Auxiliary troops doing duty in Africa were mostly from other provinces of the Empire. In the early days of Roman colonisation the enrolment of natives of Africa for service in their own country was regarded as a source of danger, mainly on account of the frequent uprising of tribes on the frontier. But, with the spread of civilisation, order and good government were secured, and at the commencement of the third century no danger was apprehended from the enrolment of natives both as cavalry and infantry. There appears, however, to be a record of only three bodies of native troops in any of the African provinces. These were designated respectively as the cohors Maurorum, the ala Numidarum, and the cohors Musulamiorum.1 The last are mentioned on a slab found by M. Tissot at Ksar Gurai, in the neighbourhood of Theveste. The reading of the four last words, according to Wilmanns, is privilegii vetustatis sectam abolevisse. EX AVCTORITATE IMP CAES TRAIANI LEG PRO PR FINIBVS MVSVLAMIOR LEG II VETVSTATIS Of the foreign auxiliary troops, such as the legions Gemina, Cyrenaica, Italica, and others, two inscriptions will suffice as memorials of their presence in Africa during some period or other of the Roman occupation. The first relates to a distinguished Roman, who had served his country in many capacities, and was lieutenant-general of the third legion Gemina. As this slab was discovered in a house in a modern village, which has replaced the once important town of Milevum, it is probable that he was a native of that place. Q CAECILIO C V QVIR C V PROCOS PROVINCIAE BAE 1 C.I.L. No. 10667. The Musulami occupied land in the vicinity of Saltus Beguensis, between Sufetula and Ammædara. Vide Guérin, i. p. 391. C.I.L. No. 8207. Ravoisié, Explor. tab. 27. Also Wilmanns. Quinto Cæcilio, Caii filio, Quirina tribu, clarissimo viro, proconsuli provincia Batica, sodali Augustali, legato legionis tertiæ decimæ Geminæ, curatori colonia Pisaurensium, curatori colonia Formianorum, prætori . . . . The other, found at Lambessa, is a memorial of a soldier of the second legion Parthica, which was formed in the time of Septimius Severus. According to the inscription this Aurelius Victorinus was a centurion of the fourth pilus posterior, and a soldier of merit. The name of a primus pilus is preserved in an inscription discovered near Lambessa on the road to Diana Veteranorum. It is a dedication, by a soldier of that rank serving in the third Augustan legion, to a freedman named Zosimus, whose good memory he desired to perpetuate.2 D⚫ M ZOSIMO LIBERTO MERENTI FECIT Diis Manibus, Zosimo, liberto legionis tertia Augustæ, bene The monumental remains of Lambæsis as a permanent military establishment, and of the town which sprang up in the immediate vicinity, are not conspicuous for architectural merit, and give little evidence of magnificence of conception or prevalence of good taste in general design. It must be borne in mind that they were mostly constructed at a late period of the Empire, when Roman art was rapidly declining, and that the De Urbe Lambase et de Legione tertia Augusta, p. 49. G. Boisssière, Paris, 1877. A pilus was a company of Triarii, so called because they took the third place in any formation, the first or front company being termed hastati, the second being composed of principes. There was a primus pilus, sometimes written primipilus. The primipilarii, sometimes called pilani, were the first centurions of each legion. 2 C.I.L. No. 2768. Vide Renier, No. 983. requirements of a garrison town were easily satisfied by the erection of buildings of an ordinary kind. Lambæsis was never a fashionable resort, nor did it attract to its suburbs the magnates and colonists of influence whose memorials abound in the more attractive city of Thamugas. The whole place in its ruined condition has now been exposed, after diligent, thoughtful labour, to public gaze, exhibiting to the artist little deserving his study, but providing for the archæologist and the historian a wealth of materials which has already contributed largely to our knowledge of North Africa during the Roman occupation. Conspicuous among the ruined remains and towering high above other fallen monuments in the plain of Lambessa, are the external walls of the Prætorium,' forming the headquarters of the third Augustan legion. This building is of rectangular form, measuring externally about 92 feet by 65 feet. The extreme height may be estimated at 50 feet. Within the walls is a large court, around which were the offices and apartments of the general, and several rooms which may have been occupied by the staff, or served as chapels or shrines for tutelary deities as protectors of the army. The original Prætorium erected by Marcus Aurelius on this site was overthrown by an earthquake and reinstated during the last year of the reign of Gallienus, A.D. 268. An inscription on the face of the present edifice confirms this, and on the keystone of one of the gateways on the east side a standard is carved bearing the words Legio tertia Augusta. The walls of the great court are strengthened with engaged columns, but there are no indications of their having supported the timbers of a roof. In all probability the court was open, a velarium being spread over it for protection against the sun or during inclement weather. Around and attached to the edifice were apparently a number of smaller buildings, but these have 1 Tacitus (Ann. i. 7) says that the general's tent or pavilion in a Roman camp was called the Prætorium, because the ancient Latins styled their commanders Prætors. Scipio Africanus raised a prætorian cohort to serve near his pavilion as a bodyguard. They formed a select company, and were to hold themselves in readiness to accompany the general in all sudden emergencies. In the time of Augustus the Emperor's tent was called Prætorium Augustale. This name was continued by his successors, who gave the title of Præfectus Prætorii to the officer in command. The soldiers were for some time quartered in Rome, but were moved by Ælius Sejanus, their commander in the time of Tiberius, to a short distance from the city, in order to favour his seditious designs against the Emperor. |