| Battle: Pagyda | Africa | Tacfarinas/Decrius | AD 18 |
| Battle: Thubuscum | Africa | Cornelius (56)/Tacfarinas | AD 24 |
| Battle: Augustodunum | Gaul | Silius (2)/Julius (11) Sacrovir | AD 21 |
| Battle: ? | Thrace | Poppaeus Sabinus/Bessi? | AD 26 |
| Battle: Flevum | Germania | Frisii/Apronius | AD 28 |
Tacfarinas, a Numidian who had served as an auxiliary in the Roman army, led a rebellion in North Africa in protest against Roman taxation and military recruiting. The Musulamii, a tribe living on the edge of the desert, accepted him as their leader and was joined by the neighbouring tribe of the Mauri under their chief Mazippa. The latter went off with his light-armed force to pillage the countryside, while Tacfarinas and his men equipped with Roman arms encamped for training
In AD 17 he faced the governor 08Furius Camillus in a field battle and was routed, Tacfarinas switched to sacking villages and carrying away plunder. In AD 18 he besieged a Roman fort on the Pagyda River (location?), held by a cohort of the third legion. Their commander Decrius ordered a sortie, but the rebels’ missiles forced the soldiers back. Decrius, wounded, fought on until he was killed. Camillus’ successor Apronius (1), when he was informed of the incident, ordered the cohort to be decimated for cowardice, subsequently, when Tacfarinas attacked the town of Thala, the garrison of five hundred Roman veterans fought his men off.
Twice defeated Tacfarinas, realising the difficulty of conducting conventional operations against the Romans, reverted to guerrilla tactics. In AD 20, however, he took up a base near the Mediterranean coast. Here he was surprised by a force of cavalry and light-armed troops under the governor’s son 02Apronius Caesianus, forcing Tacfarinas and his men to flee into the desert abandoning their loot.
In AD 21 Tacfarinas continued to wage guerrilla warfare and in the following year sent envoys to Tiberius demanding ‘lands for himself and his army’. Tiberius instructed the new governor 14Junius Blaesus to persuade Tacfarinas’ men to surrender in exchange for amnesty. Many did so. Blaesus then moved against Tacfarinas, dividing his forces in three divisions covering the western, central and southern sectors respectively, building forts and blockhouses to prevent raids on nearby towns. Tacfarinas was in effect surrounded. This strategy was successful and many casualties were inflicted on the rebels. When he captured Tacfarinas’ brother, Blaesus withdrew his forces, prematurely assuming that he had won.
Tacfarinas reappeared in AD 24. He now had men from Mauretania, who preferred aiding him to remain at home under their pro-Roman king Ptolemy (c.52; r.21-40). He also had the support of guerrilla bands sent by the king of the Garamantes, who was making handsome profits as receiver of Tacfarinas’ plunder. Tacfarinas spread rumours that the Empire was crumbling due to native revolts in its other regions, forcing the Romans to run down their forces in Africa, saying that the remaining garrison could be overcome and Numidia permanently freed by a concerted effort of all Numidians.
Tacfarinas besieged the Roman strongpoint of Thubuscum. The new governor 55Cornelius Dolabella (cos.10) launched an assault and the Numidians, unable to withstand the Roman infantry charge, fled westwards into Mauretania. At a half-ruined fortress near Auzea (Sour el-Ghozlane), Dolabella launched a dawn assault on Tacfarinas’ troops. Taken by surprise a massacre ensued during which Tacfarinas was killed and his son taken prisoner.
In AD 21 in Gaul, the Belgic Treveri, the Celtic Aedui and the Celtic Turoni tribes revolted against the burden of tribute and indebtedness owed to Rome. The Treveri chief city was Augusta Treverorum (Trier); the Aedui capital was Augustodunum (Autun). The two leaders, 10Julius Florus (Treveri), 11Julius Sacrovir (Aedui), were descendants of men whose service to Rome had earned them Roman citizenship:.
The rebellion infected nearly all of Gaul, but especially the Andecavi (=Andes; NW France) and Turoni (Tours) regions. 05Acilius Aviola, legate of Lugdunensis under Tiberius, used the troops garrisoned at Lugdunum (=Lyons, central-SW France) to put down the Andecavi; troops sent by Visellius Varro, the governor of Lower Germania, suppressed the Turoni. Florus had little success in enlisting Treveri soldiers trained by the Romans, but he did recruit a band of debtors who took up arms and hid in the Ardennes Forest. There they were attacked by Roman legions and although Florus escaped he later committed suicide.
When Sacrovir captured Augustodunum his forces were joined by slaves trained as gladiators and volunteers from neighbouring states. With two legions, 02Silius Aulus marched on Augustodunum and encountered Sacrovir’s forces twelve miles from the city, arrayed in open ground. The legionaries crushed the opposing force and Sacrovir fled to Augustodunum where he committed suicide.
In AD 26 a tribe (probably the Bessi) of mountainous southern Thrace refused to surrender their men as compulsory conscripts into the Roman men. They sent delegates to negotiate with Poppaeus Sabinus, governor of Moesia (r.12-32), who having sent for reinforcements was at first conciliatory. But when his legate 03Pomponius Labeo arrived from Moesia with a legion and the pro-Roman Odrysian king Rhoemetalces II (r.18-38) came with an auxiliary force of his countrymen, Sabinus broke off talks and marched on the enemy.
The Thracians were now deployed in wooded gorges. Sabinus established a camp on a narrow ridge that ran as far as the nearest stronghold. He sent archers forward to attack a large force of Thracians deployed in front of their rampart. The archers had some success but they approached too closely and were driven back by a sudden charge by Thracians.
The camp was then moved closer to the stronghold, but a body of Thracians who came to support the Romans were left behind at the earlier fortification. They were given leave to plunder but they soon turned to self-indulgence and thus became an easy target for the enemy: some were lying next to the fortifications, but most were wandering about outside and were cut down all the more readily for being traitors.
The next day Sabinus formed up his army on level ground, hoping that the enemy would risk an engagement. When they declined to descend from their stronghold or the adjacent heights, he proceeded with a blockade, employing the forts that he was already building at appropriate points. Next day he constructed a trench-and-breastwork circumvallation with a four-mile circumference. Eventually, unable to break the blockade, the lack of water forced the defenders to surrender, some of the men having decided to take their own lives rather than be taken prisoner.
The tribute imposed on the Frisii (NW Germania) by Tiberius’ brother 28Claudius Drusus in 12 BC, was still being collected by Rome in AD 28 when the Frisii attacked Roman troops collecting tribute, killed some of them and besieged remainder in the fort at Flevum (Velsen, Lower Germania). Lucius Apronius (1), the legate of Lower Germania, rapidly gathered a force of legionaries and auxiliaries, transported them down the Rhine to attack the tribe.
On his arrival he began constructing causeways and roads to ease the passage of his troops across the marshy and difficult terrain to the rebels. While the work was progressing, a ford was found that he ordered his cavalry to cross and take the enemy in the rear. As a body the cavalry were strong enough but instead of forming up when they reached the other side, the cohorts went into the attack immediately. The leading horsemen were repulsed and the cohorts that were racing to catch up were carried away in the panic.The Romans were forced to retreat without burying their dead. It was later found that nine hundred troops had held out until the next day when they were captured and slaughtered in the grove at Baduhenna; some four hundred, fearing betrayal, had committed suicide. No measures were taken to deal with the disaster, and its true dimension was not disclosed. Frisian independence lasted until AD 47 when Gnaeus 11Domitius Corbulo (60; fl.39-67) subjugated them again.
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