Numeri, Milites, Cunei: What Sort of Roman Soldiers were These?
Readers of late Roman military history often encounter terms they may not recognize— or even those they do, but whose meaning has shifted. Consider a few: auxilium, vexillatio, cuneus. Readers familiar with the Republic and Principate may think they know what these terms mean, or can guess at them, but each of these terms is a snare. The word auxilium no longer refers to provincial allied soldiers, vexillatio no longer refers to detachments of legionary infantry, and cuneus no longer to barbarian cavalry hired for a campaign. What did these and other terms mean during the late Empire, from perhaps 350 AD to the deposition of the last western emperor in 476?
As many readers will know, during the Principate, legions, each made up of ten cohorts of heavy infantry, consisted (at least in theory) of about 5,000 men— the first cohort was of double strength. Provincials who did not have Roman citizenship served as auxiliaries in cohorts (cohortes) usually of about 450 men, and occasionally in larger units called cohortes milliaria of about 800 men. It seems likely that legions and auxiliary units were often understrength as a result of slackness in peacetime, and losses on campaign, but these ideal figures give us some idea of the sizes of the different units.
The Antonine Constitution of 212 had ended the distinction between Roman citizens and provincials, so that now any freeborn person within the confines of the Empire became a Roman citizen. As result soldiers in the legions and in the auxiliaries were no longer distinguished by citizenship or the lack of it. This had long been the distinguishing characteristic in law, between the two sorts of units (though there had been auxiliary cohorts of Roman citizens and certainly some citizens chose to serve in them.) Distinctions between the legions and auxiliaries seem largely to have disappeared, and their equipment became uniform. You may wish to see my earlier blog entry about this.
About twenty years later, the Anarchy of the Third Century began, and fifty years of civil war followed, after which the army that emerged was reformed by Diocletian and Constantine and further developed during the course of the fourth century into something quite different from that of the early empire.
So, who and what were these soldiers? What do their names mean? Auxilia palatina, legiones, cunei, vexilationes, milites, equites, cohortes, alae. Some look look familiar, some less so.
The army of the mid fourth century and afterwards was broadly divided into two sorts of soldiers: what might be called border soldiers (or garrison soldiers) and field-army soldiers. The first manned defensive positions along or near the Empire’s borders, either in forts, though later, as the western borders became porous, they were increasingly withdrawn into walled cities and towns where they served as garrisons. These soldiers, whether infantry or cavalry, were called limitanei (border soldiers) or riparienses (riverbank soldiers), their names suggesting their position and function. These troops were generally under the command of duces (singular: dux), a title often rendered in English as “duke.”
In contrast to these were the comitatenses, infantry and cavalry stationed near imperial or provincial capitals, whose task was to respond either to barbarian incursions that had penetrated the frontiers, or to respond to usurpers who might spring up in the provinces. Their name derives from comes, Latin for “companion,” as they were originally considered troops under the direct command of the Emperor, though they soon found themselves distributed here and there in the provinces under the command of generals who usually held the title and status of comes (plural: comites), a term often loosely translated as “count” because it is the source of the modern word. There’s a lot of modern baggage associated with the words “count” and “duke,” but they can still be handy if rough translations of the Latin. These troops were of higher status than the border troops and were paid more.
When a field army needed bolstering, border troops could be elevated to the status of pseudocomitatenses; this might happen when a field army had suffered losses, or a large campaign was in the offing. As the Gallic provinces were gradually lost over the course of the 400s, many of the border troops were joined to field army of the Magister Equitum per Gallias, the general in command of the army of the Prefecture of Gaul, which included Gaul, Spain, Britain and the westernmost territory of North Africa. Conversely, it happened from time to time that comitatenses, or field troops, were stationed near borders to bolster their defenses.
A page from the Notitia Dignitatum, an Roman ancient source for, among other things, troop names and dispositions. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Many comitatensian forces were stationed near the imperial capitals, but there was another class of troops, of even higher status, the palace troops called “palatini,” the personal troops, as it were, of the Emperor himself, though the Notitia Dignitatum (the official list of Roman government offices and military commands) lists these troops as directly under the command of various magistri, or high-level generals. Palatine cavalry units were called vexillationes palatinae; the infantry was divided into infantry of two kinds, palatine legions (legiones palatini) and palatine auxilia (auxilia palatina).
Palatine legions were likely the usual heavy infantry, now equipped in the later Roman fashion with helmet, elliptical or round shield, armor of some sort, spear and long sword. The auxilia were a new sort of troop recruited under Constantine to bulk up his army when undertook the first of the civil wars through which he raised himself to the throne. These were at first recruited largely from Germans, and this is sometimes reflected in the name of the unit. See, for example, the Batavi Seniores or the Sagittarii Tungri. Subsequent recruitment, which was local, would quickly have diluted any ethnic component, however, so it’s probably incorrect to think of these units as “native” after they had been in existence a few years.
It is sometimes asserted that, in contrast to the legions, these new auxilia were light infantry. This must have been true for some units such as, for example, the Tungrian Archers (Sagittarii Tungri), but I have not run across any primary source that states that the auxilia were generally more lightly armed than the legions. On the Arch of Constantine, which commemorates his victory over Maximian, a line of infantry are depicted advancing to battle. Their helmets are decorated by small horns, which suggests that the unit represented is the auxilium called the cornuti (horned ones). The officer leading them is clearly wearing armor, but the rest of the troop are too hidden by their shields to indicated whether they too might have worn body armor. It is perhaps best to think of the auxilia as light or heavy armed infantry depending on whether they were, for example, archers, or whether they were shock troops. But even the latter might shed armor and act as light infantry when that was needed.
Quite obviously, the sharpest distinction within the different classes of troop, whether border soldiers, field soldiers or palatine soldiers was between the cavalry and the infantry; both are found in every class of troop. They go by different names, though, depending upon the class of troop to which they belong, and there are quite a number of different names.
The cavalry of the highest status was, of course, the palatine. Under Constantine, cavalry formerly attached to the legions had been detached and formed into separate units, and other units were raised. As mentioned above, the cavalry units of the field army were known as vexillationes, and were either vexillationes palatinae or vexillationes comitatenses. The units themselves had their own names, of course, such as the Equites Cornuti Seniores, which was a palatine vexillation, or the Equites Primi Gallicani, a comitatensian vexillation.
Cavalry serving along the frontiers as part of the limitanei were called by different names: the term equites (horsemen, cavalrymen) was used only of the palatine and the comitatensian troops. Limitary cavalry units were instead called cunei (wedges) or alae (wings). For example, the Cuneus Equitum Italicianorum (Wedge of Italian Horsemen), a unit found under the command of the Duke of Second Pannonia. Or, for example, the Ala Felix Theodosiana found in Pontus. The term ala, for centuries the common term for a squadron of horsemen, seems to have continued in greater favor in the eastern rather than western half of the Empire.
The cohort was the usual auxiliary military unit during the Principate, recruited from provincials who did not have the Roman citizenship but would obtain it upon discharge. Cohorts remain a common infantry unit in the Notitia, but are found only among the border forces; they are not found among the palatine or field troops.
One notices very quickly that few units are still numbered the old way. Some legions retain their numbers, such as the Legio Tertia Iulia Alpina, the Third Julian Alpine Legion, or the Cohors Prima Theodosiana, the First Theodosian Cohort. An interesting and common development is that those names that retain only an adjectival form of their old number, for example the legion called the Undecimani, or “of the eleventh.” This verbal shift suggest to me, at least, that this legion was derived from an eleventh legion formerly known as Legio XI or Legio Undecima, perhaps the result of that legion’s division into smaller legions, or the result of it surviving as a unit from a legion broken up and dispersed among several postings as many were over the centuries after the great conquests of empire were finished.
Some limitary infantry units, particularly in the eastern half of the empire were now simply called “milites” (soldiers) rather than cohortes, for example the Milites Primi Moesiaci of Candidiana under the command of the Duke of Second Moesia. A glance at the Notitia shows that it was more common in the east than in the west to classify units of limitary soldiers as milites rather than as cohortes. Equally vague is the term numerus (plural: numeri), which became increasingly popular as a general term for both infantry and cavalry units.
The general impression given by all of these different terms is that of an old institution carrying forward old terminology, some with new meanings, the result of which is a welter of different terms for four broad classes of soldier: infantry and cavalry of the field armies (including the palatine troops), and infantry and cavalry of the border armies.
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