Hadrian's Consolidation - reboot
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Hecatee
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Well I've added stirrups to Sarmatian cavalry and to roman scythian-inspired medium cavalry, but the Sarmatians and their armor are in fact OTL, and often used in King Arthur stories as Marcus Aurelius had a few thousand of them sent to Britannia to serve as an heavy cavalry complement to the local forces... Here of course it won't happen because the Sarmatians are fighting in the Armenian and Syrian fronts.
Alauna Civitas, Caledonia, 15 december 162
Hecatee
Donor
Alauna Civitas, Caledonia, 15 december 162
Outside the wind howled on the moors, but the laughter in the inn were stronger. Most of the inhabitants of Alauna Civitas had congregated in the stout building to celebrate the Saturnalia, although it was mostly a pretext to have a moment of fun in the midst of winter at the edge of the empire.
While soldiers patrolled the nearby wall, the civilians drank and played music and told jokes and spent a merry time together, exchanging small gifts and making small sacrifices to Saturn for the Romans, Epona for the locals, some strange divinity for those descended of Dacian tribesmen deported two generations ago and their singular god for the Jews.
Of course there was no good reason for them to make a sacrifice to their god on that day, but it was a change they had done to their practice to better integrate. They had also adopted everyone else’s calendar and now practised their celebrations on fixed dates which did not require complex calculations to determine.
Overall the small community of Alauna Civitas had well integrated the various elements that had given birth to it, and it was generally the same in all the other settlements of the area. While the Jews still disdained pork, there was no clash between their beliefs and those of the others while all worked strongly every day to insure the survival and prosperity of the town.
New houses had been built for the sons and daughters of the first generation colons and the village now boasted around fifty strong stone houses with tiled roofs and heated floors as the children had decided to imitate their parents and live in confort. Each family produced its own vegetables while the fields were exploited in common. A flour mill had also been built and a nearby stream had been channelled to create a small lake which provided enough outflow to turn the wheel. A blacksmith had also begun work to create a small forge a bit downstream in order to have his own mill. He intended to make use of the coal from a small mine not far from the town, which usually provided the heating material for the town but which was now also used for metallurgical work. In fact the villagers had pitched their modest means together to buy five slaves to work the mine under supervision of a pair of guard, providing them with a new source of revenues as the army fourriers often came to town to buy some of the black stuff for the army’s needs.
The richest man in town was of course Tiophorus, the old centurion now aged sixty seven, who had used his retirement capital to the full to open his tavern and way station which now doubled as a trading emporium set alongside the military road on the backslope of the wall.
Of course all this prosperity had attracted the attention of the Caledonians, a number of which had tried to raid it in the last thirty years, but the high walls of the properties had always defeated them. So the times were good for Alauna Civitas and its inhabitant could enjoy the holiday season without fears about the future. As old Tiophorus said to his son Vaxadus the younger, Io Saturnalia !
Outside the wind howled on the moors, but the laughter in the inn were stronger. Most of the inhabitants of Alauna Civitas had congregated in the stout building to celebrate the Saturnalia, although it was mostly a pretext to have a moment of fun in the midst of winter at the edge of the empire.
While soldiers patrolled the nearby wall, the civilians drank and played music and told jokes and spent a merry time together, exchanging small gifts and making small sacrifices to Saturn for the Romans, Epona for the locals, some strange divinity for those descended of Dacian tribesmen deported two generations ago and their singular god for the Jews.
Of course there was no good reason for them to make a sacrifice to their god on that day, but it was a change they had done to their practice to better integrate. They had also adopted everyone else’s calendar and now practised their celebrations on fixed dates which did not require complex calculations to determine.
Overall the small community of Alauna Civitas had well integrated the various elements that had given birth to it, and it was generally the same in all the other settlements of the area. While the Jews still disdained pork, there was no clash between their beliefs and those of the others while all worked strongly every day to insure the survival and prosperity of the town.
New houses had been built for the sons and daughters of the first generation colons and the village now boasted around fifty strong stone houses with tiled roofs and heated floors as the children had decided to imitate their parents and live in confort. Each family produced its own vegetables while the fields were exploited in common. A flour mill had also been built and a nearby stream had been channelled to create a small lake which provided enough outflow to turn the wheel. A blacksmith had also begun work to create a small forge a bit downstream in order to have his own mill. He intended to make use of the coal from a small mine not far from the town, which usually provided the heating material for the town but which was now also used for metallurgical work. In fact the villagers had pitched their modest means together to buy five slaves to work the mine under supervision of a pair of guard, providing them with a new source of revenues as the army fourriers often came to town to buy some of the black stuff for the army’s needs.
The richest man in town was of course Tiophorus, the old centurion now aged sixty seven, who had used his retirement capital to the full to open his tavern and way station which now doubled as a trading emporium set alongside the military road on the backslope of the wall.
Of course all this prosperity had attracted the attention of the Caledonians, a number of which had tried to raid it in the last thirty years, but the high walls of the properties had always defeated them. So the times were good for Alauna Civitas and its inhabitant could enjoy the holiday season without fears about the future. As old Tiophorus said to his son Vaxadus the younger, Io Saturnalia !
Hecatee
Donor
You mean the Bosphorian kingdom ? It is in fact a client kingdom used as exile place (that's where Herodes Atticus has been sentenced) with a few coastal cities exporting grain from the Ukraine but with little control over the interior and always at risk from the nomadic horsmen tribes. The town have a few hundreds to a few thousands citizens each while the countryside is made of small peasant holding that often depend from a noble (who may be a nomadic leader) to whom they pay taxes in exchange for protection, those nobles formally recognizing the king in Panticapea, the capital. The king himself would pay tribute to Rome. At current time the king is Eupator , also known as Tiberius Julius Eupator.
Did the Roman Empire have four naval forces, with one based in Alexandria to patrol the eastern Mediterranean, another based in Neapolis to patrol the western Mediterranean, a third based in Ravenna to guard the Adriatic Sea, and a fourth naval force based in Gesoriacum (modern-day Calais?) to guard the English Channel and patrol the North Sea?
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Hecatee
Donor
Yes, although these are the main sea fleets, as far as I know there was also a black sea detachement (I think Arian speaks of it) and then of course the two main fluvial detachements on the Rhine (visit the museum in Mainz, I must still visit it but the photo of the roman warships there will give you an idea) and on the Danube.
The main fleet was for a long time the fleet in Misene, near Naples : it was the fleet Pliny commanded and used to rescue people during the Vesuvius eruption in 79 and was in its imperial form an heritage from Agrippa's fight against Sextus Pompee. The Ravenne fleet was, as far as I understand it, a remnant of the time when piracy was a big problem in the Adriatic. The Alexandria fleet used the first rate infrastructure of Ptolemaic Egypt to patrol the Nile and protect the grain trade as Alexandria was crucial to Roman economy. The fleet at Gesoriacum was of course an offshot of the conquest of Britannia, from the time of Claudius onward, but took more importance in the late empire when it tried to intercept Angles and Saxon raiders, a task in which it often failed, leading to the building of the famous Saxons forts on the British shore.
Hecatee
Donor
I started to write an answer but its becoming too long, so I'll make today's episode out of it
A domus on the Esquiline, Rome, January 163
Hecatee
Donor
A domus on the Esquiline, Rome, January 163
Quintus Ptolemaius Eupater was drinking wine with his father. He was the third son of the family and thus not active in the family business, having been sent instead into the imperial administration where he worked as the supervisor of an office in charge of statistics. He was often sent on long fact finding missions around the Empire and had come back from one such mission only two months before, but it was the first time he really had the opportunity to spend time with his family.
After answering one of his father's’ question he remarked offhandedly : “You know that we missed a lot of money when we did not invest in horseflesh?”
“How so ?” asked his elder, raising an eyebrow. “Well, you know that since the conquests of the divine Hadrian the army has expanded to add more than ten thousand horsemen to its rolls ? All those horses have to come from somewhere, and you know that the rise in fame of senatorial families such as the Flavii Arianii is directly linked to their rôle in providing those beasts... “
“How do you recon such things ?” asked his father, now interested in the topic. “As you know father, the army has thirty legions, some 165 000 infantrymen alongside some 4000 legionary cavalry. This has not changed since the time of the Optimus Princeps the divine Trajanus and is not even that far from the twenty eight legions on record in the time of the divine Augustus. But while the citizen soldiership has not been expended it is another story for the auxiliary units ! In fact many of the units now fighting the Persians in the East did not exist thirty years ago... “
His father scratched his beard while his son took a sip of wine before he said : “But there are not that many more senators serving in the army, and the Senate has not been expended… So the army can’t have grown that much, can it ?”
His son smiled : “Good observation father ! And quite true too. But it’s because the expansion has been made not so much with new units as with transformation to existing units. I’m not sure how many auxiliary units existed at the time of the divine Trajanus, but it must have been around 380. Now the list I’ve just compiled for the Academia Militaria records four hundred units and some 270 000 men taking their pay from the Emperor, so just twenty more units, around ten to fifteen thousand men with about half being cavalry alae or cohors equitata. But what I’ve seen is that many units that were only cohors quingenaria or miliaria have received new detachments of horsemen, from 120 to 240 depending on whether it was a larger or smaller unit. It did not change the requirement for higher officer of senatorial rank but if course the number of more junior officers has increased, with a number of junior sons from equestrian families such as myself entering the military career, especially those from the more provincial families who hope to improve their connections in Rome. There have been more promotions for soldiers from the ranks too.”
“You know that it is, in and of itself, another opportunity we have not identified… More centurions and decurions means more men who will retire to their provincial plots of land with money which they can spend however they want, drinking it of investing it… In any cases peoples with money to buy things we could sell them... “
“Oh I don’t think so, they don’t really regroup to provide markets, they are too far apart from each other, although they may help develop small villages and other kind of rural areas by improving inns, relay posts, taverns and those sort of places in which many veterans seems to invest…”
“Still, from what you’ve said the army is only as big as about half the population of the city of Rome… That seems so small for an Empire of the size of the Rome…”
“It depend how you look at it father. Those 400 000 men cost about 200 000 000 denarii a year, about 500 denarii per soldier. Of course the rank and file only cost half of that, but officers, horses and the rest of the equipment cost a hundred millions denarii a year. That’s a lot of the empire’s income…”
Quintus Ptolemaius Eupater was drinking wine with his father. He was the third son of the family and thus not active in the family business, having been sent instead into the imperial administration where he worked as the supervisor of an office in charge of statistics. He was often sent on long fact finding missions around the Empire and had come back from one such mission only two months before, but it was the first time he really had the opportunity to spend time with his family.
After answering one of his father's’ question he remarked offhandedly : “You know that we missed a lot of money when we did not invest in horseflesh?”
“How so ?” asked his elder, raising an eyebrow. “Well, you know that since the conquests of the divine Hadrian the army has expanded to add more than ten thousand horsemen to its rolls ? All those horses have to come from somewhere, and you know that the rise in fame of senatorial families such as the Flavii Arianii is directly linked to their rôle in providing those beasts... “
“How do you recon such things ?” asked his father, now interested in the topic. “As you know father, the army has thirty legions, some 165 000 infantrymen alongside some 4000 legionary cavalry. This has not changed since the time of the Optimus Princeps the divine Trajanus and is not even that far from the twenty eight legions on record in the time of the divine Augustus. But while the citizen soldiership has not been expended it is another story for the auxiliary units ! In fact many of the units now fighting the Persians in the East did not exist thirty years ago... “
His father scratched his beard while his son took a sip of wine before he said : “But there are not that many more senators serving in the army, and the Senate has not been expended… So the army can’t have grown that much, can it ?”
His son smiled : “Good observation father ! And quite true too. But it’s because the expansion has been made not so much with new units as with transformation to existing units. I’m not sure how many auxiliary units existed at the time of the divine Trajanus, but it must have been around 380. Now the list I’ve just compiled for the Academia Militaria records four hundred units and some 270 000 men taking their pay from the Emperor, so just twenty more units, around ten to fifteen thousand men with about half being cavalry alae or cohors equitata. But what I’ve seen is that many units that were only cohors quingenaria or miliaria have received new detachments of horsemen, from 120 to 240 depending on whether it was a larger or smaller unit. It did not change the requirement for higher officer of senatorial rank but if course the number of more junior officers has increased, with a number of junior sons from equestrian families such as myself entering the military career, especially those from the more provincial families who hope to improve their connections in Rome. There have been more promotions for soldiers from the ranks too.”
“You know that it is, in and of itself, another opportunity we have not identified… More centurions and decurions means more men who will retire to their provincial plots of land with money which they can spend however they want, drinking it of investing it… In any cases peoples with money to buy things we could sell them... “
“Oh I don’t think so, they don’t really regroup to provide markets, they are too far apart from each other, although they may help develop small villages and other kind of rural areas by improving inns, relay posts, taverns and those sort of places in which many veterans seems to invest…”
“Still, from what you’ve said the army is only as big as about half the population of the city of Rome… That seems so small for an Empire of the size of the Rome…”
“It depend how you look at it father. Those 400 000 men cost about 200 000 000 denarii a year, about 500 denarii per soldier. Of course the rank and file only cost half of that, but officers, horses and the rest of the equipment cost a hundred millions denarii a year. That’s a lot of the empire’s income…”
Hecatee
Donor
It was my pleasure
About the knowledge aspect, I do have a master degree in Ancient History and for the rest I got a few thousand books home including a few hundreds Ancient History books and manuals
But I must confess that I do leave a number of points under researched, even if I do at least a basic check of everything really important.
Hecatee
Donor
From the auxilia : no. The distinction between citizen troops and non-citizen troops is still well in place (OTL it's Caracalla's 212 decree that suppressed the distinction between people born inside the empire and thus the main distinction in the army). One must remember that the two types of formations had distinct roles : Auxiliaries are mostly the front line force, the day to day patrolers and first contact unit. The legions are the heavyweight, those you only move when troubles are coming, the strategic reserve who in between mobilization plays a lot of roles in internal police and administration : legionaries have to be able to read, something not expected from all auxiliaries. Legionnaries also have technical knowledge in siegecraft and various industries such as brick and tilemaking, iron working, etc. that the auxiliaries don't have. The auxiliaries usually work in units between 500 and 1000 men while legions have some 6000 men on registry. Auxiliaries may also provide non-standard troops such as camel corp (Egypt and Syria), cataphractoi cavalry (Danube area and Syria), archers (Syria) (and those are only the one I can think of the top of my head). So you really have a lot of difference in mentality and use between the two types.
What I could see, and hint in this update, is a greater divide between the auxiliaries that are cavalry and legionnaries who are heavy infantry. But I think I'll go for a progressive standardization of auxiliary units on the cohors equitata milliaria type, the 800 infantry 240 cavalry mixed formation by progressive strenghtening of most units.
This would provide those units with a capacity to block and shatter all raids and provide delay action against anything else, with strong reconnaissance and mobility elements, especially as my Roman cavalry is now more powerful than anything else in the world and will be for a long, long time...
Hecatee
Donor
Currently there is still not a formal division of power between civilian and military authorities, and no step has been taken to implement it. It comes from the fact that command is born of a transfert of imperium, the right to lead of the emperor (simplification here), a right that is both civilian and military : governors are legati augusti, delegates of the emperor.
In practice however while the Senatorial class still has to follow the original cursus honorum which mixes civilian and military tasks, one sees that more and more of the administration is taken by the equestrian class (something which Hadrian promotted OTL). Equestrian have to choose between the civilian and the military cursus, and it is not unheard of to discover that equestrian in the military career are in fact former centurions who cashed enough money to rise on the social stairway.
While legionnary command is mostly done by senatorial rank leaders, auxiliary command is the first step of the equestrian military career path since the rule of Claudius in the mid-1st century. Of course the senatorial general of a legion was the superior of all the auxiliary prefects in charge of the auxiliary units attached to his legion.
Now a consequence of the reforms I've introduced thus far is that more and more command, especially military command, is seen as a true craft which needs to be learned. It goes countrary to the usual view of leadership in the nobility of the time, which is why the new infrastructures such as the Academia Militaria Practica are embraced by the equestrian order more than by the senatorial order. It must also be noted that there is still not a formal cursus to follow at the academia.
This may in time lead to an abandon by the senatorial order of its military role, in favor of the equestrians : OTL it would not be until the mid third century that senators would loose command of legions in favour of veteran equestrian commanders but even then it did not change (as far as I know) the subordination of the auxiliary units' commander to their legion's commander.
ITTL I can see the change happening much faster, as early as the late second century, but not during the current rule, especially as a number of exceptionnal military commanders from the senatorial order are availlables to Marcus Aurelius.
Since the number of auxiliary units has not fundamentaly changed their is no real drive to put in place a new form of command structure, but the professionalisation of the army will lead to the appearance of a more structured and permanent general staff of the roman army, in fact :
I see it as a number of regional, supra-provincial, general staff divided as follow :
- Britannia : Londinium (all of Britannia) = 3 legions and around 60 auxiliary units for around 60 000 men
- Germania: Colonia Treverorum (Germania Inferior, Germania Superior) = 5 legions and around 50 auxiliary units for around 60 000 men
- Pannonia : Augusta Vindelicorum (Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia Superior, Pannonia Inferior) = 4 legions and around 50 auxiliary units (10 less than OTL) for around 50 000 men
- Dacia : Viminiacium (Iazygeia, Dacia, Roxolania, Moesia Superior, Moesia inferior) = 6 legions and around 100 auxiliary units (25 more than OTL, transfers from Pannonia to Iazigeia and new units) for around 70 000 men
- Asia : Antiochia (Cappadocia, Syria, Judea, Arabia Petraea) = 8 legions and around 75 auxiliary units for around 100 000 men
With Italia, Gallia, Iberia, Africa and Egypt directly under the control of the imperial general staff in Rome, managing 4 legions and around 75 auxiliary units for around 60 000 men
Those general staff would have responsability for the supervision of troop overall equipement, training and location, be able to give order directly to legionary commanders, and would relay informations to the overall general staff. They would also have fabricae directly attached, for the production of necessary equipements.
Purely military, they would naturally take away military matters away from the governors, who will have more incentive to develop their province thanks to the expertise of the new corp of civilian engineers being trained at the Academia, although in some provinces they will still be expected for a time to lead the single legion and attached units deployed in their provinces. But it will be seen as inefficient and those situations will be remediated : I see that as the point where legionnary command would more and more become equestrian rank instead of senatorial. From there I see a progressive split between equestrian order, who will be mainly the merchant class, provincial aristocracy and higher civil service, the clipei order, a new class which is rich enough to qualify for the equestrian order but will be the military counterpart, and the senatorial order which will remain class of the richest landowners of the empire and the main drive for productivity increases as they will want to both improve income while unable to enter trading and compete with each other for the prestige of new discoveries by those they will finance. Of course there will be a lot of exchanges between the three classes : the last sons of senators unable to support multiple senatorial cursus would become equestrians, military inept sons of clipei would become equestrians, equestrians qualifying would become senators, etc.
- Britannia : Londinium (all of Britannia) = 3 legions and around 60 auxiliary units for around 60 000 men
- Germania: Colonia Treverorum (Germania Inferior, Germania Superior) = 5 legions and around 50 auxiliary units for around 60 000 men
- Pannonia : Augusta Vindelicorum (Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia Superior, Pannonia Inferior) = 4 legions and around 50 auxiliary units (10 less than OTL) for around 50 000 men
- Dacia : Viminiacium (Iazygeia, Dacia, Roxolania, Moesia Superior, Moesia inferior) = 6 legions and around 100 auxiliary units (25 more than OTL, transfers from Pannonia to Iazigeia and new units) for around 70 000 men
- Asia : Antiochia (Cappadocia, Syria, Judea, Arabia Petraea) = 8 legions and around 75 auxiliary units for around 100 000 men
With Italia, Gallia, Iberia, Africa and Egypt directly under the control of the imperial general staff in Rome, managing 4 legions and around 75 auxiliary units for around 60 000 men
Those general staff would have responsability for the supervision of troop overall equipement, training and location, be able to give order directly to legionary commanders, and would relay informations to the overall general staff. They would also have fabricae directly attached, for the production of necessary equipements.
Purely military, they would naturally take away military matters away from the governors, who will have more incentive to develop their province thanks to the expertise of the new corp of civilian engineers being trained at the Academia, although in some provinces they will still be expected for a time to lead the single legion and attached units deployed in their provinces. But it will be seen as inefficient and those situations will be remediated : I see that as the point where legionnary command would more and more become equestrian rank instead of senatorial. From there I see a progressive split between equestrian order, who will be mainly the merchant class, provincial aristocracy and higher civil service, the clipei order, a new class which is rich enough to qualify for the equestrian order but will be the military counterpart, and the senatorial order which will remain class of the richest landowners of the empire and the main drive for productivity increases as they will want to both improve income while unable to enter trading and compete with each other for the prestige of new discoveries by those they will finance. Of course there will be a lot of exchanges between the three classes : the last sons of senators unable to support multiple senatorial cursus would become equestrians, military inept sons of clipei would become equestrians, equestrians qualifying would become senators, etc.
Actually that was closer to every 4 years. One of the problem of the later 4th century was that in fact some commanders were left in place for longer in the area of their power base, especially in the east : this may not be the case here...