Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a Roman general and politician responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. Born to a political family of senatorial rank, Agricola began his military career as a military tribune under Governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. In his subsequent career, he served in a variety of political positions in Rome. In 64, he was appointed quaestor in Asia province. Two years later, he was appointed Plebeian Tribune, and in 68, he was made praetor. During the Year of the Four Emperors in 69, he supported Vespasian, general of the Syrian army, in his bid for the throne.
Gaius Plinius Secundus, called Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia, which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field.
Titus Caesar Vespasianus was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death.
PubliusVegetius Renatus, known as Vegetius, was a writer of the Later Roman Empire. Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what is contained in his two surviving works: Epitoma rei militaris, and the lesser-known Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae, a guide to veterinary medicine. He identifies himself in the opening of his work Epitoma rei militaris as a Christian.
De re militari, also Epitoma rei militaris, is a treatise by the Late Latin writer Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus about Roman warfare and military principles as a presentation of the methods and practices in use during the height of the Roman Empire and responsible for its power. The extant text dates to the 5th century.
The Revolt of the Batavi took place in the Roman province of Germania Inferior between AD 69 and 70. It was an uprising against the Roman Empire started by the Batavi, a small but militarily powerful Germanic tribe that inhabited Batavia, on the delta of the river Rhine. They were soon joined by the Celtic tribes from Gallia Belgica and some Germanic tribes.
A cohort was a standard tactical military unit of a Roman legion. Although the standard size changed with time and situation, it was generally composed of 480 soldiers. A cohort is considered to be the equivalent of a modern military battalion. The cohort replaced the maniple. From the late second century BC and until the middle of the third century AD, ten cohorts made up a legion. Cohorts were named "first cohort,” "second cohort," etc. The first cohort consisted of experienced legionaries, while the legionaries in the tenth cohort were less experienced.
The naval forces of the ancient Roman state were instrumental in the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean Basin, but it never enjoyed the prestige of the Roman legions. Throughout their history, the Romans remained a primarily land-based people and relied partially on their more nautically inclined subjects, such as the Greeks and the Egyptians, to build their ships. Because of that, the navy was never completely embraced by the Roman state, and deemed somewhat "un-Roman".
The Battle of Bedriacum refers to two battles fought during the Year of the Four Emperors near the village of Bedriacum, about 35 kilometers (22 mi) from the town of Cremona in northern Italy. The fighting in fact took place between Bedriacum and Cremona, and the battles are sometimes called "First Cremona" and "Second Cremona".
The Classis Britannica was a provincial naval fleet of the navy of ancient Rome. Its purpose was to control the English Channel and the waters around the Roman province of Britannia. Unlike modern "fighting navies", its job was largely the logistical movement of personnel and support, and keeping open communication routes across the Channel.
The Classis Misenensis, later awarded the honorifics praetoria and Pia Vindex, was the senior fleet of the imperial Roman navy.
The Classis Ravennas, later awarded the honorifics praetoria and Pia Vindex, was the second most senior fleet of the imperial Roman Navy after the Classis Misenensis.
The gens Vitellia was a family of ancient Rome, which rose from obscurity in imperial times, and briefly held the Empire itself in AD 69. The first of this gens to obtain the consulship was Aulus Vitellius, uncle of the emperor Vitellius, in AD 32.
The Batavi was an auxilia palatina (infantry) unit of the late Roman army, active between the 4th and the 5th century. It was composed by 500 soldiers and was the heir of those ethnic groups that were initially used as auxiliary units of the Roman army and later integrated in the Roman Empire after the Constitutio Antoniniana. Their name was derived from the people of the Batavi.
The Classis Germanica was a Roman fleet in Germania Superior and Germania Inferior. Besides the Channel Fleet, it was one of the largest naval forces of the Roman Empire, ranking above all other provincial fleets.
Claudius Apollinaris was a man of ancient Rome who succeeded Sextus Lucilius Bassus as the commander, or praefectus classis, of Lucius Vitellius's fleet at Misenum, when Bassus defected to Vespasian's side in the year 70 AD. Apollinaris himself soon defected to Vespasian as well, and he escaped with six galleys.
Pay in the Roman army was defined by the annual stipendium received by a Roman soldier, of whatever rank he was, from the Republican era until the Later Roman Empire. It constituted the main part of the Roman soldier's income, who from the end of the Republic began to receive, in addition to the spoils of war, prize money called donativa. The latter grew to such an extent in the following centuries that by the 4th century, the ancient stipendium constituted only 10–15% of the Roman legionary's entire income.
The Classis Pontica was a provincialis fleet, established initially by Augustus and then by Nero on a permanent basis. It was tasked with guarding the southern Pontus Euxinus, coordinating with the neighboring fleet of Mesia, the Classis Flavia Moesica.
The Libellus de vocabulis rei militaris is a Latin military treatise in the form of a collection of excerpts from the first three books of the Epitoma rei militaris of Vegetius. The author is conventionally known as Modestus and most probably worked between the 9th and 12th centuries. His work is known from over 30 manuscripts and was printed six times before 1500. It was one of the canonical "old" military treatises of the 16th and 17th centuries. There is a late translation into Italian.
