Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Ancient Warfare Answers with me, Murray. This, of course,

is your weekly fix of ancient warfare related material where I attempt to answer a question from a

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Right. Now, I've got a few questions to get through. Here's the first one. This is from the Zgrubi.

That's how I'm going to say it. Hello, how important were Ivoqati in terms of politics and military affairs at Rome? What was the first and last mention of them?

Okay, gosh, okay, the second part, bit tricky, the first and last mention.

And the funny thing about the evocatus, there's actually an article in the current magazine about the evocatus, but not the evocatus as we understand it to be a veteran, which is the

main meaning of the evocati veterans.

But actually where it comes from before that, the evoking, which is, of course,

where we get the word evoke from, enticing them to come back, which of course is entirely

to do with what the veterans of Roman armies who are then recalled to service.

So they've done their 25 years of services as a legionary and they're brought back

into the armies sort of re-enrolled, re-enlisted, sometimes voluntarily for the army after

their service. So somewhat convolutedly, that says what they are. So technically, an Ivocatus,

plural Ivocati, a soldier in the Roman army who

served out their time and had been discharged and then voluntarily enlisted again at the invitation

of the consul or another commander. Now, interestingly, sometimes they are enlisted. So we get

lots of examples in the Civil Wars, Caesar and Pompey

and others, for instance, and we get some other indications. So as far as I can tell, the earliest

reference to them is actually in Dionysius of Helicarnassus referring to the 5th century BC.

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