Copyright: Guy Leven-Torres 2003.
THE ROMAN LEGION
The Roman Legion was far more than just a ruthless killing machine. Its make up was truly cosmopolitan in origin. By the second Century AD it recruited from around the Empire. Its men, one and all had to speak and understand the Latin language. Most, if not all had to be Roman citizens, even though there is evidence in the East and West of the empire, that sometimes citizenship was awarded on entry. The usual term of engagement at this period was for twenty-five years, during which time the legionary was forbidden to marry, although unofficial relationships were tolerated probably to be legitimised on discharge. The other major part of the Roman Army was the non-citizen Auxilia, made up of soldiers, many from the less civilised areas of the known world such as the frontiers and beyond. These were paid only a third of what the Legionary Roman citizen received but after twenty-five years under the colours, would on discharge receive a diploma awarding citizenship to the soldier and his unofficial family. The Legionary did not enjoy this prerequisite but his marital situation was legitimised either by going through a recognised form of marriage that at least gave the citizenship to his children or allowed to pass on his privileges by indulgent authorities. A clue is perhaps given by the fact that discharge diplomas from this period often give the origin of the soldier as 'Son of the Camp' or origo castrense, meaning he was or had been a bastard. However Rome needed soldiers and those born of legionaries and ex-auxiliaries, born as they were into the frontier regions and familiar with the army already, were not going to be lightly dismissed as a potential source of recruits.
The potential soldier would therefore follow his father into the family trade. However to get anywhere, even into a Roman legion as a probatus or tiro, social connections were important. The fact that a boy born, even illegitimately to a legionary on the frontier was a good introduction. The recruiters, probably centurions and other more junior officers probably knew the father well and so the boy gained an easier introduction to the colours. If however, the new legionary wanted to rise up through the ranks he was going to have to cultivate some very important social connections among the officers under which he served. He also had to be able to read and write.
The legion itself was organised into ten cohorts, the First of which in our period was double in size to the numbers one to nine that comprised 480 men each. In this First Cohort went the bravest men, the best officers and centurions named primi ordines, the most senior of which was the much respected primus pilus or First Spear who far from being like a modern non-commissioned officer was actually equivalent to a Brigadier. These men and the rest of the corps of centurions known as the Centurionate were thorough professionals in the full sense of the word. These men led from the front and were the back bone of the Roman Legion.
Within the cohorts of 480 men were the maniples of 160 men, each divided into two centuries of eighty men. The century had at one time had consisted of 100 men but the smaller figure by the second Century AD, appears to have been a a tactical reform. There is the distinct possibility though that twenty of the century at this period were made up of civilian assistants, perhaps responsible for chores and duties not done by the military component of the unit. There is an echo of this in more recent times, when in the Duke of Marlborough's Army in the early 1700s, the artillery and food supply was manned by and left to civilian contractors. Even the siege works in this period seem to have been left to civilian engineers and miners employed specifically for the purpose.
Underneath the century of eighty soldiers and civilian ancillaries, the century would be sub-divided into eight man sections or contuberniums. Interestingly enough we use a similar number of men in a modern infantry section. These would be led by a junior section leader of whose title we are not sure, although modern re-enactment groups have used the term Decanius to describe these. One's personal research has not found anything to substantiate this title in the sources. The closest one can find to a title for a section leader is in the cavalry, commanded by a decurion but he appears to be similar to a Centurion, commanding as he does up to thirty soldiers in a turmae. Like the infantry centurion, he had a deputy called an optio, from where our modern word option meaning choice. This understudy was probably a chosen man hence his full title optione ad spem. 
The eight man sections served and slept together throughout their initial career. There has been a lot of discussion among academics about how the Roman army was recruited. One even suggests that, Roman legions only recruited every twenty five years by enlisting almost all the five thousand odd men needed, from the legion's traditional recruiting grounds at once. This was then repeated every twenty-five years. This is errant nonsense. The author in question then goes on to say that legions never replaced their depleted manpower in the meantime and through these 'important' facts, it is possible to track the movements of these professional bodies. So a legion recruited in its traditional grounds in Spain, such as the famous Tenth, would be full of fit young eighteen year olds, full of vigour in 25AD and discharge what remained of the Legion in 50AD, namely the forty-three years old middle aged men who had come to the end of their time.
A modern army, supported as it is by modern food and medicine needs to replenish itself every year, let alone very twenty-five years. Modern wastage rates, especially during basic training are around five to ten percent per annum, sometimes higher, especially during the first weeks of basic training. The modern British army at the time of writing is around five thousand men short of its full compliment. As there are around 100,000 men in this army, the five percent requirement seems about right to allowing for, injury, disease, and other problems that force soldiers into retirement. There is also the problems of rank and promotion that will create further gaps in the line.
In ancient times, the average life expectancy was only a third to one half of what it is now. For men it was around thirty-five to forty and for women around thirty-five. Soldiers ironically tended to live longer statistically speaking, simply because of a regular diet and good medical care. However, even at an attrition rate of five to ten percent, a figure of quite conservative proportions, the loss of around one hundred or so men per annum through illness, injury, disease and death, especially in battle, factors that were far more common in the ancient world, the Tenth Legion would have numbered hundreds when it came round to discharge time. And men in their mid forties are nowhere, so fit as eighteen year olds. People aged faster in those far off days too. Even though we have records of legionaries serving until their teeth fell out as is mentioned in Tacitus (Annals 1.16/17) or centurions still serving in the line aged nearly eighty! .These men were exceptions as the context mentioned in the famous Annals of Tacitus was about aged troops serving long after their discharge dates.
No, any army ancient or modern must have a ready supply of recruits to replenish its losses through battle and disease; especially a professional standing army like the Roman. Oneﾴs own estimates show that around thirty legions of five thousand men each would require around 250 recruits per annum to train up and maintain its battle effectiveness. Most of these as we have seen came either from the legionﾴs traditional recruiting grounds. Those of the Legions IX and X from Spain, certainly recruited from there until around the middle of the Ist Century. The famous IX Hispana, sent to Britain from Pannonia in 43AD was therefore better placed to receive these. Sea travel was far cheaper and faster than road.
Academics often fail to understand their subjects properly. The gentleman who one mentioned above failed to understand that any army to be battle effective must strike a healthy balance between youth and experience. What would be the point of having a middle-aged army? Such a force would not be effective. Older people suffer more injuries and one only has to return to the heady days of the Republic to understand properly the Roman attitude to recruitment. Men had a duty to serve in at least ten campaigns and present themselves when requested for annual levies held every spring. The tribunes responsible for this evolved quite an elaborate system to ensure a balance of physical fitness and experience. Roman military ages, started at around seventeen and ended at around forty-six, if the man were fit. There were men who served long after this age but from around the mid thirties, these senior experienced men, were placed in the rear as triarii and is probably the origin of our word ﾴtriedﾴ. These men formed a stiffening rear echelon reserve, ready should the prnicipes and hastati front ranks face defeat. In other words the legion was designed very much to reflect the age and experience of its members. The younger ranks of the hastati and principes would do most of the fighting as the youngest and fittest and most importantly the keenest, anxious to prove their courage before their commander (Plutarch, Coriolanus 4).
So one has to agree, that assumptions that Roman legions raised in one year, discharged twenty-five years later, without levies in the meantime, are rather unacademic. There are records of Roman legions like the ones used by Lucullus in the conquest of Asia, whose mutinous behaviour nearly cost this excellent soldier and Senator his life were kept in the East for years after, as a punishment for their behaviour but even these would have had to recruit and train annual levies to maintain fighting effectiveness. This would not mean raising an entire legion every year but certainly enough men to replace casualties of battle and disease. We can also read of the similar Senatorial actions to the legions that were mauled so badly at Cannae. These were sent to Sicily and not allowed home until the end of the Second Carthaginian War after they had recovered their reputations by defeating Hannibal at Zama in 201BC. These too, in order to maintain their battlefield effectiveness would have had to take in recruits. It is unthinkable for a fighting formation to be allowed to dwindle and waste away in war. Even in peacetime, British Army recruits men and women from 18 to 35 years and these criteria are strictly enforced, unless one is a bandsman or qualified medical personnel. These latter though will not usually be required to face the job of frontline infantry. Also imagine the demoralising effect on men in such a unit, were it never to receive replacements. Basic military requirements rely upon a steady supply of fit replacements.
Certainly during the Empire, drafts or vexillations from other units were a common feature in this period. Hadrian apparently brought the Legio VI Victrix with him when he visited Britain to replace losses incurred during recent troubles in the province. Raising legions was no light matter. Again if we refer to the Younger Pliny's letters to Trajan, on a number of occasions he refers to army recruits and officers. Trajan is most anxious to maintain the dignity and fighting composition of the army, especially where slaves had tried to pass themselves off as free Roman citizens and gain entry into the legions. This was no annual levy either. Augustus had raised new troops, including freedmen, even slaves to replace losses after the great Varian disaster of 12AD in the German Teutoburgerwald (Annals 1.29-33). These clamoured for the release of time expired veterans and their own pay with demands for a lowering of the numbers of years required to serve down to sixteen years maximum rather than the thirty or forty some had actually been with the colours.
The point to be made is that the Roman army like any society must be a balance of age and experience. Imagine the effect, if all the world's young were killed by some mystery virus leaving only people thirty-five years and older. This would wipe out at a stroke most of our ability to reproduce ourselves and mean that for years the human race would continue to decline as the fewer births to the women left aged 35 to 48 would hardly make up for the sharp reduction in young mothers available. The effect would be catastrophic. Likewise the world needs a balance in all matters. The result of sameness or a narrowing of diversity would be stagnation at worst or slowed development and evolution at the very least. This is not to excuse idiotic multiculturalism. We are here talking about world diversity within ancient groupings called family and nation state: the difference between one family and another and between one nation and another. This is the type of traditional diversity that has allowed the human race to advance and evolve in time and space. 
Likewise at the top end of the legion, only the best were able to command and these, as in most ancient societies came from the wealthy landowning aristocracy or plutocratic elements that increasingly influenced societies. We shall return to this later. The Legionary commanders were Roman Senators, members of a six hundred strong ruling elite and a narrow range of top families. Likewise the non- senatorial tribunes augusticlavii, of whom there were normally five to a legion as understudies for future command, came from the very same background. The one Senatorial tribune would be especially marked out for future command of legions and the more important governorships, including the much prized Consulate. The only difference between him was and his equestrian colleagues, was not so much wealth, as a deliberately chosen career path. The Senatorial Order was far less numerous than the Equestrian but that did not preclude a bright young man from aspiring to a political career, and many a Senator had an eques brother who perhaps preferred a mercantile career to a political one with all the extra responsibilities and dangers it brought, especially the closer one came to the Imperator at the top. The system worked very well indeed. Modern generals have failed to understand the significance of this military setup. Indeed, one in particular, Field Marshal Montgomery was scathing in his critique of the Roman army and its command structure.
The Roman legionary commander was not solely a soldier; nor were his tribunes. The Roman hierarchy based as it was around the ancient mos maiorum, saw a close connection between military and civilian functions of office. There is strong evidence in archaeology that the local garrison commanders, whether in charge of a legion or just a small part of one were the local magistrates as well. These would be the local officials to whom, the local provincials would appeal for a decision in certain matters of legal or civil dispute. These local commanders, including legionary legates were not only soldiers but it seems district commissioners and as such representative of the ruling authority miles away. This power could of course be abused by heavy handed behaviour as that which stoked up the revolt in Britain in 61AD. (Annals, xiv.30).
We sometimes find letters, preserved in archaeological deposits referring to a centurion regionarius. These appear to have been territorial regional commissioners responsible for their particular area and whose activities included collecting information and dealing with local security. His assistants, probably men from a nearby legion (speculators) acted as the local 'beat bobby'. This man would either have reported back to the nearest local garrison commander or even to the governor in Londinium. The Romans were very fond of reporting on each other (Annals, xv.24.). The whole Roman system was one of checks and balances. Even the great Agricola suspected his staff had men reporting back to the administration in Rome.
All these men had imperium, originally awarded to them by the Senate and People of Rome but under the Empire, that is after Augustus, delegated to them through the representatives of the Emperor himself via his provincial governors and legionary commanders. That is why he was known as imperator. The word 'province' derives from provincia, actually means an area of responsibility for which a Roman official was given authority or imperium by the state. Every so often, the Roman Senate had to renew the powers of the Emperor by the award of a super provincia, normally all those frontier regions of the Empire in which legions were stationed and together with an award of greater imperium maius ensured that the more stable one man rule continued. By the time of Tiberius, the situation had stabilised enough to enable the Senate to award full powers for life. However Rome was still technically a respublica, and woe betide a usurper who trod roughshod over the Senate's ancient prerogatives to award these ancient powers as Hadrian and later incumbents on the throne found to their cost.
A Roman General....
We have drifted somewhat from our discussion. Returning to the centurions above, these men played an extremely important role within the army and in local civilian life as we have seen. Many were ex-rankers but some, usually of very good family and often holding the lower equestrian status, were commissioned into the legions directly. These may have been the sons of the not so wealthy who, perhaps problems with land inheritance elected for a worthwhile military career instead. All the Centurions though were men of courage and character. They led from the front and one can read the horror, felt by Caesar at the numbers lost during campaigns in Gaul and his subsequent sorrow. He loved these men who he regarded as the backbone of his legions and worth twenty foppish tribunes and more.
The centurions were the professional officer corps of the army. Many had come up from the ranks to enjoy huge responsibility. These men were not simple non-commissioned officers but senior officers and company commanders. The lowest would rank as a major in our times with the top echelons of the Centurionate being the equivalents to today's rank of Brigadier. Some would go onto become higher still as governors and procurators of the regime. Caesar even made the most worthy Senators.
The Roman system from top to bottom actively encouraged its members, Roman and otherwise to assimilate. It did not award the rights that went with it immediately. However, over time maybe years, even more it bred a system that stretched from Scotland to the Persian Gulf where even today one will find the ruins of vast ancient cities. This had been a common culture that in many ways still is the superior of our own. Of course it had its faults like all systems but that is no need to denigrate it.
It was the whole basis of our own civilisation and religion, even modern Islam if some would care to look and examine more closely. As one who has studied to greater or lesser degree both Rome and Islam, I can vouchsafe the fact that both have much in common especially in the way they both had systems based upon social hierarchy and relational reciprocity.
A Roman legionary would have needed a letter of recommendation in order to enter any legion. There are letters between Trajan and Pliny on this very subject need the needs to maintain high standards in the ranks. After swearing an oath, the recruit entered a period of tough training and psychological toughening up that, as Josephus famously stated made Roman battle like training and training like battle. The recruit, should he successfully complete basic training then became the lowest rank of serving soldier or privatus/miles simplex.
Through hard work, courage and tenacity, and more importantly the carefully judged eye of a senior officer, the man could become a beneficarius and therefore exempted from some of the obligatory duties expected of an ordinary soldier. If he did not have a trade on entry he was now expected to gain one and this too could place him in a special category of service. These men were in fact the NCOs or sergeants and corporals of the Roman Legion. His rise through the ranks could take him into the lower Centurionate and if particularly gifted higher still, especially into civilian administration.
The non Roman auxiliaries served for around 25 years as well but enjoyed perhaps one third of the pay of their citizen counterparts. If however, they joined the elite cavalry they could earn as much, if not more than their auxiliary and legionary counterparts put together. This reflected the great importance placed upon the lack of cavalry in the Roman army from earlier times. In many ways this arm was the most important and effective. Its importance finally superseded the classic legionary infantry in the later empire, a position it held unchallenged right through the Middle-Ages.
On discharge, the auxiliary would be awarded the prized citizenship and his 'marriage' and children would be legally recognised. It was from these that future Roman soldier citizens came. Likewise in the case of a discharged legionary any relationship would be legitimated and a bronze plaque stating that the man had served well given to the veteran, in order that he could gain his land and pension but more importantly an introduction to work in civilian life, where a military career and good conduct record opened up doors for the man and his family.
