Адриан Голдсуорти - The Fort

lillia :lilies were circular pits with a sharpened stake in the centre. Often concealed, they were a comman part of the obstacles outside Roman fortifications.

lixae :A generic term for the camp followers of a Roman army.

medicus :an army medical orderly or junior physician.

Monâkon :a single armed catapult described in Hellenistic manuals. The type was widely used in Late Antiquity, when it was often known as the onager, and continued in use throughout the Middle Ages.

omnes ad stercus :a duty roster of the first century AD from a century of a legion stationed in Egypt has some soldiers assigned ad stercus , literally to the dung or shit. This probably meant a fatigue party cleaning the latrines – or just possibly mucking out the stables. From this I have invented omnes ad stercus as ‘everyone to the latrines’ or ‘we’re all in the shit’.

optio :the second in command of a century of eighty men and deputy to a centurion.

pileatus (pl. pileati ):the ‘cap wearers’ were the nobles in Dacian society as opposed to the long haired mass of the population.

pilum :the heavy javelin carried by Roman legionaries. It was about six to seven feet long. The shaft was wooden, topped by a slim iron shank ending in a pyramid-shaped point (much like the bodkin arrow used by longbowmen). The shank was not meant to bend. Instead the aim was to concentrate all of the weapon’s considerable weight behind the head so that it would punch through armour or shield. If it hit a shield, the head would go through, and the long iron shank gave it the reach to continue and strike the man behind. Its effective range was probably some 15 to 16 yards.

praesidium :the term meant garrison, and could be employed for a small outpost or a full-sized fort.

prefect:the commander of most auxiliary units was called a prefect (although a few unit COs held the title tribune). These were equestrians, who first commanded a cohort of auxiliary infantry, then served as equestrian tribune in a legion, before going on to command a cavalry ala .

procurator:an imperial official who oversaw the tax and financial administration of a province. Although junior to a legate, a procurator reported directly to the emperor.

res publica :literally ‘public thing’ or state/coomonwealth, this was the way the Roman referred to their state and is the origin of our word republic.

Roxolani:or ‘red alans’ were one group of Sarmatians, but are likely to have consisted of many subsections rather than a coherent and politically united tribe. At times they were allied with Decebalus, at times with the Romans, and often hostile to both.

sacramentum :the military oath sworn to the emperor and the res publica.

salutatio :traditional ceremony where people came to greet a Roman senator – and especially a governor – at the start of a working day.

Sarmatians:another blanket term used by the Romans and similar to the Greek use of Scythians. Reality was no doubt more complicated, but broadly speaking there were nomads originating from the Steppes. They were famed as formidable cavalry, employing bows and lances. Some were heavily armoured.

scorpion ( scorpio ): a light torsion catapult or ballista with a superficial resemblance to a large crossbow. They shot a heavy bolt with considerable accuracy and tremendous force to a range beyond bowshot. Julius Caesar describes a bolt from one of these engines going through the leg of an enemy cavalryman and pinning him to the saddle.

seplasiarius (or seplasiario ):a military pharmascist working in a fort’s hospital.

sica :a curved, one-handed sword particularly associated with Thracians and Dacians. The edge was on the inside of the curve, like a sickle and like the larger falx .

signifer :a standard-bearer, specifically one carrying a century’s standard or signum (pl. signa ).

Silures:a tribe or people occupying what is now South Wales. They fought a long campaign before being overrun by the Romans. Tacitus described them as having curly hair and darker hair or complexions than other Britons, and suggested that they looked more like Spaniards (although since he misunderstood the geography of Britain he also believed that their homeland was closer to Spain than Gaul).

spatha :another Latin term for sword, which it is now conventional to employ for the longer blades used mainly by horsemen in this period.

speculator :a soldier tasked with scouting.

tesserarius :the third in command of a century after the optio and signifer , the title originally came from their responsibility for overseeing sentries. The watchword for each night was written on a tessera or tablet.

thetatus :the Greek letter theta was used in some military documents to mark the name of a man who had died. This developed into army slang as thetatus meaning dead/killed.

tribune :each legion had six tribunes. The most senior was the broad-stripe tribune ( tribunus laticlavius ), who was a young aristocrat at an early stage of a senatorial career. Such men were in the late teens or early twenties. There were also five narrow-stripe tribunes ( tribune angusticlavia ), who were equestrians and had normally already commanded a cohort of auxiliary infantry.

triclinia :the three-sided couches employed at Roman meals.

Turma :a troop of Roman cavalry, usually with a theoretical strength of 30 or 32.

valetudinarium: A military hospital.

vicus :the civilian settlement outside a Roman army base.

vitis :the vine cane carried as a mark of rank by a centurion.

ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY studied at Oxford, where his doctoral thesis examined the Roman army. He went on to become an acclaimed historian of Ancient Rome. He is the author of numerous works of non fiction, including Caesar , Pax Romana , Hadrian’s Wall and Philip and Alexander . He is also the author of the Vindolanda series, set in Roman Britain, which first introduced readers to centurion Flavius Ferox

Vindolanda

The Encircling Sea

Brigantia

Hadrian’s Wall

Philip and Alexander

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