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The Organization of the Legion: The First Cohort and The Equites Legionis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

David Breeze
David Breeze
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Extract

It is generally recognized that the first cohort of a legion in the Principate was larger than the other nine cohorts. It consisted of five centuries, each double the size of each of the six centuries of cohorts II to X. Literature, epigraphy and archaeology all agree over this point. Vegetius, in the Epitoma rei militaris, probably quoting a third-century source, says that the first cohort was twice as large as each of the other cohorts, but he disagrees with himself over the number of men in the cohort. At one stage (II, 6) he states that the first cohort had 1,105 pedites and 132 equites and was called a cohors miliaria, compared to the 555 pedites and sixty-six equites of each of the other nine cohorts, cohortes quingenariae. But two paragraphs later (II, 8) this number has been reduced to 1,000. This is made up of 400 men in the first century, 200 in the second, 150 in the third and fourth and 100 in the fifth. Although none of Vegetius' figures is to be trusted, his basic point remains—the first cohort of a legion was double in size. This is supported by epigraphic evidence. III, 6178, dated to about A.D. 134, lists, by cohort, the soldiers of legio V Macedonica discharged at one time. The first cohort contains at least forty names, the second seventeen, the third at least fourteen, the fourth at least ten and the ninth at least twelve. A similar situation is found on III, 14507, a laterculus, which is a dedication by veterans of VII Claudia discharged in 195. In this case the first cohort discharged forty-seven men, the second twenty-two and the third eighteen. These two inscriptions point to the fact that the first cohort was about twice as large as each of the other nine. Excavations at Inchtuthil have provided the most eloquent testimony. Here the barracks of the first cohort, ten in number, compared to the six of each of the other nine cohorts, have been revealed, in association with five large centurions' houses, situated next to the headquarters building. This is where it is placed by ‘Hyginus’ in the liber de munitionibus castrorum (3; 4), probably dated to the sole reign of Marcus Aurelius.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 59 , November 1969 , pp. 50 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © David Breeze 1969. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 The normal abbreviations are used in this paper. Note, however, that Domaszewski-Dobson refers to von Domaszewski, A., Die Rangordnung des römischen Heeres, second edition by Dr. Dobson, Brian (Köln, 1967)Google Scholar. Reference to the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum is by the volume and inscription number, e.g. in, 195.

2 Platnauer, M., The Life and Reign of Septimius Severus, 171 fGoogle Scholar.

3 See now Ogilvie, R. M. and the late Sir Ian Richmond, Agricola, 71 fGoogle Scholar.

4 No other legionary fortress of a single period has been completely excavated. In the Plan of Caerleon, published in 1967 by the National Museum of Wales, George Boon and Colin Williams have conveniently collected most of the plans of other legionary fortresses. To these should be added Nijmegen (Bogaers, J. E. in Studien zu den Militärgrenzen Roms (Köln, 1967), 59Google Scholar). Hints of the presence and position of the first cohort can be detected at some of these fortresses—Caerleon, Carnuntum, Chesters, Nijmegen and especially at Neuss—but nowhere is the evidence so clear as at Inchtuthil.

5 Birley, E., ‘The epigraphy of the Roman Army’, in Actes du Deuxième Congrès international d'épigraphie grecque et latine, Paris 1952 (1953), 234Google Scholar.

6 For example Webster, G., The Roman Army (Chester, 1956), IIGoogle Scholar; Boon, George C. and Williams, Colin, Plan of Caerleon (Cardiff, 1967), 6Google Scholar.

7 I have on my files 154 different types of posts attested in legions below the rank of centurion. These are held either by soldiers known as principales, the nearest equivalent to the present-day non-commissioned officers, or immunes, that is soldiers exempt from fatigues, usually because they perform a special task. Even when the posts in the centuries (each century contained an optio, a signifer and a tesserarius), the equites and the ad hoc appointments are omitted, there are still over 100 different posts. Only in a minority of cases is it known how many men held one of these posts at once. There were, for example, twenty-two librarii legionis in in Augusta at one time, recorded on an inscription dated to about A.D. 200 (AE 1898, 108), twelve beneficiarii tribuni laticlavi on another of 198 (VIII, 2551) and thirty-seven cornicines on a further one of 203 (VIII, 2557). But by careful use of analogy and logical conjecture it is possible to arrive at a rough total. I hope to devote a later paper to the study of this problem.

8 Davies, R. W., unpublished Durham University Ph.D. thesis, Peace Time Routine in the Roman Army (1967), 190Google Scholar.

9 Domaszewski-Dobson, 48–49 and 63–67.

10 L. Aponius Vitalis, exactus, appears on this inscription and also on AE 1898, 108, which is itself dated to about 200 by reference to AE 1895, 204, the same cornicularius and actarius being mentioned on both.

11 VIII, 2568 and 2569, are similar in style especially in the decoration on the dividing line between the centuries, which is not found on any other inscription. They are therefore almost certainly roughly of the same date. Rogatus, P. Sittius, duplicarius, (VIII, 2568Google Scholar, 62) is also attested on VIII, 2564, c, 6, dated to about 220.

12 There was probably one armorum custos in each century. AE 1902, 147a, dated to 200, lists sixty-two armorum custodes in III Augusta and AE 1902, 147b, erected in the reign of Severus Alexander, sixty-four. Cf. also Pap. Gen. Lat. I, IV, b, which is a list of nine immunes in a legionary century serving outside the century. The name and title of each soldier is given, except in the case of the armorum custos who is not named, which suggests that there could only be one of these officers in the century. Presumably on the day the document was drawn up he was on duty in the legionary armoury.

13 For the most up-to-date comprehensive list see A. Passerini, legio in Dizionario epigrafico, 603 ff. Cf. also Domaszewski-Dobson, loc. cit.

14 II, 6. ‘Sed prima cohors reliquas et numero militum et dignitate praecedit.… Haec enim suscipit aquilam, quod praecipuum signum in Romano est semper exercitu et totius legionis insigne; haec imagines imperatorum, hoc est divina et praesentia signa, veneratur;…’

15 III, 195 is cited by Domaszewski-Dobson, 43, as attesting an imaginifer in the second cohort of VII Claudia. The inscription is now lost, but the two eighteenth-century sources differ little from each other. In lines 2, 3 and 4 Maundrell read:…IMM LIINI O LEG VII CL EX Z II PR POST…; Pococke: …MM LIINI O LEG VII EX Z II PR POST…. The rank cannot be imaginifer. IMM is the usual abbreviation for immunis. The nearest post to LIINI O is the otherwise unattested lanius (lanio is an alternative spelling) recorded by Tarrutenius Paternus (Digest 50, 6, 7, 6), and this is offered as a possible interpretation. The suggested expansion of these lines is therefore:…imm(unis) l[a]nio leg(ionis) VII Cl(audia) ex (centuria), (cohorte) II pr(incipi) post(eriori)…. It should be noted that CIL omits in line 3 CL which appears on Maundrell's drawing.

16 Passerini, op. cit., 565 f. is the most up to date comment on the equites legionis.

17 VIII, 10024, 31. Cf. also Passerini, loc. cit.

18 See n. 11 above.

19 Although the reason for this is not entirely clear there is a hint. A recruit could not enter a legion with the rank of eques, but had to undergo basic training as a pedes before promotion. Several discentes equitum are known (v, 944; v, 8278; VI, 3409; VIII, 2882), while the lowest stipendia recorded for an eques legionis is seven years (cf. v, 896). When promoted to eques the soldier would simply remain on the books of the century in which he was enrolled, as did all other immunes and principales.

20 XI, 1526 is cited by Passerini (loc. cit.) as attesting the rank of decurio legionis, whose existence might be taken as support for turmae. The inscription is lost, the only reference to it being by an antiquarian. It reads: Thaliae Cocliae I. Peregrino decuriotti leg. XIII, decurioni Pisis, quaestori ad aerar. II, heredes. This does not make sense as it stands and the existence of this officer must therefore remain suspect.

21 These two magistri are presumably concerned with training.

22 This soldier may have been connected with the manufacture or repair of spears, and is in any case not relevant to the command structure.

23 Livy, 37, 7. I owe this reference to Dr. R. W. Davies.

24 Tacitus, , Annals 4, 73, 2Google Scholar.

25 Josephus, Bell. Iud. III, 6, 2Google Scholar. Arrian, Ἔκταξις κατ᾽ Ἀλανῶν 4.

26 Tacitus, , Histories I, 57Google Scholar.

27 Bonner Jahrbücher 111/112 (1904). For plans of Neuss cf. von Petrikovits, H., Novaesium, das roemische Neuss (Köln, 1957), 17Google Scholar (cf. also 18); Schleiermacher, W., Der römische Limes in Deutschland (Berlin, 1961), 28Google Scholar; G. Boon, C. and Williams, Colin, Plan of Caerleon (Cardiff, 1967)Google Scholar.

28 JRS LI (1961), 160Google Scholar.

29 Cf. R. W. Davies in Epigraphische Studien 4, 110 f. for a comment on the size of turmae and centuries.

30 I would like to thank Professor E. Birley, Dr. Brian Dobson and Dr. J. C. Mann for advice and encouragement in writing this paper, and for making some useful suggestions which I have incorporated into the text.