"Legion names and numbering before Caesar" Topic
5 Posts
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Deuce03 | 07 Jul 2016 1:25 a.m. PST |
It seems tricky to find any information on specific legions before Caesar's dictatorship, with the oldest legions tracked thereafter being ones founded by him. There must have been some method of differentiation/identification, though, surely? I heard somewhere, but can't remember where, that legions (once the old "only four legions" thing was done away with) were effectively numbered according to who recruited them. But how long would a given legion remain in service? When, say, Pompey took over from Lucullus, would he inherit the legions as-is? Did the legions have reasonably strong traditions of identity before Caesar, or was it more common for them to be broken up and reformed, renamed/renumbered, or used to reinforce other legions at the end of a campaign? Would legions be named after the region they were recruited in, after their legate, given a nickname, or all of the above? What I'd really like is the specific identities of a few legions used by Sulla, Metellus Pius, Lucullus or Pompey (during the Sertorian, pirate and Mithridatic wars) as that's the period on which my army is based, so it would be nice to have standards reflecting the actual legions deployed. But the only identified legions for any of them seem to be a couple of Pompey's at Pharsalus, which were ex-Caesarian legions anyway. There just doesn't seem to be a lot of information available, but maybe that's because everything I see is recycled and I just have to dig a little deeper. Does anyone have any knowledge on the subject? |
Panfilov | 07 Jul 2016 2:14 a.m. PST |
IIUC (Recall?), the legions were theoretically newly levied by each years new Consuls, who retained #I thru IIII; Higher numbers were assigned to Proconsular legions, using a clockwise system by province of expected assignment? Goldsworthy or someone discussed this. And a few, like the Cannae survivors who were kept in service, in Sicily IIRC. |
GurKhan | 07 Jul 2016 6:20 a.m. PST |
Keppie mentions the possible clockwise numbering – link |
williamb | 07 Jul 2016 8:34 p.m. PST |
During the Second Punic War there were at least two dozen legions in various locations. Parts of Italy, Spain, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, etc. Somewhere is storage I have the old SPI article about them. At that time they seem to have been numbered in the order they were raised per the article. |
Deuce03 | 13 Jul 2016 3:01 p.m. PST |
The clockwise numbering idea is interesting, as I hadn't heard that before, so thanks for that. I imagine without knowing the numbers of African legions though it's hard to tell whether it was truly clockwise or whether it was more west -> east. I should clarify that, while details on the Punic War are interesting in themselves I was mostly interested in post-Marius formations. |
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