Salah

A Roman soldier might be envisioned as one of the brave young men, standing and waiting for the onslaught of Hannibal's elephants at Cannae or Zama. A legionary might also be thought of as one of Pontius Pilate's lackeys, cheerfully setting a Crown of Thorns on Christ's head before nailing Him to the Cross. Or, he might be envisioned as one of the last defenders of the Pax Romana, crossing swords with Goths and Vandals, Huns and Franks.

But the Roman soldier was, above all, a man.

And, like most men, he felt a need for companionship of a sort best satisfied by a woman...

Service in the Roman Army was a man's job. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that a small number of women may have joined the ranks of the Late Roman Army, serving as limitani milita-soldiers, but in the glory days of Imperium, all soldiers were men.

Though a Roman soldier spent his whole career surrounded by huge masses of his fellow human beings, where romantic love was concerned his profession was likely to be a lonely one. That is because, from right around the beginning of the Christian Era, up until 193 AD, he was not allowed to marry.

It could be said that the first Roman Emperor, Augustus (r. 31 BC - AD 14) finished the drawn-out process of transforming Rome's army into a fully professional force with ranks populated by career soldiers, men who gave the prime of their lives to fighting and toiling for the Peace of the Empire.

No one knows exactly when Augustus passed his law which forbade soldiers from marrying until their mandatory 25 year's service was over. But during his reign, in September of 9 AD, three Roman legions and a collection of auxiliary units were destroyed in Germania by the Cherusci. Cassius Dio tells us that a huge number of women, a mixture of wives, girlfriends, slaves, and prostitutes, were interspersed in the ranks of the legions, and when the Germans began their attack, the legionaries went berserk in attempts to rescue their womenfolk. Though their concern for their women was definitely noble, it was bad for cohesion and did nothing to improve an already very bad situation...

It is a possibility that Augustus made his ban on marriage precisely because of the role that the presence of women in the Germanian legions had played in this great defeat. Either way, from his reign up until that of Septimius Severus, soldiers were not allowed to marry. Not that this even remotely stopped them from having female relationships...

The ideal recruit into the Roman army was about 17 or 18 in age. Most civilians in the Empire usually married between the ages of 15 and 20, so naturally all young recruits into the legions would have not have had any serious relationship commitments at home. Except for times of extreme crisis, the Romans did not usually conscript recruits, and even when they did they focused on men in their teens or early twenties. So most or all men who joined the army at a later age were willing volunteers. They may well have been enlisting because their wife had died or kicked them out - or because they had never married in the first place.

It was considered ideal for a Roman soldier to not have any romantic or sexual relationships going on in times of war - sexually frustrated soldiers were more aggressive and energetic in combat. As far as can be told, though, their celibacy was not rigidly enforced by any means, and almost all soldiers had a woman of one sort or another in their lives.

Epigraphic evidence suggests that, despite Augustus' ban, some soldiers got married, anyways, and risked consequences that presumably never came. Many, if not most soldiers had common-law wives. These women were variously free-born Roman women, slave girls, or civilians who had been taken on campaign. Soldiers made wide use of female slaves and prisoners, who were used as sexual partners and companions.

There were also official military prostitutes. Little is known about these women, except that their quality of life must have been horrific. Most were probably captives taken from conquered and depopulated provinces - a life of military prostitute may well have been the tragic fate that awaited Jewesses taken at the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, or of the thousands of Dacian ladies captured during Trajan's great Dacian Wars thirty years later. Being added to a military brothel was, much like service in the mines for male captives - effectively a death-sentence. A combination of STD's and the general filth of their surroundings must have reduced their likelihood of ever living to see freedom greatly.

When a Roman legion was on the march its womenfolk - both free and slave - presumably followed behind in the baggage train. When a legion set up camp, at least in friendly territory, all the non-combatants set up their own "camp" on the outskirts of the legionary castrum. These civilian settlements were called canabae. Women set up shops that saw to the basic needs of the soldiers, such as repairing clothing, etc. and the military prostitutes would have plyed their trade here as well.

Even though the woman in his life was usually a slave, a prostitute, or a barbarian captive that had a lot to learn about Latin and good Roman manners - many a Roman soldier did indeed fall in love, and was apparently quite loyal to said woman. Epigraphic evidence from the 2nd Century mentions a number of cases of men capturing or buying their future wives during a war before marrying them after their service was over. Some tombstones were indeed erected and inscribed by slave girls who had lived as common-law wives of the deceased, and appeared to have legitimately mourned his passing - not the least because he had been her only supporter, and the rest the Legion might not have been so good to her...

The discharge-certificate of a British Celt who enlisted in an auxiliary cohort reveals much about the illegitimate families that Roman soldiers could form. Lucco, son of Trenus, was a young tribesman of the Dobunni who enlisted c. 85 AD around the age of 15. His unit - the Cohors I Britannicae - was transferred to Pannonia for Domitian's Dacian War shortly thereafter. Here, he took up with a local girl - Tutula the Azalian - and she bore him three children, Similis, Lucca, and Pacata. All of them were granted Roman citizenship during the reign of Trajan - and the men of the family summarily bore the praenomen and nomen Marcus Ulpius, to honor the Emperor.

Roman troops were finally officially allowed to marry in 193 AD, by order of Septimius Severus, who made a number of reforms that made the army less disciplined in subtle ways. Hereafter, increasingly more inscriptions mention wives of soldiers, and increasingly few mention mistresses and slaves. A number of the soldiers buried at Apamea, in Syria (c. 190 - 240 AD) were buried by their wives - and at least one buried his wife. The centurion Probius Sanctus buried his "incomparable and well-deserving" wife Antonia Cara in Apamea. She had died at the age of twenty-eight, perhaps a victim of plague.

A little known fact about the Roman Army is the number of times, especially in the 3rd Century, that soldiers mutinied not out of ambition or hatred of the emperor, but in an attempt to rescue or avenge their families. During Severus Alexander's Persian War (232-234 AD), a number of legionary vexillations he had taken from Germania revolted and threatened to kill him. When he asked these previously loyal soldiers why this sudden animosity, they replied that relatives had just come and told them that their wives had been carried off by a party of Germanic raiders that had crossed the Rhine, and the soldiers held Alexander responsible for calling them away during a time of tension along the Rhine frontier. This also reveals that, though they had women, soldiers were not always allowed to bring their women on campaign, if nothing else for obvious logistical reasons.

Just four years later, Emperor Maximinus Thrax was actually murdered by soldiers acting on behalf of their families. The wives, children, and slaves of the Second Parthica Legion had been stationed at the Legion's old barracks in Albanum, just north of Rome. But the Senate had revolted against Maximinus, who was now besieging Aquilea, an Italian metropolis that was supporting the rebellion. Messengers from the Senate arrived and informed his men that the Praetorians had surrounded Albanum, and upon the Senate's order they would butcher every person therein belonging to the Second Parthica Legion. Horrified, a band of Parthican centurions descended upon Maximinus and cut him to pieces. Presumably, the Senate's threats were therefore not carried out.

As the 3rd and 4th Centuries wore on, women continued to travel with the Roman Army. By the 5th Century, the Army in the West was made up largely of Germanic foederati. Many of these were - or had been - migrating bands of warriors who no choice but to bring their loved ones with them. By the time of Belisarius' re-conquest of Rome in the 6th Century, women were still attached to the Army in large numbers. Belisarius' Army, billeted across the Mother City, caused great turmoil because the soldiers demanded that their hosts feed both themselves and their families, and most common Romans could not afford such a burden.

So, in conclusion, the presence of women in the Imperial Roman Army has been largely overlooked, and is greatly understudied. But nonetheless, most or all legionaries had a woman (or perhaps several) in their lives. Undoubtedly, the victors of Idistaviso, Cremona, Mons Graupius, and Milvian Bridge marched back to camp content in the knowledge that they would soon be enjoying the attentions of an appreciative lady, be she wife, mistress, slave or whore...

Robert165

that article made it sound like they're weren't arguments/fights/deaths over the possession of slaves/captives/prostitutes.... great article though

Kuon

Interesting post. Thanks Salah ah-Din.

Perix

It was a realy interesting ideea! Doubtless, there were many situations&scenarios, about how wemen cohexisted nearby soldier camps, fonction of woman status, region, camps status, soldiers status, leaders tolerance and leaders financial interest. Doubtless, there were wemen self-supporting(prostitute, multi-skilled), and supported by the soldiers(wives, slaves, mistress). There were situations when only wemen layed nearing the camps, there were situations when they were unperceived from other civilians in affairs with the soldiers camps. There were situations when lot of local undertakens made fortune with wemen, there were situations when only militar, or civil leaders were allowed in these bussiness. There were situations when wemen brought pleasure, happiness, and there were situations when they brought unhappiness, or tragedies...

pikeshot1600

Virtually all Roman army camps and permanent fortifications had canteens called canabae near them where diversions and female companionship were available. While the soldier was not legally permitted to marry, most commanders overlooked that of necessity, and soldiers, in larger or smaller numbers, acquired families. That only made sense.

A soldier who made it through 25 years in the army would be into his forties, and close to the end of his life at that time (most people didn't make it much past 50). That would make for a lower birth rate, and for too many impoverished widows and orphans. The process of Romanizing the frontiers was facilitated by populating them with Romans, and the army was the method...procreation and settlement.

It would be interesting to know if barbarian soldiers recruited into the army were more likely to be prevented from having families in the earlier centuries rather than the soldiers from Italy and southern Gaul, etc.

~Tawananna~

Thanks for this post!I didn't know all that!

NewModelSoldier

Another excellent and interesting post, Salah.

Salah

Be interesting to see what some of Historum's more recent members think of this subject.

Chrysoloras

Amazing post. It is always interesting to read about the human aspect of history and this brings to the fore the humanity of legionaries.

Earl_of_Rochester

May I enquire as to the footnotes?

Incidentally, this may be of interest:

BBC - Radio 4 - The Roman Way


Not sex as such, but the details from Roman life in Britain.