gladius: Latin word for sword, which by modern convention specifically refers to the short sword used by all legionaries and most auxiliary infantry. By the end of the first century most blades were less than 2 feet long.
hastatus: title for one of the senior centurions in a legion, who served with its prestigious first cohort.
Hippaka Gymnasia: the cavalry games or spectacle was an opportunity for cavalrymen to display their skills in riding, weapons-handling and keeping formation.
lancea: a type of spear of javelin.
legate (legionary): the commander of a legion was a legatus legionis and was a senator at an earlier stage in his career than the provincial governor (see below). He would usually be in his early thirties.
legate (provincial): the governor of a military province like Britain was a legatus Augusti, the representative of the emperor. He was a distinguished senator and usually at least in his forties.
legion: originally the levy of the entire Roman people summoned to war, legion or legio became the name for the most important unit in the army. In the last decades of the first century BC, legions became permanent with their own numbers and usually names and titles. In AD 98 there were twenty-eight legions, but the total was soon raised to thirty.
medicus: an army medical orderly or junior physician.
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.
phalerae: disc-shaped medals worn on a harness over a man’s body armour.
pilum: the heavy javelin carried by Roman legionaries. It was about 6 to 7 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.
posca: cheap wine popular with soldiers and slaves.
praesidium: the term meant garrison, and could be employed for a small outpost or a full-sized fort.
praetorium: the house of the commanding officer in a Roman 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.
princeps: a Roman emperor was called the princeps or first citizen/first servant of the state.
principia: headquarters building in a Roman fort.
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.
pugio: Latin name for the army issue dagger.
raeda: a four-wheeled carriage drawn by mules or horses.
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.
scutum: Latin word for shield, but most often associated with the large semi-cylindrical body shield carried by legionaries.
seplasiarius (or seplasiario): military pharmacist working in a fort’s hospital.
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).
singulares: the legate of a province had a picked bodyguard formed of auxiliary soldiers seconded from their units.
spatha: another Latin term for sword, which it is now conventional to employ for the longer blades used mainly by horsemen in this period.
stationarii: soldiers detached from their parent units and stationed as garrison elsewhere, often in a small outpost.
tesserarius: the third in command of a century after the optio and signifier. The title originally came from their responsibility for overseeing sentries. The watchword for each night was written on a tessera or tablet.
tiro (pl. tirones): a new recruit to the army.
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 usually in their late teens or very early twenties. There were also five narrow-stripe or junior tribunes (tribuni angusticlavii).
tubicen: a straight trumpet.
Tungrians: a tribe from the Rhineland. Many Tungrians were recruited into the army. By AD 98 a unit with the title of Tungrians was likely to include many men from other ethnic backgrounds, including Britons. In most cases, the Roman army drew recruits from the closest and most convenient source. The Batavians at this period may have been an exception to this.
venator (pl. venatores): A type of gladiator who specialised in fighting animals in the arena.
vexillum: a square flag suspended from a cross pole. Detachments were known as vexillations because in theory each was given its own flag as a standard.
via praetoria: one of the two main roads in a Roman fort. It ran from the main gate to join the other road at a right angle. On the far side of the other road, the via principalis, lay the main buildings of the fort, including the praetorium and principia.