{"id":83040,"date":"2026-11-02T01:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T06:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=83040"},"modified":"2026-11-01T09:29:53","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T14:29:53","slug":"qotd-organizing-a-roman-republican-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/qotd-organizing-a-roman-republican-army\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: Organizing a Roman Republican army"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>… the recruits return on the appointed day and are reassembled, probably on the campus Martius<\/em><\/a> (the field of Mars, just outside the city), which in any case is where the whole process will end up moved to in the first century (probably to accommodate the larger number of Roman citizens). Moving the process outside of the ritual boundary of the city, the pommerium<\/em><\/a>, would have been important, because the power of certain Roman magistrates to command armies (imperium<\/em><\/a>, a crucial concept we’ll deal with when we get to the series on the Republic) only exists fully outside this boundary. It also<\/em> keeps them from being hassled by the Tribunes of the Plebs<\/a> (a distinct and entirely<\/em> different office from the military tribunes<\/a>!), whose powers don’t exist outside<\/em> the pommerium<\/em>. That said, Polybius<\/a> doesn’t tell us where this part takes place and I don’t myself know of any source that explicitly does.<\/p>\n

I should stop to note that this phase gets short shift in the scholarship. Brunt, Italian Manpower<\/em> (1971) 625ff somehow manages to miss it entirely, conflating it with the selection of recruits in Phase I, but it is clearly a distinct stage in the process. Polybius is not subtle here: after the oaths are taken, the [military] tribunes dismiss the recruits (Polyb. 6.21.6), designating a time and place for them to reassemble without arms<\/em> and then when they show up then (Polyb. 6.21.7), they are divided into units, are ordered to get their equipment and then sent home again<\/em> (Polyb. 6.26.1) to reassemble one more time (Polyb. 6.26.2) when the army is properly formed<\/em>. That is three<\/em> clear stages: selection, apportionment and mobilization, which occur on different days in different places.<\/p>\n

The function of this phase is the division of recruits into their constituent units. First the pedites<\/em> (again, “infantry”) are split into four types: velites<\/em><\/a>, hastati<\/em><\/a>, principes<\/em><\/a> and triarii<\/em><\/a>. Polybius notes that the “youngest and poorest” are assigned to the velites<\/em>, then the next to the hastati<\/em>, and so on, creating a sliding scale by both wealth and age; one paragraph down he reiterates that the velites<\/em> are mostly the youngest soldiers (Polyb. 6.22.1). In practice, we know that the centuries of the pedites<\/em> were stratified by wealth and that wealthier soldiers were expected to bring heavier, more expensive kit (even Polybius notes this, Polyb. 6.23.14). The equipment of the velites<\/em>, who were light infantry skirmishers that screened and supported the legion, would have been much<\/em> cheaper than the equipment of the rest of the infantry (who were all armored, heavy infantry), so I think the right reading of Polybius is that the velites<\/em> consist of both the young<\/em> of all of the classes of pedites<\/em> (putting green soldiers in a position to both prove their courage, but also one where if they falter it doesn’t cause the line to collapse; light infantry can retreat and advance freely) as well as the very poorest<\/em> of the pedites<\/em> who couldn’t afford heavier equipment even if they wanted to.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

The velites<\/em> carry a sword (Livy tells us it is the same sword as the heavy infantry, the gladius Hispaniensis<\/em><\/a>, Livy 38.21.13), a small shield (the smaller version of the parma<\/em><\/a>; cavalry use a larger version of this shield), and javelins (Livy clarifies they carry seven of them; these are lighter javelins, the hasta velitaris<\/em>, Livy 26.4) along with a modest helmet.2<\/sup> The velites<\/em> themselves emerge as a distinct arm of the Roman army during the Second Punic War, but an integrated light infantry skirmish force existed earlier; it’s not clear how the velites<\/em> would have differed from earlier light infantry leves<\/em> milites<\/em> or rorarii<\/em>. Perhaps not very much.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the heavy infantry (hastati<\/em>, principes<\/em> and triarii<\/em>) carry a large oval shield (the scutum<\/em><\/a>), a sword (the gladius Hispaniensis<\/em>, a versatile cut-and-thrust sword), two heavy javelins (pila<\/em><\/a>), and wear both a metal helmet<\/a> (the ubiquitous bronze Montefortino-type) and body armor<\/a>. Poor soldiers, Polybius tells us, wear what in Latin is a pectorale<\/em> (and thus in English a “pectoral”); this gets represented as a single smallish bronze plate over the upper-chest, but our evidence for this equipment suggests a more complete cuirass consisting of a front and back plate joined by side and shoulder plates, with a broad armored belt protecting the belly, a sort of “articulated breastplate” […] Wealthier Romans were required to furnish themselves with mail. Once again, the fact that the tribunes are likely to have access to the census<\/a>, and thus the self-reported wealth figures of the recruit’s households (tied to their century assignment) is going to facilitate these divisions.<\/p>\n

Each class (except the velites<\/em>) then elect ten senior centurions<\/a> and ten junior centurions, with the very first fellow elected being the primus pilus<\/em>, the most senior centurion of the legion. Centurions then handpick their supporting officers (the optio<\/em><\/a>). We are given no clues as to how this election would be accomplished, but the numbers here we’re now dealing with are fairly small (1200 infantry per type, except just 600 triarii<\/em>), so the procedures here don’t have to be that complex. The centurions then assist the tribunes in breaking up each class into maniples<\/a> (120 men) and centuries (60 men), with the velites<\/em> being attached to the maniples of the heavy infantry rather than getting their own, because they’re a supporting force. Meanwhile, the cavalry is being divided as well into ten squadrons, each with three officers (decuriones<\/em>), who have their own optiones<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Once all of those divisions are complete, the tribunes instruct the men on how they are to arm themselves and then send them home (Polyb. 6.26.1). I should note here the Paton translation (rev. Walbank and Habicht, but I don’t think they change anything here) reads, “The tribunes having thus organized the troops and ordered them to arm themselves in this manner dismiss them to their homes” but a more strictly literal translation would run, “The tribunes, having made the divisions and given them orders concerning equipment then dismiss the men to their homes”. There’s an assumption worked into the translation that soldiers arm themselves<\/em>; I think this assumption is correct<\/strong>, but it is not required<\/em> by the text.<\/p>\n

But of course the staging of this process only really makes sense if soldiers do<\/em> self-equip. Otherwise, why send them all to their homes at this stage, when you have the entire army gathered and divided into units? If equipment was state issued, it’d be trivial to hand it all out right at this stage and then march off to war. Instead, soldiers are dispatched home with orders concerning their equipment.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the process for the socii<\/em><\/a> is running in parallel<\/strong>. We know basically nothing<\/em> about this stage of their process, but it is certainly happening. All Polybius tells us is that “the magistrates [of the socii<\/em>], choosing the men and administering the oath in the manner above described, send them off, appointing a commander<\/a> and a paymaster” (Polyb. 6.21.5). The implication is that the socii<\/em> have a similar process to the Romans (albeit in miniature as there are many<\/em> communities of socii<\/em> who collectively provide about as many troops as the Romans, so their dilecti<\/em><\/a> \u2013 whatever name they really went by \u2013 will be much smaller). This is reflective of the Roman attitude towards the socii<\/em> \u2013 they do not care<\/em> how the troops are raised or paid, only that<\/em> they are raised. So long as the socii<\/em> show up at the appointed time with the right gear, ready to fight, the Romans are fine with the process.<\/p>\n

But the system here mirrors the Roman one quite strongly. Each Roman army has a presiding magistrate (like a consul<\/a>) and an assigned financial magistrate (a quaestor<\/em><\/a>), just as each socii<\/em> detachment has a commander and a paymaster. The commander of these socii<\/em> units show up in our sources as praefecti cohortium<\/em> and seem to have been drawn from the local elite of those communities (just like the Romans). So while the Romans are dividing into units and then heading home to buy, fetch or borrow their equipment, the socii<\/em> are at work recruiting their own troops to the numbers and of the types demanded at the dilectus<\/em>, arming them, making arrangements for their pay (the Romans supply food, but not pay, for the socii<\/em>) and then sending them to the planned rendezvous.<\/p>\n

Bret Devereaux, “Collections: How To Raise a Roman Army: The Dilectus<\/em>“, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry<\/em><\/a>, 2023-06-16.<\/p>\n

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  1. In Polybius’ day, there may have been significant overlap between these two definitions just because Roman military success was likely to put enough loot in the pocket of a seasoned veles<\/strong> to enable him to afford the equipment of the heavier infantry.<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Perhaps in some cases a leather or textile head-covering rather than a metal one; evidence here is very thin.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    … the recruits return on the appointed day and are reassembled, probably on the campus Martius (the field of Mars, just outside the city), which in any case is where the whole process will end up moved to in the first century (probably to accommodate the larger number of Roman citizens). Moving the process outside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[62,7,5,41],"tags":[31,1457,313,1628,1345,561],"class_list":["post-83040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-history","category-military","category-quotations","tag-army","tag-bretdevereaux","tag-conscription","tag-polybius","tag-romanrepublic","tag-rome"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-lBm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83040"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105650,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83040\/revisions\/105650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}