Marius' Mules V: Hades' Gate (68 page)

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Authors: S.J.A. Turney

Tags: #Army, #Legion, #Roman, #Caesar, #Rome, #Gaul

Civitas
: Latin name given to a certain class of civil settlement, often the capital of a tribal group or a former military base.

Cloaca Maxima
: The great sewer of republican Rome that drained the forum into the Tiber.

Contubernium
(pl. Contubernia): the smallest division of unit in the Roman legion, numbering eight men who shared a tent.

Cornu
:
A G-shaped horn-like musical instrument used primarily by the military for relaying signals, along with the buccina. A trumpeter was called a cornicen.

Corona
: Lit: ‘Crowns’. Awards given to military officers. The Corona Muralis and Castrensis were awards for storming enemy walls, while the Aurea was for an outstanding single combat.

Curia
: the meeting place of the senate in the forum of Rome.

Cursus Honorum
: The ladder of political and military positions a noble Roman is expected to ascend.

Decurion
: 1) The civil council of a Roman town. 2) Lesser cavalry officer, serving under a cavalry prefect, with command of thirty two men.

Dolabra
: entrenching tool, carried by a legionary, which served as a shovel, pick and axe combined.

Duplicarius
: A soldier on double the basic pay.

Equestrian
: The often wealthier, though less noble mercantile class, known as knights.

Foederati
: non-Roman states who held treaties with Rome and gained some rights under Roman law.

Gaesatus
: a spearman, usually a mercenary of Gallic origin.

Gladius
:
the Roman army’s standard short, stabbing sword, originally based on a Spanish sword design.

Groma
: the chief surveying instrument of a Roman military engineer, used for marking out straight lines and calculating angles.

Haruspex
(pl. Haruspices): A religious official who confirms the will of the gods through signs and by inspecting the entrails of animals.

Immunes
:
legionary soldiers who possessed specialist skills and were consequently excused the more onerous duties.

Kalends
: the first day of the Roman month, based on the new moon with the ‘nones’ being the half moon around the 5th-7th of the month and the ‘ides’ being the full moon around the 13th-15th.

Labrum
: Large dish on a pedestal filled with fresh water in the hot room of a bath house.

Laconicum
: the steam room or sauna in a Roman bath house.

Laqueus
: a garrotte usually used by gladiators to restrain an opponent’s arm, but also occasionally used to cause death by strangulation.

Legatus
: Commander of a Roman legion

Lilia
(Lit. ‘Lilies’): defensive pits three feet deep with a sharpened stake at the bottom, disguised with undergrowth, to hamper attackers.

Mansio
and
mutatio
: stopping places on the Roman road network for officials, military staff and couriers to stay or exchange horses if necessary.

Mare Nostrum
: Latin name for the Mediterranean Sea (literally ‘Our Sea’)

Mars Gravidus
: an aspect of the Roman war god, ‘he who precedes the army in battle’, was the God prayed to when an army went to war.

Miles
: the Roman name for a soldier, from which we derive the words military and militia among others.

Octodurus
: now Martigny in Switzerland, at the Northern end of the Great Saint Bernard Pass.

Optio
: A legionary centurion’s second in command.

Pilum (p: Pila)
: the army’s standard javelin, with a wooden stock and a long, heavy lead point.

Pilus Prior
: The most senior centurion of a cohort and one of the more senior in a legion.

Praetor
: a title granted to the commander of an army. cf the Praetorian Cohort.

Praetorian Cohort
:
personal bodyguard of a General.

Primus Pilus
: The chief centurion of a legion. Essentially the second in command of a legion.

Pugio
:
the standard broad bladed dagger of the Roman military.

Quadriga
: a chariot drawn by four horses, such as seen at the great races in the circus of Rome.

Samarobriva
: oppidum on the Somme River, now called Amiens.

Scorpion, Ballista & Onager
: Siege engines. The Scorpion was a large crossbow on a stand, the Ballista a giant missile throwing crossbow, and the Onager a stone hurling catapult.

Signifer
:
A century’s standard bearer, also responsible for dealing with pay, burial club and much of a unit’s bureaucracy.

Subura
: a lower-class area of ancient Rome, close to the forum, that was home to the red-light district’.

Testudo
: Lit- Tortoise. Military formation in which a century of men closes up in a rectangle and creates four walls and a roof for the unit with their shields.

Triclinium
: The dining room of a Roman house or villa

Trierarch
: Commander of a Trireme or other Roman military ship.

Turma
: A small detachment of a cavalry ala consisting of thirty two men led by a decurion.

Vexillum
(Pl. Vexilli):
The standard or flag of a legion.

Vindunum
: later the Roman Civitas Cenomanorum, and now Le Mans in France.

Vineae
: moveable wattle and leather wheeled shelters that covered siege works and attacking soldiers from enemy missiles.

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