Casualties

According to Strabo, in a battle fought during the Roman invasion of Arabia under Augustus the Arabs lost 10,000 men, the Romans 2.107 We naturally incline to be sceptical about the disparity in these figures, partly because the transmission of numbers in ancient texts was notoriously subject to error, and also because battle casualties were sometimes manipulated by writers seeking to emphasize the scale of a Roman victory or to play down a defeat. However, Appian, writing about the civil wars at the end of the Republic, but apparently referring to his own day in the second century ad, notes that an acclamation as imperator required 10,000 enemy soldiers to have been killed.108 This may be useful, since we often know the number of imperator acclamations received by emperors, but it is very unlikely that this rule, even if accurately reported, was scrupulously observed by emperors. In some specific cases we can expect greater accuracy from our sources. Josephus, appointed by the Jews to command in Galilee, reports a disastrous Jewish attack on the Roman garrison at Ascalon, in which 10,000 Jews including two generals were killed, with only a few Roman casualties. In a second assault they lost 8000 men.109 More precisely, he notes that during Cestius Gallus’ retreat from Jerusalem in ad 66 he lost 5300 infantry and 480 cavalry.110 Tacitus gives the casualty figures from the battle of Mons Graupius - at which his father-in-law Agricola commanded - as 10,000 British dead and 360 Roman, which represents less than 3 per cent of the troops used by Agricola in the battle.111 He presumably could get reliable figures from Agricola, although 10,000 seems a suspiciously round figure. Tacitus in fact rarely gives casualty figures for the Romans, and his detailed account of the defeat of Boudicca by Suetonius Paulinus in Britain may be based on genuine figures, although he does not personally endorse them. There were 80,000 British and 400 Roman dead with rather more wounded. This represents about 8 per cent of the Roman fighting strength, and the British losses are credible where one side has been completely routed.112 Dio in a sombre passage comments on the extent of Roman losses at the civil war battle of Issus, in which Septimius Severus defeated Pescennius Niger, who had 20,000 dead.113 This would amount to three or four legions and may be an exaggeration.114 Dio must certainly be wrong in his assessment of 50,000 Roman casualties for Severus’ campaign in Scotland, and in his claim that 40,000 died on each side at the first battle of Cremona in ad 69.115

We are on safer ground with other evidence. The notorious defeat of Quinctilius Varus in the Teutoburg Forest at the hands of the German leader Arminius brought the destruction of three legions (XVII, XVIII, XIX), six auxiliary infantry cohorts and three cavalry alae, with a loss of probably more than 20,000 men.116 After the reign of Augustus at least four legions were lost on active service. Legions V Alaudae, IX Hispana, XXI Rapax and XXII Deiotariana all disappear from the army lists, and we must assume that they were annihilated, although we cannot say precisely when and where in each case. This would amount to a loss of more than 20,000 legionaries.117

The Romans set up elaborate war memorials, usually to celebrate military victory and the destruction of their enemies. However, they also remembered fallen comrades. Germanicus buried the remains of the dead of Varus’ disaster and constructed a funeral mound.118 The most famous Roman war memorial discovered is at Adamklissi in the Dobrudja plain in southern Romania. There are three monuments, including a mausoleum and an altar, which records the names of 3800 legionary and auxiliary soldiers killed in what had clearly been a substantial Roman defeat: ‘In memory of the courageous men who gave their lives for the State.’119 This is the only precise and detailed enumeration of Roman casualties we have. Trajan also established a monument and annual funeral rites to commemorate soldiers killed in battle against the Dacians, possibly at Tapae.120 It was normal to bury the dead at the scene of the battle,121 and it was considered disgraceful to leave fallen soldiers unburied. This was usually a sign of a great Roman defeat or the depravity of civil war.122

It is impossible to know what proportion of serving legionaries died in battle, still less the numbers who died of disease, or the losses suffered by the auxilia. Tacitus, describing Agricola’s disposition of his forces for the battle of Mons Graupius, notes that the auxiliaries were positioned in front of the legions and that ‘there would be great glory in the victory if it cost no Roman blood’.123 This may be a rhetorical flourish to emphasize the supposedly Roman character of the legionaries in contrast to the non-citizen auxilia, but, if Agricola was following an established military practice, it might follow that the auxilia suffered a relatively high percentage of casualties in battle. Of course, competent commanders usually made it their priority not to sacrifice the lives of their soldiers needlessly. Thus the future emperor Tiberius had an excellent rapport with the troops under his command, which was at least partly due to his cautious approach and concern for his army.124

We cannot estimate the proportion of Roman soldiers lost in battle in relation to enemy killed, but the Romans were entirely ruthless in achieving their objectives. They conducted military campaigns to achieve the complete destruction of the enemy’s ability to resist, and this included anyone who got in their way. There is no doubt that up to the late third century ad Roman military activity caused enormous loss of life and suffering, although we can only guess at the extent of this. However, Dio’s account of the Jewish rebellion of ad 132 to 135 may not be far from the truth:

Fifty of their [the Jews’] most important strongholds and 985 of their most famous villages were utterly destroyed. Five hundred and eighty thousand men were killed in the raids and battles, and the number of those who died by famine, disease, and fire was beyond calculation. So nearly the whole of Judaea was made desolate. . . . Many Romans also were killed in this war.125