A Cavalry Regiment from Orléans at Zeugma on the ... - Kaveh Farrokh

A <strong>Cavalry</strong> <strong>Regiment</strong> <strong>from</strong> Orleans <strong>at</strong> <strong>Zeugma</strong> on the Euphr<strong>at</strong>es 273
Aurelianorum
can no
longer be taken to have been promoted into the field army under
the name Au re I i ac i . The military history of Gaul during the early fourth century
acquires a new unit and its loc<strong>at</strong>ion, <strong>at</strong>testing to the defense in depth of all Gaul and
revealing the str<strong>at</strong>egic role of Orleans. For the history of Britain we gain insight into
a
larger than previously thought commitment of the empire to the defense of the island
<strong>at</strong> the end of the fourth century. As for <strong>Zeugma</strong> on the Euphr<strong>at</strong>es, we see now the town
recuper<strong>at</strong>ed sufficiently by the mid-fourth century to acquire the protection of an elite
unit of the field army.
University of Hawaii Michael P. Speidel
8) Hoffmann, 171. For the numerus Maurorum see e.g. M.Speidel, The Rise of the
Ethnic Units in the Roman Imperial Army, ANRW 11/3, 1975,202-231, esp. p.210.