Innholdsfortegnelse for AW XV.5 i Ancient Warfare Magazine

In the third century AD, the Romans built a series of forts on the south-east coast of Britain. Today, they include eleven forts, although half a century ago only ten were known. Undoubtedly, there were originally more, but not all of them survive. Some have been destroyed by nature, others by human activity. These fortifications are often referred to as the Saxon Shore forts. However, the very name ‘Saxon Shore’ (Litus Saxonicum) is only found in the Notitia Dignitatum. It lists only nine forts and the official responsible, the comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam. The Notitia also names the commanders of the coastal defence systems on the other side of the English Channel – the dux tractus Armoricani et Nervicani and the dux Belgicae Secundae on the northern coast of…

Richborough was first occupied by the Romans as part of the AD 43 Claudian invasion when Aulus Plautius chose the site for a key beachhead defence to protect his landings. This featured a huge 57-hectare marching camp, the remains of which can still be seen today within the later Saxon Shore fort. The site proved an ideal location, occupying an easily defended position on an islet or narrow peninsula at the southeastern entrance to the Wantsum Channel. This was then a major waterway separating the Isle of Thanet from mainland Kent, used by maritime traffic to bypass the treacherous Goodwin Sands off the Kent coast further east. The fort site is easily accessible today as the coastline has moved considerably eastwards over time. As Plautius’ legionary spearheads headed west, the…

Hannibal arrived in Spain with his father’s army which in two decades conquered much of the Iberian peninsula. He had grown up amidst hatred for Rome and, according to our Roman sources, a desire for revenge; Polybius reports in fact that before leaving for Iberia, his father had Hannibal swear to the Carthaginian gods during a religious ceremony “that he would never become a friend to the Romans”. In 221 BC, Hannibal’s brother in law Hasdrubal was assassinated and at age 26, he became the supreme commander in Iberia. Start of a new war One stronghold stood between Hannibal Barca and domination of the Iberian Peninsula: Saguntum. That city was allied to Rome, however, and an attack was guaranteed to provoke a Roman declaration of war. In 219 BC, Hannibal…

The physical remains of Lycian culture are rich indeed and, perhaps unusually, have provided some of the most remarkable depictions of what look like hoplites and Greek warfare to survive in sculpture and fresco. These survivals include several tombs from the Lycian city of Xanthos such as the Nereid Monument, now housed in the British Museum. Others are the barrel-vaulted tomb of Payava, and the Heroon of Trysa. We shall explore these in later issues. Another, perhaps even more remarkable tomb is that of the last ruler of Lycia, Pericles (or Perikle in Lycian) from the city of Limyra. Pericles ruled Lycia from ca. 380-360 BC but revolted against the Persian King in the Satraps’ Revolt of the 360s and was replaced. Command of his satrapy was given to Mausolus…

Rufus Sita’s tombstone shows a mounted trooper – presumably representing Sita himself – riding in battle, with a shield on his left arm and a lance/spear in the other. He is shown wearing a helmet and also has a sheathed sword at his side. He is shown riding over a fallen enemy, who lies prostrate, being trampled by the trooper’s horse; this figure is disproportionately small compared to that of Sita and his horse. When it was originally made, the relief would almost certainly have been painted, allowing the details of the scene to be more clearly seen by the viewer. On the top of the tombstone, above the scene, stands a sphinx, flanked on both sides by a lion. The accompanying text reveals that Sita was a trooper in…

The existence of a fort at Cardiff should therefore give us pause for thought about the ‘Saxon Shore’ and what functions we think these bases fulfilled. Cardiff was, after all, located far from any realistic piracy threat from the North Sea. Recent excavations of a part of the interior of Cardiff Castle are currently being analysed, revealing new detail about the history and occupation of this important site. This creates an opportunity to place the late Roman fort at Cardiff in its wider context, and at the same time to consider how it might shape our understanding of the sites traditionally considered as belonging to the Saxon Shore. The Roman forts at Cardiff Cardiff’s late third-century fort was in fact the last in a series of Roman bases at this…

The environmental conditions of Thorsberg allowed many pieces of militaria to survive in relatively good condition. For that reason, this site offers a unique opportunity to reconstruct the entire equipment of a Germanic warrior from circa the third century AD. When the enemy had conquered the camps and an enormous booty, they destroyed with new and fresh fury everything that had fallen into their possession. Dresses were ripped, mail armour torn to pieces and horse armour destroyed, gold and silver thrown into the river.(Orosius, Histories 5.16.5-6) Clothing Unusually, the Thorsberg bog has yielded several well-preserved items of clothing, among them a tunic and trousers. The tunic is made of a high-quality woollen diamond twill cloth. It is fashioned out of four panels sewn together. It has long sleeves with open…

The Parthian cavalry usually inflicted heavy casualties upon the predominantly infantry-based Roman army in their initial onslaught. In order to deprive some of their enemies of their mounts and draw them into close-order fighting where they could get the better of their opponents, the Romans adopted the ruse of feigned retreat, only to throw down caltrops, known in Greek as τριβόλοι (triboloi), in their wake. These four-pointed iron implements were designed so that, however they landed, three points formed a tripod whilst the fourth projected upwards, posing a threat to any unwary foot, hoof, or pad. Parthian mounts were brought down lame and their riders thrown. Camels, with their tender foot pads, were even more vulnerable. Deployment of caltrops in this instance was probably a significant factor in prolonging the…

The Chronicle (hereafter ASC) tells us that in AD 477 Ælle and his three sons “came to the land of Britain with three ships at the place which is named Cymen’s Shore (Cymenes ora)”. Although locations have been suggested for this site all along the Sussex coast, the best candidate is the modern Manhood Peninsula and Selsey Bill in West Sussex. This site consisted of an easily defined area for the Saxons to first conquer and then expand from, something which they did systematically over the next few years. The Roman city of Noviomagus Reginorum would eventually become the capital of the Kingdom of Sussex and possibly take its modern name (Chichester) from Ælle’s son Cissa. Having established a foothold on the British mainland, Ælle pushed further inland. In 485…

There’s a gap of roughly a century and a half between the construction of the forts and the appearance of the name in the Notitia Dignitatum in the late fourth century, which we use to determine their function. The conclusion that the forts were built to keep out Saxons (or Germanic raiders in general) appears premature. Several other alternative reasons for the forts have been suggested. When we look at the sources, we see that a commander, Carausius, was commissioned in AD 285/6 to defend the coasts of Belgica and Armorica (“to clear the sea”) against Franks and Saxons who “infested” those coasts (Eutropius Breviarium 9.21–22). Such raiders were active in the Channel, but it is not clear if Britain was also under attack. Carausius usurped power in Britain shortly…

There was a long tradition of horse archers in the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Horse archers first turn up in a Roman army in 49 BC, during Caesar’s civil war, when his adversary, Pompey the Great, drew upon the eastern nations to supplement his army. On this occasion, King Antiochus of Commagene contributed 200 Syrian horsemen, reportedly including many hippotoxotae, a Greek loan-word for horse archers (Caesar, Civil War 3.4.5). Some years later, the cavalry force commanded by Pompey’s general Marcus Petreius included “numerous hippotoxotae” (African War 19.6). In the next round of civil war, Brutus and Cassius reportedly had “four thousand horse archers, Arabs and Medes and Parthians” (Appian, Civil War 4.88). Naturally, when the emperor Augustus reorganized Rome’s military forces, he did not forget to incorporate horse…