08-23-2012, 09:31 PM
Due to the Tacitus and Dio texts being a trifle ambiguous at times often assumptions are made regarding troop numbers, associations and their consequent movements from place to place.
Tacitus remarks that at the beginning of the rebellion some forts are attacked and in a different tome he remarks that most forts are bypassed. Both these statements may be true and may not necessarily contradict each other.
So if we assume (never a good starting place) that there were a number of forts that were manned can we work out how many men were in these forts during the period AD60 /61?
If we then assume that there were the four full "made up" Legions we can use the resultant figures of the complement of men in the forts to understand who was where and why?
For example we know that Exeter was probably occupied by the Second Legion, but it has been identified as "small fort" with room for 2,500 Legionaries. We also know that Topsham was built - how many soldiers would it have taken to garrison this port or would this have been the responsibility of the Classis Britannica?
We also know that Usk was garrisoned by the Twentieth as part of the force keeping the Silures "bottled up" and we also know that the Fourteenth had recently moved out of the forts from Watling Street into Wroxeter. How many men were required to man the forts on Watling Street?
This is important so that we understand if the Romans were spread thinly on the ground or were they in fact thick on the ground?
Tacitus remarks that at the beginning of the rebellion some forts are attacked and in a different tome he remarks that most forts are bypassed. Both these statements may be true and may not necessarily contradict each other.
So if we assume (never a good starting place) that there were a number of forts that were manned can we work out how many men were in these forts during the period AD60 /61?
If we then assume that there were the four full "made up" Legions we can use the resultant figures of the complement of men in the forts to understand who was where and why?
For example we know that Exeter was probably occupied by the Second Legion, but it has been identified as "small fort" with room for 2,500 Legionaries. We also know that Topsham was built - how many soldiers would it have taken to garrison this port or would this have been the responsibility of the Classis Britannica?
We also know that Usk was garrisoned by the Twentieth as part of the force keeping the Silures "bottled up" and we also know that the Fourteenth had recently moved out of the forts from Watling Street into Wroxeter. How many men were required to man the forts on Watling Street?
This is important so that we understand if the Romans were spread thinly on the ground or were they in fact thick on the ground?
Deryk
