Auxilia Cohorts and the Claudian Invasion of Britain

[Paullus Scipio]

Well, one may quibble with that. Here is what Tactus says in full:

During the same period, the Chauci, untroubled by domestic strife and elated by the death of Sanquinius, forestalled the arrival of Corbulo by raiding Lower Germany under the leadership of Gannascus, — a Canninefate by extraction, once an auxiliary in the Roman service, then a deserter, and now with a piratical fleet of light vessels engaged in ravaging principally the coast of Gaul, with the wealth of whose peaceful communities he was well acquainted. On his entry into the province, however, Corbulo, showing extreme care and soon acquiring that great reputation which dates from this campaign, brought up his triremes by the Rhine channel and the rest of his vessels, according to their draughts, by the estuaries and canals. Sinking the hostile boats, he ejected Gannascus, and, after adequately settling affairs on the spot, recalled the legions, as lethargic in their toils and duties as they were ardent in pillage, to the old code with its prohibitions against falling out on march or beginning an action without orders. Outpost and sentry work, duties of the day and the night, were carried out under arms; and it is on record that two soldiers were punished by death, one for digging soil for the rampart without side-arms, the other for doing so with none but his dagger. Exaggerated and possibly false as the tales may be, their starting-point is still the severity of the commander; and the man may safely be taken as strict and, to grave offences, inexorable, who was credited with such rigour in regard to trifles.

translation courtesy Lacus Curtius site.

A very minor naval campaign against one tribe ( at most) of pirates is hardly on the same scale as the Invasion of Britain. Given that the Legions apparently played no part in the campaign ( he recalls the Legions after "settling affairs", and disciplines them for their slackness), and there is no record of 'action' by them, only training/fatigues, one might consider that Britain was more likely the occasion for distinction.

I did not express a categorical opinion one way or the other, but the Invasion versus no action at all ?....one might consider the Invasion a more likely occasion for awards to Tribunes of a Legion.

"Fairly quiet?" It would seem so, if this is the best example of "action" you can come up with - in fact no action at all by the Legions.