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Short description

The Cohors I Damascenorum Sagittarii are excellent archers who came originally from Syria.

Description

When the Emperor Augustus' reformed the Roman army and created the Auxilia, various kinds of auxiliary troops were recruited or re-organised into cohorts. Most of these units were heavy infantry that were equipped and fought in a manner similar to that of the legionaries, but archers were also organised along the same lines. During the Roman Republic, most archers that the Roman army employed were either from Crete or Numidia. As Rome's territory expanded, this began to change, as large numbers of archers were recruited from the eastern provinces of Asia, Cappadocia, and especially Syria. From Augustus' reforms onwards until the second century AD, the number of units of Cretan archers in the Roman army fell to one (Cohors I Cretum Equitata Sagittariorum stationed in Moesia), and the vast majority of auxiliary archers came from Syria or Asia Minor, though a significant number hailed from Thrace. Like the regular infantry cohorts, the archer cohorts were either "quingenaria" ("five-hundred-strong") or "milliaria" ("one-thousand-strong"), which were 480 men, and 800 men strong respectively. The need for more archers meant that the Romans trained their archers all over the empire, not just in areas that traditionally excelled with the bow, such as Syria.

While some units were armoured in the same way as "regular" auxiliary heavy infantry men (with Gallic-style helmets and chainmail armour) but equipped with bows rather than swords and shields, they appear on Trajan's column alongside Syrian archers, who were equipped with conical helmets and scale armour. Syrian archers were rightly famed for their archery, launching volley after volley of arrows into the enemy with their recurved bows. After the fall of Hellenic empires Syrian Archers were often used as auxiliary troops in the Roman Army. They are known to have been stationed even in the most distant parts of the Roman Empire, such as Iberia or Britannia.

They are invaluable auxiliaries for the Roman army, providing fire-support to the legions in sieges and pitched battles alike, and defending Roman fortifications from Parthian horsemen in the east, and long-haired barbarians in the West. If the enemy close on them, they can make use of their gladii, but without shields they will not last long in hand-to-hand combat against anything but the lightest of opposition. They are, however, considerably better trained than the average peasant foot archer, and so will at least hold their ground until heavy infantry or cavalry can move to support them.