Turma
Encyclopedia
A turma was a cavalry
squadron in the Roman army
of the Republic
and Empire
. In the Byzantine Empire
, it became applied to the larger, regiment
-sized military-cum-administrative divisions of a thema.
and Rome's expansion in Spain and Greece, the core of the Roman army was formed by citizens
, augmented by contingents from Rome's allies (socii). The organization of the Roman legion
of the period is described by the Greek
historian Polybius
, who writes that each 4,200-strong infantry legion was accompanied by 300 citizen cavalry (equites). This contingent was divided into ten turmae. According to Polybius, the squadron members would elect as their officers 3 decuriones ("leaders of 10 men"), of whom the first to be chosen would act as the squadron's commander and the other two as his deputies. As in earlier times, these men were drawn from among the 18 centuria
e of the equestrian order, the wealthiest classes of the Roman people, who could afford to provide for the horse and its equipment themselves.
With the reorganization of the army
under emperor Augustus
and his successors, the turma became the basic sub-unit of the cavalry, the rough equivalent of the infantry centuria
, both in the auxiliaries
, who formed the bulk of the Roman cavalry, and in the legionary cavalry detachments. The auxiliary cohors equitata was a mixed unit combining infantry and cavalry, and existed in two types: the cohors equitata quingenaria, with an infantry cohort
of 480 men and 4 turmae of cavalry, and the reinforced cohors equitata milliaria, with 800 infantry and 8 turmae. Likewise, the purely cavalry ala
e contained either 16 (ala quingenaria) or 24 turmae (ala milliaria). Individual turmae of camel-riders (dromedarii
) also appear among cohortes equitatae in the Middle East, and emperor Trajan
established the first all-camel cavalry unit, the Ala I Ulpia dromedariorum Palmyrenorum.
The turma was still commanded by a decurio, aided by two subaltern principales (under-officers), a sesquiplicarius (soldier with one-and-a-half times pay) and a duplicarius (soldier with double pay), as well as a signifer
or vexillarius
(a standard-bearer, cf. vexillum
). These ranks corresponded respectively with the infantry's tesserarius
(officer of the watch), optio
and signifer. The exact size of the turma under the Principate
however is unclear: 30 men was the norm in the Republican army and apparently in the cohortes equitatae, but not for the alae. The De Munitionibus Castrorum for instance records that a cohors equitata milliaria numbered exactly 240 troopers, i.e. 30 men per turma, but also gives the number of horses for the ala milliaria, composed of 24 turmae, at 1000. If one subtracts the extra horses of the officers (two for a decurio, one for each of the two subaltern under-officers), one is left with 832 horses, which does not divide evenly with 24. At the same time, Arrian
explicitly says that the an ala quingenaria counted 512 men, suggesting a size of 32 men for each turma.
As for the legions, during the Principate
, each had a cavalry contingent organized in four turmae. A legionary turma was led by a centurion
, assisted by an optio and a vexillarius as senior principales. Each of them led a file of ten troopers, for a grand total of 132 horsemen in each legion. Their status was distinctly inferior to that of the legionary infantry: the centurions and principales of the legionary turmae were classed as supernumerarii and although their men were included in the legionary cohort lists, they camped separately from them.
In the late Roman army
, the turma and its structure were retained, with changes in titelature only: the turma was still headed by a decurio, who also led the first ten-strong file, while the other two files were led by subaltern catafractarii, in essence the successors of the early Empire's duplicarii and sesquiplicarii. Traces of this structure also apparently survived in the 6th-century East Roman army
: in the Strategikon of Maurice, the cavalry files are led by a dekarchos ("leader of ten").
, the Byzantine military and administrative system was reformed: the old late Roman division between military and civil administration was abandoned, and the remains of the East Roman army
's field armies were settled in great districts, the themata, that were named after them. The term turma, in its Greek transcription tourma ( or ), reappears at that time as the major subdivision of a thema. The army of each thema (except for the Optimatoi
) was divided into two to four tourmai, and each tourma further into moirai (μοίραι) or droungoi
, which in turn were composed of several banda (sing. bandon
, βάνδον, from , "banner
").
This division was carried through to the territorial administration of each thema: tourmai and banda (but not the moirai) were identified with clearly defined districts which served as garrison and recruitment areas. In his Taktika
, Emperor Leo VI the Wise
presents an idealized thema as consisting of three tourmai, each divided into three droungoi, etc. This picture however is misleading, as the sources do not support any degree of uniformity in size or number of subdivisions in the different themata, nor indeed an exact correspondence of the territorial with the tactical divisions: depending on the tactical exigencies, smaller administrative tourmai could be joined together on campaign and larger ones broken up. Since the elementary unit, the bandon
, could itself number between 200 and 400 men, the tourma too could reach up to 6,000 men, although 2,000–5,000 seems to have been the norm between the seventh and early tenth centuries.
Each tourma was headed by a tourmarchēs (τουρμάρχης, "commander of a tourma"). The title first appears in ca. 626, when a certain George was tourmarchēs of the Armeniakoi. The tourmarchēs was usually based in a fortress town. Aside from his military responsibilities, he exercised fiscal and judicial duties in the area under his control. In the lists of offices (Taktika) and seals, tourmarchai usually hold the ranks of spatharokandidatos
, spatharios or kandidatos. In function and rank, the tourmarchēs corresponded with the topotērētēs of the imperial tagma
ta. The tourmarchai were paid according to the importance of their thema: those of the more prestigious Anatolia
n themes received 216 gold nomismata
annually, while those of the European themes received 144 nomismata, the same amount paid to the droungarioi and the other senior officers of the thema. In some sources, the earlier term merarchēs
(μεράρχης, "commander of a meros, division"), which occupied a similar hierarchical position in the 6th–7th centuries, is used interchangeably with tourmarchēs. It has however also been suggested by scholars like J.B. Bury and John Haldon that the latter, often found in the variant form meriarchēs (μεριάρχης) in the 9th–10th centuries, was a distinct post, held by the tourmarchēs attached to the governing stratēgos
of each thema.
In the mid-10th century, the average size of most units fell. In the case of the tourma, it dropped from 2–3,000 to 1,000 and less, in essence to the level of the earlier droungos, although larger tourmai are still recorded. It is no coincidence that the term "droungos" disappears from use at around that time. Consequently the tourma was divided directly into five to seven banda, each of 50–100 horsemen or 200–400 infantry. The term tourma itself fell gradually into disuse in the 11th century, but survived at least until the end of the 12th century as an administrative term. Tourmarchai are still attested in the first half of the century, but the title seems to have fallen out of use after.
Roman cavalry
Roman cavalry refers to the horse mounted forces of the Roman army through the many centuries of its existence.- Early cavalry Roman cavalry (Latin: equites Romani) refers to the horse mounted forces of the Roman army through the many centuries of its existence.- Early cavalry Roman cavalry...
squadron in the Roman army
Roman army
The Roman army is the generic term for the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the kingdom of Rome , the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine empire...
of the Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
and Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. In the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, it became applied to the larger, regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
-sized military-cum-administrative divisions of a thema.
Republic
In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the time of the Punic WarsPunic Wars
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 B.C.E. to 146 B.C.E. At the time, they were probably the largest wars that had ever taken place...
and Rome's expansion in Spain and Greece, the core of the Roman army was formed by citizens
Roman citizenship
Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to certain free-born individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance....
, augmented by contingents from Rome's allies (socii). The organization of the Roman legion
Roman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
of the period is described by the Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
historian Polybius
Polybius
Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...
, who writes that each 4,200-strong infantry legion was accompanied by 300 citizen cavalry (equites). This contingent was divided into ten turmae. According to Polybius, the squadron members would elect as their officers 3 decuriones ("leaders of 10 men"), of whom the first to be chosen would act as the squadron's commander and the other two as his deputies. As in earlier times, these men were drawn from among the 18 centuria
Centuria
Centuria is a Latin substantive from the stem centum , denoting units consisting of 100 men. It also denotes a Roman unit of land area: 1 centuria = 100 heredia...
e of the equestrian order, the wealthiest classes of the Roman people, who could afford to provide for the horse and its equipment themselves.
Empire
Imperial Roman army
The Imperial Roman army refers to the armed forces deployed by the Roman Empire during the Principate era .Under the founder–emperor Augustus , the legions, which were formations numbering about 5,000 heavy infantry recruited from Roman citizens only, were transformed from a mixed conscript and...
under emperor Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
and his successors, the turma became the basic sub-unit of the cavalry, the rough equivalent of the infantry centuria
Centuria
Centuria is a Latin substantive from the stem centum , denoting units consisting of 100 men. It also denotes a Roman unit of land area: 1 centuria = 100 heredia...
, both in the auxiliaries
Auxiliaries (Roman military)
Auxiliaries formed the standing non-citizen corps of the Roman army of the Principate , alongside the citizen legions...
, who formed the bulk of the Roman cavalry, and in the legionary cavalry detachments. The auxiliary cohors equitata was a mixed unit combining infantry and cavalry, and existed in two types: the cohors equitata quingenaria, with an infantry cohort
Cohort (military unit)
A cohort was the basic tactical unit of a Roman legion following the reforms of Gaius Marius in 107 BC.-Legionary cohort:...
of 480 men and 4 turmae of cavalry, and the reinforced cohors equitata milliaria, with 800 infantry and 8 turmae. Likewise, the purely cavalry ala
Ala (Roman military)
An Ala was the term used during the mid- Roman Republic to denote a military formation composed of conscripts from the socii, Rome's Italian military allies. A normal consular army during this period consisted of 2 legions, composed of Roman citizens only, and 2 allied alae...
e contained either 16 (ala quingenaria) or 24 turmae (ala milliaria). Individual turmae of camel-riders (dromedarii
Dromedarii
Dromedarii were camel riding auxiliary forces recruited in the desert provinces of the Late Roman Empire.They were developed to take the place of horses where horses were not common...
) also appear among cohortes equitatae in the Middle East, and emperor Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
established the first all-camel cavalry unit, the Ala I Ulpia dromedariorum Palmyrenorum.
The turma was still commanded by a decurio, aided by two subaltern principales (under-officers), a sesquiplicarius (soldier with one-and-a-half times pay) and a duplicarius (soldier with double pay), as well as a signifer
Signifer
A signifer was a standard bearer of the Roman legions. He carried a signum for a cohort or century. Each century had a signifer and within each cohort the first century's signifer would be the senior....
or vexillarius
Vexillarius
The Vexillarius can mean one of three things:First, a Vexillarius or Vexillifer was one of the signiferi in a Roman legion. His duty was to carry the Vexillum, a military standard displaying the name and emblem of the legion. This standard consisted of a woven fabric banner, hung on a crossbar...
(a standard-bearer, cf. vexillum
Vexillum
The vexillum was a flag-like object used in the Classical Era of the Roman Empire. The word is itself a diminutive for the Latin word, velum, sail, which confirms the historical evidence that vexilla were literally "little sails" i.e. flag-like standards...
). These ranks corresponded respectively with the infantry's tesserarius
Tesserarius
A tesserarius , was a watch commander in the Roman army. They organized and had command over the nightly guard assigned to keep watch over the fort when in garrison or on campaign and were responsible for getting the watchwords from the commander and seeing that it was kept safe. There was one...
(officer of the watch), optio
Optio
An optio , sometimes anglicized option , was a soldier in the Roman army who held a position similar to that of an executive officer in modern armies...
and signifer. The exact size of the turma under the Principate
Principate
The Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate. The Principate is characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the...
however is unclear: 30 men was the norm in the Republican army and apparently in the cohortes equitatae, but not for the alae. The De Munitionibus Castrorum for instance records that a cohors equitata milliaria numbered exactly 240 troopers, i.e. 30 men per turma, but also gives the number of horses for the ala milliaria, composed of 24 turmae, at 1000. If one subtracts the extra horses of the officers (two for a decurio, one for each of the two subaltern under-officers), one is left with 832 horses, which does not divide evenly with 24. At the same time, Arrian
Arrian
Lucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Roman historian, public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the 2nd-century Roman period...
explicitly says that the an ala quingenaria counted 512 men, suggesting a size of 32 men for each turma.
As for the legions, during the Principate
Principate
The Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate. The Principate is characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the...
, each had a cavalry contingent organized in four turmae. A legionary turma was led by a centurion
Centurion
A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army .Centurion may also refer to:-Military:* Centurion tank, British battle tank* HMS Centurion, name of several ships and a shore base of the British Royal Navy...
, assisted by an optio and a vexillarius as senior principales. Each of them led a file of ten troopers, for a grand total of 132 horsemen in each legion. Their status was distinctly inferior to that of the legionary infantry: the centurions and principales of the legionary turmae were classed as supernumerarii and although their men were included in the legionary cohort lists, they camped separately from them.
In the late Roman army
Late Roman army
The Late Roman army is the term used to denote the military forces of the Roman Empire from the accession of Emperor Diocletian in 284 until the Empire's definitive division into Eastern and Western halves in 395. A few decades afterwards, the Western army disintegrated as the Western empire...
, the turma and its structure were retained, with changes in titelature only: the turma was still headed by a decurio, who also led the first ten-strong file, while the other two files were led by subaltern catafractarii, in essence the successors of the early Empire's duplicarii and sesquiplicarii. Traces of this structure also apparently survived in the 6th-century East Roman army
East Roman army
The East Roman army refers to the army of the Eastern section of the Roman Empire, from the empire's definitive split in 395 AD to the army's reorganization by themes after the permanent loss of Syria, Palestine and Egypt to the Arabs in the 7th century...
: in the Strategikon of Maurice, the cavalry files are led by a dekarchos ("leader of ten").
Byzantine Empire
In the 7th century, as a result of the crisis caused by the Muslim conquestsMuslim conquests
Muslim conquests also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began with the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Muslim power.They...
, the Byzantine military and administrative system was reformed: the old late Roman division between military and civil administration was abandoned, and the remains of the East Roman army
East Roman army
The East Roman army refers to the army of the Eastern section of the Roman Empire, from the empire's definitive split in 395 AD to the army's reorganization by themes after the permanent loss of Syria, Palestine and Egypt to the Arabs in the 7th century...
's field armies were settled in great districts, the themata, that were named after them. The term turma, in its Greek transcription tourma ( or ), reappears at that time as the major subdivision of a thema. The army of each thema (except for the Optimatoi
Optimatoi
The Optimatoi were initially formed as an elite Byzantine military unit. In the mid-8th century, however, they were downgraded to a supply and logistics corps and assigned a province in north-western Asia Minor, which was named after them...
) was divided into two to four tourmai, and each tourma further into moirai (μοίραι) or droungoi
Droungos
Droungos or drungus is a late Roman and Byzantine term for a battalion-sized military unit, and later for a local command guarding mountain districts. Its commander was a droungarios or drungarius.-History and functions:...
, which in turn were composed of several banda (sing. bandon
Bandon (Byzantine Empire)
The bandon was the basic military and territorial administrative unit of the middle Byzantine Empire. Its name derived from Latin bandum, "ensign, banner", which in turn had a Germanic origin. The term was used already in the 6th century as a term for a battle standard, and soon came to be applied...
, βάνδον, from , "banner
Banner
A banner is a flag or other piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or other message. Banner-making is an ancient craft.The word derives from late Latin bandum, a cloth out of which a flag is made...
").
This division was carried through to the territorial administration of each thema: tourmai and banda (but not the moirai) were identified with clearly defined districts which served as garrison and recruitment areas. In his Taktika
Tactica of Emperor Leo VI the Wise
The Tactica is a military treatise written by or on behalf of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise in ca. 895-908. Drawing on earlier authors such as Aelian, Onasander and the Strategikon of emperor Maurice, it is one of the major works on Byzantine military tactics, written on the eve of Byzantium's...
, Emperor Leo VI the Wise
Leo VI the Wise
Leo VI, surnamed the Wise or the Philosopher , was Byzantine emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty , he was very well-read, leading to his surname...
presents an idealized thema as consisting of three tourmai, each divided into three droungoi, etc. This picture however is misleading, as the sources do not support any degree of uniformity in size or number of subdivisions in the different themata, nor indeed an exact correspondence of the territorial with the tactical divisions: depending on the tactical exigencies, smaller administrative tourmai could be joined together on campaign and larger ones broken up. Since the elementary unit, the bandon
Bandon (Byzantine Empire)
The bandon was the basic military and territorial administrative unit of the middle Byzantine Empire. Its name derived from Latin bandum, "ensign, banner", which in turn had a Germanic origin. The term was used already in the 6th century as a term for a battle standard, and soon came to be applied...
, could itself number between 200 and 400 men, the tourma too could reach up to 6,000 men, although 2,000–5,000 seems to have been the norm between the seventh and early tenth centuries.
Each tourma was headed by a tourmarchēs (τουρμάρχης, "commander of a tourma"). The title first appears in ca. 626, when a certain George was tourmarchēs of the Armeniakoi. The tourmarchēs was usually based in a fortress town. Aside from his military responsibilities, he exercised fiscal and judicial duties in the area under his control. In the lists of offices (Taktika) and seals, tourmarchai usually hold the ranks of spatharokandidatos
Spatharokandidatos
Spatharokandidatos , Latinized as spatharocandidatus, was a mid-ranking Byzantine court dignity used in the 7th–11th centuries.-History:...
, spatharios or kandidatos. In function and rank, the tourmarchēs corresponded with the topotērētēs of the imperial tagma
Tagma (military)
The tagma is a term for a military unit of battalion or regiment size. The best-known and most technical use of the term however refers to the elite regiments formed by Byzantine emperor Constantine V and comprising the central army of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th–11th centuries.-History and...
ta. The tourmarchai were paid according to the importance of their thema: those of the more prestigious Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
n themes received 216 gold nomismata
Solidus (coin)
The solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.-Roman and Byzantine coinage:...
annually, while those of the European themes received 144 nomismata, the same amount paid to the droungarioi and the other senior officers of the thema. In some sources, the earlier term merarchēs
Merarches
The merarchēs , sometimes Anglicized as Merarch, was a Byzantine military rank roughly equivalent to a divisional general.-History:The title derives from the Greek words meros and archein...
(μεράρχης, "commander of a meros, division"), which occupied a similar hierarchical position in the 6th–7th centuries, is used interchangeably with tourmarchēs. It has however also been suggested by scholars like J.B. Bury and John Haldon that the latter, often found in the variant form meriarchēs (μεριάρχης) in the 9th–10th centuries, was a distinct post, held by the tourmarchēs attached to the governing stratēgos
Strategos
Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...
of each thema.
In the mid-10th century, the average size of most units fell. In the case of the tourma, it dropped from 2–3,000 to 1,000 and less, in essence to the level of the earlier droungos, although larger tourmai are still recorded. It is no coincidence that the term "droungos" disappears from use at around that time. Consequently the tourma was divided directly into five to seven banda, each of 50–100 horsemen or 200–400 infantry. The term tourma itself fell gradually into disuse in the 11th century, but survived at least until the end of the 12th century as an administrative term. Tourmarchai are still attested in the first half of the century, but the title seems to have fallen out of use after.