Antesignani

[Steppewarrior]

Gents,

I am looking to create an Early Imperial Roman army (circa Marcomannic Wars) and am currently considering the light infantry support. I understand the Auxiliary troops provided a selection of types (Cavalry, archers and Hvy/Med Inf), but there must have been a replacement of the old Velite light infantry function? I have seen the term 'Antesignani' used for special light infantry drawn from regular legionaries.

I'd appreciate your guidance.

Many thanks,

Steve

[Duncan Head]

- Why must there have been a replacement for the old velites? Some writers - Adrian Goldsworthy, I think, for one - seem to think that they got by perfectly well without.

- Some early Early Imperial accounts - that is, mainly Tacitus - do speak of some of the auxilia as light-armed, which may or may not mean that some auxiliary cohorts were lighter than others. For example:

Our army advanced in the following order. The auxiliary Gauls and Germans were in the van, then the foot-archers, after them, four legions and Cæsar himself with two prætorian cohorts and some picked cavalry. Next came as many other legions, and light-armed troops (levis armatura)with horse-bowmen, and the remaining cohorts of the allies.

- There are also occasional representations of light-armed infantry in art, perhaps most famously the slingers on Trajan's Column. These might have been irregular tribal numeri, or soldiers' servants, or more or less anybody else.

- The antesignani are a puzzle. In Caesar's day they seem to have been troops within the legion who could be picked out for special duties. Some of these tasks, such as close support for cavalry, were jobs that would in other armies be associated with light infantry, and for which they seem to be given light equipment:

...since they [Caesar's cavalry] were many times inferior in number, he gave orders that lightly equipped youths from among the asntesignani, with arms selected with a view to swiftness, should go into battle among the cavalry, so that by daily practice they might win experience in this kind of fighting also.

...ut quoniam numero multis partibus esset inferior, adulescentes atque expeditos ex antesignanis electis milites ad pernicitatem armis inter equites proeliari iuberet, qui cotidiana consuetudine usum quoque eius generis proeliorum perciperent

That doesn't mean that "they were light infantry", since on other occasions antesignani seem to have been performing other tasks, but perhaps means that they were capable of being used in a light infantry role. There is also a fragmentary passage of Varro, of uncertain meaning and context, which seems to associate the antesignani with the velites, but assigns to the antesignani four-sided shields with various designs:

quem secuntur cum rotundis velites leves parmis, antesignani quadratis multisignibus tecti

In the Early Imperial period, there is one inscription suggesting that the antesignani had particular equipment - though not saying what that was:

L(ucius) Valerius Co | metius vetera | nus leg(ionis) VIII Aug(ustae) | militavit armis | antesignanis | her(edes) ex test(amento)

Lucius Valerius Cometius, veteran of the legio VIII Augusta has served with the arms of the antesignani. His heirs according to the will.

This has led at least one writer - Ross Cowan in one of his Osprey Legionary titles - to reconstruct an antesignanus as a light infantryman, based on this sculpture which shows a soldier in what looks like auxiliary equipment, but which comes from the legionary base at Mainz. Whether that's an accurate identification or not I don't know.

[Steppewarrior]

Duncan,

Many thanks for taking the trouble to draft such a comprehensive answer - it is very much appreciated.

The link to the sculpture is a puzzle in that his shield masks his torso (armour?) - but does show him carrying javelins; so I understand the conclusion he may be a light infantry type soldier.

As to my view that there must have been a role still to be filled - namely a scouting/skirmishing screen in front of the auxila and the legions.  I am not at all certain of this; but if it were a role to be filled, I guess the allied irregular tribal numeri could provide such troops?

Steve

[Patrick Waterson]

Yes, that was an impressive and thorough piece of work by Duncan. 

As to my view that there must have been a role still to be filled - namely a scouting/skirmishing screen in front of the auxila and the legions.  I am not at all certain of this; but if it were a role to be filled, I guess the allied irregular tribal numeri could provide such troops?

Would not scouting be the preserve of the legion's cavalry contingent and/or the auxiliary cavalry which would usually accompanying the force?

Skirmishing might be a little more involved: these legions had a fair contingent of artillery which may or may not have been deployed on the battlefield (I think it was: see Tacitus' account of Second Bedriacum in Histories III.23).  Skirmishers would have been in the way if/when artillery was used, so I think they went out when the artillery came in as a battlefield weapon, while the auxiliary infantry fulfilled the 'light medium' role of clearing enemies out of inconvenient terrain features.  Would the legion need integral skirmishers?

Later legions did have lanciarii, or so it would seem.  Did these start coming into existence when the new, smaller 4th century legion became the norm, with concomitant reductions in artillery strength?  Or were the lanciarii now visible because they are mentioned, but with an earlier ancestry?

[Duncan Head]

Later legions did have lanciarii, or so it would seem.  Did these start coming into existence when the new, smaller 4th century legion became the norm, with concomitant reductions in artillery strength?  Or were the lanciarii now visible because they are mentioned, but with an earlier ancestry?

Legionary lanciarii are first attested under that name in the early 3d century, when we see the tombstones of some of them at Apamea, some carrying multiple light javelins. Legionaries with the lancea are of course attested at least as early as Arrian's Extaxis, when they form the rear ranks of the Cappadocian legions. The relation between Arrianic heavy infantry lanciarii, Severan light infantry lanciarii, and later legions called lanciarii, is not well understood. One view at http://www.ne.jp/asahi/luke/ueda-sarson/Lanciarii.html.

[aligern]

It. appears from Trajan's. column that Trajan, early in the campaign led a force of Auxiliaries, symmachoi and auxiliary and guard cavalry into Dacia as a. sort of flying column. The symmachoi included Germans in their national costume and German recruited auxilia with Roman armour etc but with bear and wolf headdresses.
Duncan is, as usual, right that the tactics had changed and much of the role of the velites just did not exist. The legion is no longer operates on the basis of large numbers of javelins preceding volleys of pila and then hand to hand. It would appear to be enough to give one volley of pila and then in with the sword. That is certainly how it appears in Caesar and whoever said it on this board a long time ago is right in that from about 100 BC everything else is sacrificed to getting more heavy legionaries into contact.
Roy

[Erpingham]

Just speculating outside my knowledge again but if Vegetius' remarks about legionary training applied in this period, a legionary would be well trained in a variety of skills, some suitable to light infantry action.  We also seem happy these days to think that Macedonian infantry and cavalry could put aside their heavy weaponry and take up javelins to conduct light infantry tasks if called upon.  So, might it be possible our slected antesignani are told to report in light order and issued specialist weaponry to do light infantry things as required?  It isn't a huge leap to relate the evolution of lanciarii to this exercise becoming increasingly common, so a permanent group of men with light arms came into being.