Germans in the Roman army.

[Lucius Domitius Aurelianus]

I was wondering if the Germans that were in the Roman army served in the Legions or did they have their own units? Any info on this topic would be great. Thanks

[Honorius]

I was wondering if the Germans that were in the Roman army served in the Legions or did they have their own units? Any info on this topic would be great. Thanks

 

 

in the late empire they served under their own chieftains and leaders

[Lucius Domitius Aurelianus]

So from my understanding is that before that they served right amongst the ranks of the Romans in the Legions? And if that should be the case was there a language problem? Since I would assume that most of the Germans if not a majority of them did not speak Latin and vice versa for the Romans. Another question. Would the Germans serving in the Roman Legions wear the same thing as the rest of the men or was there something that distinguished them from the other men?

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

Well originally the foreign peoples, including the Germans, served in auxiliary units while the legion was reserved to the sole citizens. After the 212 Caracalla edict on citizenship this distinction began to disappear inside the Empire with many auxiliary units getting the citizenship, but not peoples from outside of the Empire, thus not the Germans.

 

But at the time they were individual Germans inside larger groups of peoples and thus they had to learn to speak and write Latin. With time German chieftains began to enter service in the Roman army with their retinue, then whole tribes began to enter Roman's service. This meant that while the nobles spoke Latin the rank soldiers could keep speaking Germans, even if they learned some Latin in order to live daily.

 

Until the 5th century the Romans took care to give the Germans Roman commanders because they did not trust the German nobles but then they changed their practice. This in turn led to changes in units training and tactics, and the final evolution we all know.

 

During this process equipment also evolved from purely roman uniform to mixed roman and barbarian and then purely barbarian form, but the barbarian cultures had also begun to adopt roman equipments...

[caldrail]

So from my understanding is that before that they served right amongst the ranks of the Romans in the Legions? And if that should be the case was there a language problem? Since I would assume that most of the Germans if not a majority of them did not speak Latin and vice versa for the Romans. Another question. Would the Germans serving in the Roman Legions wear the same thing as the rest of the men or was there something that distinguished them from the other men?

 

Germans in the regular legions wore regular dress and learned latin commands or got shouted at. After all, the policy of roman legions was to post soldiers away from their homelands in order to forestall patriotic rebellions. It wasn't unusal for troops of a unit to be from a single area. For instance we know that a cohort of moors served on hadrians wall. I'm not aware of any german examples apart from the personal guard of caligula, who decided their big hairy image was just right as protectors.

[Gladius Hispaniensis]

Caldrail, according to Josephus German auxiliaries did serve in the Holy Land in the 1st Century C.E

[Pertinax]

Does anyone have a useful link or title regarding the "Ala Noricum" , I realise I am placing a "germanic" title perhaps a little too far south?

[caldrail]

Caldrail, according to Josephus German auxiliaries did serve in the Holy Land in the 1st Century C.E

 

Yes, but I wasn't talking about them. There were germans in the regular legions too. Arminius's brother served with the legions on the german frontier for instance. They would have been in small numbers given that most were recruited directly into auxillary units as you mention. Nonetheless, the attractions of serving in the legions included regular pay and citizenship plus benefits on retirement, so a few individuals would certainly have been tempted.