Roman Special Troops

[Quintus Artemis Sertorius]

I have been doing alot of reading about Rome for a couple of years now. The one thing that i haven't seen a whole lot of is mention of any kind of Roman special forces like units. I know about the Praetorian Guard, but they strike me more of political thugs than true legionaries. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this.

[Tobias]

One example of special forces in Rome would be the Lictor.

The lictor was a member of a special class of Roman civil servant, with special tasks of attending magistrates of the Roman Republic and Empire who held imperium.

The lictor's main task was to attend as bodyguards to magistrates who held imperium: consuls, praetors, dictators and curule aediles; the dictator's deputy, the magister equitum ("Master of the Horse") was also escorted by six lictors. Men with proconsular or prepraetorian imperium were also entitled to lictors. They carried rods decorated with fasces and, outside the pomerium, with axes that symbolized the power to execute. They followed the magistrate wherever he went, including the Forum, his house, temples and the baths. If there was a crowd, the lictors opened the way and kept their master safe. They also had to stand beside the magistrate whenever he addressed the crowd. Magistrates could only dispense their lictors if they were visiting a free city or addressing a higher status magistrate. Lictors also had legal and penal duties: they could at their master's command arrest Roman citizens and punish them.

Although they were not special forces in essence of elite soldiers, there were certainly a special class of citizen.

As well, this may be a little past the time you're looking for, but in the time of the Later Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the Varangian Guard were elite Russian Forces employed to protect the Emperor.

[Onasander]

Yes, the Cavalry. Highly specialized, trained, and motivated soldiers; the Knights of Rome. Horseborne is like the airborne of today, their the queen of the battle.

[longbow]

Didnt the Romans have any combat special forces?Troops who could operate behind Enemy lines?

[Crantor]

I believe that teh cavalry did things like that. harassment, raids, cutting supply lines and such. they also did reconnaissance. All things that spec forces do today.

[Favonius Cornelius]

I have no idea if this has any basis in the true history, but in RTW they have those arcani. Kind of sounds like an excuse to put ninjas into the game though.

[longbow]

I think the Arcani were some type of spy's

[Primus Pilus]

Exploratores acted as military scouts while Speculatores provided other espionage related functions in a less military capacity. There were also the Frumentarii, the Agentes in Rebus.

 

An excellent article on Roman Espionage

 

The Arcani are attested to only once in a short notation by Ammianus Marcellinus and they acted as foreign spies. He indicates that they were in existence under Constans but that they had been 'established in early times'. By the late 4th century Theodosius) they seem to have become unreliable and were disbanded.

[Valens]

We could also mention that some legions took on a sort of 'elite' status. Most notably Legio II Parthica.

[PerfectimusPrime]

Well, there were the Palatini... that consited to pretty good Germanic horsemen, in the late era. I

[diegis]

In time of Traian wars with Dacians,in roman army was created a special group of legionares(especially experianced veterans),equiped with a full body armour and reinforced helmets,who was used in fight every time when dacian fighters equiped with <falx> sword apear.This groups of warriors can be considerated as a "special troops" too.

[Favonius Cornelius]

Would Caracala's aforementioned phalanx count?

[Dream]

in afirca, some legons were given army coated with spikes in an attempt to unfoot elephants if they steped on the body of one of these spike clad men, theres no real metion of it ever being noteable succes and so one must assume it was a nice idea and must have looked interesting, but failed.

 

id just like to voice my thought that the romans didnt need a special ops unit that we do today. they had an all powerful military machine of large numbers of well trained well disaplined well equiped troops. unlike today if a town or city or people were against rome the would be crushed and beaten into submission, or diplomates would work out a pleaceful option, it isnt like today with the politacly correctus of not butchering a town to teach them a lesson, ( no referance to bagdahd there - if anyone was wondering )

 

 

in short, the romans used axulias and local people or local mercs to fill in any unit roles that they were lacking in, such as elephants or horsemen or greek spear men, but a roman army on its own was pretty much more then enuff deal with any other army of the time

 

 

 

 

 

off topic, alexander would have made short work of the romans, even if againsts gaius julius cease, who lost a few battles and whos greatist battle was against verson getorax. aka simpleton barbarian.

 

i felt i had to add that in there.

[Primus Pilus]

off topic, alexander would have made short work of the romans, even if againsts gaius julius cease, who lost a few battles and whos greatist battle was against verson getorax. aka simpleton barbarian.

 

i felt i had to add that in there.

 

Welcome to the forum Dream... just to let you know... we've pretty much had our fill of the Alexander vs. Caesar thing around here. Such conversations have their purpose and can be entertaining, but eventually they end up in an eternal circular pattern that can't find a conclusion.

[DanM]

I believe the Numidian cavilry units that served as auxilliary units within the Roman army often operated behind enemy lines. They would scout, harrass enemy supply lines and gather intelligence. They really aren't what I would think of as special forces within the modern sense of the word, but they did hit some of the functions that were listed.