04-19-2007, 02:26 PM
Slaves are attested to have been part of the military, either as the property of soldiers, personal servants, or property of the state for military use.
I've been reading Valerie Maxwell's lecture 'Soldier and Civilian: Life Beyond the Ramparts' where she talks briefly about galearii;
"While some of the slaves present in the army train were personal slaves, privately owned, belonging to individual soldiers, others were officially attached to the army itself and thus presumably owned by the state. Many of these performed a pseudo-military role. We encounter them being used to forage, to fetch supplies, to drive the mules and wagons and to help defend the baggage train. Moreover, both Josephus in the first century and Vegetius in the fourth indicate that they had some military training. Josephus is specific on the point: 'Servants ... may properly be included in the category of combatants, whose military training they shared; for taking part in peacetime in all their masters' training and in wartime in their dangers, they yielded to none but them in skill and prowess. One cannot but admire the forethought show in this particular by the Romans, in making their servants useful to them not only in ordinary life but also for war.' Vegetius notes that the most able and experienced were called galearii, a term which derives from the word galea, a helmet. Such servants appear not infrequently on military tombstones, specifically those of cavalrymen...
... The servant wears a tunic and a helmet, and a pair of spears rests across his shoulder."
The slaves and freedmen could very occasionally be lavishly commemorated by the soldiers they served, which is an interesting slant, as seen at Arbeia where a cavalryman, Numerianus, dedicated an elaborate stone to his Moorish slave then freedman, Victor, who was only 20 years old when he died.
Victor's tombstone
The slaves and freedman could also do the reverse in the event of their master's death.
This whole notion of fighting slaves in the army, though, is really interesting, and the whole relationship between them and the soldiery. Does anyone have any more info.
Also, it's made me ponder one of the Mainz pedestals, usually known as legionaries, but these guys do seem to match the description perfectly:
http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/ ... temid,135/
http://www.livius.org/a/germany/mainz/m ... stals.html
I've been reading Valerie Maxwell's lecture 'Soldier and Civilian: Life Beyond the Ramparts' where she talks briefly about galearii;
"While some of the slaves present in the army train were personal slaves, privately owned, belonging to individual soldiers, others were officially attached to the army itself and thus presumably owned by the state. Many of these performed a pseudo-military role. We encounter them being used to forage, to fetch supplies, to drive the mules and wagons and to help defend the baggage train. Moreover, both Josephus in the first century and Vegetius in the fourth indicate that they had some military training. Josephus is specific on the point: 'Servants ... may properly be included in the category of combatants, whose military training they shared; for taking part in peacetime in all their masters' training and in wartime in their dangers, they yielded to none but them in skill and prowess. One cannot but admire the forethought show in this particular by the Romans, in making their servants useful to them not only in ordinary life but also for war.' Vegetius notes that the most able and experienced were called galearii, a term which derives from the word galea, a helmet. Such servants appear not infrequently on military tombstones, specifically those of cavalrymen...
... The servant wears a tunic and a helmet, and a pair of spears rests across his shoulder."
The slaves and freedmen could very occasionally be lavishly commemorated by the soldiers they served, which is an interesting slant, as seen at Arbeia where a cavalryman, Numerianus, dedicated an elaborate stone to his Moorish slave then freedman, Victor, who was only 20 years old when he died.
Victor's tombstone
The slaves and freedman could also do the reverse in the event of their master's death.
This whole notion of fighting slaves in the army, though, is really interesting, and the whole relationship between them and the soldiery. Does anyone have any more info.
Also, it's made me ponder one of the Mainz pedestals, usually known as legionaries, but these guys do seem to match the description perfectly:
http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/ ... temid,135/
http://www.livius.org/a/germany/mainz/m ... stals.html
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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