Mobilité des unités et « dislocation » de la documentation : l’exemple des auxiliaires attestés en Numidie septentrionale au ier s. ap. J.‑C.

Abstract

Before the pacification of northern Numidia at the end of the Julio-Claudian period, the defence of Cirta, the only Roman colony at the western end of the province of Africa at the time, relied mainly on auxiliary units. These units and the locations of garrison points are difficult to identify because of the military and individual mobility as well as the nature and scarcity of epigraphic documents in the first century A.D. Nevertheless, the attestations of auxiliary soldiers, combined with those of the descendants of veterans settled near their former posts, reveal a defensive system, in which participated the ala I Pannoniorum, cohors VII Lusitanorum, presumably cohors II Gemella Thracum and perhaps ala Veterana. These data also shed light on the military issues in the Julio-Claudian period, the process of pacification and the integration of the veterans into local society.

Keywords

• Algeria
• Numidia
• Cirta
• Cuicul
• auxiliary units
• veterans