Imperial Auxilia

[nikgaukroger]

Is there a good modern study of the establishment, recruitment, training and performance of the Auxilia? Book or academic article?

There is so much on the legiones that it is really quite dull, but I do struggle to find meaningful information on the Auxilia.

[Gunthamund_Hasding]

Le Bohec, Yann: Imperial Roman Army has some interesting things about auxilia as well I know is not so new but is a good book
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=r2hBq...&q&f=false

[markhebb]

Cheeseman's book isn't bad on the auxilia of the earlier empire - you can find that in google books. For the later auxilia - in particular the so called elite palatine auxilia M.P Spiedel is the man. His articles are listed in numerous book lists on this very site...

[Nathan Ross]

Also John Spaul's two books: Ala 2 (1994), which covers the auxiliary cavalry, and Cohors 2: The evidence for, and a short history of the auxiliary infantry units of the imperial Roman army (2000). Paul Holder's Studies in the Auxilia of the Roman Army (1980) is a slight updating of Cheeseman. Saddington's The Development of the Roman Auxiliary Forces from Caesar to Vespasian covers the early years and the genesis of the imperial system.

- Nathan

[nikgaukroger]

Thanks for the replies.

[popularis]

Hi Nik

As you'll have gathered from the replies, there hasn't been a broad survey publication on the Roman Imperial Auxilia in quite some time. To the above - and as Nathan writes, Spaul is often a very useful starting point, as is Holder - I can only add that if you have a search through l'année philologique for D.B. Saddington's various articles, you'll find a lot of relatively short articles of interest. There are some good area-based studies, such as Geza Alföldy on Germany and Dalmatia (Die Auxiliartruppen der Provinz Dalmatien, Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 14 (1962) 259-296; Die Hilfstruppen der römischen Provinz Germania inferior, Epigraphische Studien 6), but otherwise, it's not a well studied or examined area.

The only consolation is that for the Republican period it's much, much worse

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