The light armed cohorts discussion and evidence

[jkaler48]

Opening this topic for discussion of the Legion's light Armed cohorts.
Hope to see ancient written sources, Iconography of possible light armed soldiers, and a discussion of how they may have been armed and equipped.

Theory: They were the descendants of the velites and existed from the Republic throughout the Imperial period. They were equipped with light javelins rather than Pila, did not wear armor except for helmets and often used an curved oval cliptus.

[jkaler48]

Julius Caesar, Civil War Caes. Civ. 1.72
1.71
The manner of fighting was thus: Some light-armed cohorts formed the rearguard, which, in a plain, halted from time to time, and made head against our cavalry. When they fell in with an eminence, the very nature of the ground furnished them with the means of defending themselves, because those who were first could, cover them behind. But when a valley or descent came in the way, the van could give no assistance to the rear, and our cavalry annoyed them with their darts from the higher ground, which put them in imminent danger. In this case, the legions were obliged to halt, and endeavour to drive back the cavalry a good way, after which they ran down the valley precipitately, until they came to the opposite eminence. For their cavalry, of which they had a considerable number, was so terrified by their ill success in former skirmishes, that, far from being of any service, they were forced to place it in the centre to secure it; and if any of them chanced to straggle from the main body, they were immediately taken by Caesar's horse.

Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares 10.30 DCCCXXXVIII (F X, 30)

SERVIUS SULPICIUS GALBA TO CICERO (AT ROME)

CAMP NEAR MUTINA, 16 APRIL ON the 15th of April, the day on which Pansa was to arrive at the camp of Hirtius, with the former of whom I was—for I had gone along the road a hundred miles to hasten his arrival-Antony brought out two legions, the second and the thirty-fifth, and two praetorian cohorts, one his own and the other that of Silanus, and a party of reservists. He confronted us with such a force because he thought that we had only four legions of recruits. But in the course of the night, in order to enable us to reach the camp in greater safety, Hirtius had sent us the Martian legion—which I usually command—and two praetorian cohorts. As soon as Antony's horsemen came in sight, neither the Martian legion nor the cavalry could be held back. The rest of us were obliged to follow them, as we could not stop them. Antony was keeping his men under cover at Forum Gallorum, and did not wish it to be known that he had the legions. He was allowing none but his cavalry and light-armed men to be seen. When Pansa saw that the legion was advancing in spite of him, he ordered two legions of recruits to follow his lead.

Julius Caesar, Gallic War Gal. 7.41 ch. 407.40

Caesar felt great anxiety on this intelligence, because he had always especially indulged the state of the Aedui, and, without any hesitation, draws out from the camp four light-armed legions and all the cavalry: nor had he time, at such a crisis, to contract the camp, because the affair seemed to depend upon dispatch. He leaves Caius Fabius, his lieutenant, with two legions to guard the camp. When he ordered the brothers of Litavicus to be arrested, he discovers that they had fled a short time before to the camp of the enemy. He encouraged his soldiers "not to be disheartened by the labor of the journey on such a necessary occasion," and, after advancing twenty-five miles, all being most eager, he came in sight of the army of the Aedui, and, by sending on his cavalry, retards and impedes their march; he then issues strict orders to all his soldiers to kill no one. He commands Eporedirix and Viridomarus, who they thought were killed, to move among the cavalry and address their friends. When they were recognized and the treachery of Litavicus discovered, the Aedui began to extend their hands to intimate submission, and, laying down their arms, to deprecate death. Litavicus, with his clansmen, who after the custom of the Gauls consider it a crime to desert their patrons, even in extreme misfortune, flees forth to Gergovia .

Arrian's Array against the Alans
The Fifteenth Legion?s infantry should hold the entire right center above the middle of the whole area, because they are by far the most numerous: the infantrymen of the Twelfth Legion should hold the remaining space on the left filling it up to the point of the left flank. They should deploy in eight ranks and their deployment should be close ordered. And the front four ranks of the formation must be of spearmen, whose spearpoints end in thin iron shanks. And the foremost of them should hold them at the ready, in order that when the enemies near them, they can thrust the ironpoints of the spears at the breast of the horses in particular. Those standing in second, third an fourth rank of the formation must hold their spears ready for thrusting if possible, wounding the horses and killing the horsemen and put the rider out of action with the spear stuck in their heavy body armour and the iron point bent because of the softness. The following ranks should be of the javelineers. The ninth rank behind them should be the foot archers, those of the Numidians, Cyrenaicans, Bosporans and Ityraeans. Artillery pieces must be deployed on each flank to fire at the advancing enemies at maximum range, and behind the whole battle formation.

Commentary from: http://s_van_dorst.tripod.com/Ancient_W ... ranslation

"It remains unclear whether the eight ranks of the legionary troops belong to the same unit, perhaps representing a contubernium deployed in single file, or that the two distinct groups of four diffently armed legionaries represented different subunits of the legion with the front four ranks perhaps belonging to the centuriae of the priores and the rear four ranks to those of the posteriores. Alternatively the front four ranks could perhaps have been those of cohortes I to V and the rear four ranks those of cohortes VI to X. The combination of both pila and lanceae as weapons used by legionaries is not unique to Arrianus. It is attested by Polyaenus for the army of Caesar, in Tacitus for a battle between legio III Gallica and Sarmatians in AD 69, in Josephus in his description of the Roman army in Judea and in Lucianus for the army of Cappadocia some thirty years after the governorship of Arrianus. These two different types of javelins were apparently a typical combination of weaponry for Roman legionaries.

Speidel?s identification of the four rear ranks of lonchophoroi as specialised legionary light infantry may be challenged by the fact that other lonchophoroi, probably elite legionaries, are designated as kouphoi lonchophoroi indicating that the others may have been heavy infantry rather than specialist skirmishers. The distinction made between psiloi and thyreophoroi among the lonchophoroi later on makes clear that not all of the javelinmen were skirmishers. The rear rank lonchophoroi are surely identical with these thyreophoroi and thus heavy infantry troops. It is not clear whether javelineers of both types would carry multiple throwing spears. Later sources indicate that lancearii could carry up to five javelins at a time. Another point of interest is whether the four rear ranks of lonchophoroi would be equipped with a different type of shield like the lonchophoroi in the general's guard. "

[jvrjenivs]

Hi John, I think you made a good start. To make it even better you should also add the Latin that is used by every author to you qoutes. Lets see if they all are translated from the same name. (And that name can be another important clue). It happen that a translation from one translator can be significantly different from another one, but still the original text is the same and should also be checked when you use it as a source.

Ow, and the reference for the Arrian quote is missing.

[Nicholas Gaukroger]

IIRC the Caesar "light legionarii" are described as "expedita" in Latin (excuse spelling which may be incorrect) and that Adrian Goldsworthy believes that this refers to them marching without packs, etc. but otherwise armed and armoured as normal. So essentailly troops ready to fight if suddenly attacked and not burdened with other kit.

The quote from Galba suggests to me that the light troops were not legionarii at all as Anthony is trying to keep his legionarii concealed.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Arrian seems to be describing pila, what era were the Alans from?

[Robert Vermaat]

Arrian seems to be describing pila, what era were the Alans from?

The Alans in this case date to 135 AD, but they occur in Roman sources fromthe 1st to 5th centuries AD.

This part (Acies 16) of Arrian (where its mentions ‘spears ending in thin iron shanks’) does not agree with the orgininal text (MS Laurentius gr.LV 4). My argument.

[aquilifer]

Maybe a stupid question, but why didn't the romans equip their light auxilia skirmishers with pila instead of javelins?

I mean, from what little I know, the pila is better at piercing armour/shields right?

Is it that javelins are easier to produce? (probably also cheaper since I have read once that pila take longer to produce since it has the shaft inside and stuff)

Or do javelins on average just have better momentum or range (maybe even lighter then a pilum?) since speed and keeping distance is more important for skirmishers, since their job is to harass and pepper the enemy before the heavier infantry charge in ...

[Crispvs]

A pilum is a type of javelin. :wink:

Crispvs

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

A pilum is a type of javelin. :wink:

Crispvs

Also there were heavy and light pila, socketed and tanged.

[Crispvs]

Byron,

I am not sure that the actual weight difference between rod tangs, flat tangs and sockets would be much of a factor, as surviving examples of pila dating to the first and second centuries AD vary a lot in size anyway. Also, was there still a 'heavy' and a 'light' version of the pilum by the AD130s?

Crispvs

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Byron,

I am not sure that the actual weight difference between rod tangs, flat tangs and sockets would be much of a factor, as surviving examples of pila dating to the first and second centuries AD vary a lot in size anyway. Also, was there still a 'heavy' and a 'light' version of the pilum by the AD130s?

Crispvs

By then, I think, but CMIIW, you had pila with lead weights on them......so you did, but in a different form.
I have light socketed pila made from the finds at Alesia, which require a smaller shaft, so these would definately be a lighter pila/javalin,
than one with the block and flat tangs.

[Crispvs]

Well, perhaps, but the siege of Alesia was 187 years before Arian was writing, so the weapons from Alesia are hardly relevant really. After all, how often have you heard me mention the pugio from Alesia when discussing first and early second century AD daggers? Only very rarely and only then for comparative purposes.

Also, regarding the lead weights. If you can point me to an archaeologically attested example of a lead weighted pilum (and I do not mean plumbatae) then I would be very grateful. Until then however, I shall continue to regard them as an imaginative interpretation of a sculpture of a pilum (on which no paint survives) shown being carried by a Praetorian guardsman on the Cancellaria reliefs from Rome, supported by extrapolation by a number of third century AD stelae. And before you ask, no - I have never been happy to see them in our display. :wink:

Crispvs

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Actually, arrian is only one of the sources quoted above, so I don't think this topic is reserved only for the periods Arrian was writing about.
Also Crispus, there are more than one depictions of pila with what appears to be lead weights, sometimes multiple lead weights.
As usual, I am offshore so I don't have the images on hand, but I think, could be wrong, but I think, there are images from the Dura
frescos of what appear to be multiple weights on a pilum......what else could it logically be?
a couple of fruit stuck on incase he gets hungry during sentry duty?

And Crispus, I know what plumbate are, so I wouldn't point you to any.

Absence of evidence is not proof of absence, had you ever seen the plates on the Kalkriese seg until the
evidence was available?

What do you think those bulbs could possibly be?
I am not convinced by the Ceramic theory either, so I would think the lead weight is one of the most plausable theories going.
The feel of the weighted pilum is far more convincing than anything else I have heard.
Iconography is all we have to go with, and it does appear that it isn't all loopy artists on magic mushrooms.

[Crispvs]

Sorry, my original point had simply been to point out that a pilum is still a javelin, even if it has a distinctive form. You are right that the original post was more general than just the AD130s but I had thought (perhaps incorrectly) that your own posts had been more to do with Arrian and it was that that I was addressing.

You talk of the depiction of lead weighted pila. I think you will find that the evidence you cite is precisely the same evidence I mentioned above. Yes, these sculptures certainly do show circular expansions which may be additional weights but the idea that these are lead (as opposed to wood) is simply an assumption which as far as I know is not supported by any archaeological evidence, but which many people have taken up and now assume to be a proven fact, which it is not. It is what Mike Bishop refers to as a 'factoid'. :wink:

Regarding the Kalkriese segmentata, actually I had noticed as early as 1995 that a lot of the hinges and buckles I had pictures of did not seem to match what was found on known pieces of segmentata, but did not know where to fit them into the scheme of things. It took Mike Bishop's expertise and joined up thinking to give these fittings their proper place as the Kalkriese type. The hinges and buckles were well known long before the breast plate appeared to give them a context.

Sorry to have got a bit OT here.

Crispvs

[jkaler48]

I am thinking the possibly lead weighted Pila are heavy Pila and may also have been used primarily as a fortified position defensive weapon being difficult to throw back UP at the defenders.
"caes.gal.7.82": [7.82] While the Gauls were at a distance from the fortification, they did more execution, owing to the immense number of their weapons: after they came nearer, they either unawares empaled themselves on the spurs, or were pierced by the mural darts from the ramparts and towers, and thus perished. After receiving many wounds on all sides, and having forced no part of the works, when day drew nigh, fearing lest they should be surrounded by a sally made from the higher camp on the exposed flank, they retreated to their countrymen. But those within, while they bring forward those things which had been prepared by Vercingetorix for a sally, fill up the nearest trenches; having delayed a long time in executing these movements, they learned the retreat of their countrymen before they drew nigh to the fortifications. Thus they returned to the town without accomplishing their object.