I've just finished a discussion with Professor Roger Tomlin on whether or not the epigraphic evidence for L. Artorius Castus proves the existence of or, at the very least, allows for the including of, Sarmatian cavalry among the forces he led against ARM[...]S.
Even though Tomlin was well aware of the centurion from the Sixth Legion who is found listed as commander of the Sarmatian numerus at Ribchester, his profound knowledge of the Roman military structure led him to issue the following proclamation:
"We can speak of these auxiliaries being 'attached' to the legions, but only in the sense of being in the same army. They did not contribute to the legions. That they were commanded by a legionary centurion is irrelevant. It does not mean they were 'legionaries' – he was only seconded to command them ad hoc, as praepositus. As often happened to auxiliary cohorts.
Castus did not directly command auxiliaries. He commanded legionaries. It would be a pure guess to suppose that auxiliaries were added to his command. There is no direct evidence, and the implication is otherwise."
In other words, when Castus tells us he led three legionary vexillations (it is now accepted by all respected Roman military historians that vexillations is implied in the inscription, as it is in 42 such inscriptions according to Robert Saxer in his magisterial "Untersuchungen Zu Den Vexillationen Des Romischen Kaiserheeres Von Augustus Bis Diokletian"), he is referring to legionaries. We thus cannot equate these troops with Sarmatian heavy cavalry attached to a legion or legions. The 1500 spearmen who show up in the account of the British force that goes to Rome to destroy Perennis have also been
seen as Sarmatian, as the word used by Dio for them is derived from the Greek word contos, a word used for the extra-long lance of the Sarmatian cavalry. But John S. McHugh's analysis of these spearmen as standard lanciarii is well-argued (COMMODUS: GOD AND GLADIATOR, p. 99):
"It is more likely that these 1,500 javelin men were drawn in equal numbers from each of the three British legions and were elite soldiers. It was during this period that legions were creating a specialized unit of lanciarii made up of 500 legionaries armed with 1 metre long javelins who were used for fast mobile attacks and filling in gaps between units in the battle line."
What this all means is that if Castus did impress himself upon the Sarmatians, it would have happened not on the Continent, but in Britain when he might well have used them when Ulpius Marcellus fought the northern British tribes and Commodus took the title of Britannicus. There was also mutiny under Ulpius and it may well be that the Sarmatians were employed in helping to suppress that as well. If Castus did something to endear himself to them, it certainly was not fighting on the wrong side! Castus appears as a loyal prefect of the Sixth and was rewarded for his service against ARM[...]S by being granted the procuratorship of Liburnia.
R.I. Richmond (in "The Sarmatae, Bremetennacvm Veteranorvm and the Regio Bremetennacensis") emphasizes the very close relationship that existed between Sarmatian Ribchester and the York of Castus' Sixth Legion. We have seen above that a centurion of the Sixth commanded the Sarmatian garrison at Ribchester. We do not need to involve the Sarmatians in the Continental feats of Castus to account for how his name might have been preserved through the generations at Ribchester.
As for the troublesome ARM[...]S... In the above-outlined scenario, it has to be Armorica. John S. McHugh says simply:
"Some have interpreted this as Castus leading British troops across the empire to Roman Armenia; clearly this is not logical as greater concentrations of troops would be far nearer and the province of Britain was suffering unrest itself."
I have in the past presented an excellent series of arguments that actually show Castus could have gone to Armenia. These include the fact that the British governor, Statius Priscus, was sent to command the war in Armenia in the early 160s. I have also been able to show, pretty convincingly, that Liburnia was founded c. 168-70 on an emergency basis due to the threat of German invasion at the outset the Marcomannic Wars. But it is also true that
"...Cleander [Perennis's successor], raised to greatness by the favour of Fortune, bestowed and sold senatorships, military commands, procuratorships, governorships, and, in a word, everything.
We can, therefore, easily make the case that Castus was rewarded for his service by Cleander by being granted the Liburnian procuratorship.
What I keep coming down to time and time again is this:
The only British mission in the time period we are considering in the literature is that of the 1,500 spearmen to Rome. The number 1,500 also matches perfectly what would be 3 500 men detachments drawn from the 3 British legions (something found on the Castus stone). Unless we allow the Castus memorial stone's fragmentary ARM[...]S to stand for Armenia, it is a logical choice to instead opt for Armorica. This is especially so because we know the Deserters' War was raging in Gallia Lugdunensis, a province largely composed of Armorica:
Et Pescennius quidem Severo eo tempore quo Lugdunensem provinciam regebat amicissimus fuit; 4 nam ipse missus erat ad comprehendendos desertores, qui innumeri Gallias tunc vexabant.
"Now Pescennius was on very friendly terms with Severus at the time that the latter was governor of the province of Lugdunensis.12 4 For he was sent to apprehend a body of deserters who were then ravaging Gaul in great numbers."
The Tomlin-supported argument against Armorica - that Castus would have used instead terms such as DEFECTORES, REBELLES, LATRONES, HOSTES PVBLICOS, PRAEDONES, or even DESERTORES for his enemy, is, in my humble opinion, countered by Picard's studies of the actual nature of the Deserters' War:
If the Deserters' War really was a large-scale rebellion centered in Armorica, then there is no reason why a prefect of the Sixth, made a dux of legionary detachments and sent to Armorica to help quell the rebellion, would not have used ARMORICOS in his diploma.
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