The Antiqua Legio of Vegetius

H. M. D. Parker

doi:10.1017/S0009838800014324

The Antiqua Legio of Vegetius

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009

H. M. D. Parker

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H. M. D. Parker: Affiliation:
Magdalen College, Oxford

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In the second book of his Epitoma rei militaris Vegetius sets himself the task of describing the organization of the antiqua legio of the Roman Army, the units into which it was divided, its officers, the arms of its soldiers, and its tactical employment on the field of battle. Interspersed in this account are frequent references to changes that had been subsequently effected and were in operation in the author's lifetime. But although these annotations destroy the synthesis of the book, and the transition from past to present is not always clearly indicated, the disentanglement of Vegetius' own additions from the material provided by his source or sources is not the chief difficulty that confronts the modern historian. For with few exceptions in chapters 4–14 Vegetius describes the antiqua legio in the imperfect, the legion of his own time in the present indicative, with the not infrequent addition of the word ‘nunc’ or ‘hodie.’ The great problem is to discover whether in his account of the antiqua legio the author is referring to any one period of Roman History, and, if so, whether its limits can be exactly defined. Many solutions have been attempted. Some scholars have thought that the period is earlier than Hadrian; the more generally accepted theory is that the antiqua legio can be identified with the legion as it was constituted in the reign of Diocletian. Recently two German historians have subjected the evidence to fresh consideration, and, while one of them agrees with the majority in selecting the age of Diocletian for his answer to the problem, the other believes that he can date the period to which Vegetius is referring to the late second century A.D.

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Type: Research Article
Information: The Classical Quarterly , Volume 26 , Issue 3-4 , June 1932, pp. 137 - 149
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800014324 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1932

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^{page 137 note 1} Lange, , Historia mutationum rei militaris Romanorum (1846)Google Scholar. Förster, , de fide Flavii Vegetii Renati (Diss. Bonn., 1879)Google Scholar.

^{page 137 note 2} Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung: das Militärwesen. Grosse, Römische Militärgeschichte.

^{page 137 note 3} Nischer, in Kromayer and Veith's Kriegsführung und Heerwesen der Griechen und Römer, pp. 493–4Google Scholar.

^{page 137 note 4} Schenk, , Flavins Vegetius Renatus; die Quellen der Epit. rei militaris (Klio, 1930)Google Scholar.

^{page 138 note 1} Lyd. de mag. I 47, who cites in addition after the name of Paternus Catiline ‘not the conspirator’ and Vegetius.

^{page 138 note 2} Liber de munitionibus castrorum, chs. 1–5.

^{page 138 note 3} Cf. Dio. LXXII 5 with , S.H.A.vita Comm. 4, 8Google Scholar; Schenk, , op. cit., p. 23Google Scholar.

^{page 138 note 4} II 8 and II 13.

^{page 138 note 5} E.g. XVII 13, 25; XXI 13. 9; XXIX 5, 39.

^{page 139 note 1} vita Hadr. 10, 2; vita Pescenn. Nig. 10, 5.

^{page 139 note 2} ἐκταξ · κατ Ἀλ. §§ 1, 5, and 13.

^{page 139 note 3} Dio. LXIX 9.

^{page 139 note 4} Dess. I.L.S. 2487, 9133–4.

^{page 139 note 5} II 12.

^{page 139 note 6} Schenk, , op. cit., p. 20Google Scholar; Domaszewski, , Die Rangordnung, p. 91Google Scholar.

^{page 139 note 7} Parker, , The Roman Legions, p. 199Google Scholar.

^{page 139 note 8} Op. cit., ch. 3.

^{page 140 note 1} E.g. Dess. I.L.S. 2686, 2687, both belonging to the early Principate.

^{page 140 note 2} Ibid. 2452.

^{page 140 note 3} Op. cit., p. 204.

^{page 140 note 4} Dess. I.L.S. 2445, 2446.

^{page 140 note 5} Cf. ibid. 531.

^{page 140 note 6} op. cit., § 5.

^{page 140 note 7} Dess. I.L.S. 2487.

^{page 140 note 8} Bell. Jud. III. 6, 2.

^{page 140 note 9} Dess. I.L.S. 2325, 2326.

^{page 140 note 10} Domaszewski, , Die Rangordnung, p. 47Google Scholar.

^{page 140 note 11} 116: the total is given as 730, but the details add up to 726.

^{page 141 note 1} Quellenuntersuchungen zur Gesch. des Kaisers Hadrian, p. 68.

^{page 141 note 2} 42, 1.

^{page 141 note 3} II 14.

^{page 141 note 4} 32, 3.

^{page 141 note 5} C.I.L. VIII 2562.

^{page 142 note 1} II 9.

^{page 142 note 2} de Caesaribus 33, §§ 33–34.

^{page 142 note 3} C.I.L. 3424, 3426, 3469, 4289.

^{page 142 note 4} Keyes, C. W., The Rise of the Equites in the Third Century of the Roman Empire (Diss., Princeton), p. 54Google Scholar; Baynes, N. H. in J.R.S. XV (2) 1925, pp. 195–201Google Scholar.

^{page 142 note 5} C.I.L. II 4102, 4103; Keyes, , op. cit., p. 49Google Scholar.

^{page 143 note 1} E.g. Tac, . Ann. XV 28Google Scholar; id.Hist. III 9.

^{page 143 note 2} C.I.L. X 4749.

^{page 143 note 3} Id. XI 1834.

^{page 143 note 4} Id. XIII 6763.

^{page 143 note 5} Digest XLIX 16, 2; Schenk, , op. cit., p. 35Google Scholar.

^{page 143 note 6} Op. cit., p. 35.

^{page 143 note 7} Lammert, , Die Römische Taktik zu Beginn der Kaiserzeit, Philologus Supp. XXIII (1931), p. 30Google Scholar.

^{page 144 note 1} Zosimus I 52, 3; Ritterling, , Festschrift f. O. Hirschfeld, p. 347Google Scholar.

^{page 144 note 2} Notitia Dignitatum Or. V 27, 33; Occ. VI 53.

^{page 144 note 3} Dess. I.L.S. 569.

^{page 144 note 4} Cod. Just. X 55, 3, ‘ueteranis ita demum onerum et munerum personalium uacatio iure conceditur, si post uicesimum annum militiae quam in legione uel uexillatione honestam uel causariam missionem consecuti esse ostendantur’; cf. ibid. VII 64, 9.

^{page 144 note 5} Grenfell-Hunt, Gk. Pap. II 74Google Scholar; cf. Stein, , Gesch. d. spätröm. Reiches, p. 92, n. 1Google Scholar.

^{page 144 note 6} Zosimus I 52, 3; cf. Not. Dign. Or. XXXII-XXXVII, where equites promoti Illyriciani are mentioned in conjunction with equites Dalmatae Illyriciani and Mauri Illyriciani. The inference is that in origin all these units date back to Aurelian.

^{page 144 note 7} Grenfell-Hunt, Gk. Pap. IV 110Google Scholar.

^{page 145 note 1} Ox. Pap. I 89, n. 43.

^{page 145 note 2} Not. Dign. Or. V 28, 29, 30; Occ. VI 43, 44.

^{page 145 note 3} Dess. I.L.S. 2791.

^{page 145 note 4} Op. cit., p. 492.

^{page 145 note 5} Cf. Dess. I.L.S. 2781.

^{page 146 note 1} Not. Dign. Or. V 42, VI 47.

^{page 146 note 2} J.R.S. XIII, 1923, p. 9Google Scholar.

^{page 146 note 3} Perhaps the Joviani and Herculiani of the later Palatine Guard were in origin detachments from I Jovia and II Herculia. More probably they were formed out of auxiliary cohorts. (Not. Dign. Or. V 43, 44; Occ. V 145, 146=VII 3, 4; Vegetius I 17; Jullian, , ‘La carrière d'un soldat au quatrième siècle’ in Bull. Epig. IV [1884], pp. 1–12.Google Scholar)

^{page 146 note 4} Eutropius IX 23; Laterc. Veron. (Seeck, , Not. Dign., p. 247Google Scholar); Ox. Pap. I 89, n. 43.

^{page 147 note 1} This date has also been suggested by Stein, E. in a note in his Gesch. d. spätröm. Reiches, p. 92Google Scholar.

^{page 147 note 2} II 8.

^{page 147 note 3} II 6.

^{page 148 note 1} Grosse, , op. cit., p. 34Google Scholar.

^{page 148 note 2} Mém. de l' Accd. des Inscrs. XXXVIII, 1909, p. 259Google Scholar.

^{page 149 note 1} Domaszewski, , Díe Rangordung, p. 80Google Scholar.

^{page 149 note 2} Dess. I.L.S. 2338.

^{page 149 note 3} C.I.L. XIII 8276.

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