The Eastern Legions and Auxilia

Here is an overview of elements forming an eastern option for the early Severan period.

Syria

Legiones (12,000 legionnaires, 72 ballistae)

III Gallica,                                                                                       4 x 4Bd, 1 x Art

IV Scythica,                                                                                     4 x 4Bd, 1 x Art

XVI Flavia.                                                                                       4 x 4Bd, 1 x Art

Auxilia (3,000 cavalry, 1,075 mounted infantry, 7,000 infantry, total: 16,500)

Alae

II Flavia Agrippiana,                  from Lugdunensis ,                          1 x 3Cv

I Praetoria C. R.,                        unknown origin,                                1 x 3Cv

III Thracum,                             from Thrace,                                   1 x 3Cv

Thracum Herculania M.,             from Thrace,                                   2 x 3Cv

I Ulpia Singularium ,                   raised by Trajan,                            1 x 3Cv

Cohortes

I Ascalonitanorum S.,                 from Judaea,                                  1 x 4Bw

I Flavia Chalcidenorum S.E.,       from Syria                                      1 x 4Bw

II Classica S.,                             from the Fleet,                              1 x 4Bw

I Ulpia Dacorum,                         from Dacia,                                    1 x 4Ax

VII Gallorum,                              from Lugdenensis,                          1 x 4Ax

I Lucensium E.,                            from Tarraconensis,                      1 x 4Ax

IV Lucensium E.,                          from Tarraconensis,                      1 x 4Ax

I Ulpia Petraeorum M.E.,              from Arabia,                                 2 x 4Ax

V Ulpia Petraeorum M.E.,              from Arabia,                                 2 x 4Ax

I Claudia Sugambrorum,               from Spain,                                   1 x 4Ax

I Sugambrorum E.,                       from Spain,                                   1 x 4Ax

II Thracum Syriaca E.,                from Thrace,                                 1 x 4Ax

III Augusta Thracum E.,              from Thrace,                                1 x 4Ax

Equites units will be grouped to create                                             3 x 2LH

To supplement the above, a further                                                  3 x 2LH

are Equites Indigenae, Itauranorum, and Arabae. 

Note: the hills in the background have long since been changed as part a rigorous programme to bring all terrain items to a DBX standard. This will be featured in a later post. 

Cheers, 

General Officers and the battle array.

In Phil Barker’s book, Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome, general officers wore a muscled corselet with an attic styled helmet this period; beards came also into fashion.

Out my small excess stock I found three candidates for the position of general; two Greek Successor generals and one Gallic Chieftain. The Greeks would need fur trim for the cloak and the height of plumage atop the helmet should be increased a bit. The horses are fine, but the saddle cloth could be lengthened.

The helmet for the chieftain would need to be built up and the trousers trimmed to Roman styled breeches. As he is the only one with shield, I shall need to trim this a bit to conform with the style of the time.

Original figures.

Conversion.

The three commands in battle array.

Command 1

Command 2

Command 3

Indigenous Troops in Roman service.

Light Horse

The Middle Imperial Roman army have one LH per command with an option for an extra LH. For the eastern army, these would represent irregular troops raised from the native realms. I have large numbers of horse archers for Parthian and Sassanid, so I have chosen javelin armed types for which I will use the Lurkio Late Moors. These have a suitable Arab-like appearance and perfect for my Indigenae Idiota.

Lurkio “Moorish” Light Cavalry

Recommended reading:

The Roman Cavalry, From the First to the Third Century A.D. by K. Dixon and P. Southern

Along with the small order of indigenous (LH) mounted I also added baggage camels. This was my first order with Lukio miniatures, but the horses are a bit taller than Old Glory ones, but that should not be noticeable when painted. 

Quality of castings are very good with virtually no cleaning needed. The attendants for the camels are actually Moorish slingers and these match well with Old Glory figures.

Artillery and archers

The Middle Imperial Roman list include more options for which I have now added artillery and bowmen to my Eastern Army. This means 3 x 4Bw and 1 x Art will be added to each command; extra bowmen will be used to fill the Hatrene and Characene ranks. Funny how these projects seem to grow.

In the foreground are the Roman elements and to their rear are the extras based as 3Bw for the Arabo-Aramean armies.

Next post will cover the command elements and all three commands in battle array.

Cavalry

Comparing the Early to Middle Imperial Roman list feature an increase in cavalry and the appearance of heavily armoured types, the cataphract.

The latter were original formed from Parthian refugees, but as Parthians are still a viable opponent in our campaigns, I shall use only cavalry and light horse. Below are the elements needed for the three commands.

Alae

II Flavia Agrippiana, from Lugdunensis    1 x 3Cv

I Praetoria C. R., not known                      1 x 3Cv

III Thracum, from Thrace                       1 x 3Cv

Thracum Herculania M., from Thrace       2 x 3Cv

I Ulpia Singularium, raised Trajan            1 x 3Cv

Light Horse 

An element of light horse is listed for the Middle Imperial army list. A second element is an option for the eastern Romans. This reflects the “Illyrian” regiments raised from the Promoti and Mauri units.

Promoti are the Legionary cavalry and as such should have similar clothing and shield pattern as their host Legion. One such LH is done with the exception of the shield design.

This is speculation, but further light horse may have come from the existing auxilia regiments having mounted units or Equitata. In Barker's book, these were grouped together to form part of the battlefield cavalry.

Looking at Cheesman's list for the eastern provinces there are a high proportion of Auxilia Equitata located on the frontier. Excavations of the Auxilia forts have found a number with stables. As their primary role is scouting I will paint up two more LH from the Equitata units, keeping the same shield pattern as their parent unit.

Recommended reading:

The Roman Cavalry, From the First to the Third Century A.D. by K. Dixon and P. Southern

The Auxilia

Auxiliary Shield patterns. 

Shields appearing in Phil Barker’s book are taken from Trajan’s column. From these we can see four general patterns, those with an eagle emblazoned have been awarded Roman citizenship for valour on the battlefield, Jupiter’s eagle and lightning bolts represent volunteers raised among the Roman citizens and shields depicted with a wreath are awarded the title Torquata and the remainder have designs, swirls and stars. The latter may have significance to the region they were recruited from, but this is speculation.

My Auxiliary are those which served in the Syrian province as noted by G.L. Cheesman in his book The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army. To facilitate the painting of 12 elements of Auxilia, I would select six shield colours and later add to each a unique pattern. In this manner I can repeat a pattern but on a different coloured shield.

From Cheesman’s book, you can find the Auxilia listed by province from which they were recruited from and by the province which they were stationed.

Cheesman: http://www.archive.org/stream/auxili...ge/n5/mode/2up

I am aware since the publication of the book, there has been new research into the subject of Auxilia, but there has not been enough done for the eastern provinces. Here is where my artistic license can be loosed.

Cohortes

I Ascalonitanorum S. from Judaea            1 x 4Bw

I Flavia Chalcidenorum S.E. from Syria     1 x 4Bw

II Classica S. from the Fleet                    1 x 4Bw

I Ulpia Dacorum from Dacia                      1 x 4Ax

VII Gallorum from Lugdenensis                 1 x 4Ax

I Lucensium E. from Tarraconensis            1 x 4Ax

IV Lucensium E. from Tarraconensis          1 x 4Ax

I Ulpia Petraeorum M.E. from Arabia         2 x 4Ax

V Ulpia Petraeorum M.E. from Arabia         2 x 4Ax

I Claudia Sugambrorum from Spain            1 x 4Ax

I Sugambrorum E. form Spain                    1 x 4Ax

II Thracum Syriaca E. from Thrace           1 x 4Ax

III Augusta Thracum E. from Thrace        1 x 4Ax

The bowmen are optional on the Middle Imperial Roman list as are the psiloi which will be native slingers. Of the ten regiments listed above, two are double strength and will have two elements in place of one.

In the foreground are eight standard size cohort, second are two milliaria which are now done. I selected 6 shield patterns duplicating the pattern for units with different background.

Most common designs were crescent moons, stars and spines. To add diversity, the tunics are not all white, but for example the Spanish units have black, Arab, brown and the Gallic, a blue grey.

Storm Within the (Roman) Empire

Two years ago I began collecting armies of the 15^th century as a starter project while DBA 3.0 was in its draft stage. As the rules reached its final revision, I started the Severan Dynasty, a much larger project which was followed closely at the DBA Fanaticus Forum.

Unfortunately, reorganizing my Photobucket account, the 250 photos of the Severan thread and other projects lost their link. Rather than restoring the links, an easier option is to restore here the entire “Armies and Enemies of Rome – the Severan Dynasty”. This not only covers the armies of the 2^nd/3^rd century that fought Rome, but terrain items and interesting campaign and scenario ideas for anyone interested in this dynamic period of history.

Middle Imperial Romans. 

Some years back, the proposed 3.0 list for II/64 Middle Imperial Roman caught my eye. I noted no new items, but the list did offer a flexible composition to build an army. Rather than build one, I opted to collect three commands with options.

As a start, I selected the eastern frontier as the list of enemies offered a variety of troop types. Along with the Sassanid, already in my collection, I would add Parthia, Arabo-Aramean (Hatra and Characene), Pre-Islamic Arabs and Armenians. This would make a fine representation a late 2nd/ early 3rd century campaign.

Eastern Frontier

Starting with the Legions, I choose the III Gallica, IV Scythica and the XVI Flavia Firma to represent the core strength for each command. Those wishing to do research for their own collections, I can recommend the following link:

The Legions: http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/legions.htm

For my own selected legions, these links will take you to their unit history.

III Gallica: http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/iii_gallica.html , emblem, the Bull

IV Scythica : http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/iiii_scythica.html , emblem, the Capricorn

XVI Flavia Firma: http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/xvi_flavia_firma.html , emblem, the Lion

Regarding shield patterns, I choose a pragmatic approach to their depiction. 

* The majority of shields depict two pair of wings and lightning bolts. 

* The colour red is known to cover the back of the shield, but the front side is still open to further research. 

* We do know the ground colour of shields in the later period as represented in the Notitia Dignitatum, so a general direction can be made. 

* For my three legions (4 x 4Bd) I have selected red, ochre and tan, each with two pair of wings and lightning bolts.

Next posting; the Auxilia