Guest spartacus Posted February 14, 2005 Report Share Posted February 14, 2005 When Rome was at its pinnacle of power and with a vast empire to guard and protect it must have stretched their manpower resources to the full! Even recruiting non-romans into the legion, the number of troops serving at any one time must have been staggering! Then, recruiting would have been carried out on a vast scale due to soldiers killed in battle, desertion, retirement etc Also the wages bill must have been crippling, I just wonder what all the figures tally up to! Perhaps it will remain an unanswerable question Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted February 14, 2005 Report Share Posted February 14, 2005 Just the legionary count alone is difficult enough to determine, and this is with known legionary numbers. Whether it was 28 or 30 active legions, the full compliment of men would've equalled some 150,000 men. Of course legions were rarely if ever at full strength, but all we can really go on is the theoretic number. Of course some of those numbers are officers and cavalry which all have different pay scales. Here's some info to get started though... Military Pay (in denarii) From Domitian to Severus Garrison of Rome Praetorians 1000 Urban 500 Vigiles 200 Legions Foot Soldiers 300 Cavalry 400 Auxiliary Cohort Infantry 100 Cohort Cavalry 200-266 Alae Cavalry 333 Fleets Praetorian Fleet 200 Provincial Fleet 100 Officers Temporary Tribune 2,500 Centurion and Cohort Prefect 5,000 Equestrian Tribune 10,000 Ala Prefect of a cavalry ala 15,000 First centurion, Camp Prefect and Double Ala 25,000 Yann Le Bohec, The Imperial Roman Army, p. 212 Roman Government expenditures in Millions of Denarii circa 150 AD The Army (salaries, supplies, discharges) 161-176 Civilian Employees (procurators, senatorial officials, equestrians officers) 19 Handouts (donatives and congiaria) 11 Building (in Rome and the provinces) 5-15 Other Items (Imperial household, Gifts, foreign subsidies) 12.5-25 Totals: 208.5-246 Richard Duncan-Jones, Money and Government in the Roman Empire, p. 37 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sulla Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 It's actually quite interesting. I remember seeing a documentry on barbarian invasions in Rome, and all up, the number of professional soldiers to auxilaries were 500,000 men. But to adequately protect their empire, the romans should have had an army of over a million, which would have been impossible. Particualry when you had cases such as the massacre at the Teutoberg Forest, and Boudicae slaughtering a couple of legions in Britain. it would have been a logistical nightmare. Particulary as in Marcus Aurelius's time, a plague sweeped through the empire killing hundreds of thousands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Yes, unfortunately, the number of auxilia is not completely known. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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