| Term | Description |
| Auxiliaries | cavalry regiments and infantry cohorts
(battalions), each about 500 or l,000 men strong, raised
from non-Roman provincials and commanded by prefects,
Roman officers who had served in the legions. These units
were more mobile than the legions, to which they gave
support on the flanks, front and rear. Their total strength
throughout the territory of the empire was some 180,000 men. |
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| Capitol | either the Capitoline Hill, with or without the
adjacent Arx (see map) or the principal building on it, the Temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest. |
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| Centurion | commander of a legionary half-company (century)
of some eighty men. The centuries were paired to form a full company (maniple), one centurion being senior to the other. |
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| Client | a dependant such as a freedman (or his descendant), who remained after emancipation under a legal and moral obligation to render services to his ex-master (patron) in
return for favours and protection. Rulers of small kingdoms on the fringe of the empire, client-kings, stood in a similar relationship to the emperor, and could rely on Roman support so long as they retained the confidence of the suzerain. |
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| Consul | the highest executive official or 'magistrate' of
the Roman People, and president of the senate. At any one time, there were two consuls acting as colleagues. Elected by the senate and with the emperor's approval for terms of two, four or six months, they were called suffect if entering office after the initial pair of each year, after whom it was named. After election and before the assumption of the consulship, a consul-elect was called designate. A repeated, and particularly a third, tenure was a proof of high status and imperial favour. An ex-consul (consular) was competent to hold the most senior commands abroad. |
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| Freedman | an ex-slave who had bought or been given his
emancipation or 'manumission'; see client. The 'freedmen of Caesar' formed a class of senior civil servants wielding considerable power as members of the emperor's secretariat. |
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| Imperial Agent | a financial officer (knight or freedman) administering the imperial domain in a province, subordinate in rank and status to the governor but responsible directly to the emperor. |
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| Knight | a member of the equestrian order, a class of Romans determined by birth and financial position, and inferior to the senatorial order. No obligation lay upon knights to serve the state, but if they chose an official career, a wide range of the less important executive and military positions lay open to them. |
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| Legion | a heavy infantry formation numbering some 5,000 men who were Roman citizens recruited from Italy and the
more-highly Romanized provinces. It was officered by a
commander (legate), normally of the rank of praetor, by
six staff-officers (tribunes), and by sixty company
commanders (centurions). The men were equipped with spear,
sword, dagger, helmet, body-armour and semi-cylindrical
shield, and were used as a heavy thrusting force designed to
cut a way through any opposition. When not actively
campaigning, the legion was regularly employed on
fortification, road-building and other ancillary tasks. It
possessed a cavalry and artillery element. At the time with
which the Histories are concerned there were some thirty
legions with a total strength of about 150,000 men. |
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| Magistrate | an official elected by the senate for a yearly term (in the case of consuls, for less than a yearly term)
to conduct the deliberative, judicial and executive
functions of the Roman People. The main grades, in ascending
order of seniority, are: Quaestor, Praetor, Consul. After
serving in Rome, they could expect promotion to posts of
appropriate seniority abroad. |
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| Palace | a complex of buildings of many kinds occupying most
of the Palatine Hill south west of the forum, and including
the residence of the emperor. |
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| Praetor | one of eighteen annual magistrates with
judicial functions. The minimum age of tenure was normally
thirty years. |
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| Pretorian Guard | a corps d'elite, mostly serving in a ceremonial capacity in Rome and in immediate attendance on
the emperor. There were nine (under Vitellius sixteen)
cohorts of l,000 men each, whose barracks lay outside the
walls of Rome on the north east . Each cohort was commanded
by a 'tribune', and the whole body by one or more
'prefects', usually of equestrian rank. |
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| Quaestor | one of twenty annual 'magistrates' with minor executive and financial functions. The minimum age of tenure
was normally twenty-five years, and election to the
quaestorship conveyed membership of the senate. |
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| Rostra | a high platform or tribunal in the forum from which magistrates addressed the assembled Roman People. |
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| Tribune | either a legionary staff-officer or a commander of a pretorian, urban or watch cohort or (as tribune of the plebs) an annually elected official who under the republic
exercised a check upon the administrative powers of magistrates by virtue of his veto and legal inviolability; under the principate the office was overshadowed by the tribunician power enjoyed by the emperor. |
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| Triumph | a ceremonial procession of troops, commander,
prisoners and booty through Rome to the Temple of Jupiter
Best and Greatest at the conclusion of a successful
campaign. Under the emperors, who were themselves the
supreme commanders, only the ornaments were awarded to the field commander. |
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| Urban Cohorts | gendarmeric units (four in number and with a strength of 1,000 men each under Vitellius) serving mostly
in Rome. Each of these was commanded by a tribune, and the
whole force by the chief-of-police (city Prefect). |
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| Watch | seven cohorts of police and firemen, each l,000 men strong and commanded by a tribune, responsible for the
fourteen regions into which the city of Rome was divided.
The whole force was headed by an equestrian prefect of the
watch. |
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