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The Roman Army of the Augustan era |
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AuxiliaFrom at least the fourth century BC Roman armies had been complemented by the troops of allied states. They supplied what Rome’s heavy infantry lacked: cavalry, archers, slingers, etcetera. Again from the early first century, some of those units became almost permanent additions to the armies of the rival warlords. For example, Caesar’s German cavalry, picked up during the Gallic wars, came with him to Egypt during the Civil Wars almost a decade later. In the same way Rhodian and Balearic slingers or Cretan archers made names for themselves. This policy continued in the Augustan era: client kings and submitted tribes supplied extra troops for Rome’s armies. There were in fact so many auxiliary unit that Tacitus could claim they matched (numerically) the legions in 23 AD.
How they were recruited is hard to make out. While non-citizen inhabitants from the Claudian era onward often enlisted in auxiliary units to get citizenship on retirement, this was not yet established practice during Augustus’ reign. It seems, therefore, that auxiliary units were often enlisted as a complete tribal unit, with their own chiefs in command with the latter giving their name to the unit (e.g. the Ala Longiniana).
However, it is clear that there were also auxiliary units organised along Roman principles consisting of centuriae and turmae. There even existed auxiliary cohortes of Roman citizens, who normally qualified for legionary service. While recruitment for auxiliary units remained focussed on the original group constituting the unit, this gradually changed and the cohortes and alae started to recruit wherever they were based.
It is difficult to say how big auxiliary units were in the reign of Augustus. Most probably they were about the size of a normal legionary cohort, or some 480 men. It cannot be excluded that the tribal units varied more in size however.
Naval forcesDuring the various wars of the last century BC Rome had had control over naval forces that were both its very own - built, manned and equipped by Romans that is - and allied fleets. Despite what has long been thought, it is quite probable that in this case too, Augustus did not change much. There had been de facto standing fleets under Roman control in various regions of the Mediterranean basin throughout that century. They had played an important role during the civil wars between Pompey and Caesar and the wars following Caesar’s death and it is hardly surprising that Augustus considered it necessary to have a fleet under his own personal control in Italy itself. An extra reason may have been the fact that both the Caesar ànd Octavian had had to cope with an opponent who at the start of the Civil War controlled the eastern Mediterranean and thus most of the city-states with naval traditions where squadrons were easily available. Instituting permanent fleets in Italy may have been a conscious counterweight to that problem.
From the very early empire on there were two main bases, one in Misenum (near Naples) and one in Ravenna, at the mouth of the Po river. Part of Antony’s fleet had been stationed in Forum Iulii in Gallia Narbonensis and the remains of Cleopatra’s fleet in Alexandria. Some allied fleets probably remained in Sicily and Asia Minor. Elsewhere, the Romans had no qualms about building a fleet out of scratch if they need one, bringing in know-how and experienced sailors from elsewhere.
Contrary to popular belief, the rowers of these fleets were not slaves. Instead they were freedmen, and free men without and rarely with Roman citizenship. It seems likely that no marines were part of the fleets in the Augustan era. About their conditions of service in the fleets almost nothing is known.
Imperial guardIt had common for Roman magistrates on campaign to pick a unit as their Headquarters- and personal guard. Scipio had had one during the Second Punic War, while Caesar had his Legio X mounted to serve as mobile bodyguard. As emperor, Augustus continued this tradition and established the Praetorian Guard, originally consisting of nine cohorts of Italian citizens. With better pay and service in Rome it became a very attractive unit to serve in. Moreover, since they served in close-proximity to the emperor, they had better chances for extraordinary payments and advancement after completion of their service.
The establishment of the Praetorian Guard initially was a problem for the emperor: ancient rules said that no armed troops could be in Rome and, even more importantly, with an armed bodyguard following him through the streets of Rome, intimidating the citizens, Augustus would instantly be seen as a tyrant. His solution was to garrison only the duty cohort in Rome and the rest outside of the city. The troops moreover were dressed in civilian garb, hiding their weapons under their clothing.
There was a danger in the Guard as well: being in close contact with the Emperor meant that they would also be in close contact with Rome’s higher classes, those most like to want to get rid of him. Because of that, Augustus enlisted Batavians as his personal, ‘inner’ bodyguard. As his personal slaves and exemplary barbarians, they owned loyalty to him only and were supposed to protect him against plots in his inner circle. Their sensitive position is illustrated by the fact that they were sent away after the Varian disaster. The emperor couldn’t trust them anymore.
ConclusionLiterary sources about Augustus’ reign are reasonably plentiful, but they seldom give detailed information. Nor is there such a plentiful supply of inscriptions for this period as there is for the Flavian era and second century AD. With some extrapolation it is possible to reconstruct the Roman army of the age of the first Emperor. It is an army in transition. Its character is still partially that of the late Republic, but it is now both de facto and de jure a standing army. It would take the reforms of Claudius and his successors to flesh it out into the ‘military machine’ the German scholars of the late 19th and early 20th century loved so much.
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