia, Spain or Gaul. After the Battle of Actium, many of these units remained in the service of Rome either voluntarily or as bound by contract, whilst others went on to serve under their own military leaders in their native country or in its vicinity. A…

[German version] The principales of the Roman legions were soldiers who performed special duties, for this were exempted from the usual camp service and received one and a half times or double the pay of common soldiers (Veg. Mil. 2,7); the immunes on the other hand received no increased pay. The  enhanced standing of a principalis is illustrated in a letter by Iulius Appollinaris, a Roman soldier in Egypt: “I give thanks to Serapis and good fortune that while others are working hard all day cutting stones, I am now a principalis and stand around do…