page_title: Imperial Roman army
section_title: Light cavalry
hierarchical_section_title: Imperial Roman army / Regular military units / Auxilia / Auxiliary specialised units / Light cavalry
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Vormarsch im Gebirge (Szene LXIII); Streifscharen leichter Kavallerie (Szene LXIV) English: Advance into the mountains (scene LXIII); light cavalry flying columns (scene LXIV)
context_page_description: The Imperial Roman army was the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the Roman Empire from about 30 BC to 476 AD, the final period in the long history of the Roman army. This period is sometimes split into the Principate and Dominate periods.
  Under Augustus, the army consisted of legions, eventually auxilia and also numeri.
  Legions were formations numbering about 5,000 heavy infantry recruited from the ranks of Roman citizens only, transformed from earlier mixed conscript and volunteer soldiers serving an average of 10 years, to all-volunteer units of long-term professionals serving a standard 25-year term.
  Auxilia were organised into regiments of about 500 strong under Augustus, a tenth the size of legions, recruited from the peregrini or non-citizen inhabitants of the empire who constituted approximately 90 percent of the Empire's population in the 1st century AD. The auxilia provided virtually all the army's cavalry, light infantry, archers and other specialists, in addition to heavy infantry equipped in a similar manner to legionaries.
  Numeri were allied native units from outside the Empire who fought alongside the regular forces on a mercenary basis.
context_section_description: From the Second Punic War until the 3rd century AD, the bulk of Rome's light cavalry (apart from mounted archers from Syria) was provided by the inhabitants of the northwest African provinces of Africa proconsularis and Mauretania, the Numidae or Mauri (from whom derives the English term "Moors"), who were the ancestors of the Berber people of modern Algeria and Morocco. They were known as the equites Maurorum or Numidarum ("Moorish or Numidian cavalry"). On Trajan's Column, Mauri horsemen, depicted with long hair in dreadlocks, are shown riding their small but resilient horses bare-back and unbridled, with a simple braided rope round their mount's neck for control. They wear no body or head armour, carrying only a small, round leather shield. Their weaponry cannot be discerned due to stone erosion, but is known from Livy to have consisted of several short javelins. Exceptionally fast and maneuverable, Numidian cavalry would harass the enemy by hit-and-run attacks, riding up and loosing volleys of javelins, then scattering faster than any opposing cavalry could pursue. They were superbly suited to scouting, harassment, ambush and pursuit, but in melee combat were vulnerable to cuirassiers. It is unclear what proportion of the Numidian cavalry were regular auxilia units as opposed to irregular foederati units.
  In the 3rd century, new formations of light cavalry appear, apparently recruited from the Danubian provinces: the equites Dalmatae ("Dalmatian cavalry"). Little is known about these, but they were prominent in the 4th century, with several units listed in the Notitia Dignitatum.
caption: Numidian light cavalry (equites Numidae) deployed in the conquest of Dacia (right). As usual in a Roman advancing column, these light cavalrymen would be sent ahead of the main infantry to scout the way. Note the Numidians' dreadlocks, lack of armour, saddles or bridles. Detail from Trajan's Column, Rome
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