Unit Browser for RTR: Imperium Surrectum

Short description

The freemen hundred are chosen from among the youngest and fittest men of their canton to run alongside the cavalry. Modestly armed with shields and frameae, but exceptionally swift and agile, and excelling at taking out enemy mounts.

Description

The freemen hundred are chosen from among the youngest and fittest men of their canton to run alongside the cavalry. Modestly armed with shields and frameae, but exceptionally swift and agile, and excelling at taking out enemy mounts.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Early Germanic society rested upon the freemen caste. The freemen enjoyed political enfranchisement, and were in return expected to fight for their nations whenever called upon. Essentially, the Germanic nations practiced a form of universal military service where all able-bodied men constituted their nation’s freemen militia. Germanic men were therefore not born as freemen, but were only raised to that status after reaching adulthood and being deemed worthy. At that point, a man would present himself before the whole assembly of freemen to receive his first weapons: A shield, and the traditional Germanic spear called framea – a spear of about a man’s length, which had a short, but very sharp, tip of iron, and was as suitable for thrusting as throwing. The one handing him his weapons was either his father, another relative, or one of the chiefs. Yet, who bestowed them was of subordinate importance. What mattered was that the gift of weapons was a national act of adoption, whereby the freemen received the man into their ranks and thus made him a full member of his nation: A freeman (Tacitus, Germanica, 13). Later on, the growing power of Germanic kings eventually caused a reversal of that relationship. Importance shifted to the giver of gifts, and the customary gift of weapons turned into a personal form of adoption, wherein he who received it became a son-in-arms of the bestower. Or at least that became the case among the Germanic royals themselves. Even the Byzantine court adopted the personalized version of the custom when dealing with Germanic royalty, and many Germanic leaders, such as the Gothic king Theodoric the Great, were made sons-in-arms of Byzantine emperors.

According to Roman sources, the Germanic nations divided themselves into regional units called pagi, which could be translated as “cantons” (Caesar, Gallic War, 4.1, 6.23. Plinius Secundus Maior. Naturalis Historiae, IV.xiii.96). In times of war, each canton selected one hundred of their freemen to run alongside and support the cavalry in battle. This unit was literally called “the hundred” and was drawn from the youngest and fittest freemen of the canton (Tacitus, Germania, 6). Given their youth, the men of this unit would not yet have earnt or captured higher status arms such as pikes and swords, but would instead have carried their first gift of weapons into battle: Shields and frameae-spears. Still, even if armed identically to regular rank-and-file freemen, the men of the “the hundred” were in peak physical condition, and thus vastly surpassed the average freeman in vigor and swiftness. Even more so, the hundred distinguished themselves from other freemen through their battlefield role and their tactics.

When ancient authors wrote that Germanic hundreds ran alongside their cavalry, they meant it quite literally. Caesar explicitly described how Suebian hundredmen would grab on to the horses’ manes to keep an even pace with the riders on top (Caesar, Gallic War, 1.48). This gave Germanic armies a major edge when engaging enemy cavalry as it allowed them to bring infantry, with their superior steadfastness, right into cavalry engagements, which otherwise tended to be rather fluent affairs in antiquity. Even more so considering that Germanic horsemen themselves tended to dismount in mid battle in order to dive under enemy mounts and bring them down through stabs to the guts (Caesar, Gallic War, 4.12). Most likely the hundredmen who ran alongside them used similar methods. Either way, regardless of how they did it, the expediency and ease with which Germanic hundred dispatched hostile cavalry is very well attested (Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 2.13.48-49, Caesar, Gallic War, 8.13). Such was the impression that the hundredmen made on their foes that Tacitus even described the swift-footed infantry who ran alongside their horsemen – referring to the hundred – as the chief strength of Germanic armies. One thing is certain: Among all distinctly Germanic modes of fighting, none was as well attested in the ancient world as that of the horse-hewing hundredmen, who remained a defining feature of Germanic warfare for more than half a millenia (Florus, Epitome of Roman History, 2.13.48-49. Caesar, Gallic War, 1.48-49, 7.65, 8.13 (with javelins, routing Gauls), 8.36. Plutarch, Aemilius Paulus, 12.4. Tacitus, Germania, 6. Vegetius, De Re Militari, 3.19.2).

Tactically, Germanic hundred were best used as flankers and cavalry support. If they had a weakness, it was that they were not heavy infantry and not suited to go up against such. Even if they were tough fighters in their own right, using them as mainline infantry would have been a waste of their abilities and tactical utility. Still, just like regular freemen foot, each hundredman carried several spare frameae for throwing, which gave them the ability to devastate heavier infantry at range from a flanking position, before smashing into their flanks to seal their fate in glorious melee.