history

[harpy101]

what was the name given to units of barbarians fighting for the roman empire?

[Zen]

Sometimes the Romans had to admit some tribesmen into the empire - but only on condition that they in turn defend the frontiers against further invasions. These barbarian soldiers, often Franks, who fought for the Romans were known as foederati .

[terrys]

slaves

[Octavius]

Supplementary to the most excellent first answer above, and contrary to the second. There were two types of barbarisation. The first consisted of recruiting individual barbarians into Roman units. There was no systematic opposition to recruiting or promoting these men as individuals into the legions; they did make it to higher ranks, and had been a part of the empire since the first century BC. The second type of barbarisation involved the short-term use of entire barbarian groups or allies. They served as integral units supplementing Roman forces, many times even during Roman civil wars. Barbarians who became a part of Rome in this way were given "federate status," which meant that they were under their own rulers, paid no taxes, and were allowed to carry arms among mostly unarmed Romans. Federate troops fought under their own commanders and were not subject to Roman training and discipline.

Foederatus, early in the history of the Roman Republic, identified one of the tribes bound by treaty (foedus), who were neither Roman colonies nor had they been granted Roman citizenship (civitas) but were expected to provide a contingent of fighting men when trouble arose. The Latini were considered blood allies, but the rest were federates or socii (allies). The term is the root of the modern term federalism.

Later the term foederati (Germanic irregular troops under Roman command, but organized by tribal structures) was extended by the Roman practice of subsidizing barbarian tribes � which included the Attacotti, Franks, Vandals, Alans and, best known, the Visigoths � in exchange for providing soldiers to fight in the Roman armies.

The foederati delivered the fatal blow to the dying Roman Empire in 476 when their commander Odoacer deposed the last Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus.

[druiaghtagh]

Auxillaries?

[Octavius]

Auxlilaries were indeede non-Roman citizens. They were recruited from tribes that had been conquered by Rome or were allied to Rome. They served for 25 years and at the end of their service they gained Roman citizenship as a reward. The auxiliaries included archers, recruited from Syria, Scythia (the Black Sea) and Crete.

However, I thought the Q referred to the foedarati or socci who were mainly German horsemen who were not part of the regular army, but were federates (foederati) for whose services the emperor paid them a fee, the so-called annonae foederaticae.