The scale and organisation of the Roman army was unprecedented in the ancient Western world. This book tells the story of everyday aspects of the army in the heyday of the Roman Empire – from life in a tent to the food soldiers consumed – and explains its hierarchy, roles, equipment and place in a vast multi-ethnic society divided between citizens and subjects. The enduring strength of the vast Roman Empire lay in its army, which was a sophisticated, large-scale organisation and the West’s first permanent, pensionable military profession. The army was comprised of legions of citizen troops together with non-citizen auxiliary troops grouped in smaller regiments. In a period of fierce social segregation, Rome’s first emperor, Augustus (r. 27 BC-AD 14), ruled more than 60 million people, but barely 20 per cent were citizens. In 13 BC a fixed term for military service was established under Augustus, whereby the non-citizen auxiliary troops would be rewarded with citizenship after around 25 years of service. This set term for service prevailed until Caracalla’s (r. AD 198-217) universal edict of AD 212, which granted all free men in the empire full Roman citizenship and effectively removed the principal social barrier between legionary and auxiliary. The Roman army became an effective way for people from different backgrounds across the empire to advance themselves financially and socially. The period ends with the reign of Maximinius Thrax (r. AD 235-8), meaning readers are taken from the first emperor’s creation of the ‘career soldier’ to the career of the first ‘soldier emperor’. Through this social evolution, the army gradually transformed the state it was established to protect. Innovations in military training and technology, including medicine, allowed common Roman soldiers to be as well-equipped as their generals and to have realistic prospects of surviving 25 years of military service. This book dispels preconceived notions about the Roman army – for example, that forts were exclusively the domain of male soldiers – and addresses the violence committed by soldiers towards conquered subjects and enslaved people. The risks of becoming a soldier are also explored, especially the consequences for convicted soldiers (decimation, crucifixion or becoming amphitheatre entertainment). Most importantly, readers will discover a vivid picture of what life was really like in the Roman army, including how soldiers signed up and were trained; what life was like in tents, forts, and on the battlefield; and soldiers’ dress, diets, health and families.
