Vindolanda
Page 42
Judging from the environmental evidence, in AD 98 the climate in the north was a little milder than it is today, closer to that of south-east England. This may well have changed and grown colder during the second century. There is evidence for widespread cultivation as well as pastoral activities. Several sections of Hadrian’s Wall were built on ploughed land. The population was considerable and this was far from being a wasteland, but most people lived in small settlements, often a few huts on their own, with larger villages and hill forts much less common. In spite of some attempts by scholars to pacify Iron Age Britain, all the evidence points to societies in which warfare, usually in the form of raiding, was an ever-present threat. This is true of most of the ancient world. The Roman Empire imposed on a large chunk of the world a much higher level of peace than it had ever enjoyed before. The famous Pax Romana was real, but it was maintained by force, and in some areas, especially near the frontiers, it was far from unbroken by outbursts of violence and warfare.
Archaeology is not well suited to charting political change among Iron Age peoples. Tincommius and his growing empire are both inventions. There is no evidence as yet for the appearance of so powerful a leader in this region, or for any reuse of an abandoned and slighted Roman fort in the way described in the story. However, his career so far and in the stories to come is based on similar charismatic leaders who appeared at other times in the lands around the empire. At the close of the first century AD, most observers in northern Britain would have surely seen the Romans as in retreat. In such circumstances, other forces quickly emerge to fill the power vacuum.
The druids have attracted a good deal of interest over the centuries, most of it highly romantic. Julius Caesar depicts them as important figures in the Gaul of his day, acting above and outside the tribes. He does not portray them as anti-Roman or as able to control the tribes. Under Augustus and the other emperors the druidic cult in Gaul was restricted and later suppressed, although it survived covertly. In Britain the Romans attacked the centre of the cult in AD 60, invading the island of Mona (or Anglesey) and destroying the sacred groves there. This does appear to have ended the formal structure of the druidic cult. In spite of this people called druids appear in Gaul and Britain in the centuries to come, but lack the status of the aristocratic priests of earlier years.
Conquest and occupation by an imperial power has often caused serious dislocation to the society and beliefs of indigenous peoples, and it is tempting to see the periodic appearance of druids with apocalyptic prophecies as similar to religious movements in more recent times. Among the most famous are the various Ghost Dance movements in North America in the late nineteenth century, but other examples include the various mystics who appeared among the Xhosa in South Africa, or what was popularly known as the Hauhau movement among the Maori. Very often, such leaders preached a mixture of imported beliefs alongside traditional ideas. This is the basis for the story, and I have presented the Stallion’s followers as using a mishmash of magical words and invocations, as well as Greco-Roman deities alongside old beliefs and gods.
The Silures lived in what is now South Wales. Tacitus described them as darker and different in appearance from other Britons. They first came into conflict with the Romans in the late forties AD, and were keen supporters of Caratacus, the leader from the south-east who kept fighting the invaders for years after his homeland was overrun. The Silures were known for raiding their neighbours, and exploited the hills and valleys of their homeland, using stealth, surprise and ambush in their long struggle against the Romans. It took at least twenty-five years to defeat them and substantial Roman garrisons remained in the area for some time. Ferox and his grandfather are fictional, but it was common practice to take hostages from defeated leaders, educating them within the empire. Many became Roman citizens and served in the army, so there is nothing implausible about Ferox and his career.
The Roman Army
This is a vast subject, but it is worth making a few points for those new to the topic. In AD 98 the Roman army consisted of twenty-eight legions – two more would soon be added by Trajan – each with a paper strength of some 5,000 men. Each one was divided into ten cohorts of heavy infantry and had a small contingent of some 120 horsemen. Legionaries were Roman citizens. This was a legal status without any ethnic basis and by this time there were over four million Roman citizens scattered throughout the empire. We may think of St Paul, a Jew from Tarsus in Asia Minor, but a Roman citizen and entitled to all the legal advantages that brought.
Supporting the legions were the auxiliaries who were not citizens, but received citizenship at the end of their military service. These were organised as independent cohorts of infantry and similarly sized cohorts of cavalry. There were also the mixed cohorts (cohortes equitatae) like the Batavians, which included both infantry and cavalry in a four to one ratio. Legionaries and auxiliaries alike served for twenty-five years. Most were volunteers, although conscription did occur and was probably especially common with some auxiliary units.
We know a good deal about the Roman army, about its equipment, organisation, command structure, tactics, ranks and routine, although it must be emphasised that there are also many gaps in our knowledge. As a historian it is my duty to stress what we do not know, but a novelist cannot do this and must invent in order to fill in these gaps. Some aspects of the depiction of the Roman army in this book may surprise some readers, but often this will be because some of the evidence for it is not well known outside academic circles. I have invented as little as possible, and always done my best to base it on what we do know. As an introduction to the army, I am vain enough to recommend my own The Complete Roman Army published by Thames and Hudson. I would also say that anything by the late Peter Connolly is also well worth a look. Once again, for more specific recommendations, I refer readers to my website.
ENDPAPERS
GLOSSARY
ala: a regiment of auxiliary cavalry, roughly the same size as a cohort of infantry. There were two types: ala quingenaria consisting of 512 men divided into sixteen turmae; and ala miliaria consisting of 768 men divided into twenty-four turmae.
auxilia/auxiliaries: over half of the Roman army was recruited from non-citizens from all over (and even outside) the empire. These served as both infantry and cavalry and gained citizenship at the end of their twenty-five years of service.
Batavians: an offshoot of the Germanic Chatti, who fled after a period of civil war, the Batavians settled on what the Romans called the Rhine islands in modern Holland. Famous as warriors, their only obligation to the empire was to provide soldiers to serve in Batavian units of the auxilia. Writing around the time of our story, the historian Tacitus described them as ‘like armour and weapons – only used in war’.
Brigantes: a large tribe or group of tribes occupying much of what would become northern England. Several sub-groups are known, including the Textoverdi and Carvetii (whose name may mean ‘stag people’).
burgus: a small outpost manned by detached troops rather than a formal unit.
canabae: the civilian settlements that rapidly grew up outside almost every Roman fort. The community had no formal status and was probably under military jurisdiction.
centurion: a grade of officer rather than a specific rank, each legion had some sixty centurions, while each auxiliary cohort had between six and ten. They were highly educated men and were often given posts of great responsibility. While a minority were commissioned after service in the ranks, most were directly commissioned or served only as junior officers before reaching the centurionate.
centurio regionarius: a post attested in the Vindolanda tablets, as well as elsewhere in Britain and other provinces. They appear to have been officers on detached service placed in control of an area. A large body of evidence from Egypt shows them dealing with criminal investigations as well as military and administrative tasks.
cohort: the principal tactical unit of the legions. The first cohort consisted of 800 men in five double
-strength centuries, while cohorts two to ten were composed of 480 men in six centuries of eighty. Auxiliaries were either formed in milliary cohorts of 800 or more often quingeniary cohorts of 480. Cohortes equitatae or mixed cohorts added 240 and 120 horsemen respectively. These troopers were paid less and given less expensive mounts than the cavalry of the alae.
consilium: the council of officers and other senior advisors routinely employed by a Roman governor or senator to guide him in making decisions.
curator: (i) title given to a soldier placed in charge of an outpost such as a burgus who may or may not have held formal rank; (ii) the second in command to a decurion in a cavalry turma.
decurion: the cavalry equivalent to a centurion, but considered to be junior to them. He commanded a turma.
equestrian: the social class just below the Senate. There were many thousand equestrians (eques, pl. equites) in the Roman Empire, compared to six hundred senators, and a good proportion of equestrians were descendants of aristocracies within the provinces. Those serving in the army followed a different career path to senators.
gladius: Latin word for sword, which by modern convention specifically refers to the short sword used by all legionaries and most auxiliary infantry. By the end of the first century most blades were less than 2 feet long.
legate (legionary): the commander of a legion was a legatus legionis and was a senator at an earlier stage in his career than the provincial governor (see below). He would usually be in his early thirties.
legate (provincial): the governor of a military province like Britain was a legatus Augusti, the representative of the emperor. He was a distinguished senator and usually at least in his forties.
legion: originally the levy of the entire Roman people summoned to war, legion or legio became the name for the most important unit in the army. In the last decades of the first century BC, legions became permanent with their own numbers and usually names and titles. In AD 98 there were twenty-eight legions, but the total was soon raised to thirty.
medicus: an army medical orderly or junior physician.
omnes ad stercus: a duty roster of the first century AD from a century of a legion stationed in Egypt has some soldiers assigned ad stercus, literally to the dung or shit. This probably meant a fatigue party cleaning the latrines – or just possibly mucking out the stables. From this I have invented omnes ad stercus as ‘everyone to the latrines’ or ‘we’re all in the shit’.
optio: the second in command of a century of eighty men and deputy to a centurion.
pilum: the heavy javelin carried by Roman legionaries. It was about 6 to 7 feet long. The shaft was wooden, topped by a slim iron shank ending in a pyramid-shaped point (much like the bodkin arrow used by longbowmen). The shank was not meant to bend. Instead the aim was to concentrate all of the weapon’s considerable weight behind the head so that it would punch through armour or shield. If it hit a shield, the head would go through, and the long iron shank gave it the reach to continue and strike the man behind. Its effective range was probably some 15 to 16 yards.
praesidium: the term meant garrison, and could be employed for a small outpost or a full-sized fort.
prefect: the commander of most auxiliary units was called a prefect (although a few unit COs held the title tribune). These were equestrians, who first commanded a cohort of auxiliary infantry, then served as equestrian tribune in a legion, before going on to command a cavalry ala.
procurator: an imperial official who oversaw the tax and financial administration of a province. Although junior to a legate, a procurator reported directly to the emperor.
scorpion (scorpio): a light torsion catapult or ballista with a superficial resemblance to a large crossbow. They shot a heavy bolt with considerable accuracy and tremendous force to a range beyond bowshot. Julius Caesar describes a bolt from one of these engines going through the leg of an enemy cavalryman and pinning him to the saddle.
seplasiarius (or seplasiario): military pharmacist working in a fort’s hospital.
signifer: a standard-bearer, specifically one carrying a century’s standard or signum (pl. signa).
Silures: a tribe or people occupying what is now South Wales. They fought a long campaign before being overrun by the Romans. Tacitus described them as having curly hair and darker hair or complexions than other Britons, and suggested that they looked more like Spaniards (although since he misunderstood the geography of Britain he also believed that their homeland was closer to Spain than Gaul).
spatha: another Latin term for sword, which it is now conventional to employ for the longer blades used mainly by horsemen in this period.
stationarii: soldiers detached from their parent units and stationed as garrison elsewhere, often in a small outpost.
tesserarius: the third in command of a century after the optio and signifer. The title originally came from their responsibility for overseeing sentries. The watchword for each night was written on a tessera or tablet.
tribune: each legion had six tribunes. The most senior was the broad-stripe tribune (tribunus laticlavius), who was a young aristocrat at an early stage of a senatorial career. Such men were usually in their late teens or very early twenties. There were also five narrow-stripe or junior tribunes (tribuni angusticlavii).
Tungrians: a tribe from the Rhineland. Many Tungrians were recruited into the army. By AD 98 a unit with the title of Tungrians was likely to include many men from other ethnic backgrounds, including Britons. In most cases, the Roman army drew recruits from the closest and most convenient source. The Batavians at this period may have been an exception to this.
About Adrian Goldsworthy
ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY studied at Oxford and became an acclaimed historian of Ancient Rome. He is the author of several books, including Anthony and Cleopatra, Caesar, and The Fall of the West.
An Invitation from the Publisher
We hope you enjoyed this book. We are an independent publisher dedicated to discovering brilliant books, new authors and great storytelling. Please join us at www.headofzeus.com and become part of our community of book-lovers.
We will keep you up to date with our latest books, author blogs, special previews, tempting offers, chances to win signed editions and much more.
Get in touch: hello@headofzeus.com
First published in the UK in 2017 by Head of Zeus Ltd.
Copyright © Adrian Goldsworthy, 2017
The moral right of Adrian Goldsworthy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (HB) 9781784974688
ISBN (XTPB) 9781784974695
ISBN (E) 9781784974671
Typeset by Ben Cracknell Studio, Norwich
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Endpaper image: akg-images / Peter Connolly
Design: Estuary English
Images: Shutterstock / Arcangel
Head of Zeus Ltd
First Floor East
5–8 Hardwick Street
London EC1R 4RG
www.headofzeus.com
filter: grayscale(100%); -o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share