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[German version] I. Greece See Ephebeia. Campbell, J. Brian (Belfast) [German version] II. Rome "Look at the training of legions ( exercitatio legionum)  ... From this comes that courage in battle that makes them ready to face wounds". Cicero here expresses the traditional pride of Romans in their military training (Cic. Tusc. 2,37). In the early Republic rudimentary military training was probably carried on in the Campus Martius. Later, when citizens living further away from Rome were recruited, the Romans recognize…

[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] 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…

[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] 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] 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…

[German version] The manipulus (maniple) was a tactical unit of the Roman legion introduced in the 4th cent. BC (Liv. 8,8,3: et quod antea phalanges similes Macedonicis, hoc postea manipulatim structa acies coepit esse). It enabled troops to be more flexibly deployed for battle than with the phalanx. Soldiers armed with the pilum (throwing spear) were given more room. The legion was deployed for battle in three ranks ( hastati, principes, triarii ), each of the first two ranks comprising ten manipuli, each of 120 men, while the rank of the triarii comprised ten manipuli, each of 60 men. …

[German version] The extraordinarii were soldiers from allied Italian cities, serving in the army of early Rome as elite units of infantry and cavalry. Twelve prefects appointed by the consuls selected the best soldiers from the contingents of the alliance ─ around a third of the cavalry and a fifth of the infantry ─ in order to make up the extraordinarii (Pol. 6,26,6). Some extraordinarii were entrusted with the special task of accompanying the consuls and acting as their bodyguard. They also took part in battles as regular troops; in 209 BC they fought und…

[German version] In the Roman army, generally, a number of soldiers or specifically, a military unit; as the word lacked a precise definition, it could be used of either the auxilia or of the legions (Tac. Agr. 18,2; CIL III 12257: cohors Lusitanorum). Units lacking their own name were those referred to as numeri, e.g. the equites singulares Augusti (ILS 2182-2184; 2129) or the exploratores (ILS 2631; 2632; 9186; 9187). The same applied to units which had been recruited at the frontiers of the Empire: these numeri were often named after their place of origin (cf. e.g. the numeri Palmyrenorum,…

[German version] In the army of the Roman Republic an optio served under each of the two centuriones of a manipulus . The word derives from the fact that the optio was originally selected by a centurio ( optare, 'choose', 'wish for'; Festus p. 184M; cf. Veg. Mil. 2,7,4). In the Principate, an optio or optio centuriae (ILS 2116) was among the principales in the legiones, who received either pay and a half or double pay (Soldiers' pay) and performed special duties. An optio was ranked between the tesserarius and the signifer (Ensign bearer); he was also under the centurio, in whose absence he …

[German version] The comitatenses were the units that constituted the mobile army of the late Roman Empire. Their name derives from the comitatus, the administrative machine that served the princeps and accompanied him on his travels. The comitatenses were not tied to any specific territorium, and could be joined to territorial troops permanently stationed in specific provinces ( limitanei or ripenses). It is probable that  Diocletianus had raised a mobile army, but it was of limited size. However,  Constantinus enlarged the comitatenses and gave them new significance by on …

( seditio militum). [German version] I. Military Service and Discipline The discipline of the Roman army impressed even non-Roman authors such as Polybius and Flavius Iosephus [4]. They praised the superiority of Roman soldiers, which was achieved by focused training, so that they ‘ruled almost the entire world because of their physical strength and courage ’ (Ios. BI 2,580). However, in the early Republic, the army consisted of a levy of citizens who had a certain amount of wealth. Therefore, it was diff…

[German version] RM are first mentioned (in the form ripenses) in a decision of Constantine I in AD 325 (Cod. Theod. 7,20,4), where they are distinguished from the comitatenses , the field army. Ripenses ranked just below the comitatenses, but above the soldiers of the alae and cohorts, who made up the auxiliary troops (Auxilia). They obtained exemption from the poll tax for themselves and their wives after twenty-four years' service, but were less privileged than the comitatenses in the case of a medical discharge. It is possible that the ripenses or RM (Cod. Theod. 7,1,18; 7,4,14) …

[German version] General designation for the units of the late Roman army that had fixed garrisons in the border regions ( limites; see limes ) of the Roman Empire. They were under the command of a dux limitis, who was responsible for a section of the border, which often stretched over several territorial provinces. The term limitanei is first recorded in an official document in AD 363 (Cod. Theod. 12,1,56); it was used to distinguish the territorial troops from the soldiers of the field army ( comitatenses ), which was not bound to a specific territory. The cre…

[German version] With the exception of the senators and the equites, the centurio was the most important officer in the Roman army. In the 1st cent. BC, a cohort (  cohors ) contained six centuriones, each commanding a   centuria of 80 men, and bearing titles reflecting the former mode of organization by maniples: pilus prior, pilus posterior, princeps prior, princeps posterior, hastatus prior, hastatus posterior. By the Flavian period at the latest, there were only five centuriones in the first cohort, which was, however, the highest ranking cohort in the legion ( primi ordines). There …