Now, I have made a number of posts on subjects that many of you may feel that I am not very knowledgable in this subject. However I am trying my best to learn from this. My next Question would be: Can anyone give me an accurate list of the Ranks of the Roman Army, preferably with explanations of the jobs. After resarch I found that Primus Pilus (my name) is a rank, what rank I have no idea, and where abouts in status I am also dumbstruck. If anyone could help me it would be mcuh apreciated.
Conor Maher
Maybe you should add books to your research. About the tunic colors etc, possibly you want to read Graham Sumners books (new one is comming out soon (Roman military dress), currently there are 3 of them published by Osprey (Roman Military Clothing).
On the subject of soldier in general try books by Goldsworthy (The total Roman army) or Peter Connolly (Rome and Greece at war) for instance. They will answer a lot of questions and supply a good read.
Ow, and otherwise, you might want to take a look at the wonderfull 'Roman army pages' by Sander van Dorst
[url:7z074g8i]http://members.tripod.com/~S_van_Dorst/legio.html[/url]
in his glossary is the following line:
Quote:Primus pilus (LA): 'first spearman'; highest ranking legionary centurio (LA).
Jim. I think I'd go along with S.van Dorst in his statement of First spear, for Primus does mean first ( or the first ) and Pilus does mean spear.
However you are not wrong about him being in the first row of battle but then he only had to stick that out for 12 months then he was retired, or if he was lucky to be around when a Prefectus Castorum died he might continue by filling that post and if chance came he could even get the opportunity to command a Legion.
I have in other topics tried to give my own opinion of just how this soldier even got the name of Primus Pilus and that is by being the first in a battle to throw a Pilum.
But wouldn't "First Spear" be "Primum Pilum"?
"Pilus" translates as a single hair, so it actually does have a specific meaning. It could therefore be a single strand, which could make the term "First strand", although that's not a cool way of terming it in english but might make more sense to an ancient Roman. I'm not too au fait with latin so could be wrong.
"Primus" also seems to translate as "Chief", not "First".
primo : first, at first, at the beginning, at the start.
primoris : first, foremost /most distinguished, first.
primoris : first, foremost, at the top, uppermost.
primum : at first, for the first time, in the first place.
pilus as such means "single fibre" or hair.
pilus was also the name of the first triarii maniple in a legion. primus pilus then means "the first of/in the pilus"
pilanus is a synonym for triarius.
pilanus is a derivate of pilum.
The term pilum was originally used for a mortar´s pestle and then transferred to the weapon, probably because of its effect on enemy troops.
As such it doesn´t make much sense to translate it at all. Just call the guy Primus Pilus.
Aha, thanks Chris.
As far as I'm concerned it means "Chief of the Pilus" :wink:
Welcome. The term may just as well refer to the original meaning of the word, as you may have noted... on a "tactical" level... LOL
Ok, thankyou, any ideas on other ranks?
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Conor Maher
What? Like centurio derives from centuria which derives from c which means "100"?
I thought Century with respect to a group of soldiers wasn't derived from the number, "centum"=100, but from "census", meaning counted. The original soldier groups were organized according to population, determined by counting, back in Republic days, and before the army became a permanent entity. Or at least that's what I read about it. Latin is a very strange language in many ways...to me at least. So many words can mean utterly different things. I guess I shouldn't gripe too much, English is even worse.
Quote:As far as I'm concerned it means "Chief of the Pilus"
Jim, does that mean those of us who have lost much of our head covering would be considered ineligible? I'm getting closer to being on my LAST hair, and far from my FIRST. :lol:
Yes, like that, I did not know that, how very interesting. (sorry for my blatant ignorance :lol: )
Conor Maher
First of all there was the commander of the legion, the legatus legionis. As field officers he had one senatorial (laticlavius) and five chivalrous (augusticlavii) as military tribunes. Furthermore he had several Captains (centurions) of the first cohort (primi ordinis). These consisted of the primus pilus (as Christian explained before), the princeps (prior), the hastatus (prior), the princeps posterior and the hastatus posterior. The rank beneath them was made of the commanders of the 2nd up to the 10th cohort.
Ah! I believe, like many other ignorant of details, i thought that centurions were footsoldiers!
Quote: Furthermore he had several Captains (centurions)
Thank you for that very usefull information!
Quote:Ah! I believe, like many other ignorant of details, i thought that centurions were footsoldiers!
Yes, they were infantry officers, fighting on foot like their men. They may have had horses to ride on the march, though--they were certainly paid enough to afford them if they wanted!
Here's another page of basics:
http://www.larp.com/legioxx/orgoff.html
Vale,
Matthew