Imperial Roman Citizen Cavalry

[Mrbsct]

Hey I am asking about Imperial Roman citizen cavalry.

Although by the time after Marius, most of Rome's cavalry arm was allied like Gallic and Germanic. Auxilia was then proffesionalized by Augustus and the Romans adopted a standing cavalry arm.

Does the Alae cavalry of Imperial times drawn from the Romanized non-citizen equites from the provinces or are they lower class peasants? Roman cavalry Alae are paid even higher than a Citizen Legionaire, despite Auxilia infantry being paid lower. Does the Auxilia, usually keep to their native culture? Or would be largely Romanized and organized and tactics in Roman influences?

About Roman citizen cavalry:

I think Josehpus mentions that Citizens did serve in the cavalry in the Jewish wars. Also Cavalry regiments get the title Civilian Romanum designation. Would Roman citizens be made up the officer corps or actual troopers?

Does the Civilian Romanum designation only mean that only the men discharged gained Roman citizenship? Why wouldn't a Roman citizen want to serve in the Alae cavalry since it means higher pay?

Also the Edict of Carcalla made them Roman citizens, would infantry recruitement be the same cavalry recruitment? I believe the army was largely Greek in nature since most of the manpower was from Dalmatia right?

[Urselius]

Most of Illyricum was Latin speaking. Greek speech began in what is now Albania and extended southwards. The Latin-derived language of Illyricum, Dalmatian Romance, survived until the late 19th century when its last native speaker was killed in a mining accident. Dalmatian was slowly eroded by Serbo-Croat and Italian.

The last native Latin-speaking Roman emperor, Justinian the Great, was born in Illyricum.

[Frank]

Most alae in early empire were peregrines, not romans. The romans prefered cavalrists from a nation with a long cavalry-culture. Same for archers or slingers.

It is possible, that italians were recruited for the ala, as they were sometimes recruited for the auxilia. Also consider the lot of sons of peregrine auxilia-soldiers, which were often citizens entering the same unit like their dad later.

If an ala is called civium Romanorum, it could just mean, that they all got civil rights after a brave battle. It does not mean, that new recruits afterwards or before were roman cititzens.

We have to distinguish between italians and romans here. I don't know any italian cavalry, but the praetorian cavalry. Most praetorians came from Italy until Severus, but not all. Another option for a italian roman cavalrist was equites legionis, singularis and from there principalis and centurio, or perhaps decurio in an ala.

After Caracalla mostly all inhabitants of the empire were roman citizens anyways.

[Mrbsct]

All Italians besides Gallic-Italians got citizenship by Marius's time.

[Frank]

All Italians besides Gallic-Italians got citizenship by Marius's time.

And Cisalpina got full citizen rights during Julius Caesars reign. I guess the question of the OP was about the empire afterwards.

Also Baetica, Narbonensis and Sicilia got latin rights from Caesar. Other provinces followed soon. Caracallas reform caused not much trouble or discussion. Most probably, because most provinces or at least most provincial cities, but the greek ones, had already the latin rights in the 3rd century. The greek cities were actually often not that interested to become roman citizens.

So it is a good guess, that already during the 2nd century a lot of cavalrists had a kind of roman citizen rights.

Latin rights usually means full cititzen rights, without the right to vote as long as you don't move to Rome. And it does also not include the ius italicum in the provinces, which means no tributus capitum (head tax) or soli (land tax), but inheritance tax. Infamously, Caracalla gave everbody in the provinces the roman citizen rights without the ius italicum. So they had to pay their taxes as usual and inheritance tax on top 8+)

Cassius Dio claimed, that this was the real intention of Caracalla.

[Frank]

Does the Alae cavalry of Imperial times drawn from the Romanized non-citizen equites from the provinces or are they lower class peasants? Roman cavalry Alae are paid even higher than a Citizen Legionaire, despite Auxilia infantry being paid lower.

After I have read some details about how the romans payed their soldiers (Breeze, Speidel, ....), I am not sure, if an equites really got that much more money than others.

The payment in the roman army included money for food, clothes and all other consumables. Papyri show, that the costs of these consumables were substracted form the quarterly payments. So a normal legionair had not the full amount of denarii (e.g 225 D p.a.) available to invest in whine and whores.

I am not sure, but it's is a good guess, that the salary of an equites was higher, because it included the food for the horse and other costs of the horse.

However, perhaps due to inflation, as a kind of hidden pay raise, the roman government started to not charge these costs to the soldiers account anymore, starting with the praetorians.

[Mrbsct]

Not just Equites, the Auxilia Alae would get higher pay than a Legionaire.

Auxilia infantry Cohors pay: 188 denarrii
Legionaire infantry: 225 denarii
Auxilia Cavalry of Alae: 315 Denarii(20 percent higher than Legionaire)

This is all minus food. The expense of food and supply for both Auxilia and Legion would be the same. 60 for food deduction and 50 for equipment deduction.

[Michael Kerr]

Andy wrote:

I think Josehpus mentions that Citizens did serve in the cavalry in the Jewish wars. Also Cavalry regiments get the title Civilian Romanum designation. Would Roman citizens be made up the officer corps or actual troopers?

In regard to the ‘Civium Romanorum' Southern & Dixon in their book ‘The Roman cavalry' wrote that Non-citizens were not entitled to receive individual awards in Roman army, although whole units could be decorated for valour. These awards took the form of torques & the granting of citizenship, which was limited to soldiers serving in the unit at the time. So 'Civium Romanorum' was a grant of citizenship to an entire unit as award or battlefield honour & not like the usual granting of citizenship on discharge.
Regards
Michael Kerr

[Frank]

Not just Equites, the Auxilia Alae would get higher pay than a Legionaire.

Auxilia infantry Cohors pay: 188 denarrii
Legionaire infantry: 225 denarii
Auxilia Cavalry of Alae: 315 Denarii(20 percent higher than Legionaire)

This is all minus food. The expense of food and supply for both Auxilia and Legion would be the same. 60 for food deduction and 50 for equipment deduction.

Yes, it seems that my wording was a bit ambigous. Sorry for that. I meant equites in a wider sense like riders. My point was, that riders payed the deduction for food and equipment, plus food for the horse. That concerns equites legionis, the alae and perhaps also the equites in the cohortes equitata. So their higher salary was probably not that much higher after this additional deduction.

[Urselius]

All legionary recruits were taught to ride as part of their basic training, so there would be no inherent impediment to a legionary becoming a cavalryman. Some historians have interpreted the cavalry reforms of Gallienus involving stripping the legions of their cavalry, then amalgamating them into units whose strength was then augmented by further recruitment. The units of equites stablesiani have been identfied by some as being former legionary cavalry.