A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



power, in pay, privileges, and conditions of service. The legion itself 

 was a brigade of five or six thousand heavy infantry, with no cavalry 

 save a handful used perhaps as scouts or despatch riders. Its rank and file 

 were recruited at least in theory from free Roman citizens, who were 

 sometimes Italian born, but more usually Romanized provincials. Its 

 general was a senator of high rank. Its chief officers were six tribunes 

 young men of some social standing and much inexperience and sixty 

 centurions, who had served up from below and bore the real labours of 

 command. The 'auxilia' were differently constituted. The unit was 

 a comparatively small body of 500 or (not seldom) 1,000 men, called a 

 ' cohort ' if infantry and an ' ala ' if cavalry. The men were levied, not 

 always voluntarily, from the less quiet and civilized lands of the Empire, 

 and not least from Britain. As a rule they were not citizens of 

 Rome, but subjects, devoid of the Roman franchise till they received 

 it as a reward on their discharge from active service. Only the 

 officers were Romans, and these ranked naturally far below the general 

 of the legion. The whole auxiliary status was that of an inferior 

 grade of soldiers. 



Both these classes of troops were stationed together in those provinces 

 in which frontiers were perilous or populations unquiet. Probably, 

 though direct evidence on the point is lacking, they were employed in 

 about equal numbers or with a small preponderance of ' auxilia.' That 

 is, if the province contained three legions, it would contain also fifteen or 

 twenty thousand auxiliaries. But they were not habitually quartered 

 together. Legions and auxilia were provided with two different kinds of 

 permanent cantonment. The picture presented by any ordinary province 

 having a large army consists of two elements, a few large fortresses and a 

 number of small forts. The fortresses (hiberna) were occupied by the 

 legions. Each fortress covered some 50 or 60 acres, and (except 

 occasionally in the earlier Empire) accommodated one legion. The forts 

 (castella), on the other hand, were occupied by the 'auxilia.' They 

 varied in size from 3 or 4 to 7 or 8 acres, and were garrisoned 

 generally by single cohorts or ' alas,' but sometimes by smaller forces. 

 The legionary fortresses formed, as it were, the headquarters and the 

 strongholds of the provincial defence. The auxiliary forts were dotted 

 about the country according to need. Some stood at intervals along 

 important roads running through disturbed and difficult districts. Others 

 guarded strategic points. Others, not the least important, constituted the 

 cordon along the frontier which kept the province safe from external 

 foes. The disposition of the British army well exemplifies the system. 

 Three legions were cantoned in three fortresses the Second Augusta at 

 Caerleon (Isca Silurum), in Monmouthshire ; the Twentieth Valeria 

 Victrix at Chester (Deva) ; and the Sixth Victrix at York (Eburacum). 

 These three legions, therefore, were not posted actually in the thick of 

 the danger. They held strategic positions where the lowlands merged in 

 the uplands and served as headquarters and centres. Corresponding to them 

 were three or four dozen auxiliary forts, some guarding the frontier walls 



194 



