Innholdsfortegnelse for AW XVII.5 i Ancient Warfare Magazine

EDITORIAL – Puzzling it all together Long before this magazine was a glint in my eye, the members of RomanArmyTalk.com (it's still there), undertook the daunting task of translating Emil Ritterling's 'Legio' entry in Pauly's Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. I would have to check a backup to verify, but I don't think we ever got to Legio X Fretensis. Unfortunately, the project petered out after a while. Written in early-twentieth-century academic German, that enormous section of the encyclopedia is still the starting point for any study of Roman legions. Ritterling managed to collate all the then-available literary, papyrological, and archaeological sources into as clear a picture of each legion as one could manage. In the century or so since Ritterling undertook his great work, much more information has come to…

SPECIAL Assyrian rulers were eager to ensure that their achievements were adequately publicized, including evocative descriptions of what they subjected their enemies to. An inscription from Nineveh made during the reign of king Sennacherib (705-681 BC), who also appears in the Bible, attests to this: “I annihilated them, broke down the wall and burned the city with fire. I captured the survivors and impaled them at the city gates (…). I piled up piles of skulls (…). I slowly skinned them (…) I cut off the hands and feet of some (…). I gouged out the eyes of many warriors.” Under the yoke of foreign powers The Assyrians had a long path before they became ‘gods of war’. The earliest accounts of people in the region clearly indicate that their…

After the capital of the Assyrians was sacked in 612 BC, the remnants of the once proud warrior people moved to Harran (modern Harran, Turkey) under their new king, Ashuruballit II. The alliance of Medes and Babylonians was not satisfied with its victories, however, continuing their pursuit of the Assyrians. They besieged and took Harran, probably in 609 BC, forcing Ashuruballit II to flee further, to Carchemish on the Euphrates, city of his Egyptian ally Pharaoh Necho II. In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605-562 BC), brought the combined forces of the Babylonians and Medes against Carchemish. The Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle records that the armies “fought with each other and the Egyptian army withdrew before him. He accomplished their defeat, decisively.” The Egyptians seem to have fled before coming to blows…

In May 2023 it was reported that archaeologists excavating the Roman fort of Apsaros (known since the fourteenth century as Gonio) in Adjara, Georgia, discovered evidence of the presence of Legio X Fretensis. Hundreds of bronze coins were discovered, most from Antioch and Judea, but they were countermarked with countermarks associated with X Fretensis. Dr Piotr Jaworski from the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw identified the marks as those used by the legion and that they extended the life of coins – either to confirm their value or assure users they were still current. Pliny the Elder first refers to the fortress in the first century AD (Natural History 6.4.12, calling it Absarrus). It was located on an important military and trade route on the River Chorokh…

THEME: Legio X Fretensis The dating of the sieges is still a matter of debate and ranges from AD 72–74. Once Titus had successfully stormed Jerusalem in September of 70 with the help of X Fretensis, he set about ensuring no such rebellion could occur again. According to Josephus, 97,000 men were taken captive during the war and 1,100,000 were killed in the aftermath of the siege (Jewish War 6.9.3). The last number is an exaggeration – that was more than the population of the province at the time – and even Tacitus’ number of 600,000 is too many (Histories 5.13.1). The three walls of Jerusalem were demolished along with the citadels and the Temple. In Spring of 71, Titus departed for Rome to join his father and brother. There,…

WEAPONS AND ARMOUR To build a picture of the Mamertines’ arms and armour one must turn to their homeland, the region of Campania, during the fourth century BC. This was a melting pot of Etruscan, Greek, and Samnite cultures. Campanians would often bury their warriors in full panoply, with tombs decorated with frescoes depicting warriors along with painted pottery showing battle scenes, giving us a treasure trove of evidence. Mamertine armour The Mamertines would have mostly worn Samno-Attic helmets with detachable crest and plume holders. The horned helmets mentioned in connection to the Sabellians (south-central Italic peoples) were likely relegated to cavalrymen, as frescoes show them almost exclusively worn by cavalrymen. Montefortino helmets also appear in Sabellian contexts. Hellenisticstyle helmets are rarely depicted in Campanian sources, yet due to the…

SPECIAL The key to the Numidian way of fighting lay in the way a Numidian trooper controlled his horse, allowing a very rapid and flexible way of fighting on horseback. We’ll see how the interaction between Roman and Numidian cavalry on the battlefield resulted in new tactics applied by the Romans in later battles and subsequent cavalry tactics. Roman cavalry: rules and formations Comparing the works of the fourth-century BC author Xenophon with the works of Arrian, who wrote about the Roman army in the second century AD, cavalry training and tactics do not seem to have changed drastically. In fact, Arrian’s reccomendations bear a remarkable resemblance to what Xenophon prescribed. The Tactica of Arrian describes an almost scientific, systematic training system of exercises that require horses to bend on…

REVIEWS By Eckart Frahm ISBN: 978-1526623836 Bloomsbury (2023) - £14.99 www.bloomsbury.com Of all ancient civilizations, the Assyrian Empire might be the one that is best remembered for its military conquests, possibly second only to Rome. At its height, the Assyrian Empire controlled a vast territory from Egypt to Iran, and it seems that the campaigns undertaken to conquer these lands were what was remembered most about the Assyrians, both by themselves and by those they conquered. However, while the history of Rome, especially its early history, seems to be little more than a series of wars that expanded Rome’s power, Assyria’s early history has no hint of its later status as the largest empire the world may have seen up to that point. Its martial, and often bloodthirsty reputation obscures…

Conservators have begun cleaning a trove of ancient artefacts discovered at Ayanis Castle in eastern Turkey. Among them are bronze shields and a bronze helmet. Excavations at Ayanis Castle, located in the Tusba district of Van province, have been ongoing for 37 years. The fortified hilltop site was originally constructed by Urartian King Rusa II (r. 680– 639 BC). It is considered one of the most impressive structures from the Iron Age, known for its intricate stone carvings, adobe walls, and ancient decorations. The recent finds include three bronze shields. They are round with a prominent, convex pointed dome and flat rim affixed around the circumference. There are two hand straps riveted on the inside. The bronze helmet was placed in the concave side of one of the shields. The…

Roman Warfare The third volume in the Cambridge Introduction to Roman Civilization Series, which aims to provide “a first point of reference for students who will then be equipped to seek more specialized scholarly and critical studies” (p. iii). Roth here gives a necessarily brief introduction to Roman warfare spanning its entire history, from the earliest times to the fall of Rome – 753 BC to AD 476. Despite its brevity, the work nonetheless contains ample colour illustrations, source references, a very useful timeline (pp. 267-278) and Glossary of terms (pp. 379-386) and people (pp. 287-293). Although we are often directed to read the sources themselves (a fine dictum), the book sometimes offers no summary of what will be found there. However, if you have a beginner dipping their toes…

One of Assyria’s major enemies in the eighth century was Urartu. In 754, the Urartian king Sarduri II (r. 764-735) defeated the Assyrians at Arpad (modern Tell Rifaat, Syria), sparking a decline in Assyrian fortunes. When he came to the throne in 745 BC, Tiglath-Pileser III sought to change Assyria’s fortunes with bold, aggressive campaigning. He reduced the power of the Assyrian nobility and consolidated royal power and control. He professionalized the army, enrolling it for longer and increasing their training and areas from where they could be recruited. The standing army was now the kisir šarri (the “royal guard”). He attacked Babylonian lands in 744, then in the Zagros mountains in 743, making an ally of the Mannaeans. The king of Urartu, Sarduri II, was concerned by these developments…

GRAVE MATTERS The tombstone of Caius Marius is a large reiter (rider)-type stone, ca. 177 cm in height, with a biographical inscription below a large relief depicting the deceased man on horseback. It survives in very good condition, with a complete inscription and much of the relief still clear. The stone was found a short distance from the legionary fortress in Bonn – one of the largest on the Lower Rhine. First established as a small fort in the late first century BC, it was replaced by a larger fortress, which became the base of Legio I Germanica, followed by Legio XXI Rapax, and finally, Legio I Minervia. The life of Caius Marius The inscription provides some basic biographical data about Caius Marius. He was originally from Luca (now Lucca)…

THEME: Legio X Fretensis The Romans loved to celebrate their personal achievements. Whether as dedications on new buildings or tombstones erected at gravesites, the Romans used inscriptions to memorialize their lives. Several extant stelae mention stints with Legio X Fretensis. By closely studying these texts, much can be learned about individual careers in the legion, from who commanded it, to transfers between X Fretensis and other units, and from campaigns its men fought in, to distinctions for valour they were awarded. The legion was an ever-changing community of officers and men. A microcosm of Roman society, Legio X Fretensis employed all classes of citizen. A man’s status in the social hierarchy would, however, largely predetermine his career opportunities. Routes for promotion were, consequently, different for each of them. The senatorial…

THEME: Legio X Fretensis If the legion Ammianus names is Legio X Fretensis at the siege of Amida, then this was its last known combat action. That would also put the legion a long way from ‘home’. In the second century it was still stationed in Jerusalem, but in the third century the legion was transferred to Aila (modern Aqaba, Jordan) at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. We do find a single mention of Fretensis once more later, in the Notitia Dignitatum. Under the command of the dux Palestinae we find a Praefectus legionum decimae Fretensis (still) at Aila. This usually counts as the last time the legion is mentioned – the eastern portion of the Notitia is dated to ca. AD 390. Thereafter the legion disappears. A…

SPECIAL Over a few centuries the peltast went from being a lowly skirmisher to a crucial cog in the military machine, and then he vanished. The peltast would close to melee combat with skirmishers or take the role of skirmishers against heavier infantry, but their exact armament and deployment could be unclear and likely varied over the centuries. Our etymology of the name is not 100 per cent certain. The traditional – and most likely correct – understanding is that the peltastes received their name from the light, rimless, crescent shield, the pelte, with its distinctive half-circle indentation (so says the first-century Roman-Sicilian author Diodorus). Yet we cannot entirely dismiss the ‘chicken-or-theegg’ question of the verb peltazo, which meant both ‘to hurl’ and ‘to be a peltast’ or the pelton,…

Numidian horsemen were apparently also tricksters who could fool their enemies by dropping from their horses as if severely wounded, and performing other tricks. Frontinus’ Strategemata (1.5.16) mentions an occurrence of Numidian cunning in the Second Punic War, when they deliberately dropped themselves from their horses in the Caudine passes in the battle against Minucius. Carthaginian 'unreliability' or Punica fides was already proverbial in Rome; the Numidians apparently added another level. Dropping yourself off a horse is one thing, but continuing to fight afterwards can only be done by skilful riders. The timing has to be exact and the better a rider is on horseback, the more easily he could fall if that is the intention. A less skilled or even fearful rider is characterised by a stiff posture, which…

By Philip Freeman ISBN: 978-300256642 Yale University Press (2023) - $26.00 yalebooks.yale.edu Flavius Claudius Julianus, better known as Julian the Apostate, ruled Rome as sole emperor for just a year and a half, from AD 361 to 363. Yet during that time he attempted to return to the old gods under whom his predecessors had built their vast empire. Remarkably, he was the nephew of Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Freeman’s short book begins by setting the man in the context of his times. The world Julian was born into in AD 331 was still largely pagan; however, the decision by Constantine to tolerate the Christians, and then to become one himself, changed the religious world order. Constantine's successor, Constantius II, had Julian’s parents murdered. Julian’s youth and adolescence were…

LEGIO X FRETENSIS. A PROSOPOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF ITS OFFICERS (I-III C. A.D.) By Edward Dabrowa Steiner, 1993 ISBN: 3-515058095 A go-to for any historian wanting to look at the history of this legion. Dąbrowa does as he says and explores the lives, careers, and connections of the legion’s officers, across its history and the history that arises therefrom, mining texts, inscriptions, and papyri for the details in them. REAL-ENCYCLOPÄDIE DER CLASSISCHEN ALTERTUMSWISSENSCHAFT (LEGION ARTICLES) By August Friedrich von Pauly Forgotten Books, 2018 ISBN: 978-0366855926 Ritterling’s 500-column article on the history of the legions in this larger work is the starting place for study of any of them. Although there have been updates, and others have added to our knowledge of legions, many of Ritterling's judgements remain sound a century on.…

In 705, Sargon II seems to have embarked on another campaign against Tabal in Anatolia – it would be his last. He was probably approaching the age of 65 but was still an active ruler and battlefield leader. Tabal rebelled and, despite the fact that in recent years he had left campaigning to his commanders, Sargon led the expedition in person. In one of the few instances in his entire reign, the campaign was a disaster. Somewhere in Anatolia, we do not know where, the Assyrian camp was attacked by a man named as Gurdî the Kulummean, possibly a Lydian ally of the Tabalians. In the battle, Sargon was killed and the enemy took his body; his men were unable to recover it. Robbed of a proper burial, Sargon was…

THEME: Legio X Fretensis Each legion had its own foundation story and unique career, one shaped by its commanders and circumstances as much as its stratagems and successes. One of them, Legio X Fretensis, has left evidence of its proud record of service in the evocative writings of Flavius Josephus, the personal inscriptions of its individual officers and men, and fragments of handmade orange-red tiles. Foundation in Italy After Julius Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, his young heir, Octavian, formed an alliance with two of the deceased dictator’s generals, M. Antonius and M. Aemilius Lepidus. The agreement gave Octavian responsibility for the western territories of the Empire. Challenging his authority was Sextus Pompeius, youngest son of Pompeius Magnus. By 42 BC, Pompeius had occupied the island of Sicily. He began…

A soldier who made it to the rank of optio was by no means guaranteed to be promoted to the ranks of the centurionate. Those selected for possible promotion were sometimes referred to as optio spei or in full optio ad spem ordinis, “Optio in hope of [promotion to] the order of the centurionate”. The Roman army used many other kinds of optio as well, however. Governors’ staffs were often headed by a centurio detached from his original unit. He might have an optio praetorii as his assistant. The legionary hospital would have two optiones valetudinarii, likely in charge of the medical orderlies. An adjacent rank was that of optio convalescentium, in charge of the recovering wounded, while the optio carceris and optio custodiarum likely oversaw prisoners. The optio fabricae…

In addition to the legio palatina Fortenses and the Fortenses auxiliarii, the Notitia names Fortenses units spread all over the empire, probably vexillations from the original parent tenth legion. The western half of the Notitia is usually argued to have been composed around AD 420, so these mentions may be evidence of the legion lasting into the fifth century. The Notitia names a legio comitatenses Fortenses under the commander of Spain. Another legio comitatenses unit named Fortenses was under the command of the Comes Africae; a limitanei unit, the Numerus Fortensium, was under the command of the Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam; another such unit, the Limites Fortenses, was under the command of the Dux et praeses provinciae Mauritaniae et Caesariensis. Yet another limitanei unit, the Milites Fortenses, was under…

WEAPONS AND ARMOUR Within the EU Interreg Danube Transnational Program project “Living Danube Limes”, one of the tasks was to reconstruct and paint twenty Roman shields from around the third/fourth century AD. Constructing the shield Preserved shield boards, both whole and fragmentary, are very rare. Based primarily on the finds from Fayum (Egypt) and Dura Europos (Syria), as well as descriptions in Polybius, we constructed the shield by gluing thin strips of wood together in alternating perpendicular layers. We chose poplar for the wood, as in the Dura Europos shields, and shaped the board. Then either linen or rawhide was applied to the wood with the same glue. Finally, the edge of the shield was secured with cowhide, which was sewn on when damp and then left to dry. Even…

The sarcophagus was originally housed in the Imperial Mausoleum, or Mausoleum of Elena (located at Tor Pignattara in Rome). It has been in the Vatican since the eighteenth century and was restored and mounted on four lions. The sarcophagus is decorated with scenes of Roman cavalry and enemy prisoners; the lid bears cupids and victories with garlands. This is topped by two lions, one sleeping, the other lying. Helena died ca. AD 329/330, at around the age of 84. As such, her sarcophagus might offer us precise insight into details of military uniforms and equipment in that specific period. The mother of the emperor was known as a woman of devout Christian faith – she was reputed to have discovered the True Cross in Jerusalem, according to Ambrose and Rufinus,…

Legio X Fretensis was one of the longest serving Roman legions. Founded by Octavian in ca. 40 BC and named after the Strait of Messina (Fretum Siculum in Latin). Its symbols were the bull, possibly associated with the goddess Venus, a ship (possibly associated with the battles of Naulochus or Actium) and a boar. In a long and storied history, the legion fought in Octavian’s wars, Arabia, Syria, in Parthia, Judea and elsewhere – for instance it was moved to Egypt in 66 for a planned invasion of Ethiopia which never eventuated, and a vexillation was used in Marcus Aurelius’ Marcomannic Wars AD 172-180. The legion was involved extensively in campaigns in Judea – against Herod Archelaus, the Jewish War, and the Bar Kokhba Revolt 132-135. Despite its long history…