1. Rome’s Civil Wars
Sulla vs. Marius/Marians (88-87, 82-81)
(Optimates vs Populares)
Caesar vs. Pompey/Optimates(49-45)
Augustus vs. Mark Antony (32-31)
(with constant minor civil wars in between each date/proscriptions/street fighting in Rome)
Rise in number of legions
4 consular legions – 60 in field in 31 BCE – 28 Augustan legions

2. Timeline (all BCE):
44: Assassination of Julius Caesar
43-33 Second Triumvirate (Octavian, Mark Antony, Lepidus)
42 Battle of Philippi
40 Treaty of Brundisium
[40-33 Antony’s Parthian Campaign)
36 Naulochus
34 Donations of Alexandria
31 Actium
30 Suicide of Antony and Cleopatra
27 Octavian becomes Augustus

3. The complexity of civil war: Caesar’s battles

4. Complexities of Civil War: Second Triumvirate

8. From macro to micro
8 men to a tent party (conturbnalis)
10 tent parties to a century
6 centuries to a cohort
10 cohorts to one legion
(exception) the first cohort had 6 double centuries*
+ 120 horsemen =
Total legion size 5400 fighting men*
* Be cautious of this number
Century:
Tesserarius
Signifer
Optio
Centurion
Cohort:
Primi ordines (1st cohort)
Centurion ranks:
pilus prior, pilus posterior, princeps prior, princeps posterior, hastatus prior, hastatus posterior,

9. Alae sociorum
Auxilia
Units in Rome:
- Praetorian Guard
- Urban Cohort
- Vigiles

10. Caligula addresses the Praetorian Guard on a brass sestertius (coin 39-40 CE)

11. Gold aureus of Claudius showing Praetorian camp in Rome (45-44 CE)

12. Trajan surrounded by Praetorian guard in travelling dress (Trajan’s Column, 113 CE)

14. Vigiles sectors

15. Graffiti from the guardroom of the 7th cohort in Rome
(CIL VI 37247)

16. Legionary names (a sample)
III Augusta Pia Fidelis – Late Republic/Augustus
III Cyrenaica – Late Republic
III Gallica – Julius Caesar
III Italia Cohors – Marcus Aurelius
III Parthica – Septimius Severus
Lost legions (examples/destroyed or disbanded)
XVII – Augustus – Varian disaster/9 CE
XVIII – Augustus – Varian disaster/9 CE
XIX – Augustus – Varian disaster/9 CE
I Germanica – Late Republic – Civilis revolt/ 70CE
IIII Macedonica – Julius Caesar - Civilis revolt/ 70CE
XV Primigenia – Caligula - Civilis revolt/ 70CE
XVI Gallica – Augustan - Civilis revolt/ 70CE