01-31-2013, 07:06 PM
Auxiliaries Thracian Cohorts and Аla in Roman Britain
Claudius annexed to the empire three regions that became important sources of auxiliary recruits: Britannia (43 AD), and the former client kingdoms of Mauretania (44) and Thracia (46). The latter became as important as Illyria as a source of auxiliary recruits, especially cavalry and archers. The Flavian period also saw the first formation of large, double-size units, both infantry and cavalry, of a nominal strength of 1,000 men (cohors/ala milliaria), though they were actually mostly smaller (720 for an ala milliaria and 800 for a cohors milliaria). These were the mirror image of the double-strength first cohorts of legions also introduced at this time.
A quote from G. Webster. The Roman Invasion of Britain. London, 1993, pp. 86-87:
The auxiliary units
" .. The evidence from the tombstones is limited to the monuments from Colchester, (RIB 201) and Gloucester (RIB 121), both are Thracian units, Ala I Thracum and Coh VI Thracum respectively, since both appear to belong to an early phase of the occupation. The use of these Thracian troops at the invasion period may seem strange, in view of the serious trouble in Thrace in AD 26 when some of the tribesmen revolted against the introduction of the military levy. Their main grievances were that their clan system would be disrupted, with the young men forced to serve in distant places far away from home. Seventeen years after Poppaeus Sabinus had so crushingly reduced the rebels, regular Thracian troops were part of the Roman army for some years. Longinus, the duplicarus at Colchester, had served 15 years at the time of his death, which must have been a year or so after AD 43. An auxiliary of a Thracian cohort also died at Wroxeter (RIB 291) presumably between c. AD 50 and 56, but the number of the unit has been lost in damage to the edge of the stone, so it could have been the Gloucester unit moved from here when Legio XX was transferred from Colchester in AD 48.
The only other possible invasion units are those on the two stones at Cirencester, and one at Bath. The former two record the presence of the Ala Indiana and Ala Thracum (RIB 108 and 109), either brigaded together as a large mobile task-force, or one succeeding the other, the Thracian unit could be that from Colchester, moved forward by Scapula. The Bath stone (RIB 159) records a serving trooper of the Ala Vettonum, the unit later to occupy Brecon Gaer in Wales, but the granting of citizenship signified by the letters CR (civium Romanorum) after the man’s name seems to show that this stone cannot be earlier than Vespasian."
Resources RAT www.romanarmytalk.com
Claudius annexed to the empire three regions that became important sources of auxiliary recruits: Britannia (43 AD), and the former client kingdoms of Mauretania (44) and Thracia (46). The latter became as important as Illyria as a source of auxiliary recruits, especially cavalry and archers. The Flavian period also saw the first formation of large, double-size units, both infantry and cavalry, of a nominal strength of 1,000 men (cohors/ala milliaria), though they were actually mostly smaller (720 for an ala milliaria and 800 for a cohors milliaria). These were the mirror image of the double-strength first cohorts of legions also introduced at this time.
A quote from G. Webster. The Roman Invasion of Britain. London, 1993, pp. 86-87:
The auxiliary units
" .. The evidence from the tombstones is limited to the monuments from Colchester, (RIB 201) and Gloucester (RIB 121), both are Thracian units, Ala I Thracum and Coh VI Thracum respectively, since both appear to belong to an early phase of the occupation. The use of these Thracian troops at the invasion period may seem strange, in view of the serious trouble in Thrace in AD 26 when some of the tribesmen revolted against the introduction of the military levy. Their main grievances were that their clan system would be disrupted, with the young men forced to serve in distant places far away from home. Seventeen years after Poppaeus Sabinus had so crushingly reduced the rebels, regular Thracian troops were part of the Roman army for some years. Longinus, the duplicarus at Colchester, had served 15 years at the time of his death, which must have been a year or so after AD 43. An auxiliary of a Thracian cohort also died at Wroxeter (RIB 291) presumably between c. AD 50 and 56, but the number of the unit has been lost in damage to the edge of the stone, so it could have been the Gloucester unit moved from here when Legio XX was transferred from Colchester in AD 48.
The only other possible invasion units are those on the two stones at Cirencester, and one at Bath. The former two record the presence of the Ala Indiana and Ala Thracum (RIB 108 and 109), either brigaded together as a large mobile task-force, or one succeeding the other, the Thracian unit could be that from Colchester, moved forward by Scapula. The Bath stone (RIB 159) records a serving trooper of the Ala Vettonum, the unit later to occupy Brecon Gaer in Wales, but the granting of citizenship signified by the letters CR (civium Romanorum) after the man’s name seems to show that this stone cannot be earlier than Vespasian."
Resources RAT www.romanarmytalk.com
