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Equipment of the Imperial Roman Auxiliary (infantry)
#16
Thanks for the kind comments guys. You may also notice that we have different weapons as well- for example, I wear a Hod Hill spatha, others have spatha or gladius. as regards side arms, some have pugiones, some daggers, and one a small axe. Defensive armour also varies- mail with and without doubling and scale, though no-one has made the plunge into a lorica yet. A couple of manicae as well. And as regards legwear, bracae, trousers, or nothing. Legwraps for a couple of us.

Peronis as the decanus is the best dressed - you can see him in the scale.

Personally, I'd like to get away from the myth that all Roman auxillaries looked alike, and also that auxillaries were solely light troops- they were used for frontline battles as well as scouting, with some units with specialist skills- for example the Batavians skill at crossing rivers.

From another of Peronis ' articles http://www.romanarmy.net/batavian.htm

"So excellently, indeed, had his soldiery been trained that the cavalry of the Batavians, as they were called, swam the Ister with their arms. Seeing all this, the barbarians stood in terror of the Romans, they employed Hadrian as an arbitrator of their differences".
(Dio Cassius Liber LXIX 9.6)

The implication is that the Batavians possessed a unique skill. However, there is a gravestone of a certain Soranus, a Syrian trooper in a Batavian milliary cohort, again, possibly the emperor's personal horseguard. Soranus' epitaph records that in AD118 he, before the Emperor Hadrian, swam the Danube and performed the following feats..


CIL 03, 03676 (AE 1958, 0151).

Ille ego Pannoniis quondam notissimus oris
inter mille viros fortis primusq(ue) Batavos
Hadriano potui qui iudice vasta profundi
aequora Danuvii cunctis transnare sub armis
emissumq(ue) arcu dum pendet in aere telum
ac redit ex alia fixi fregique sagitta
quem neque Romanus potuit nec barbarus unquam
non iaculo miles non arcu vincere Parthus
hic situs hic memori saxo mea facta sacravi
viderit an ne aliquis post me mea facta sequ[a]tur
exemplo mihi sum primus qui talia gessi


"The man who, once very well known to the ranks in Pannonia, brave and foremost among one thousand Batavians, was able, with Hadrian as judge, to swim the wide waters of the deep Danube in full battle kit. From my bow I fired an arrow, and while it quivered still in the air and was falling back, with a second arrow I hit and broke it. No Roman or foreigner has ever managed to better this feat, no soldier with a javelin, no Parthian with a bow. Here I lie, here I have immortalised my deeds on an ever-mindful stone which will see if anyone after me will rival my deeds. I set a precedent for myself in being the first to achieve such feats"."
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aka Paul B, moderator
http://www.romanarmy.net/auxilia.htm
Moderation in all things
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#17
Hitting the airborne arrow has showed up in many legends since AD118 (Robin Hood comes to mind). It's interesting to know there was a historical antecedent.
"Fugit irreparabile tempus" (Irrecoverable time glides away) Virgil

Ron Andrea
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#18
Hi

Quote:They look very authentic, even if the colour as you state Mr Sumner is maybe less appropriate for a bunch of sh**p sha**ers like them

Mr Sumner! No need to be so formal... please! :o

Just trying to help you guys, the only way I know how, by passing on my research.

Quote:Personally, I'd like to get away from the myth that all Roman auxillaries looked alike, and also that auxillaries were solely light troops- they were used for frontline battles as well as scouting, with some units with specialist skills- for example the Batavians skill at crossing rivers.

It would help if you had more men available. That way you could have a group clearly equipped with 'Roman' gear, another with just tunics, cloaks and slings or stones (the true light infantry as you point out) and finally a group of obvious natives, perhaps wearing some Roman field sign, a bit like the Natal Native Contingent who when they enlisted for the forthcoming Zulu war of 1879 were promised a British uniform but which eventually consisted only of a red rag they could tie around their head!

I myself have never seen the Auxiliaries as solely light infantry and I think re-enactment is helping to dispel that. After all when you are wearing just as much gear as a Legionary you can hardly call yourself light! But then not all Auxiliaries wore armour which is something re-enactors rarely show and off the top of my head (which is dangerous) I only know of the French group Via Romana who have an un-armoured Numidian. Any pictures proving me wrong here will be gratefully accepted!

The Eighteenth and Nineteenth century Light Infantry also wore little different from the regular line infantry but as you allude to in your post Light infantry could operate in both line or more flexible formations.

Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.

"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.

"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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#19
Quote:Just trying to help you guys, the only way I know how, by passing on my research.
And its much appreciated.

Quote:It would help if you had more men available.
If only.......
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aka Paul B, moderator
http://www.romanarmy.net/auxilia.htm
Moderation in all things
Reply
#20
Quote:I just wish you guys would go into red-brown like Johnny's illustration, ironically taken from a photo of Adrian!

Graham.

At the moment Graham, there can now be seen a variety of colours within the Batavians. I am wearing woad blue this year, but you can also see checks, natural undyed fabrics as well as reds, green and also black/brown natural. I'm trying to get the guys to move away from the old green look! As you well know, green was a time consuming colour to attain having to be over-dyed (woad/weld) and probably too expensive for a typical provincial soldier.

And, to be honest, you can hardly see the tunic when we are carrying shields anyway! :wink:

As for head-taking at Mons Graupius...
[Image: Beheading_jb_01.jpg]
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#21
Hmm. Looks like the fellow on the ground paid the price, to be sure. You're right about green dye. Hard to find. You'd think that the green from chlorophyll would be a good dye, but it isn't.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)

Saepe veritas est dura.
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#22
Here is a sketch I drew up last night of a Batavian auxiliary. It will probably look different compared to the average chainmail-bronze helmet look of the 'normal' auxiliary, but I just wanted to experiment here (I think you can click on the picture for a better view =S ):

[attachment=0:1ma7ng0m]<!-- ia0 Batavian21.jpg<!-- ia0 [/attachment:1ma7ng0m]

I added a few native pieces of equipment e.g. the animal skin, feathers, hunting knife and trousers to make him look more Germannic, but gave him short hair and shaven face. I gave him a scalp (located under his belt next to his knife) and a severed head for some extra grittiness.

I am aware that I have made some mistakes considering some aspects of the drawing itself (but it is only a quick sketch), and have over-sized the bronze fittings of the shoulder pieces of the lorica segmentata.
Lorenzo Perring-Mattiassi/Florivs Virilis

COHORS I BATAVORUM M.C.R.P.F
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#23
Good job. He looks awfully well equipped. Would that be typical for an auxiliary?
"Fugit irreparabile tempus" (Irrecoverable time glides away) Virgil

Ron Andrea
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#24
Quote:Good job. He looks awfully well equipped. Would that be typical for an auxiliary?

The auxilia would have several roles on the battlefield, including that of heavy infantry. The most well-known roles are those of missile troops and cavalry. We know they would have served as light infantry too, so, presumably (I'm no expert on the auxilia), they would have had heavy infantry roles also.
Lorenzo Perring-Mattiassi/Florivs Virilis

COHORS I BATAVORUM M.C.R.P.F
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#25
Works for me.

Would auxiliary equipment be funded by the army, or would they buy their own. (Come to think of it, the legionnaires had the cost of their armor deducted from their pay, didn't they?")
"Fugit irreparabile tempus" (Irrecoverable time glides away) Virgil

Ron Andrea
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#26
Quote:Works for me.

Would auxiliary equipment be funded by the army, or would they buy their own. (Come to think of it, the legionnaires had the cost of their armor deducted from their pay, didn't they?")

Goldsworthy mentions that pay would depend on what Auxiliary unit you were part of, and was sometimes even influenced by the unit's origins ('The Complete Roman Army' p.94). So if the auxiliaries were, for example, slingers, they may have recieved less pay than that of an infantry cohort, due to the fact that the infantry may need more money in order to have a portion deducted for equipment, and still have a decent ammount for themselves- though, where the evidence for this theory comes from, I have no idea.

It is suggested that under Augustus an auxiliary infantryman would recieve 187.5 denarii, a cavalryman in a cohort 225 denarii, and a cavalryman in an ala 262.5 denarii. But others argue that auxiliaries were payed at a universal rate, which would mean that their equipment was funded by the army.







- Lorenzo.
Lorenzo Perring-Mattiassi/Florivs Virilis

COHORS I BATAVORUM M.C.R.P.F
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#27
I suspected as much. Nice to have the evidence. Thanks.
"Fugit irreparabile tempus" (Irrecoverable time glides away) Virgil

Ron Andrea
Reply
#28
CaballoThanks for the kind comments guys. You may also notice that we have different weapons as well- for example, I wear a Hod Hill spatha, others have spatha or gladius. as regards side arms, some have pugiones, some daggers, and one a small axe. Defensive armour also varies- mail with and without doubling and scale, though no-one has made the plunge into a lorica yet. A couple of manicae as well. And as regards legwear, bracae, trousers, or nothing. Legwraps for a couple of us.

Peronis as the decanus is the best dressed - you can see him in the scale.

Personally, I'd like to get away from the myth that  all Roman auxillaries looked alike, and also that auxillaries were solely light troops- they were used for frontline battles as well as scouting, with some units with specialist skills- for example the Batavians skill at crossing rivers.

From another of  Peronis '  articles  http://www.romanarmy.net/batavian.htm

"So excellently, indeed, had his soldiery been trained that the cavalry of the Batavians, as they were called, swam the Ister with their arms. Seeing all this, the barbarians stood in terror of the Romans, they employed Hadrian as an arbitrator of their differences".
(Dio Cassius Liber LXIX 9.6)

The implication is that the Batavians possessed a unique skill. However, there is a gravestone of a certain Soranus, a Syrian trooper in a Batavian milliary cohort, again, possibly the emperor's personal horseguard. Soranus' epitaph records that in AD118 he, before the Emperor Hadrian, swam the Danube and performed the following feats..


CIL 03, 03676 (AE 1958, 0151).

Ille ego Pannoniis quondam notissimus oris
inter mille viros fortis primusq(ue) Batavos
Hadriano potui qui iudice vasta profundi
aequora Danuvii cunctis transnare sub armis
emissumq(ue) arcu dum pendet in aere telum
ac redit ex alia fixi fregique sagitta
quem neque Romanus potuit nec barbarus unquam
non iaculo miles non arcu vincere Parthus
hic situs hic memori saxo mea facta sacravi
viderit an ne aliquis post me mea facta sequ[a]tur
exemplo mihi sum primus qui talia gessi


"The man who, once very well known to the ranks in Pannonia, brave and foremost among one thousand Batavians, was able, with Hadrian as judge, to swim the wide waters of the deep Danube in full battle kit. From my bow I fired an arrow, and while it quivered still in the air and was falling back, with a second arrow I hit and broke it. No Roman or foreigner has ever managed to better this feat, no soldier with a javelin, no Parthian with a bow. Here I lie, here I have immortalised my deeds on an ever-mindful stone which will see if anyone after me will rival my deeds. I set a precedent for myself in being the first to achieve such feats"."

Hi Caballo,
Im trying to finish my 2nd Century AD Tungrian impression on Hadrians Wall. I have emultaed Adrian Wink's impression below(same shield, helmet, scale , etc) .......on the belt , would the "Felix" one be too late to use, if so, what then? I would also like to use my Hod Hill Spatha, just a simple baldric to hang it on I'm assuming? Ant ideas would be helpful, thanks, Antoninus


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Michael T. Boyd
Victoria, Texas
Cohort V
Legio Hispana IX
Cornuti Seniores

Roman Soldier Impressions are focused on 1st Through 4th Century AD
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