Vindolanda tablets: Glimpse of Legionary Health

[guy]

This section of Vindolanda tablet (154) sheds interesting insight of the troop strength and health of the soldiers from a Tungrian auxiliary cohort at the fort of Vindolanda in Northern England during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian near the later constructed Hadrian's Wall.




(Enter tablet 154):
http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/tablets/TVII-2-1.shtml

Quote

18 May [c. AD 92-97], net number of the First Cohort of Tungrians, of which the commander is Iulius Verecundus the prefect, was 752.

Total absentees were 456.

The remainder, present [were] 296.

From these [the 31 soldiers present but unable to perform their duties]:

 

Sick--15
Wounded--6
Suffering from inflammation of the eyes (lippientes)--10
Total of these [present but unable to perform duties because of illness] -- 31.

Remainder, fit for active service 265, including one centurion.

 

Quote

The Vindolanda tablets are fragments of wooden leaf-tablets with writing in ink found at Vindolanda Roman fort in northern England.[1] The tablets date from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, which makes them roughly contemporary with Hadrian's Wall, which is near Vindolanda. The tablets contain messages to and from members of the garrison of Vindolanda, their families, and their slaves.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindolanda_tablets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjx9Qjhiv1o

The Tungrians were a tribe from modern day Belgium.

Interestingly, about 60% of the total cohort was not in the fort, presumably on duties elsewhere. Of those remaining in the fort (296), 31 (more than 10%) were unfit for duty (sick, wounded, or suffering from eye inflammation). I am surprised at the large number who were absent because of eye disease.

Eye disease was a common condition is the Ancient Rome. Trachoma, for example, was apparently a common ailment. It is caused by a highly contagious infection that occurs in crowded settings with poor hygiene and malnutrition. Although rare today in the industrialized world, it continues to cause misery and blindness to millions in the Third World.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trachoma

This and other surviving tablets from Vindolanda supplies us with a wealth of knowledge about the everyday lives of the Roman Army and their families.


 
 

guy also known as gaius




Background information from the youtube clp:

Published on Mar 16, 2012

Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth.

It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, among the most important finds of military and private correspondence (written on wooden tablets) found anywhere in the Roman Empire. The first post-Roman record of the ruins at Vindolanda was made by the antiquarian William Camden, in his Britannia (1586). Occasional travellers reached the site over the next two hundred years, and the accounts they left are useful because they predate much of the stone-stealing that has damaged the site. 

.The garrison were auxiliary infantry or cavalry units, not components of Roman legions. From the early third century AD onwards, this was the Fourth Cohort of Gauls. It had been presumed that this title was by this time purely nominal, with auxiliary troops being recruited locally, but an inscription found in a recent season of excavations suggests that native Gauls were still to be found in the regiment and that they liked to distinguish themselves from British soldiers. The inscription reads:

CIVES GALLI
DE GALLIAE
CONCORDES
QUE BRITANNI
Of which a free translation would be "The troops from Gaul dedicate this statue to the goddess Gallia with the full support of the British-born troops".

The fort was originally constructed in turf and timber before Hadrian's Wall was built around 122 AD, and was repaired and rebuilt several times. Later, apparently after a period of abandonment when the garrison transferred to a fort on the Wall itself (probably Vercovicium, now known as Housesteads), a new stone fort was built approximately on the same site.

Some of the archaeological deposits reach depths of six meters. The anoxic conditions at these depths have preserved thousands of artifacts that normally disintegrate in the ground, thus providing an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of Roman life -- military and otherwise -- on the northern frontier.

Edited January 4, 2022 by guy

[Ludovicus]

What a great post. With the discovery about a thousand of the ink filled tablets it will take some time before all the messages are deciphered,

translated, and published. What more new discoveries will be made? Already the Vindolanda trove has uncovered the first example of a woman's

writing (and in her own hand!) in Latin.

 

Is there a website that has all the up-to-date info on these letters?

[guy]

Is there a website that has all the up-to-date info on these letters?

 

Thanks for reading my post.

 

The site mentioned is probably the best for reference. One needs to know the number of the tablet of interest, however. My post is based on tablet 154 and one must enter 154 to bring up the tablet in question. (Or, one can click on the "View all tablets" option and go through each tablet, one at a time.)

 

http://vindolanda.cs.../TVII-2-1.shtml

 

 

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited December 30, 2010 by guy

[Crispina]

Is there a website that has all the up-to-date info on these letters?

 

Thanks for reading my post.

 

The site mentioned is probably the best for reference. One needs to know the number of the tablet of interest, however. My post is based on tablet 154 and one must enter 154 to bring up the tablet in question. (Or, one can click on the "View all tablets" option and go through each tablet, one at a time.)

 

http://vindolanda.cs.../TVII-2-1.shtml

 

 

 

guy also known as gaius

 

I remember the site you mention (and posted link to). I spent hours there one time, it was the wee hours of the morning before I realized it. Very interesting.

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

What's more the Vindolanda tablets were transcribed using an early version of the EpiDoc convention, so you can download each tablet and annotate it in xml in order to mark up contents which match your interest in order to make it findable in a search, and eventually submit your improved markup to the team for inclusion in the main database

Edited December 30, 2010 by Bryaxis Hecatee

[Ludovicus]

Is there a website that has all the up-to-date info on these letters?

 

Thanks for reading my post.

 

The site mentioned is probably the best for reference. One needs to know the number of the tablet of interest, however. My post is based on tablet 154 and one must enter 154 to bring up the tablet in question. (Or, one can click on the "View all tablets" option and go through each tablet, one at a time.)

 

http://vindolanda.cs.../TVII-2-1.shtml

 

 

 

guy also known as gaius

 

These letters are fascinating. A list of clothing that includes underwear, an invitation to a birthday party, an apparent doodle. I don't think it's possible to get any closer to Romans than these missives, incomplete and fragmentary though they maybe.

 

I remember the site you mention (and posted link to). I spent hours there one time, it was the wee hours of the morning before I realized it. Very interesting.