A ''numerus'' (, plural ''numeri'') was a unit of the
Roman army
The Roman army () served ancient Rome and the Roman people, enduring through the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), the Roman Republic (509–27 BC), and the Roman Empire (27 BC–AD 1453), including the Western Roman Empire (collapsed Fall of the W ...
.
In the
Imperial Roman army
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 (27 BC – 284 AD) and the Dominate ...
(27 BC – 476 AD), it referred to units of
barbarian
A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice.
A "barbarian" may ...
allies who were not integrated into the regular army structure of
legions and
auxilia
The (; ) were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen Roman legion, legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 27 BC. By the 2nd century, the contained the same number of infantry as the ...
. Such units were of undetermined strength and their organisation and equipment probably varied according to the unit's ethnic origin. The term was also applied to quasi-permanent detachments of regular army units.
[Reuter, Marcus (1999). "Studien zu den numeri des römischen Heeres in der mittleren Kaiserzeit". In: ''Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission'', vol. 80, pp. 357–569.]
In the
Late Roman army
In modern scholarship, the Later Roman Empire, "late" period of the Roman army begins with the accession of the Emperor Diocletian in AD 284, and ends in 480 with the death of Julius Nepos, being roughly coterminous with the Dominate. During th ...
(284 – 476), a ''numerus'' was a regular infantry unit of the ''
limitanei
The ''limitanei'' (Latin, also called ''ripenses''), meaning respectively "the soldiers in frontier districts" (from the Latin word '' limes'' meaning frontier) or "the soldiers on the riverbank" (from the Rhine and Danube), were an important par ...
'', or border forces, believed to have been c. 300 strong.
See also
*
Foederati
''Foederati'' ( ; singular: ''foederatus'' ) were peoples and cities bound by a treaty, known as ''foedus'', with Rome. During the Roman Republic, the term identified the '' socii'', but during the Roman Empire, it was used to describe foreign ...
*
Noumeroi
References
Further reading
* Callies, Horst (1964). "Die fremden Truppen im römischen Heer des Prinzipats und die sogenannten nationalen Numeri"
he foreign troops in the Roman army of the Principate and the so-called national numeri ''Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission'' 45, pp. 130–227.
External links
{{commonscat, Ancient Roman numeri, Numerus (Roman military unit)
Military units and formations of the Roman Empire
Roman auxiliaries