Vexillation

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A reenactor as a Roman signifer of the 1st century with his vexillum, which represents the scorpion, the heraldic animal of the Praetorian Guard.
Photo: Associazione Culturale Cisalpina - Cohors III Praetoria.
Inscription of a logging command of the Legio XXII from Trennfurt in the Roman Museum Obernburg .
Another inscription from Trennfurt
Altar for Jupiter Optimus Maximus , donated by a vexillatio of the cohort of Sequani and Raurici , probably a troop of the XXII Legion Primigenia

A vexillation (Latin vexillatio ) was a division of the Roman army . The name derives from the Latin word vexillum ( " flag ", " standard " or " ensign ") from, comparable to those that are still used in religious processions.

definition

Vexillations have been around since the 1st century BC. From soldiers of one or more legions or also from auxiliary units for a specific purpose and for an indefinite period. The term vexillatio is very flexible and in terms of content does not go beyond the meaning of "delegation"; For example, an altar inscription from Obernburg is known in which soldiers of Legio XXII Primigenia , who were sent out to cut wood, are referred to as vexillatio . It was only at the end of the early imperial era that the vexillations also seem to have been assigned as reinforcements or intervention forces.

development

In times of peace it often happened that a larger part of a unit was constantly absent to pursue various work, as well-preserved papyrus documents from an Egyptian warehouse and the wooden tablets from Vindolanda confirm. Roman military units also performed many “civil” tasks in today's sense, such as B. road construction. Under Emperor Marcus Aurelius , the legions occasionally marched out with full strength in the event of war, from the middle of the 3rd century AD it was very rare for a full legion to leave their camp to take part in combat. Even during the Marcomanni wars (168-180 n. Chr.) Were many legions had been phased out completely, but most of them abkommandierte vexillations. The legions increasingly became a kind of local personnel reserve that only sent out individual departments to carry out various field services, garrison affairs, border defense or police tasks in the provinces.

The traditional division of the army into legions and auxiliaries had become meaningless with the granting of citizenship to almost all imperial residents by Emperor Caracalla in 212. Instead, a powerful reserve had to be created alongside the troops lined up at the borders. The tactical situation that the Roman Empire faced in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries AD required the use of vexillations, as it was much easier to conduct operations with smaller and faster units than with entire legions. You needed a flexible marching or field army with which you could still effectively fight opponents who had penetrated the empire and, if necessary, pursue them deep into enemy territory without having to completely bare the Limes in sections of troops. This approach also brought considerable advantages for the organization of supplies and quarters for the soldiers.

From around 220 AD the first, originally only temporarily detached vexillations were permanently stationed in their new location. Under Emperor Gallienus , the first larger mobile field army was established and expanded by his successors Diocletian and Constantine or other such field armies were set up. The old legions with their large troop strengths shrank, were split up into several units and partly changed their names. Some of their vexillations were now often listed as independent legions in the troop lists. Wherever vexillations remained permanently stationed, wherever they were assigned, new comitarian legions were formed in the course of the late antique military reforms, which in turn gives an indication of the size of the delegations concerned. But the old legions did not disappear entirely. Instead, they were completely restructured, as the failures caused by losses or layoffs could no longer be adequately compensated. Due to the numerous incursions of the Franks and the clashes with the Sassanid Empire , the smaller team strengths were probably reached quickly. Legions that have disappeared from the literary sources have probably been destroyed, amalgamated or dissolved, although the latter is very unlikely due to the constant need for troops.

At what point in time this development began has not been proven. The late antique war theorist Vegetius writes that under Diocletian there were still legions of 6000 men. However, research assumes that by the 4th century at the latest, a legion in a field army comprised only 1,000 to 1,200 men. The fact is that more and more thinned out between the 3rd and 6th century. Chr. The classic legions and units with different weapons, nationalities, dominated by the cavalry and supported by specially trained spear-throwers, the Lanciarii , were replaced.

Troop strength

Manned with a number of soldiers commensurate with the threat, vexillations could also cope with larger armies, and smaller enemy combat groups could be fought even more effectively with them. Vexillations were often used for the temporary reinforcement of garrisons , which secured important road junctions, river crossings or mountain passes and were thus a useful further development of the practices of the established classical legions. The Legion was now primarily an administrative organization; it was too large and inflexible for the army's new tasks. Their cohorts and centurions had always been the actual tactical troops.

Vexillations were usually composed of one or two cohorts . Thereby they kept their centuriale organization and also fought as such in the field. They also had their own administrative and logistical staff. Some detachments were

  • 500 men (one cohort = quinquenaria ) or
  • 1,000 men (two cohorts = milliaria ) strong.

From the 4th century AD, vexillation also includes cavalry divisions of a legion. Cavalry vexillations should have had a nominal strength of around 600 riders.

Officers

Smaller vexillations were commanded by centurions , larger ones in army strength by officers from the Senate (Legatus legionis) . Since Septimius Severus such officers have carried the title of praepositus or dux . At the imperial court, the praepositus ranked as vir perfectissimus . In the 3rd and 4th centuries, the traditional hierarchy of the army also changed. The commanders had titles that apparently did not always follow a fixed pattern. The rank of prepositus originally designated an officer who was only temporarily in command of another unit, but has now become a permanent institution. We also encounter many prefects and tribunes in the sources, often only as commanders of a unit of cohort strength, but all three titles encompass a wide range of tasks and powers. Some prefects and tribunes were also called prepositi in late antiquity .

Duration of use

In the early 3rd century it was common for garrison service for a vexillation in an outpost to last an average of three years, but service in the field could be much longer. For example, some of the units that took part in the Parthian War (216–218 AD) marched east in 214 and did not return home until between 219 and 222 AD.

In the civil wars of the late 3rd century, individual vexillations were in use for so long that they became practically independent and organized as a kind of legion on a small scale. The numbers and names of their parent legions were simply retained. The Legio III Italica serves as a good example ; in the 4th century it was split up in the province of Raetia into no fewer than five border guard units, a sixth served as an elite force in the Illyrian field army .

literature

  • Ross Cowan: Imperial Roman Legionary AD 161-284 (= Warrior Series 72). Osprey, Oxford 2003, ISBN 1-84176-601-1 .
  • Robert Grosse : Roman military history from Gallienus to the beginning of the Byzantine thematic constitution. Weidmann, Berlin 1920, p. 7 (reprint. Arno Press, New York NY 1975, ISBN 0-405-07083-7 ).
  • Max Mayer: Vexillum and Vexillarius. A contribution to the history of the Roman army. DuMont Schauberg, Strasbourg 1910 (Freiburg (Breisgau), university, dissertation, 1910).
  • Simon MacDowall: Late Roman Infantryman, 236-565 AD. Weapons, Armor, Tactics (= Warrior Series 9). Reed, London 1997, ISBN 1-85532-419-9 .
  • Robert Saxer: Investigations into the vexillations of the Roman imperial army from Augustus to Diocletian. Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 1967.

Individual evidence

  1. CIL 13.06509.