Decurions In Roman Navy?

[Centurion-Macro]

I just finished Simon Scarrow's 'The Legion' novel, and there was one part that confused me. Usually I find that his facts are sound, but early in this novel, when a century of Roman marines storm a ship, it says they were lead by a decurion. The quote is a bit awkward, but it will post it. Note that Diodorus is the marine leader, and Cato is a prefect:

 

"Diodorus was squatting beside one of the bodies and Cato joined him. 'There's little sign of corruption'. The Decurion sniffed and..." (it is on page 23 if you have a copy of the book)

 

It is the only reference to Diodorus's rank in the book, and while I took for granted that he was a marine centurion, this quote shows that he was a decurion. I always believed the decurions to be in charge of cavalry, not infantry - and certainly not Roman marines. So I am wondering if decurions did actually serve in the Roman navy (it seems unlikely to me), or if Mr. Scarrow got a really simple fact wrong (that also seems pretty unlikely.

 

Thanks for the help.

Edited July 28, 2011 by Centurion-Macro

[caldrail]

Here's the wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_navy (plus links to other sittes) for a starter. I'll check some other sources when I get the chance but so far decurions don't seem to be involved.

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

That's so strange I've just started reading Centurion today and I thought exactly the same thing when I read that, it's surely got to be an oversight on Mr Scarrow's part. In the story Cato does have some legionaries on board but he tells them to stay behind, that the marines will deal with it. But that still doesn't explain what a member of the cavalry is do on board a boat???

[DecimusCaesar]

I can't find much information on the use of Decurions in the navy, although it seems that most battleships had cohorts on board that were commanded by centurions called the Centuriones classiarii . I can't seem to find any mention of cavalry being carried by these battleships, so it seems odd to talk about decurions in this regard. Sailors (nauta) were trained to fight, but they also had detachments of soldiers on board every ship too - the milites classiarii.

[caldrail]

If a cavalry unit is in transit, then you would in all likeliehood find a cavalry commander. I've checked out Ospreys title on the Roman Navy and among the plethora of rank and vocational titles listed, decurion isn't. We can infer then that cavalry were not part of the standard shipboard complement, and since the Roman rationale for 'marines' was to place army ranks among them (for obvious reasons), it isn't likely at all.

 

There are some people who assume that a decurion was an officer rank junior to the centurion mind you, so the mention of the rank might actually have been such a mistake.

[DecimusCaesar]

If a cavalry unit is in transit, then you would in all likeliehood find a cavalry commander. I've checked out Ospreys title on the Roman Navy and among the plethora of rank and vocational titles listed, decurion isn't. We can infer then that cavalry were not part of the standard shipboard complement, and since the Roman rationale for 'marines' was to place army ranks among them (for obvious reasons), it isn't likely at all.

 

There are some people who assume that a decurion was an officer rank junior to the centurion mind you, so the mention of the rank might actually have been such a mistake.

 

I think you're right, although I - and probably most other people- usually tend to think of the Optio as being a rank below the Centurion - It would have caused less confusion if the author had just used that term instead. It does strike me as odd though that there doesn't seem to be any mention of cavalry and their ranks being shipped about, even though they certainly were - didn't Scipio Africanus ship some Cavalry to North Africa during the Second Punic War - or did he just recruit the light cavalry from among the Numidian population who were native to the area? Caesar certainly shipped (Germanic?) cavalry to Britain. But anyway, where there's cavalry, there must be cavalry commanders and other ranks.

[Northern Neil]

I wonder if this was a deliberate 'error' by Mr. Scarrow, to point out to the general reader that different kinds of unit often had different rank structures? I seem to remember also that 'Decurion' was some sort of lower senatorial position, particularly in the late empire.

[caldrail]

From our ever helpful source of all things, Wikipedia...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decurion

[Lanista]

I agree with you, Neil - it probably didn't cause any confusion to the casual reader. Centurion=bloke in charge of a hundred men. Decurion=bloke in charge of ten men - a sergeant equivalent and it keeps it simple, yet differentiated from the army rank. Having marine optios, infantry optios and so forth running around would probably just get confusing for people who just read the books for entertainment.

 

So, I reckon that's its probably a deliberate "mistake" to keep the flow of the narrative in check and not having to write sentences like "I'll go and check" said the marine optio to the legionary optio. (OK, not that, but you get the drift).

Edited August 1, 2011 by Lanista