Were there any British troops in the Roman army?
First, let’s define “in” the Roman Army. If you mean, were British troops considered part of the regular “Roman” Army, then no. Only Roman citizens were considered regular legionaries. So, there could be no British Legion”. Of course, 25 years of military service was one way a “barbarian” could achieve Roman citizenship. So, for the purposes of this discussion, I’ll consider the auxiliaries to be “part” of the Roman Army. The Emperor Claudius conquered Britain in 43 AD, and it became an important source of auxiliary troops for the Roman Army. In the mid-2nd century, we know of 13 British regiments in the Roman Army. None were stationed in Britian. It was common practice to station auxiliary regiments outside of their home region. Most of these British units were stationed along the Danube. However, foreign auxiliary units posted to Britain would also, over time, have become British. This is because new recruits were drawn from the province in which a unit was stationed. Thus, British u
