"Roman Auxiliaries at Carrhae???" Topic

So virtually all the sources I've seen put Crassus' Auxiliaries that were with him at the battle at 4,000 Cavalry and 4,000 light infantry, respectively.

The only source to hazard a guess at what these troops were however gave figures of 500 archers and 1000 Gaulish cavalry.

Has anyone seen other suggestions for what the remaining 6,000 troops might be?

I'm pretty open to guess work too as I'm putting a historical scenario together for my nephews and good guesses are better than no facts.

Thanks!

Try this
PDF link
Couple of other battles as well
3vwargames.co.uk/rules2.htm

I'd recommend Justins VVV rules, they play very well in the classical period, and treat Romans like Romans, a weapons system rather than just a blade. Cohort replacement works well too. Greeks and Macedonians are catered for very well.
I've played that battle with these rules and it worked very well. If I recall correctly we played Bagradas the same day, quite fast rules once you gat the hang of them.
My own group of gaming friends used them as a basis for our own rules, and they're easily amendable, with period specific rules, for games between chariot warfare and the advent of gunpowder.

I you haven't read it, 'Winter Quarters' by Alfred Duggan gives a good flavour of the Carrhae campaign from the point of view of a Gallic cavalryman. Most of his novels are good, if a bit dated, he was quite a good historian.

Winter Quarters; a terrific read!

AArmies and Enemies of Imperial Rome has the following 4000 light infantry, 4000 Western cavalry, and 6000 Arab cavalry. The Arab cavalry deserted just before the battle. If all the cavalry is "Western" they are most likely Gauls with maybe some Numidians. Any light infantry that are not specified as archers or slingers are most likely javelin armed. The Romans did not have much response to the Parthian horse archers. There is some debate as to whether the Parthians had 10,000 horse archers plus 1000 cataphracts or if the cataphracts are include in the 10,000.

Some of the troops I have considered for the "unknowns" are:

Infantry: Jews, Illyrians, Thesalians,
Greeks (probably most common), and Spanish.

Cavalry: (aside from the Celts/ Galatians mentioned above), Pontic, Greek colonists (depicted as Romans), Spanish and Numidians. Germans would seem a good choice but I figure if they were present someone would have noted them.

I think the main point would be that none of the above would be major game changers in small numbers. So they provide more scenario color than accuracy but oh well.

Yes, if they're inside the 'marching box' of legions then they're pretty much useless, outside the 'box' they're pretty much dead.