sillioussoduss Posted December 22, 2005 Report Share Posted December 22, 2005 Could a person of slave parentage become a full legionaire proper ? Or were they recruited from romans with full ctzenship ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted December 22, 2005 Report Share Posted December 22, 2005 It depends on the era you are talking about. In its earliest forms, the legionarys were always landowning citizens and the lower classes were generally excluded from service. (though there are events in history that required Rome to dip into the head count long before the reforms of Marius. Marius just made military eligibility for all classes the standard.) In the early and high imperial periods (1st through early 3rd century AD), citizenship was still a prerequisite, but the idea of citizenship was far less exclusionary. In AD 212, the emperor Caracalla granted universal citizenship to all freeborn residents of the empire. By the 4th century, the legions were becoming highly 'barbarized' by a mass influx of Germanic provincials, and the requirements for various social positioning of the legionary was watered down by necessity for new recruits. To answer the original question, yes a person of slave parentage could become a legionary, but there were many circumstances that needed to be considered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sillioussoduss Posted December 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2005 So in your mind ( given that you have been watching rome ) it would have been impossible for Titus Pullo to become a legionaire as he came from slave parentage and its set about 50bc. Someone has posted this on my local website and i wanted to check before i responded. They dont really seem to like the series, i for one am prepared to forgive the makers little mistakes but these chaps dont really seem to give an inch. Odd though they still watch it. I myself have enjoyed it immensly. We havent quite got to the series finale yet here in England though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted December 22, 2005 Report Share Posted December 22, 2005 So in your mind ( given that you have been watching rome ) it would have been impossible for Titus Pullo to become a legionaire as he came from slave parentage and its set about 50bc. Someone has posted this on my local website and i wanted to check before i responded. They dont really seem to like the series, i for one am prepared to forgive the makers little mistakes but these chaps dont really seem to give an inch. Odd though they still watch it. I myself have enjoyed it immensly. We havent quite got to the series finale yet here in England though. I'm afraid I missed that part of the show. I was under the impression that Pullo was a citizen, whatever the circumstances of his parentage may have been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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