Night Watches
Next as to the keeping guard at night. The
Consul's tent is guarded by the maniple
on duty: those of the Tribuni and praefects
of the cavalry by the pickets formed as described above
from the several maniples. And in the same way each
maniple and squadron posts guards of their own men. The
other pickets are posted by the Consul. Generally speaking
there are three pickets at the Quaestorium, and two at the
tent of each of the legati or members of council. The vallum
is lined by the
velites, who are on guard all along it from
day to day. That is their special duty; while they also guard
all the entrances to the camp, telling off ten sentinels to take
their turn at each of them. Of the men told off for duty at the
several
stationes, the man who in each maniple is to take the
first watch is brought by the rear-rank man of his company to
the Tribune at eventide. The latter hands over to them
severally small wooden tablets (
tesserae), one for each watch,
inscribed with small marks; on receiving which they go off to
the places indicated.
The duty of going the rounds is intrusted to the cavalry.
The first Praefect of cavalry in each legion, early
in the morning, orders one of his rear-rank men
to give notice before breakfast to four young men of his squadron
who are to go the rounds. At evening this same man's duty
is to give notice to the Praefect of the next squadron that it is
his turn to provide for going the rounds until next morning.
This officer thereupon takes measures similar to the preceding
one until the next day; and so on throughout the cavalry
squadrons. The four men thus selected by the rear-rank men
from the first squadron, after drawing lots for the watch they
are to take, proceed to the tent of the Tribune on duty, and
receive from him a writing stating the order
1 and the number
of the watches they are to visit. The four then take up their
quarters for the night alongside of the first maniple of
Triarii; for it is the duty of the centurion of this maniple to
see that a bugle is blown at the beginning of every watch.
When the time has arrived, the man to whose lot the first
watch has fallen goes his rounds, taking some of his friends as
witnesses. He walks through the posts assigned, which are
not only those along the vallum and gates, but also the
pickets set by the several maniples and squadrons. If he
find the men of the first watch awake he takes from them their
tessera; but if he find any one of them asleep or absent from
his post, he calls those with him to witness the fact and passes
on. The same process is repeated by those who go the
rounds during the other watches. The charge of seeing that
the bugle is blown at the beginning of each watch, so that the
right man might visit the right pickets, is as I have said, laid
upon the centurions of the first maniple of Triarii, each one
taking the duty for a day.
Each of these men who have gone the rounds (
tessarii) at
daybreak conveys the tesserae to the Tribune on duty. If the
whole number are given in they are dismissed without
question; but if any of them brings a number less than that
of the pickets, an investigation is made by means of the mark
on the tessera, as to which picket he has omitted. Upon this
being ascertained the centurion is summoned; he brings the
men who were on duty, and they are confronted with the
patrol. If the fault is with the men on guard, the patrol
clears himself by producing the witnesses whom he took with
him; for he cannot do so without. If nothing of that sort
happened, the blame recoils upon the patrol.
