Unit Browser for RTR: Imperium Surrectum

Short description

Auxiliary Archers from Thracia armed with composite bows and short swords, and protected by chainmail.

Description

When the Emperor Augustus' reformed the Roman army and created the Auxilia, various kinds of auxiliary troops were recruited or re-organised into cohorts. Most of these units were heavy infantry that were equipped and fought in a manner similar to that of the legionaries, but archers were also organised along the same lines. During the Roman Republic, most archers that the Roman army employed were either from Crete or Numidia. As Rome's territory expanded, this began to change, as large numbers of archers were recruited from the eastern provinces of Asia, Cappadocia, and especially Syria. From Augustus' reforms onwards until the second century AD, the number of units of Cretan archers in the Roman army fell to one (Cohors I Cretum Equitata Sagittariorum stationed in Moesia), and the vast majority of auxiliary archers came from Syria or Asia Minor, though a significant number hailed from Thrace. Like the regular infantry cohorts, the archer cohorts were either "quingenaria" ("five-hundred-strong") or "milliaria" ("one-thousand-strong"), which were 480 men, and 800 men strong respectively.

The Roman province of Thracia was annexed into the Empire by Claudius in 46AD, after having been indirectly ruled as a client kingdom since the reign of Augustus. As some Thracian units bear the name "Augusta" in their titles (such as Cohors III Augusta Thracum), it is believed that recruitment of Thracians into the Roman army began under Augustus, as the Thracians were regarded as fierce warriors, and the Romans eagerly sought to harness their fighting prowess. Thracia proved to be a very fertile recruiting ground, as many auxiliary cohorts were raised there. As well as over a tenth of the Empire's cavalry alae, a surprising number of regiments of archers, or "cohortes sagittariorum" were raised in Thracia over the course of the first and second centuries AD. This is surprising because the Thracians, whilst renowned as excellent light infantry and cavalrymen, were not renowned as archers, yet, as in other areas of the empire, the need for more archers meant that the Romans simply trained their archers all over the empire, not just in areas that traditionally excelled with the bow, such as Syria. The instruction provided by the auxiliary centurions meant that these archers were just as proficient with the composite bow as their eastern counterparts, and were stationed all over the Empire.

Units such as Cohors I Thracum Sagittariorum, armoured in the same way as "regular" auxiliary heavy infantry men (with Gallic-style helmets and chainmail armour) but equipped with bows rather than swords and shields appear on Trajan's column alongside the more exotic looking Syrian archers and Balearic slingers, showing their use in campaigns in Dacia. Cohors I Thracum Sagittariorum itself became part of the garrison of Dacia after the end of the Second Dacian War in 106AD, with similar units stationed in Syria and Pannonia. They were invaluable auxiliaries for the Roman army, providing fire-support to the legions in sieges and pitched battles alike, and defending Roman fortifications from Parthian horsemen in the east, and long-haired barbarians in the West. Though not as widely acknowledged as their Syrian counterparts, they perform just as well in battle, launching volley after volley of arrows into the enemy. If the enemy close on them, they can make use of their gladii, but without shields they will not last long in hand-to-hand combat against anything but the lightest of opposition. They are, however, considerably better trained than the average peasant foot archer, and so will at least hold their ground until heavy infantry or cavalry can move to support them.