Marian Roman (II/49) - Dacian allies

1. Dacian allies

2. Gallic infantry

3. See also Luke Ueda-Sarson's alternative late republic list at http://www.ne.jp/asahi/luke/ueda-sarson/MarianDBM.html

1. Allow Dacian allies.

Author: Duncan Head

Proposal: Add the following new lines -

Only from 30 BC to 28 BC:

Dacian allies - List: Dacian and Carpi (Book 2)

Justification:

In 30 BC, Marcus Crassus, governor of Macedonia, campaigned against the Bastarnae. After he defeated them in battle, the surviving Bastarnae took refuge in a strong position "where Crassus besieged them in vain for several days. Then with the aid of Roles, king of a tribe of the Getae, he destroyed them. Now Roles, when he visited Caesar, was treated as his friend and ally because of this service; and the captives were distributed among the soldiers".

Later, Crassus aids Roles against another Dacian prince: "While he was thus engaged, Roles, who had become embroiled with Dapyx, himself also king of a tribe of the Getae, sent for him. Crassus went to his aid, and by hurling the horse of his opponents back upon their infantry he so thoroughly terrified the latter also that what followed was no longer a battle but a great slaughter of fleeing men of both arms."

See Dio 51.24.6-7 and 51.26.1 -

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/51*.html

"Getae" is generally used to mean the Dacians at this period, and Dio explicitly identifies the two names. Roles and Dapyx appear to be "kings" of two of the fragments into which Burebista's first Dacian kingdom disintegrated on his assassination in 44 - see http://www.geocities.com/cogaionon/article3.htm

It has been suggested that Dacian allies should be allowed from 48 BC, when Burebista is said to have considered sending assistance to Pompeius in the civil war. However I have not so far found an ancient source for that, and in any case no alliance came to pass.

2. Gallic Infantry

Author: Duncan Head

Proposal:

Add:

Only in Italy or Gaul:

Replace Bd (O) with Gallic auxiliary foot - Irr Bd (I) @ 4 AP 0-22

Only Caesar in Gaul in 52 BC:

Aeduan allies - List: Gallic (Bk 2)

Justification:

While the DBM Marian list includes Gallic cavalry there's no Gallic auxiliary or allied infantry in there. Luke's alternative "Late Republican" list at http://www.ne.jp/asahi/luke/ueda-sarson/MarianDBM.html has Gallic infantry in Italy for the Social Wars, where Appian attests that they were used by both sides.

However there seems to be a case for extending their availability to Caesar's wars in Gaul. That Caesar recruited Gallic provincials into some of his legions is well known: legions XI and XII, which he raised in 58, may have been recruited from non-citizens in Cisalpine Gaul (Goldsworthy p.212). "One legion he even recruited from the Transalpine Gauls and trained and equipped it in Roman style, and gave it a Gallic name - it was called Alaudae" (Suetonius, Caesar 24); somewhen later, this became V Alaudae (see Keppie pp.140-1). But these men were armed and trained in Roman style and are adequately treated under the rules as Romans, if initially raw.

Less clear is the case of the militia or garrison cohorts found in the Transalpine Gallic province. When Caesar confronted his first emergency, the migration of the Helvetii in 58, he "ordered as many troops as possible to be raised in the Province" (BG I.7); there seems no reason to assume that these were all cavalry. In 52, during the great Gallic rising, the rebels threatened the old Province of Transalpine Gaul; and we hear of a "garrison" (praesidia) of 22 cohorts raised from the Province itself by Lucius Caesar (BG VII.65): though Lucius Caesar is given credit for raising these local infantry it is quite possible, especially given the recruitment of 58, that they were not a new institution. Keppie (pp.140-41) thinks that it was these very cohorts who were the Alaudae, and that Caesar is merely being diplomatic in not referring to them as a "legion" until much later. Even if this widely-held view is correct, there is no way to be sure that the cohorts were well enough organised to be treated as Roman-style regulars as early as 52, so Lucius' troops seem good evidence to extend the provision of irregular Gallic cohorts to Gaul as well as Italy. Since Rome had controlled a Transalpine Province since about 120, well before this list begins, it's hardly likely that they never used local infantry for local defence.

Luke allowed, perhaps rather reluctantly, a Warband option for the Social Wars Gauls. However he suggests that Blades is the better classification for troops levied by Rome from Roman subjects. I am inclined to agree, and so have not included the Warband option which might also seen as distorting the army.

At the same time that Lucius Caesar commanded his 22 cohorts, the provincial tribes of the Helvii and the Allobroges mounted a robust defence against the rebels. The Helvii were defeated, their chief magistrate Gaius Valerius Domnotaurus being killed; the Allobroges kept their frontiers secure. In these cases the tribes seem to be using their own manpower only, and whether they count as a "Roman" or a "Gallic" army they aren't evidence for Gallic allies for the Romans except in so far as they do confirm that the tribes of the Province still had their own military resources.

There is one clear example of Caesar using allied troops from a Gallic tribe, the Aedui in 52. Although long-standing allies of Rome, the Aedui were tribe of "long-haired" Gaul, not the Province. They undertook to provide Caesar with all their cavalry and 10,000 infantry to protect his supply lines (BG VII.34); after an interruption in which the Aedui were led by a disaffected nobleman into almost joining the rebels, they fought alongside the Romans at Gergovia, causing a panic when they were mistaken for the enemy despite sporting the recognition sign for Gallic allies, the baring of the right shoulder (BG VII, 50).

References:

C Iulius Caesar, De Bello Gallico (BG)

Suetonius, Caesar

Caesar, trans. S A Handford, The Conquest of Gaul (Penguin 1951)

Goldsworthy, Adrian, Caesar: The Life of a Colossus (2006)

Keppie, Lawrence, The Making of the Roman Army (1984)