Roma Mater (61 page)

3

Burdigala:
Bordeaux.

(Gallia) Narbonensis: A
Roman province incorporating part of southwestern France.

Wine:
This was produced in southern Britain under the Romans, and well into medieval times, after which the climate became too severe. With conditions now again milder, some is once more being made.

Fish and Chi Rho:
These ancient Christian symbols were still in common use, whereas the crucifix was not yet so, and the cross not often.

Villa:
To the Romans, this word meant a farm, not a house – especially a farm of some size.

Solidus: A
gold coin, one of the few that had not been debased, therefore valuable and hard to come by.

Saddles:
It is not certain whether the Mediterranean
civilizations had yet adopted the Asian invention of stirrups; but improved saddles were already making cavalry more important than it had ever been before.
Cataphracts:
Heavy-armoured cavalrymen. Such a corps may have been the historical original of Arthur’s knights, half a century or so after our story closes.
Ard:
A primitive plough, wheelless, and possessing merely a pointed end. The mouldboard plough appears to have been a Celtic invention, not much employed by the Romans except in areas where heavy soil gave it the advantage. Since no effective horse collar existed, an ox was the usual draught animal.

Curials:
The curials, also called decurions, were those men of a city and its hinterland who had a certain amount of property. That is, they corresponded more or less to the middle class of modern Western civilization. They were expected to be active in local government and to meet various public expenses out of their own coffers. The caste system imposed by Diocletian froze them into this station, while the decay of the economy and the inordinate taxes of the state gradually ruined them.
Londinium:
London. Its official Roman name, Augusta, was falling out of use.

Senators:
In the late Empire, senatorial rank was conferred as often as it was inherited, carried privileges and exemptions rather than obligations, and was frequently attained by corrupt means.

Theatre:
Despite the generally moralistic atmosphere of the late Empire, performances – supposedly of classic stories – were apt to be as raw as anything on our contemporary screens.

Navicularius:
A shipowner. Such persons were tightly organized into a guild. Theoretically they were born to their status and could not get out of it, but in practice there must have been exceptions.

Dubris:
Dover. Rutupiae (Richborough) had supplanted it as a major military base, but being a fort of the Saxon Shore it must have kept a garrison, and it was still an active seaport.

Navigation:
The ancient mariners generally avoided sailing in autumn and winter less for fear of storms than because weather was too likely to hide the landmarks and heavens by which they found their way.
(Gallia) Lugdunensis:
A Roman province incorporating much of northern and part of central France.
Wives:
In contrast to the practice of earlier times, soldiers of the later Empire were allowed to marry during their terms of service. Doubtless this was meant as an inducement to enlist, for conscription was seldom resorted to any more, and when it was, oftenest out of subject peoples. Wives and children lived near the base, husbands joining them when off duty.

Gesocribate:
It is not certain whether this town developed into the modern Brest, or was simply near the site of the latter.

Count
(Latin
comes
): An official in charge of the defences of a particular area. Best known to English-speaking moderns is the Count of the Saxon Shore, who governed the fortresses along the southeastern coast of Britain.
Foederate
(Latin
civitas foederata
): A nation allied with or satellite to Rome. The word was also used for troops recruited from such peoples.

Gratillonius and his men:
The army of the late Empire was organized differently in some respects from that of the Republic or Principate. Eight men of a legion formed a
contubernium
, sharing a tent and pack horse; in barracks they also shared two rooms, one for equipment and one for sleeping. Ten such parties made up the usual century (
centuria
), commanded by a centurion: thus numbering 80 rather than the original 100. Six centuries were grouped
in three pairs (maniples) to form a cohort, and ten cohorts comprised a legion. The first cohort was larger than the rest, being made up of five double centuries, because it included all the technicians and clerks of headquarters. Hence the legion contained about 5300 infantrymen. In addition there were 120 horsemen – orderlies, scouts, and dispatch carriers rather than cavalry – distributed among the various centuries; there were also higher officers and their staffs, specialists, etc. Altogether a legion was from about 5500 to 6000 strong As political, economic, and military conditions worsened, the actual total often became less.

The backbone of the legion was its centurions, most of whom had risen from the ranks. The senior centurions
(primi ordines)
were in the first cohort, whose first century was commanded by the chief centurion (
primus pilus
), a trusted and honoured veteran who, after a year, might go on to become camp prefect (
praefectus castrorum
), in charge of the legion’s internal organization and operations – or might take some equally responsible post, if he did not simply retire on his savings and a large gratuity given him.

Originally the commandant of the legion was the legate (
legatus
), who was a political appointee of senatorial rank, although he was expected to have served before as a military tribune – staff officer – and so to have learned generalship. Since the reign of Gallienus, the camp prefect had supplanted him. There is no need here to describe other functionaries.

Many legions had existed for hundreds of years, and some had been based at their sites for almost as long. Strangely enough, considering the vital function of the centurions, they were quite commonly assigned and reassigned to different legions, sometimes across the width of the Empire. Probably the government did not want too
close bonds of mutual personal loyalty between such career officers and the enlisted men. Gratillonius had not held the rank sufficiently long for this to have happened to him, but likely it would have if Maximus had not entrusted him with a mission that brought him to an unforeseen fate.

Or perhaps it would not have happened. What we have just been describing no longer existed in the eastern part of the Empire. There infantry was largely made up of
limitanei
, reservists who were called on to fight only in the areas where they lived, while the core of the armed forces was the cavalry, composed mostly of Germanic mercenaries. By the end of the fourth century, the strength of a legion was no more than 1500 men, set to garrison and other minor duty.

However, though these transformations were also taking place in the West, they were much slower, and quite likely had scarcely begun in Britain or northwestern Gaul. For one thing, there the principal menaces to Rome – Saxons, Franks, Alemanni, etc. – were not yet horsemen. Military reforms like those enacted at Constantinople were indeed imperative, but the enfeebled government of the West was incapable of doing anything quickly or efficiently.

Thus a soldier such as Gratillonius could have begun his service in a unit in a legion not very different from, say, one of Marcus Aurelius’s – aside from the large number of auxiliary troops – and ended it in an army not vastly different from, say, William the Conqueror’s.

4

Sails:
Roman transport ships did not use oars, except for steering. Warcraft generally did, making sails the auxiliary power. It is worth remarking that the rowers were free men, and rather well paid. Galley slaves did not appear until the Middle Ages.

Pharos:
Lighthouse. The beacon was a fire on its top after dark; by day, the tower was a landmark helpful to navigators. The Dover pharos, of which a part still exists, was about 80 feet high.

Dobunni: A
tribe occupying, approximately, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and some adjacent areas.

Deputy:
Second in command of a century, chosen by the centurion himself, hence the Latin name
optio.

Regnenses:
A tribe in Sussex.

Demetae: A
tribe in the western part of southern Wales.

Coritani: A
tribe occupying, approximately, Lincolnshire and adjacent territories.

Navy:
The
classis Britannica
that guarded the coasts around the Channel and the North Sea approaches disappears from history about the middle of the third century. Its former base at Dover, abandoned even earlier, was converted to a fort of the Saxon Shore. However, Dover remained a seaport, and surely the military still needed some ships of their own.

Prefect of the cohort (praefectus cohortis
): Commander of a unit of infantry auxiliaries. The word
‘praefectus’
was used in a number of different contexts.
Lanterns:
These, with panes of glass or thin-scraped horn, were known to the Romans. Some were quite elaborately made.

Hostel
(Latin
mansio
): Accommodations for persons travelling on business of the state were maintained at rather frequent intervals along major routes. It seems reasonable to us that the one closest to a small city such as Gesoriacum would be outside rather than inside the walls, to save valuable building space and for the benefit of persons who arrived belatedly. On the other hand, there would probably have been at least one hostel near the centre of any large and important city.

Candles:
The Romans had both wax and tallow candles. The latter, at least, were considered much inferior to lamps, if only because of the smell, while the single material available for the former, beeswax, was too expensive for any but the richest people. Nevertheless tallow candles were much used, especially in areas where oil for lamps was scarce and thus costly.
Publican:
The publicans of the Bible were not jolly taverners, as many moderns suppose, but tax farmers. Only Jesus, among decent people, could find it in his heart to associate with them. Their circumstances and practices changed as the Empire grew old, but not their spirit.

Tax in kind:
This had become especially important as debasement made currency increasingly worthless. Diocletian and Constantine had reformed the coinage, but honest money remained scarce.

Couriers:
The Roman postal service must still have been functioning reasonably well in most areas, since we have a considerable volume of correspondence among clergy and other learned men. Graffiti show that literacy was not confined to the upper classes, either. However, in regions as distressed as the northern Gallic littoral now was, the mails had surely deteriorated.
Massilia:
Marseilles.
(Civitas) Baiocassium:
Bayeux.

Hoofs:
Horseshoes had not yet been invented, but a kind of sandals or slippers was sometimes put on the animals when ground was bad.

Standard bearer:
The
signifer
wore an animal skin of a sort traditional for his unit. In a small detachment like this, it would make sense to rotate the duty. The standard was not the legionary eagle but a banner.
Rations:
Archaeology has revealed that the legions enjoyed a more varied diet, with more meat in it, than historians had thought.

Beans:
Broadbeans (fava), the only kind known in Europe before the discovery of America.

Lent:
As yet, the formula for calculating the date of Easter had not been finally settled upon, but varied from area to area and was the subject of much controversy. Nor was there agreement on how long a period of abstention should precede it, or on what austerities should be minimally required. For that matter, there was no standardized weekly practice of self-denial, such as the meatless Friday of later centuries. One may presume that even soldiers who were devout would not trouble themselves about that, at least while on duty. However, Easter, the holiest day in the Church calendar, and observances directly related to it, would be of concern. Strictly speaking, therefore, our use of the word ‘Lent’ is anachronistic – but it conveys, in brief, approximately what Budic had in mind.

Sunday:
The week as we know it had not yet been officially taken into the Roman calendar, though of course it was ancient in the East. One may well wonder how many ordinary soldiers were conscious of it, especially when in the field.

Nodens:
A Celtic god, especially revered at the Severn mouth, in which flow great tidal bores.

Leagues:
The Gallic
leuga
equalled 1.59 English or 1.68 Roman mile.
Rhenus:
Rhine.

Caletes: A
tribe in northeastern Gallia Lugdunensis, occupying approximately Seine-Maritime, Oise, and Somme.
Osismii:
A tribe in the far west of Brittany, occupying approximately Finistére and part of Côtes-du-Nord. Place names and other clues seem to show they were not purely Celtic, nor were neighbouring tribes. Rather, Celtic invaders probably imposed an aristocracy which interbred and became identified with the people. Meanwhile the language, too, became largely Celtic. The earlier race was not necessarily descended straight from the megalith builders; there could have been more than one set of newcomers over the centuries. Yet nothing appears to forbid our supposition that the Armoricans
believed
the ‘Old Folk’ were among their ancestors. An analogous tradition exists in Ireland.

Honestiores:
Great landholders, virtual feudal overlords.
Alani:
An Iranian-Altaic people, originally living in what is now southern Russia. Under pressure from the Huns, the western branch of them mingled with the Germans and joined these in that great migration into Roman territory which was just getting well under way at the time of our story.