Poenius Postumus was praefectus castrorum (camp prefect) of the Roman legion II Augusta, stationed in Britain during the rebellion of Boudica in 61 AD. In this position he would have been in charge of all administrative, training and equipment matters, and would also have been acting commander of the legion in the absence of its two most senior officers: the legate ( legatus ) and the senior military tribune ( tribunus laticlavius ).
In the general area of Exeter with his troops, Poenius Postumus ignored the call to join the governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, in putting down the rebellion. Hearing of the Roman defeat of Boudica, and having denied his troops a share in the glory, he fell on his sword. [1]
The II Augusta are known to have been based at Exeter in Devon. The praefectus castrorum or camp prefect was normally promoted from the ranks, and was third-in-command of a legion's command structure. [2] In this case, the decision whether to move the troops to help put down the rebellion fell to Postumus, implying that the legate and the senior tribune were unavailable, probably acting as members of Suetonius Paulinus's staff during the campaign on the island of Anglesey, which preceded the revolt. [3]
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.
The Roman legion, the largest military unit of the Roman army, comprised 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic and 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of the Roman Empire.
The 60s decade ran from January 1, AD 60, to December 31, AD 69.
The Roman conquest of Britain was the conquest of the island of Britain by occupying Roman forces. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain by 87 when the Stanegate was established. Attempts to conquer Scotland in succeeding centuries met with little sustained success.
Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was a Roman general best known as the commander who defeated the rebellion of Boudica.
The Praetorian Guard was an elite unit of the Imperial Roman army that served as personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors. During the Roman Republic, the Praetorian Guards were escorts for high-ranking political officials and were bodyguards for the senior officers of the Roman legions. In 27 BC, after Rome's transition from republic to empire, the first emperor of Rome, Augustus, designated the Praetorians as his personal security escort. For three centuries, the guards of the Roman emperor were also known for their palace intrigues, by whose influence upon imperial politics the Praetorians could overthrow an emperor and then proclaim his successor as the new caesar of Rome. In AD 312, Constantine the Great disbanded the cohortes praetoriae and destroyed their barracks at the Castra Praetoria.
Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman commander of Batavian origin, who ruled as emperor of the splinter state of the Roman Empire known to modern historians as the Gallic Empire. The Roman army in Gaul threw off its allegiance to Gallienus around the year 260, and Postumus assumed the title and powers of Emperor in the provinces of Gaul, Germania, Britannia, and Hispania. He ruled for the better part of ten years before he was murdered by his own troops.
Laelian, also incorrectly referred to as Lollianus and Aelianus, was a usurper against Postumus, the emperor of the Gallic Empire. His revolt lasted from approximately late February to early June 269.
Legio II Augusta was a legion of the Imperial Roman army that was founded during the late Roman republic. Its emblems were the Capricornus, Pegasus, and Mars. It may have taken the name "Augusta" from a victory or reorganization that occurred during the reign of Augustus.
Quintus Petillius Cerialis Caesius Rufus, otherwise known as Quintus Petillius Cerialis, was a Roman general and administrator who served in Britain during Boudica's rebellion and went on to participate in the civil wars after the death of Nero. He later crushed the rebellion of Julius Civilis and returned to Britain as its governor.
In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion, was a commander, nominally of a century, a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time, and from the first century BC through most of the imperial era was reduced to 80 men.
Praefectus, often with a further qualification, was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking, military or civil officials in the Roman Empire, whose authority was not embodied in their person but conferred by delegation from a higher authority. They did have some authority in their prefecture such as controlling prisons and in civil administration.
The primus pilus or primipilus was the senior centurion of the first cohort in a Roman legion, a formation of five double-strength centuries of 160 men, was called the primus pilus; he was a career soldier and advisor to the legate. The Primus Pilus would remain in command for one year. They could continue to serve in the army after their term ended if there was a vacancy in command or if they wished to become an independent commander of an auxilia unit or the praefectus castrorum.
The praefectus castrorum was, in the Roman army of the early Empire, the third most senior officer of the Roman legion after the legate (legatus) and the senior military tribune, both of whom were from the senatorial class. He was responsible for training, equipment procurement and maintenance, and construction of the camp, but he could command the legion when his seniors were absent. The post was usually held by a soldier promoted from the centurionate, having already served as a chief centurion of a legion, and was therefore open to ordinary, plebeian citizens. Prefects of this rank, for example Sextus Vibius Gallus, were awarded prizes (dona) to mark their achievements.
In the Roman army of the late Republic and the Principate, the tribunus laticlavius was one of the six military tribunes in a legion. Usually, they were a young man around the age of 20 that belonged to a wealthy family. Or they were friends with the legate. The position of tribunus laticlavius was the first step on the Cursus honorum.
Publius Aelianus Aelianus was a senior officer in the Imperial Roman army in the mid-Third Century AD who rose from relatively lowly origins to become the prefect of a legion under the Emperor Gallienus He was one of the earliest beneficiaries of Gallienus's policy that effectively excluded senators from army commands in favour of career-soldiers of equestrian rank. His later life is obscure.
The Imperial Roman army was the military land force of the Roman Empire from 27 BC to 476 AD, and the final incarnation in the long history of the Roman army. This period is sometimes split into the Principate and the Dominate (284–476) periods.
Traianus Mucianus was a Roman soldier of Thracian origins of the second half of the Third Century AD who rose from the lowest ranks of the army to senior commands. He was almost certainly a remarkable soldier. However, the successive promotions he secured in the latter part of his career are thought to owe much also to the favour shown him by men highly placed in the Imperial entourage whose patronage secured him advantageous postings in the Imperial comitatus, the mobile field force under the direct command of the Emperor, that was undergoing massive expansion at this time.
The Boudican revolt was an armed uprising by native Celtic Britons against the Roman Empire during the Roman conquest of Britain. It took place circa AD 60–61 in the Roman province of Britain, and was led by Boudica, the Queen of the Iceni tribe. The uprising was motivated by the Romans' failure to honour an agreement they had made with Boudica's husband, Prasutagus, regarding the succession of his kingdom upon his death, and by the brutal mistreatment of Boudica and her daughters by the occupying Romans.