Exploratores

[Mick Saunders]

Perhaps rather a daft question. One of my earliest memories is accompanying my father to a dig at cramond roman fort. Also I remember as a child reading Rosemary Sutcliffe,s Border Wolves [ I think that was the title but it was about roman scouts in scotland ] .Anyway it gave the impression of a group of wide boys who were in the army but not necessarily of the army. Based in the fort at cramond.
I wonder whether there was any truth in her characterisation? Were the irregular units 4th century misfits or is it all just a good story?Has anyone looked at reenacting an irregular unit and if so which?

[Jon Eaton]

There is a really good book regarding Roman intelligence gathering units-

'Exploratio: Military and Political Intelligence in the Roman World from the Second Punic War to the Battle of Adrianople' by N.J.E. Austin and B. Rankov (1995, Routledge).

It is available in paperback and I would certainly recommend it.