Roman soldier
List of Roman army unit types
- Accensus - a reservist or light legionary soldier.
- Acceptarius - a discharged soldier.
- Actarius - a military or camp clerk.
- Adiutor - a camp or headquarters adjutant or assistant.
- Aeneator - military musician such as a bugler
- Agrimensor - a surveyor (a type of immunes).
- Aquilifer - carried the legionary eagle.
- Alaris - a cavalryman serving in an ala.
- Architecti - an engineer or artillery constructor
- Armicustos - a soldier tasked with the administration and supply of weapons and equipment. A quartermaster.
- Ballistarius - an artillery operator (a type of immunes).
- Beneficiarius - a soldier performing an extraordinary task such as military policing or a special assignment.
- Bucinator - a trumpeteer or bugler
- Cacula - servant or slave of a soldier.
- Capsarior - a medical orderly.
- Causarius - a soldier discharged for wounds or other medical reasons.
- Centurion - officer rank, generally one per 80 soldiers, in charge of century.
- Clinicus - a medic.
- Cornicen - bugler
- Doctor - a trainer, subdivisions for everything from weapons to hornblowing
- Draconarius - Roman cavalry standard bearer
- Decurion - leads a troop of cavalry (14-30 men). Often confused with decanus.
- Decanus - leads a contubernium (a legionary tent group of 8 men)
- Discens - Miles in training for an immunis position.
- Dux - a general in charge of two or more legions. In the Third Century, an officer with a regional command transcending provincial boundaries responsible directly to the emperor alone. Usually appointed on a temporary basis in a grave emergency. In the Fourth Century, an officer in charge of a section of thee frontier answering to the Magister Militum
- Equites Singlares Augusti Nostri - elite cavalry unit tasked to guard the Roman Emperors. Usually commanded by a tribunus of praetorian rank
- Evocatus - soldiers in the Roman army, who had served out their time and obtained their discharge (missio), but had voluntarily enlisted again at the invitation of the consul or other commander
- Hastatus - the youngest of the heavy infantry in the Pre-Marian armies, who were less well-equipped than the older Principes and Triarii. These formed the first line of battle in front of the Principes.
- Hastatus Prior - a centurion commanding a manipulus of hastati. A high-ranking officer within a manipuli
- Hastatus Posterior - a deputy to the hastatus prior
- Hastiliarius - a weapons instructor.
- Imaginifer - A standard-bearer carrying the imago - the standard which bore a likeness of the emperor, and, at later dates, his family.
- Immunes - those soldiers of the military of ancient Rome who were "immune" from combat duty and fatigues through having a more specialist role within the army
- Legatus legionis - commander of a legion of senatorial rank; literally the "deputy" of the emperor, who was the titular commander-in-chief
- Legatus pro praetore - provincial governor of senatorial rank with multiple legions under their command
- Legionary - the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire
- Medicus - physician or combat medic. Specializations included surgery (medicus vulnerarius), ophthalmology (medicus ocularius) and even veterinary (medicus veterinarius). At least some held rank equivalent to a centurion.
- Miles or Miles Gregarius - The basic private level foot soldier
- Numerus - A unit of barbarian allies not integrated into the regular army structure. Later, a unit of border forces.
- Optio - One per century as second-in-command to the centurion. Could also fill several other specialized roles on an ad hoc basis.
- Pedites - the infantry of the early army of the Roman kingdom. The majority of the army in this period.
- Peditatus - a term referring to any infantryman in the Roman Empire
- Pilus Prior - senior centurion of the cohort
- Pilus Posterior - Deputy to the pilus prior
- Praefectus Castrorum - camp prefect, third-in-command of the legion, also responsible for maintaining the camp, equipment and supplies. Usually a former primus pilus.
- Praefectus legionis agens vice legati - equestrian officer given the command of a legion in the absence of a senatorial legatus. After the remova l of senators from military command, the title of a legionary commander. (' ...agens vice legati dropped in laterThird Century")
- Praetorians - a special force of bodyguards used by Roman Emperors
- Primus Ordinis- the commanding officer of each century in the first cohort with the exception of the first century of the cohort.
- Primus Pilus - (literally 'first file', not spear) the commanding centurion of the first cohort and the senior centurion of the entire Legion
- Princeps - Pre-Marian soldier, initially equipped with the Hasta spear but later adopted the Gladius, these men formed the second line of battle behind the Hastati in the Pre-Marian armies. They were also chieftains in Briton like Dumnorix of the Regneses (he was killed by Gaius Salvius Liberalis' soldiers)
- Princeps Prior - a centurion commanding a manipulus of principes
- Princeps Posterior - a deputy to the princeps prior
- Principales - a group of ranks, including aquilifer, signifer, optio and tesserarius. Similar to modern NCOs.
- Protectores Augusti Nostri (aka Protectores Divini Lateris) honorific title for senior officers singled out for their loyalty to the Emperor and soldierly qualities. Constitute an Order of Honour rather than a military unit. First appears in mid-Third Century AD
- Quaestionarius - an interrogator or torturer.
- Retentus - a soldier kept in service after serving required term
- Rorarii - the final line, or reserve, in the ancient pre-Marius Roman army. These were removed even before the reforms as the Triarii provided a very sturdy anchor
- Sagittarii - archers, including horse-riding auxiliary archers recruited mainly in the Eastern Empire and Africa
- Salararius - a soldier enjoying special service conditions or hired as a mercenary.
- Scholae Palatinae - an elite troop of soldiers in the Roman army created by the Emperor Constantine the Great to provide personal protection of the Emperor and his immediate family
- Scorpionarius - an artilleryman operating a scorpio artillery piece
- Signifer - Standard bearer of the Roman Legion
- Socii - Allied troops from allied states in the Pre-Marian army before the Social war (BC 91-88)
- Speculatores and Exploratores - the scouts and reconnaissance element of the Roman army
- Supernumerarii - a kind of supernumerary soldier who served to fill the places of those who were killed or disabled by their wounds
- Tablifer - A guard cavalry standard-bearer
- Tesserarius - guard commander, one per century
- Tirones - a basic trainee.
- Triarius - Triarii were spearmen of the Pre-Marian armies equipped with the Hasta and formed the third line of battle behind the Principes
- Tribuni militum angusticlavii or military tribune - military tribune of equestrian rank, five of whom were assigned to a legion
- Tribunus militum laticlavius - military tribune of senatorial rank. Second in command of a legion. Appointments to this rank seem to have ceased during the sole reign of Gallienus as part of a policy of excluding senators from military commands.
- Tubicen - a trumpeteer
- Velites - a class of light infantry in the army of the Roman Republic
- Venator - a hunter (a type of immunes)
- Vexillarius - a standard-bearer (carried the Vexillum)
