- The Auxiliaries were soldiers who supported the Roman Legion.
- They were awarded Roman Citizenship after 25 years of service.
The Difference between an Auxiliary and a Roman Legionary
- Supports
- ‘Auxilia’ means ‘Supports’. Each Auxiliary Regiment was attached to a Legion, and was under the Command of the Legatus Legionis.
- Six out of every Ten Roman Soldiers were Auxiliaries.
- Peregrini
- The Auxiliaries were free Provincial Subjects who did not have Roman Citizenship unlike the Legionaries.
- 90% of the Population of the Roman Empire were Peregrini. The Auxiliary received Roman Citizenship at the end of his Military Service.
- Volunteers
- The Auxiliaries were not conscripts but almost all volunteers, like the Roman Legionaries.
- Oval Shields
- the Auxiliaries had these instead of the Rectangular Legionary Shield.
- Roman Cavalry
- this was almost entirely supplied by the Auxilia. The Alaris, cavalry soldier, earned 20% higher salary than the Auxiliary or Legionary foot soldier.
- Commanders
- Under Claudius, the Prefect had to be an Equestrian, which excluded the Centurions who were Peregrini.
The Six types of Roman Auxiliary Units
- There were three types of Auxiliary Regiment consisting of 500 men (Quingenaria) and three types consisting of 1,000 men (Milliaria).
- By 23 CE, Tacitus stated that there were as many Auxiliaries as there were Legionaries. He wrote that there were 250 Auxiliary Regiments consisting of 50 Alae (‘Wings’ of Cavalry only), 120 Cohortes (Infantry), and 80 Cohortes Equitatae (Mixed Infantry with Cavalry).
- Quingenaria (500 soldiers).
- Ala Quingenaria (Wing) All Cavalry Regiment with 480 Horse: 16 Turmae of 30 or 32 Horse in each.
The commander of a Turmae was the Decurion. - Cohors Quingenaria (Cohort) – All Infantry Regiment with 480 Foot Soldiers: 6 Centuriae of 80 men each.
- Cohors Equitata Quingenaria – Mixed Cavalry and Infantry Regiment with 480 Infantry and 120 Horse. Total 600 men. 6 Centuriae of 80 men each and 4 Turmae of 30 or 32 Horse.
- Ala Quingenaria (Wing) All Cavalry Regiment with 480 Horse: 16 Turmae of 30 or 32 Horse in each.
- Milliaria (1000 soldiers)
- Ala Milliaria had 720 or 768 men: 24 Turmae of 30 or 32 Horse each.
- Cohors Milliaria had 800 men: 10 Centauriae of 80 men each.
- Cohors Equitata Milliaria 800 infantry and 240 Horse. Total 1040 men: 10 Centuriae of 80 men each and 8 Turmae of 30 or 32 Horse.
Other Titles
- Cohors Sagittaria
- (meaning Arrow) meant this was a Regiment of Archers.
- Cohors Peditata
- This was a Regiment of Foot Soldiers.
- Cohors Equitata
- This was a Regiment of Horse.
- ‘civium Romanorum’ c.R.
- (Meaning: ‘of Roman Citizens’) This indicated Roman Citizenship had been granted by the Roman Emperor to serving members only, but the Title was kept by the Unit.
Specialised Units
- The Auxiliaries also provided Specialised Units:
- Cataphract Heavy Cavalry – ‘Equites Cataphractarii’.
- Light Cavalry
- Archers: Eg: ‘Cohors I Sagittariorum’ at Naithu in the Nile Delta c. 400 CE
- Slingers
- Scouts
- Roman Camel Corps
- Roman Alpine Regiments
Hadrian's Wall
- The Auxiliary Soldiers
- The Wall was manned by approximately 9,000 Roman Auxiliaries.
- It was not manned by Legionaries from the three Roman Legions in Britannia, unlike the Antonine Wall to the North.
- The Auxiliaries were attached to the Legio VI Victrix and collected their Pay from York.
- York Legionary Fortress
- Overall control was under the ‘Duke of the Wall’ based at his HQ in the Roman Legionary Fortress of the Legio VI Victrix in York.
- Stanwix
- The Forward HQ was the Fort at Stanwix on the Wall, and commanded by the Prefect of a Cavalry Regiment of 1,000 Horse.
- The 16 Main Forts along the Wall
- Usually 500 auxiliaries to a Fort. They also manned the small Mile Castles located between the Main Forts.
- At each end of the Wall was a larger Cavalry Fort with 1,000 men.
- Total: 9,000 Auxiliaries.
Tribute
The Receipt of Tribute was the Annual Payment from a Roman Province or Roman Client Kingdom, which was paid either in Money, Goods or Services, such as providing Auxiliaries to the Roman Army.
- The Batavi
- The Batavi were a Germanic Tribe located in the Delta of the Rhine, with their capital city at Nijmegen,
- They were exempt from paying ‘Tributum’. Instead, they provided one Ala and eight Cohorts of Auxilia to the Roman Army. They also provided the Emperor’s personal bodyguard, the Germani Corpore Custodes.
- Voconti
- Voconti were a Gallic Tribe whose capital was Vaison-La-Romaine.
- The Voconti supplied a Cavalry Unit of Roman Auxiliaries to the Roman Army, the ‘Ala Augustae Vocontiorum’, which was based in Trimontium, north of Hadrian’s Wall in Britannia.
- Liguria (coast between Nice, Monaco and Genoa)
- The Cohors I Ligurum et Hispanorum was one of the Roman Alpine Regiments, based at Cemenelum in Nice, between c. 14-70 CE. After this it was merged with a Spanish unit and moved to Niedenberg in Germania Superior between 116-134 CE.
- Alpine regiments usually contained the tribal name in their title, hence ‘Ligurum’ (Ligurian) and ‘Hispanorum’ (Hispani).
- Balearic Slingers
- The islanders from the Gymnesian Islands of Majorca and Minorca in the Balearic Islands, were famed expert slingers since Antiquity.
- They slingers did not form one particular Auxiliary Cohort, but were generally distributed into the Auxilia of the Roman Army.
- Cohors XX Palmyrenorum
- The Cohors XX Palmyrenorum was a Unit of the Auxilia raised from Palmyra in Syria.
- It was a Cohors Equitata Milliaria, a mixed regiment of Infantry and Cavalry, with 800 infantry and 240 Horse. It was first sent to Dacia, later it was based at Dura Europos in Syria.
- Alpine Cohorts
- These were recruited from the Alpine Tribes who inhabited the Alpine Mountain ranges surrounding Northern Italy.
- The Romans operated between 20 to 26 Alpine Infantry Cohorts and one Cavalry Cohort, across the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
- Roman Cavalry
- This was a Regiment of Roman Auxiliaries commanded by a Roman Officer, the Prefect.
- An Ala, meaning ‘Wing’, would consist of 480 men, made up of 15 or so smaller ‘Turmae’ or ‘Squadrons’.
- Numidia
- Numidian Cavalry were employed during the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE).
- Dalmatia
- Dalmatian Cavalry Units were famous and referred to in the Notitia Dignitatum (c.395 CE).
- Sarmatia
- Sarmatian Allied Cavalry Units were located in Britannia by Marcus Aurelius (161-180 CE).