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ROMAN
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ROMAN See also:ART
IV Scythica
VI. Ferrata near See also:Antioch (?). III. Gallica
X. Fretensis (See also:Jerusalem).
II. Trajana (near See also:Alexandria—a disorderly See also:city).
The See also:total of legionaries may be put at about 18o,000 men, the auxiliaries at about 200,000. If we exclude the " See also:house-hold " troops at See also:Rome, the See also:police fleets on the Mediterranean, and the See also:local See also:militia in some districts, we may put the See also:regular See also:army of the See also:Empire at about 400,000 men. This army, as will be See also:plain, was framed on much the same ideas as the See also:British army of the 19th See also:century. It was meant not to fight agiinst a first-class See also:foreign See also:power, but to keep the See also:peace and guard the frontiers of dominions threatened by scattered See also:barbarian raids and risings. See also: If See also:special danger threatened or some special See also:area was to be conquered—such as See also:southern See also:Britain (A.D. 43) or a little See also:land across the upper See also:Rhine (A.D. 74)—detachments (vexillationes) were sent by legions and sometimes also by auxiliaries in adjacent provinces, and a field force was formed sufficient for the moment and the See also:work. See also:Change from the Third See also:Period to the See also:Fourth.—Two See also:principal causes brought See also:gradual change to the Augustan army. In the first See also:place, the See also:pax See also:Romana brought such prosperity to many districts that they ceased to provide sufficient recruits. The See also:Romans, like the British in See also:India, had more and more to look to uncivilized regions and even beyond their See also:borders. Hence comes, in the 2nd century and after, a new class of numeri or cunei or vexillationes who used (like the earlier auxiliaries) their See also:national arms and See also:tactics and imported into the army a more and more non-Roman See also:element. This tendency became very marked in the 3rd century and See also:bore serious See also:fruit at its See also:close. And, secondly, the old days of See also:mere frontier See also:defence were over. The barbarians began to See also:beat on the walls of the Empire as See also:early as A.D. r6o: about A.D. 250 they here and there got through, and they came henceforward in ever-growing See also:numbers. Moreover, they came on horseback, bringing new tactics for the Roman See also:infantry to See also:face, and they came in huge masses. We may doubt if any military See also:system could have permanently stayed this astonishing torrent. But the Empire did what it could. It enlisted barbarians to fight barbarians, and added freely—too freely, perhaps, if there was any choice—to the non-Roman elements of the army. It increased its See also:cavalry and began to See also:form a distinct field force. Fourth Period.—The results are seen in the reforms of See also:Diocletian and See also:Constantine the See also:Great (A.D. 284–circa 320). New frontier See also:guards, styled limitanei or riparienses, were established, and the old army was reorganized in field forces which accompanied or might accompany the emperors in See also:war (comitatenses, palatini). The importance of the legions dwindled; the See also:chief soldiers were the mercenaries, mostly Germans, enlisted from among the barbarians. New titles now appear, and it becomes plain even to the casual reader that in many points the new See also:order is not the old. The details of the system are as complicated as all the administrative machinery of that See also:age. Here it is enought to point out that the significance of such See also:officers and titles as the See also:dux and the comes (See also:duke, See also:count) lies ahead in the See also:history of the See also:middle ages, and not in the past, the history of the Roman army itself. War See also:Office, See also:General See also:Staff.—Under the See also:Republic we do not find, and indeed should not expect to find, any central See also:body which was especially entrusted with the development of the army system or military See also:finance or military policy in See also:wars. Even under the Empire, however, there was no such organization. The See also:emperor, as See also:commander-in-chief, and his more or less unofficial advisers doubtless decided questions of policy. But the army was so much a See also:group of provincial armies thatmuch was See also:left to the chief officers in each See also:province. Here, as elsewhere in the Empire, we trace a love if not for See also:Home See also:Rule, at least for See also:Devolution. There was, however, a central finance office in Rome for the special purpose of See also:meeting the bounties (or See also:equivalent) due to discharged soldiers. This was established by See also:Augustus in A.D. 6 with the See also:title See also:aerarium militare, and had, for receipts, the yield of two taxes, a 5% See also:legacy See also:duty and a 1% on sales (or perhaps only on See also:auction-sales). The legacy duty did not See also:touch legacies to near relations or legacies of small amount. BmLioGRAPHY.—Liebenam, " Exercitus," in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie; Von Domaszewski, in See also:Mommsen-See also:Marquardt's Handbuch der romischen Altertumer (2nd ed., See also:Leipzig, 1884), vol. v, pp. 319–612; H. Delbriick, Geschichte der Kriegskunst, vol. i., 2nd ed. (See also:Berlin, 1907) ; E. Lammert, " See also:Die Entwicklung der romischen Taktik," in Neue Jahrbiicher See also:fur das klassische Altertum, ix. 100-28, 169–87 ; Cagnat's See also:article " Legio " in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire See also:des antiquites grecques et romaines; E. G. See also:Hardy, Studies in Roman History (See also:London, 1906–9) ; Th. Mommsen, " Das romische Militarwesen seit Diocletian," in See also:Hermes, See also:xxiv. 195–279. (F. J. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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