{"id":96999,"date":"2021-10-21T12:39:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T10:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/?page_id=96999"},"modified":"2026-05-21T00:23:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:23:41","slug":"exploratores-and-speculatores","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/roman-army\/units-of-roman-army\/exploratores-and-speculatores\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploratores and speculatores"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_87 ez-toc-wrap-left counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Chapters<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/roman-army\/units-of-roman-army\/exploratores-and-speculatores\/#exploratores\" >Exploratores<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/roman-army\/units-of-roman-army\/exploratores-and-speculatores\/#speculatores\" >Speculatores<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><em>Exploratores<\/em> and <em>speculatores<\/em> were divisions of the <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/roman-army\/\">Roman army<\/a> whose main purpose was to gather information for the legions about the enemy army and field conditions. The scope of their duties varied, but often the functions overlapped.<\/p>\n<p>Both units were of great importance to the <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/wojsko\/jednostki-armii-rzymskiej\/legion-rzymski\/\">Roman Legion<\/a>, whether in terms of choosing a battle strategy or ensuring the security of the military during the march.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"exploratores\"><\/span>Exploratores<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><em>Exploratores<\/em> were scouts in the Roman army who were responsible for reconnaissance at long distances. Patrols, largely composed of <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/roman-army\/units-of-roman-army\/roman-cavalry\/\">horsemen<\/a>, scoured the area to detect the enemy army and gather the necessary information about its location, activity and numbers. In addition, <em>e<\/em><em>xploratores<\/em> familiarized themselves with the terrain conditions, its weak and strong points, and designated a favourable site for the construction of the <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/wojsko\/oboz-rzymski\/\">camp<\/a>. Often a detachment of scouts was ahead of the regular army by a day&#8217;s drive.<\/p>\n<p><em>E<\/em><em>xploratores<\/em> also obtained information from prisoners or deserters. Usually, the unit consisted of local warriors who served in the auxiliary troops. We know little about the <em>e<\/em><em>xploratores<\/em> organisation, but they were probably subordinate to the centurion. The reconnaissance detachment was probably small in order to be able to effectively conduct intelligence.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/biografie\/publiusz-korneliusz-tacyt\/\">Tacitus<\/a>, a Roman historian, mentions that in 69 CE, the commander of <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/biografie\/wespazjan\/\">Vespasian<\/a> &#8211; Antonius Primus &#8211; sent 4,000 riders towards Cremona to support the <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/wojsko\/jednostki-armii-rzymskiej\/auxilia\/\">auxilia<\/a> troops looting the area. During this time, <em>exploratores <\/em>carried out reconnaissance over longer distances. It is believed that their intelligence activities may have taken place approximately 12 kilometres from the Antonius ride. In this way, the Roman commander had a broader picture of the area and was aware of whether there was any threat to his legions. The next day, <em>exploratores <\/em>discovered the upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/biografie\/witeliusz\/\">Vitellius<\/a> troops, giving Antony enough time to prepare for the confrontation.<\/p>\n<p>Another example of <em>e<\/em><em>xploratores<\/em> intelligence activities was in 58 BCE when <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/biografie\/gajusz-juliusz-cezar\/\">Caesar<\/a> led the <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/wojny\/wojny-galijskie\/\">Gallic campaign<\/a>. The Roman commander headed the army from Vesontio (now Besan\u00e7on in France) to confront the Ariovisti, who probably led the union of the Suebi tribes, and the Helvetians. After six days of strenuous march, the <em>exploratores<\/em> squad noticed about 24 <em>milia passuum<\/em> from here (about 35 km) of the enemy force.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"speculatores\"><\/span>Speculatores<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The <em>Speculatores<\/em> were a branch of the Roman army that aimed to gather as much information as possible about the enemy, his troops and activities through covert operations.<\/p>\n<p>Such a unit often used <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/curiosities\/caesar-queen-of-nicomedes\/\">Caesar<\/a> to support <em>e<\/em><em>xploratores.<\/em> Both <em>s<\/em><em>peculatores<\/em> and <em>e<em>xploratores <\/em><\/em>were collecting information about the enemy army, but only the former were considered more spies. Certainly, speculatores were less numerous than <em>exploratores<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/biografie\/ammianus-marcellinus\/\">Ammianus Marcellinus<\/a>, a Roman historian, reports that in 365 CE the usurper Procopius sent <em>s<\/em><em>peculatores<\/em> to <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/geografia\/miasta-rzymskie\/konstantynopol\/\">Constantinople<\/a> to spread hostile rumours about <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/biographies\/valentinian-i\/\">Valentinian I<\/a>. that Procopius was elected <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/article\/emperor-who-was-chosen-by-gods\/\">emperor<\/a> and reigned from September 28, 365 to May 27, 366 CE.<\/p>\n<p>Another known use case of <em>s<\/em><em>peculatores<\/em> &#8211; in 359 CE, Ammianus himself and the commander Ursicinus caught a Roman deserter, originally from <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/roman-geography\/neighboring-lands-around-ancient-rome\/gaul\/\">Gaul<\/a>, who acted as <em>speculatores<\/em> for the <a href=\"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/roman-geography\/neighboring-lands-around-ancient-rome\/parthia-persians\/\">Persians<\/a>. He carried out reconnaissance and reconnaissance in the Roman military zone and sent reports to the Persian command.<\/p>\n<p><em>Speculatores<\/em> were mostly prisoners of war or deserters. Often, the material collected by <em>s<\/em><em>peculatores<\/em> and <em>e<\/em><em>xploratores<\/em> overlapped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exploratores and speculatores were divisions of the Roman army whose main purpose was to gather information for the legions about the enemy army and field conditions. The scope of their duties varied, but often the functions overlapped. Both units were of great importance to the Roman Legion, whether in terms of choosing a battle strategy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":36807,"parent":50395,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-96999","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96999\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}