Names of legionaries

[Klingan]

Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but were not all legionaries in the Roman army given good proper Latin names? Or was this just the practice at some point in time? I have always thought (and accepted) it so without reflection. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

Well in the early imperial period the legionaries would have tria nomina as a proper roman should, and would be part of one of the tribe. It is auxiliaries that would have "local" names until they reached the time when they got a diploma (if at least they could grow old enough in the service...) and were thus formaly made citizens, and received thus the tria nomina based upon their original name. Of course all this changes with the 212 edict on citizenship, but that's another story...

[Melvadius]

Although the rule of thumb was that only citizens could serve in the legion and the auxilliaries were composed on non-citizens, strictly speaking there seems to be confusion about the precise status of some men who served in either the legions or the auxilliaries throughout much of the early Principate.

 

There were several instances where for one reason or another non-citizens were drafted into the legions in emergencies when such men may have been 'given' citizenship so they could serve. For instance sailors and marines (usually freemen or other non-citizens) were drafted into the legion in a couple of crises even slaves in one instance in the late Republican period.

 

Some auxilliaries seem to have changed their name on enlistment to the tri-nomina format even before they had received their citizenship while in a couple of instances entire auzxilliary units received citizenshiop for extreme valour before their term of enlistment had completed.

 

After problems with units rebelling when led by native leaders auxilliary units were usually commanded by citizesn even if the unit themselves continued to be recruited from non-citizens - there also could be senior centurions drafted between legion and auxilliary units.

 

It does seem likely though that men serving in the legion did get given the tri-nomina even if they were strictly speaking non-citizeen on enlistment.

[Klingan]

Although the rule of thumb was that only citizens could serve in the legion and the auxilliaries were composed on non-citizens, strictly speaking there seems to be confusion about the precise status of some men who served in either the legions or the auxilliaries throughout much of the early Principate.

 

Thank you both very much! This does, however, leads me to another question: for how long did the legions consist of more or less Italians only?

 

 

There were several instances where for one reason or another non-citizens were drafted into the legions in emergencies when such men may have been 'given' citizenship so they could serve. For instance sailors and marines (usually freemen or other non-citizens) were drafted into the legion in a couple of crises even slaves in one instance in the late Republican period.

 

By non citizens, do you also mean, say barbarians proper (e.g. gauls, brittons?) or just romanized subjects in the core empire?

 

It would seems like I need to read up on Roman military history, I am completely lost here.

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

Italians forming the core of the units I would say about the time of Vespasian, but roman citizenship was enlarged during the period to cover more and more : think about Claudius edict on the Gauls... So one must not be surprised to see non italians come in ever greater numbers in the legions. Had it not been the case you could not have had the spanish emperors in the early second or the illyrian ones later, not even speaking of the syrian ones... as romanity progressed in the roman world, so did the ethnic makeup of the legions change.

 

As for your second question, I have'nt see non-empire non-citizens taken in the legions proper, they were most often recruited to reinforce the auxiliaries units. What we could see, for exemple, was a true barbarian (say, what would now be a dutch from beyond the border of the empire) get roman citizenship and officer rank in a locally recruited unit, but this phenomenon tends to diminish after the rebellion of the Batavi at the end of the reign of Nero.

 

Please do note that what I say is mostly based upon the situation in the western empire, I have never dug on the topic for the oriental forces... So for exemple I don't know much about the makeup of the syrian archers units or the egyptian camel born forces... but from what I remember they were auxiliaries. For the egyptian legions we must have quite a few informations availlable but I did never read a monography on the theme.

 

Maybe Goldworthy's "complete roman history" or Dando-Collins "Legions of Rome" could give you info, as should probably Kepies's book, but I don't have the time to check them today.

[Melvadius]

Thank you both very much! This does, however, leads me to another question: for how long did the legions consist of more or less Italians only?

 

Dando-Collins states that Tiberius followed Augustus policy of not recruiting men into the legions who lived south of the River Po and 'broadlyextended the draft throughout the provinces' (p21).

 

By non citizens, do you also mean, say barbarians proper (e.g. gauls, brittons?) or just romanized subjects in the core empire?

 

It would seems like I need to read up on Roman military history, I am completely lost here.

 

Augustus apparently enrolled special cohorts of freedmen into the auxilliaries after the Varus disaster but one major instance of non-citizens being recruited into the legions was with Nero in AD68 when he raised a 'new' legion from sailors based at Misenum at this time although freemen they did not have either citizen or Latin status. Dando-Collins believes that the raising of the I and II Auditrix was not a straight forward enrollment of saiors but was a bit more complex which also involved the raising of first one then a second unofficial 'support' legion by the town of Vienna on the banks of the Rhone who supported Nero but had an ongoing feud with their neighbours at Lugdunum who supported Vindex.

 

Nero's 'sailor' legions were not officially recognized or equipped and suffered heavy losses at Milvan Bridge when they approached Galba trying to get some sort of official recognition but instead he sent his cavalry against them. It was only later that Otho merged the two groups inot the I Auditrix and the surviving non-citizens were granted citizenship on being officially enrolled (Dando-Collins (84-89)& (98-104).

[Klingan]

Italians forming the core of the units I would say about the time of Vespasian, but roman citizenship was enlarged during the period to cover more and more : think about Claudius edict on the Gauls... So one must not be surprised to see non italians come in ever greater numbers in the legions.

 

Dando-Collins states that Tiberius followed Augustus policy of not recruiting men into the legions who lived south of the River Po and 'broadlyextended the draft throughout the provinces' (p21).

 

These statements seems to contradict each other? Do you really mean south of the Po Melvadius? Not north? Why would they not be recruited from Italy herself?

 

 

Had it not been the case you could not have had the spanish emperors in the early second or the illyrian ones later, not even speaking of the syrian ones... as romanity progressed in the roman world, so did the ethnic makeup of the legions change.

 

But the Spanish emperors of the early 2^nd century AD we all Romans by birth right? They just so happened to live in wealthy roman families living in the provinces? And the Syrians were all after Caracalla's reforms.

 

I'll try to get some time to look at those books!

[Melvadius]

These statements seems to contradict each other? Do you really mean south of the Po Melvadius? Not north? Why would they not be recruited from Italy herself?

 

No I really do mean that the recruitment spread around this period to the rest of the Empire. I cannot remember if anyone has suggested why but I suspect the underlying problem was that during the wars between Pompeii and Caesar and thereafter the wars between Octavian/ Augustas and his various enemies much of Italy had been devastated and there had been heavy losses amongst the legionarries who had been recruited from Italy. Recruiting had extended in this period to the various provinces depending on where the various contenders though they could obtain sufficient replacements for their losses

 

Thereafter there was a general shift to recruiting in the provinces Keppie identified a Republican period practice of with legions being recruited annually they were usually numbered from west to east in a northwards arc around the med. He was first to suggest, with Dando-Collins later supporting the view, that later on different legions each established their own traditional recruiting grounds in specific provinces.

 

Initially this was usually based on where they were first raised/ recruited but thereafter was usually dependant on where they had been based at specific points in their history with low numbered legions initially usually based and /or recruited in Spain.

[XIIII]

Does Dando-Collins provide any references in this Legionary book, or is it practically historical fiction like his other books?

 

Goldsworthy's Complete Roman Army mentions an Egyptian soldier writing home to notify his family of his new Latin name. Not sure what chapter this was, but I will look for it.

[Melvadius]

That is the question - his referencing is very patchy.

 

In some sections it is actually quite good (full Tacitus book and passage references) but equally often he doesn't seem to bother at best only citing 'most authors now believe' or not even that simply hanging his descriptions of events in mid-air.

 

In this instance it does chime with what I have read more academic authors state.

[XIIII]

That is the question - his referencing is very patchy.

 

Yeah, I figured as much. I enjoy Dando-Collins for what it is, dunno if I will ever use any of his work as reference material, though. LOL

[caldrail]

Italians forming the core of the units I would say about the time of Vespasian, but roman citizenship was enlarged during the period to cover more and more : think about Claudius edict on the Gauls...

It's my understanding that the proportion of Italians recruited dropped to a minority of around 20% by mid-imperial times, although I don't remember where I read that so that's not a good reference. One of the reasons for that was the decreasing patriotic martial spirit in comfortable settled Italy whereas the surrounding tribal people were, perhaps not suprisingly, still up for a fight.