A few questions about roman auxiliaries

**Allexei** · October 06, 2015, 12:12 PM

I have a few questions about the macro level of the roman army as I realised the western part of the roman empire has no (except for italian) sagittarii type troops, I was wondering if the roman army was using strictly local auxiliaries or did they move auxilia around, like, for example having syrian archers in gaul.

I'm simply curious as I would like to play as historically as possible but I am not too fond of having legions moving around without archers, skirmishers are great but their role is not essentially the same in the game.

So for short I guess my question is did the western legions use archers and if they did were they local or imported? (as italian archers are capped to six)

P.S. you guys are doing some awesome work this mod makes Rome 2 replayable

P.P.S. pardon my english, it is not my native language

**KAM 2150** · October 06, 2015, 12:20 PM

Yes, Romans were moving aux units all the time, they would even try to keep them away from their land to lower the risk of rebellion. For example Caesar used Cretan archers in Gaul and the list goes on and on

**Daergar** · October 06, 2015, 01:19 PM

Hmm, "import auxilia" recruitment function if you have access to them? A number of turns and a higher cost to get a unit of Syrian archers to appear in Gaul?

**Allexei** · October 06, 2015, 01:22 PM

yeah that makes sense, I though they would like to keep local troops but they would be more trouble than they are worth, then I supposed they also tried to mix the auxilia, having soldiers of multiple origins serving in a single force? for example iberian skirmishers with gaulish cavalry and greek skirmishers?

**Ivan_Moscavich** · October 06, 2015, 01:28 PM

If I recall correctly, typically the axuillia in a legion (besides Balearic slinger, numidian cavalry, and Cretan archers which accompanied pretty much all armies) were composed almost entirely of one roughly regional ethnicity.

For example, one legion fighting in North Africa would have all the auxiliaries be illyrians and dacians (the regions were close together).

In Britannia, a lot of mostly german auxillaries were used.

Typically you didn't have auxillaries from all over the empire crammed into one legion. As typically auxiliary were recruited en route to whatever the army destination was.

"I'm going to Britain? Let's pick up some Germanic or Gallic auxillaries to take with us."

**Allexei** · October 06, 2015, 02:45 PM

good, that makes sense, thank you for clarifying this.

**Don_Diego** · October 06, 2015, 06:06 PM

Specialist troops like Syrian archers were used across the Empire. There are records of them stationed on Hadriens wall for example...

**Ivan_Moscavich** · October 06, 2015, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by Don_Diego

Specialist troops like Syrian archers were used across the Empire. There are records of them stationed on Hadriens wall for example...

Makes sense.

Heavy infantry you could recruit from about any population and use as line troops. Where as only a few places were notably skilled for certain aspects like cavalry, archery, slingers, etc.

**creekside** · October 07, 2015, 03:03 AM

i love the idea of having auxilliary units recruitable from anywhere in your empire and make it like X amount of turns until they are recruited and at a higher expense due to travel costs etc. it just makes sense because early republic used cretan archers and numidian cavalry throughout romes entire history. idk if this is all possible for modders but its an awesome idea.

**KAM 2150** · October 07, 2015, 03:16 AM

Well, you can just recruit them and then transport abroad ; P

Main problem would be literally thousends of new lines to write, since each city would require separate entry for every single aux unit. So in other words it is not worth the workhours for the sake of convenience.

**Daergar** · October 07, 2015, 07:29 AM

Originally Posted by KAM 2150

Well, you can just recruit them and then transport abroad ; P

Main problem would be literally thousends of new lines to write, since each city would require separate entry for every single aux unit. So in other words it is not worth the workhours for the sake of convenience.

Yeah, I for one wasn't serious, just one of those "I wish CA had thought of this and made it simple to code" things. Like so many other items on the list.

**Don_Diego** · October 07, 2015, 01:27 PM

Something I do since rome 1 is have a dedicated "recruitment" general or two who marches around collecting troops and then swap them into main legions.

**UsulDaNeriak** · October 12, 2015, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by Don_Diego

Specialist troops like Syrian archers were used across the Empire. There are records of them stationed on Hadriens wall for example...

Also syrian mounted archers. Like the syrian soldier who was burried in Mogontiacum. The only proof we have, that the famous NCO rank of triplicarius really existed.
Sarmatian cavalry was also in Britain. But that was a special case after the peace contract with the Iazyges.
The Exercitus Africae used gaulish auxiliaries extensively. Nobody knows why. I would had expected spaniards, but no: Nomads and Gauls.
Moorish and dalmatian cavalry was also used all over the empire.
Btw, there is no evidence, that dedicated slinger units were used at all after Augustus. They are depicted on some monuments, but perhaps these are just standard soldiers using a sling, like Vegetius mentions. Or an invention of the artist.