The 'Lost' Naval Commands of Late Rome

[Nathan Ross]

Lewis & Short refers to 'agrariae stationes ' in Ammianus 14. 3 and defines the expression as 'outposts'.

I've just noticed the text of an inscription (AE 1948, 136, from the statio of Mafraq in the Syrian desert), dated to AD334, which records the construction of a reservoir because "many of the agrarienses had been ambushed and killed by Saracens while fetching water".

So this, combined with the agraria statio, might suggest that the boats called naves agrarienses were intended to support or patrol distant outposts on the river.

[Longovicium]

Oh that's odd. My email alerted me to your response, Nathan - but didn't for Renatus' earlier responses. Damn you, interweb!

Thanks, Renatus, for the references to Vegetius and Ammianus. So we have 'field outposts', 'field vessels' and 'being out in the 'fields', as well as 'field troops' or 'agrarienses'. These all presumably being distinct from burgarii. The Syrian inscription is an especially nice find also, Nathan, adding local colour, as it were.