The Ancients - Roman Special Forces

Episode Date: February 25, 2024

The Romans were renowned for their military prowess and skill. Their legions successfully conquered vast swathes of the Mediterranean world, led by battle-weathered centurions trained in the art of war and strategy. But did the Romans owe any of their military success to the actions of special forces? In short, did the Romans have an SAS? In this episode of the Ancients Tristan Hughes is joined by friend of the show Dr Simon Elliott to explore whether or not the Romans employed elite SAS style units on their far-flung conquests and discover how they used specially trained scouts to carry out covert operations on the frontiers of Empire. This episode was produced by Joseph Knight, and edited by Aidan LonerganEnjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code ANCIENTS - sign up here.You can take part in our listener survey here.

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. And in today's episode, we are going to be looking at some extraordinary, albeit quite elusive, Roman military units. Forget legionaries, forget auxiliaries. It's time to focus on names such as speculatores, exploratories, ariani, and so on. We're going to be delving into what we know about these unique units and evaluating whether we can label them as Roman special forces.

Now our guest today is none other than Dr. Simon Elliott. Simon, he's a good friend of the podcast and he's recently written a book all about this, all about Roman special forces. I really do hope you enjoy. And here's Simon. Simon, it is wonderful to have you back on the podcast. It's a delight to be on the Ancient Tristan. You have embarked on this mission to figure out what were and what weren't the special forces of the Roman Empire. I have. So I've got a book coming out called Roman Special Forces through Pen and Sword. And in it, I think actually, I write in saying it's the only book ever written which covers special forces,

and probably even in terms of book form, intelligence gathering in the Roman world. So it's a first. It was an absolute delight to write because given there was nothing else written beforehand, I've had complete reliance on amazing primary sources. Well, therefore, let's delve straight into it with the background. What primary sources are we talking about here? In terms of the special forces, the first candidates I consider are sort of in the mid to later Republican period. So you're looking at are sort of in the mid to later republican period so you're looking at the sort of fairly standard authors like pelibus etc julius caesar is one of

our major references actually because he used special forces himself or not as we will see and he gives us all the details about his campaigns for example when he was fighting his conquest of gaul or when he was fighting the the Pompeians in North Africa. But Caesar's also a great source. And then you can go into the Principate phase of empire, when you have the classics like Cassius Dio reference candidate, special force types, I'll talk about, and Herodian and the Historia Augusta. And then you go into the later empire, the Latin chroniclers and many others. So in actual fact, the primary sources are there. And the primary sources do talk specifically about the various candidates I'm going to mention. My job then is to work out if these candidates are actually what today we call special forces.

Yes, because today, if someone mentions special forces, there is that allure, isn't it? And you might think of the SAS or the Marines or another kind of elite group in an army somewhere in the world. What do we actually mean by special forces, especially if we're talking about ancient Rome? Firstly, you're quite right. Special forces is a modern term. It's also a modern term which has got far more resonance today than it would have had, for example, at the end of the Second World War. So if you look at candidate special force types today, in my book, actually, I say the first organization we call special forces in the modern world will be the Corps of Guides in India in the 19th century, operating on behalf of the British Raj on the Northwest Frontier.

Then you emerge through to various candidates operating in the Boer War, through to the emergence of combined operations with elite forces operating in the First World War. And then the Second World War, you get the SCS created. And actually, that is the name which most people associate with special forces today. So special forces as a name which is commonly known, specialist service was born as a name in the Second World War. And then they continued operating, not in the public eye, by the way, from that point on into the modern world. But some events in the 1970s and 1980s would actually put special forces in terms of residence in the public eye. So firstly, you have the Raid on Entebbe with Israeli special forces-led operation to free the

hostages there, which was very high profile. Well, that was special forces-led. Then you have the SS storming theanian embassy in 1980 which is actually on camera on television live and then you can go through a couple of years later 1982 you got the falklands war where the ss were front and center of the way that the british government was portraying the fact they were fighting the war the raid on pebble island etc through the operation of special forces in both gulf wars through the engagements in af forces in both Gulf Wars, through the engagements in Afghanistan more recently, etc. Then on the Soviet and later post-Soviet side,

you've got the Spetsnaz, again, a very commonly known term. So the phrase is a modern invention. So the Romans would not have called any of the candidates special forces. So my job is therefore to work out how we can define what special forces are in a Roman context. Keep going then, Simon. How can we define what special forces are in a Roman context. Keep going then, Simon. How can we define what special forces are in a Roman context? Well, the current NATO doctrine defines special operations and special forces as military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, trained, and equipped forces manned with selected personnel using unconventional tactics techniques and modes of

employment so it's different very very very different to the way that normal mainstream line of battle military types of any kind in the modern world operate from that i've extrapolated a series of criteria which i then use at the end of each of my chapters in the book considering candidate types from the Roman world to say yes or no right so the criteria are as follows based on the modern operations but extrapolated back to the Roman world special forces comprise elite volunteers who are chosen through a demanding selection process special forces are uniquely trained for non-regular warfare with special skill sets,

a B-spirit decor and access to specialist equipment. Special forces are used to secure operational and strategic advantage rather than for normal military operations. This might for example include attacking hostile leaders and strategic assets deep in enemy territory. Therefore they are not merely elite combat units fielded in the normal line of battle. And finally, and this is important, when required, the use of special forces is totally deniable. Right. Well, let's go through some of these potential candidates from the ancient Roman world. I'd actually like to start with one that I've seen at the front of your book, which shows a spear-armed soldier riding a camel. Now, Simon, take it away with this particular unit, first of all, and how this fits into the

story of Special Forces. So the unit that's on the front of the book is called an equites dromedari, which means a camel-riding cavalryman. And on the eastern frontier, the Romans frequently, instead of having light cavalry patrolling the frontier, had camel rides, probably recruited locally. Because it made sense because you're on the eastern frontier and the camel's much better fitted to operating in that kind of environment than horses. The Romans are very pragmatic, so they have a variety of specialist troop types in the wider military. One of them is the Queets Dromedari. But there are many other different specialist troop types as well. And in actual fact, I have an entire chapter in the book looking at specialist and elite Roman troop types and determining whether they would be special

forces or not. So for example, you have the Equestria Romidari. You have pioneers operating within the legions themselves. So when the legions on the march, legionary pioneers are operating in advance of the legions to work out whether marching caps are going to be built at the end of the day. In the Republican period, for example, you have even wackier ideas where, for example, you have anti-elephant wagons designed to fight Pyrrhus of Ipirus in the campaign in the 280s BC in Italy, because Pyrrhus had got elephants, so the Romans didn't have elephants. They completely failed, by the way, never mentioned again. But you also, going into the imperial period of Roman history, you have Palestinian club men who are auxiliary troops who are given a club to fight fully armoured man and horse cataphract riders, their big club being better at knocking them off the

horse than using a sword which can't penetrate their armour. These are specialist troop types. I determine they are not special forces. But also, Tristan, you have elite Roman troop types as well, which I consider in the same chapter. So the obvious one is the Praetorian Guard, who at some stages were elite warriors, at most stages weren't elite warriors. Those operating with Trajan or Septimius Severus were. Those operating with Commodus weren't. Even the elite ones operating with Trajan and Septimius Severus, were they special forces? No they weren't. Even the elite ones operating with Trajan and Septimius Severus, were they special forces?

No, they weren't. But it's interesting because that's quite a good way for us to bridge over to the next unit that we'll focus on. Because I know that in the Praetorian Guard, several years ago at university when I remember Professor Sandra Bingham was talking about this, that within the Praetorian Guard, they had a unit called the Speculatories, and that's also in the Roman legions. And this is another unit that you look at when trying to identify whether they're special forces or not. Absolutely, yeah. So there's a whole chapter on the Speculatories. The Speculatories are the first series candidates that are considered. So the term speculator, plural speculatories it comes from the latin term specula which means a watchtower and actually i i personally have been on the southern roman lehms in north africa on

certain sites where there's a roman watchtower and they're recorded in the roman period has been called specula something so it's basically the name for a watchtower and in the mid and later republican period you get speculatories who are basically legionary scouts so these are specialist scouts within the legions or within military units who have an umbilical link it's a very important phrase in this conversation from this point umbilical they have an umbilical link directly to their mainstream military unit praetorian guard you mentioned, it's a legion operating north of the Rhine. So they're therefore not operating independently. But they are specialist scouts. And we do know, for example, Julius Caesar gives us a great example where he uses his

speculatories in 57 BC in his second year campaigning in Gaul, he's fighting the Belgae in the far north, the most difficult part of his campaign. Fearsome Belgae of various tribes, one of the most fearsome is the Nervi. Fighting the Nervi, one of his legions gets cut off from the rest of his marching column and he relies and he tells himself, this is a beauty, he says the speculatories in the legion found a route out of the valley they were trapped in, they rejoined the major force and then you have the Battle of the Sabbath and the Nervi are defeated. Very specific example, that's what the speculatories did. force and then you have the battle of the sabbath and the nervy defeated very specific example that's what the speculatories did later the term speculatories is then used for other things so it gets widened out into the early principate empire to become other types of specialists so military

policemen guards for legates in charge of legions and also the executioners operating on behalf of governors and procurators in the province and in the museum of london recently they were displayed the tombstone of an individual who was called a speculator of the second legion and the interpretation of that in the museum was that he was the governor's executioner who was executing people in the amphitheater in london having been seconded there as a beneficiary from legio to aug, this was based in South East Wales in Celeon. So the term becomes a term used for general specialists, not just scouts, and then disappears in the middle of the third century, only to reappear at the beginning of the late fourth and beginning of the fifth century, having spent all that time not appearing in any primary source, as a scout again. So it

goes almost full circle you end up being a scout it's quite interesting how you mentioned that tombstone there so these people they weren't afraid to promote their position as being a speculator in the roman empire absolutely yeah this is what's so fascinating actually these are people doing special jobs whether the special force is not is immaterial but for the romans themselves when they were celebrating their success in life on their tombstones or in inscriptions, they basically said, yep, I was a spy operating on behalf of a legate. I was a speculator operating on behalf of this military unit. They weren't afraid of doing it whatsoever. You have this

great example, actually, with Mark Antony in the late Republican period, minting coins while campaigning in Greece for the various military units. One of the units that he mints coins for is a unit of speculators. And the image on the back of the coin is of a galley. So it looks as though there is a unit of maritime scouts. So the Romans weren't afraid to publicise that they were doing this at all. So definitive question, therefore, to wrap up the speculators, would you argue that they are special forces? The key word is umbilical. A unit of speculators, whether operating as scouts, which is the role they most likely would have done if we call them special forces, they have this umbilical. And if you have an umbilical, then you're part of a mainstream military unit.

And therefore, to my mind, they were not special forces. Well, there you go. Well, let's move on to the next one what is the next unit that you consider in detail in depth to potentially be special forces of the Roman Empire? Like many things in classical history and especially classical primary sources things are confusing they confuse themselves so one of the things I've got to be careful of in this book is that are a proliferation of different names doing different jobs at different times sometimes doing the same job and've got to be careful of in this book is that there are a proliferation of different names doing different jobs at different times, sometimes doing the same job.

And I have to be very clear explaining that to the reader, which I do. So a great example of that is my next candidate, the Exploratories, who are broadly the same date range as the Speculatories. And in the mid-Republican and later Republican period, they're often referenced in the same breadth as Speculatories doing the same job. So Julius Caesar, for example, describes in his campaign in 52 BC against Vercingetorix at Alesia using, so this is the Great Gallic Revolt, so he defeats Vercingetorix and then he's won, basically. He uses his exploratories to do a certain job which is basically the same description that he earlier used against the nerve with speculatories being

scouts for his legions but it uses them for the same kind of job so it's very confusing in the republic but it becomes much clearer in the empire so by this point the primary sources are referencing exploratories doing something which the speculatories didn't do they're operating without an umbilical to their main military unit so they're being sent to operate deep behind enemy lines on capture or assassination missions interdicting lines of supply interdicting lines of supply, interdicting lines of communication, destroying logistics bases completely and utterly independently of the main military unit. So basically they're told to clear off and spend the next six months without reporting back, go and do your job, and then come back and then tell us how effective you've been,

and we might believe you or not. And by the way, you're assuming the mainstream military unit's going to win. So we know exploratories were used by Varus in AD9, and they completely failed, clearly, because it's a mitigated military disaster. Is that mentioned in the surviving sources? Absolutely. And then you get, in the campaigns of retribution, Germanicus, for example, referenced using exploratories against the Germans highly successfully. And there's a brilliant example, actually, in AD 235, when Maximilien Thrax becomes the first emperor in the crisis of the third century,

having participated in the assassination of Alexander Severus. He's on the northern frontier on the Rhine, and his troops are telling him, basically, we need you to crack on and defeat the Germans. And one of the reasons why Alexander Severus was assassinated was because he wouldn't. So Thrax needs to get a big win. So he does this massive invasion north of the reasons why Alexander Severus was assassinated was because he wouldn't. So Thrax needs to get a big win. So it does this massive invasion north of the northern frontier. And it allegedly, and clearly it didn't, but allegedly the problem sources indicate it penetrated 600 kilometers into the Germanic interior, which it didn't. But that's what they say.

So let's assume it did go a long way, though. Well, we know the furthest penetrating units on deep penetration missions without an umbilical were units of exploratories and therefore that looks to me as though that is a very serious candidate and then in terms of the timeline for the exploratories it's odd because they disappear at the same time as the speculatories and the references and they reappear at the same time in the very late roman empire but this time their role is very different. So units of exploratories in the later empire are effectively doing jobs, listed in the Notitia Dignitatum for example, doing the same jobs as units of Limitarni. They become fixed point border guards, not deep penetrating specialists. I'd like to ask about one more example about the Exploratories.

And I noticed this and I thought it was really interesting. And it's the story of Cartimandua. And potentially, this is a rescue mission, if I'm not mistaken, which might have the exploratories linked to it too. What is this story? So you've got the Queen Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes in the north of Britain,

the person who hands Caraticus earlier to the Romans, a queen of a tribe confederation for the far north of Britain. So it could literally be everything from a line going from the River Dee, Chester, all the way through to the Humber, going all the way into the Scottish border. It's an enormous region. And she's a queen.

And at one stage, she falls foul with her own aristocrats who, against her, are being led by a former husband, and she needs rescuing. And the Romans at this point haven't conquered the far north, but they know that she former husband, and she needs rescuing. And the Romans at this point haven't conquered the far north, but they know that she's their ally and she needs rescuing. So they send a military unit to extract her, which they do successfully. It's almost like Operation Oak when Otto Skorzeny led the Brandenburgers, who were the German World War II special forces, to rescue Mussolini.

It's the same kind of thing. Deep penetration to hostile territory to rescue Mussolini. It's the same kind of thing. Deep penetration to hostile territory to rescue a significant military leader and bring her back into Roman territory and safety. And they do. And the inference is from all the primary sources that cover this that it's exploratories who are actually at least the tip of the spear, if not the entire force. And it's an entirely mounted force as well. So it's a fast column punching its way through enemy territory, mounted force as well. So it's a fast column punching its way through enemy territory, wrenching Cartimandua from wherever she was being kept in prison, getting it quickly south into Roman territory. Absolute classic special forces operation. Sounds a bit like the Nazgul

as well. We won't go down that way either. It's kind of interesting. This does sound like a more plausible candidate, given the criteria that you highlighted earlier, for them this potentially being a special force? So to my mind, the exploratories are the first candidate that I cover in the book who we would today call special forces, yes. Oh, interesting. So what's the next candidate? Because you say this is just the first. So next we move on to the very late Christ of the third century and into the dominate phase of empire. So here we have a unit called the protectories and i

love the protectories because of one individual ammianus marcellinus ammianus marcellinus our greatest author from the late roman period brilliant on military history also given he was a member of this unit the protectories he carried out clandestine missions for various roman emperors so he carried out the missions and wrote about them. So he's basically Ian Fleming. This is as close as you'll get to a Roman James Bond, Ammianus Martellinus. Now, in the reign of Gallienus,

so you're talking about the early 260s, towards the end of the crisis of the third century, he creates a corps of officers within his imperial court. And the corps of officers are there so he can deploy them around the empire, them having been in the court so they're completely law to him to take key positions either administrative or military and they are called the protextories divinius are his corps of officers all well and good and these over time start doing things other than just becoming officers around the court. And gradually they get another name. And this other name emerges in the reign of Constantine I, the great Constantine I.

This is the Protectoris Demestici. And by this time, they're doing special missions as well as being an officer corps. So using Ammialis Marcellinus as an example, in the reign of Constantius II and in the reign of Julian the Apostate, Marcellinus is deployed first on the northern frontier on the Rhine of the Danube, operating on specialist missions on behalf of the emperor, and then later is deployed on the eastern frontier and probably participated in Julian the Apostate's invasion of Sassanid Persia where Julian the Apostate died and in both cases he's doing special missions he's not mainstream military at all the special missions however what's very clear to me when I'm looking

through the primary sources is that when he's on these or his colleagues in the protectories domestiki are on their special missions there's an umbilical there and the umbilical this time was not to the military unit like the speculatories to the imperial court so they're on specialist missions but to the imperial court and also it doesn't look as though they're deployed far outside the imperial frontiers either so they're not sent on deep reconnaissance and deep penetration missions as the exploratories were. These are being deployed basically on very important missions, but not missions where they're outside control at any given time. Does Ammianus Marcellinus, does he talk about any of his missions that he went on? Absolutely, yes he does. So Ammianus Marcellinus gives us great detail

about the missions he carried out, certainly in the east east in the reigns of constantius ii and also julian the apostate and he talks about the susanian persian army invading the reign of constantius ii the roman east when they're on the way to sac antioch and he's actually deployed onto a high point overlooking this enormous snaking tens of thousands strong the sun in persian army to note down the military units in it and he notes them down he talks about units of cataphract fully armored lancers he talks about elephants basically writes it all down and then it goes back to the imperial court and then they know what's on the way and they lose in actual fact in the first instance so the intelligence is actually worthless they probably ignored it or

it didn't get through but he does tell us exactly what he saw because he writes it down in great detail that's been such a great source to have surviving that one is a person who was actually involved in that unit you mentioned how they are very closely linked to the imperial court that umbilical that keyword umbilical that you highlighted earlier. So would you argue that the protectores are special forces? I think based on my criteria, protectores domestiki, even though they're doing special jobs on behalf of the imperial court, the imperial center and the emperor, they're not special force candidates because the umbilical is always in place. Now there's one more candidate that I've got in my notes, and you may want to add another one if there is, Simon. However, the Ariane. Now are we talking a similar time to the Protectorius? Well we are. So the Ariane are an obsession by many people who are researching late

Roman Britain. They're a mysterious organisation set of operatives who operate north of the Roman frontier along the line of Hadrian's Wall, so the salway first of the timeline. So they're operating by the looks of it in the Scottish borders, as we would call them today. They're mentioned twice, both by our Roman Ian Fleming and Amelius Marcellinus. And he mentions them in the context of two emperors. So firstly, Constans. Constans has a famous midwinter crossing, which is unheard of, unheard of in the context of two emperors. So firstly, Constans. Constans has a famous midwinter crossing, which is unheard of, unheard of in the classical world, a midwinter crossing of an open ocean. He crosses the English Channel to Britain from the continent, which is very, very dangerous in

the pre-modern world. But an event takes place in Britain in midwinter, so dangerous that he crosses the English Channel from Bologna to Dover and then does whatever he needs to do here. And it's very successful because he then mints coins saying he's done it and has a picture of a galley on the back. So he came out here in Extremis and then he was successful. At the time it is described, there's no mention of what the issue was. But Marcellinus later, after the event,

says it was an issue with Ariane. So Ariane are intelligence gathering resources of some kind, as I've said, north of the frontier. That's the first reference and that's it. The second reference is about a great event in late Roman British history, the Great Conspiracy, which is referenced in 367, when allegedly conspiring Germans from the far north of Germany crossed the North Sea and invaded Britain. Picts and Atacoti from north of the frontier invaded Britain. Irish from Ireland invaded Britain, apparently all coordinating their attacks. Almost certainly they didn't, and whether it happened or not is a matter of debate. But we'll go with it for now, because this is where Coms Theodosius, the father of the great Theodosius the great comes over on behalf of the emperor and deals with the

event and it's all well and good and then after the event Marcellinus says his last act before he left Britain was to completely and utterly eliminate the Ariane unit operating north of Hadrian's Wall. So the inference is and a lot of modern narratives go down this route, that the Ariane being the intelligence gathering resource for the Romans north of Hadrian's Wall basically colluded with the Atacotian Picts to allow them to cross through. So they basically changed sides. So I have them in the book as unofficial. And by the way, they are literally the Tony references. That's it. So we only hear of the ariani in britain and twice interesting and twice the inferences by the way they were operating troops with a different name almost certainly it's probably a local name were operating exactly the

same way elsewhere in the empire i believe they were unofficial late roman exploratories and therefore i actually say in the book that because they're unofficial exploratories operating late, but unofficial exploratories, they are therefore also Roman special forces. So my wrap in the book is to say that the two candidates out of all those we've considered, which actually we would say today were special forces, are only the exploratories until they disappear in the mid-third century. And then later, the Ariane, who are unofficial exploratories until they disappear in the mid third century. And then later the Ariane who are unofficial exploratories. And a key thing with that being is the fact that they are not almost constrained by that link, whether it is to the main military force or to the Imperial court. Is that right at the key of it?

Absolutely. Yeah. The key phrase is umbilical. Basically, this is a pre-modern world, right? So how are you going to communicate? You're communicating by riders riding on imperial trunk roads where they're having horses change frequently to maintain the speed that news can travel or if you're operating in enemy territory or you're operating within imperial territory against an enemy attacking you again you're relying on horseback to get information. So the speculatories would always be within range of the military unit to get information back. Otherwise, there's no point in having the information. The exploratories were, they were given a broad brief, deep penetration behind enemy lines, take out the enemy leaders, bribe other leaders, interdict the lines of supply, basically operate exactly like

the Bedouin operate, as you see in the movie Lawrence of Arabia. And then come back after six months with your job done, and we've either won the war or lost. But you don't need to report back on a regular basis. Simon, this has been brilliant. Anything else you'd like to highlight about these units that we've mentioned? One of the things I love is the way, as we've alluded to two or three times already, these units actually, the individuals in the units recorded their exploits on their tombstones and in inscriptions. And we know that one of the Roman forts north of Hadrian's Wall was called the Castra Exploratories. So the Roman

fort took its name from the exploratories. Is that from maps or a surviving map that we have, is it Ptolemy's Geography? I mean, how do we know that? All in primary sources. It's all in primary sources where they're recorded. And the camp today, actually, so if anybody wants to go and see it, if anybody wants to go today to a Roman former fort site and actually stand where exploratories stood, it's in Netherby. Netherby.

Well, there we go. Simon, you have written a book all about this, of course, which is called? Roman Special Forces through Pen and Sword Books, available on all good online platforms and in all good bookshops. Well, Simon, it just goes for me to say thank you so much for taking the time to come back on the podcast. Tristan, it's always a delight. Thank you for having me. Well, there you go. There was Dr. Simon Elliott talking you through these various units of the Roman military and whether we can label them as Roman special forces. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Last thing from me, wherever you listen to The Ancients, whether that be on Apple Podcasts or

Spotify or elsewhere, make sure that you are subscribed, that you are following the podcast, that you don't miss out when we release new episodes twice every week. But that's enough from me, and I will see you in the next episode.