THE PRÆTORIAN CAMP. THE IMPERIAL WAR MACHINE
=262. The Army the Real Master of the Roman Empire.=--The Romans
beyond all else have been a military people. Their great abilities
as law givers, administrators, disseminators of civilization through
Western Europe apparently would have been almost in vain if the
legions had failed against Hannibal, against Mithridates, against
Vercingetorix. Furthermore, the power of the Cæsars is primarily
that of war chiefs. Let the army revolt, and Senate, plebeians,
and provincials can protest their loyalty ever so frantically--the
Princeps, the “First Citizen,” nevertheless is a lost man.
Every Emperor knows this fact. His memory goes back to those two
fearful years 68 and 69 A.D. when first a revolt in Gaul and
a mutiny by the Prætorians in Rome overthrew Nero and set up Galba,
then a second mutiny of the Prætorians set up Otho, then a revolt of
the Rhine legions set up Vitellius, then a counter-revolt by the Danube
and Syrian legions set up Vespasian; with the civilian population
looking on helplessly, and being almost as helplessly plundered, while
decidedly small bodies of professional swordsmen settled the fate of
the Empire. Still later they remember how after Domitian’s murder, the
Prætorians (whom that despot had caressed and corrupted) forced his
successor Nerva to punish the very conspirators to whom Nerva himself
owed the throne.
Hadrian, in turn, who passes for a very “constitutional” ruler, when
his kinsman Trajan died (117 A.D.), allowed himself to be “proclaimed”
immediately by the soldiers in the East where he then was. Next he
wrote with studious modesty to the Senate begging the Conscript Fathers
to “excuse” the zeal of the army and to ratify its action in choosing
him Imperator. Every senator knew the blade might soon be at his own
neck if he openly opposed confirming the mandate of the legionaries.
The army, in short, is the final authority in the Roman Empire.
Presently there may even be an Emperor [Septimus Severus about 210
A.D.] who will give his sons direfully blunt and effective counsel:
“Enrich the army and then you can do anything.”
=263. Army Held under Stiff Discipline and Concentrated on
Frontiers.=--Nevertheless at present the army is under a tight rein.
Trajan and Hadrian by a mixture of donatives and severity have restored
firm discipline. The Roman world functions freely and normally behind
the frontier barriers held by the legions, with the great chaos of
barbarism tossing harmlessly outside. Furthermore, this army, if very
formidable, is, we shall see, decidedly small. It is distributed mainly
along the northern and eastern frontiers, with a sizable garrison and
guard-corps at Rome.
In the arrangement of the army, most of the provinces seem absolutely
divested of regular soldiers save those in transit, and their governors
only require a good constabulary to arrest brigands and rioters. The
collapse of the Jewish insurrection has practically ended the last
serious attempt to cast off Roman authority, and the provinces submit
not simply because of fear, but because they are now bound to the
imperial régime by great cultural and economic interests.[161] In
Rome itself, thanks to the presence of the imperial guard, soldiers
are frequent sights upon the streets, but in many other great cities
of the Empire they are comparative rarities. Their duties are in the
frontiers, and their officers know well the demoralization wrought by
keeping their men in city garrisons.
When Augustus found the world at his feet he also found himself with
armies which were very expensive and somewhat ready to mutiny against
him. Very promptly, therefore, he reduced his 45 legions to only about
18. This number proved too few, and by the end of his reign they had
risen to 25; these in turn have been gradually increased to 30; and
this will be the ordinary number for a good while longer.[162] The
legionaries are the regular troops of the line, on whose disciplined
fighting the safety of civilization may well depend. There are,
however, no ordinary legionaries stationed in Rome, although we can, of
course, obtain full information in the capital about them. Their place
is taken by a magnificent and arrogant guard-corps--the Prætorians.
=264. The Prætorian Guard of the Emperors.=--The Prætorian guards
are the successors of the old _Prætoriani_, picked men, who guarded
the Prætorium (general’s residence or tent) in the armies of the old
Republic. But the new Imperators were entitled to a much larger and
more permanent guard, and they also desired to have a reliable body of
troops always in or near Rome to protect against an uprising. Augustus,
therefore, organized nine “prætorian cohorts,” although keeping only
three directly in Rome; his successor, Tiberius, however, boldly
concentrated them all in the imperial city, and built for them an
enormous camp behind the Viminal hill, on the northeast side of the
metropolis.
[Illustration: PRÆTORIAN GUARDSMEN.]
Here they have remained as the dreaded engine of the Caesars. Disguise
the fact as he may, every senator knows in his heart: “If the Senate
defies the Emperor, the Prætorians can and will sack the Curia.” So
long as the Prætorians are obedient no Emperor need tremble overmuch
at stories of a provincial uprising. When the Prætorians desert he had
better, as did Nero, slink away to commit suicide.
The guard-corps is jealously regarded by the frontier legions who
sometimes turn against it, but thanks to its position at the capital
its power is tremendous. Even the privates walk down the streets with a
confident swagger--can they not make and unmake Emperors? If the army
really controls the Empire, the Prætorians go far to control the will
of the army.
=265. The Prætorian Præfect and the Prætorian Camp.=--Such being
the case, there is one high official whom the Cæsars will always select
with greater care than any other--the _Prætorian Præfect_. On this
general rests responsibility for the military efficiency and loyalty
of the corps. If he is a scheming bloody man, he can, like Tiberius’s
præfect Sejanus, almost place himself upon the throne; and if he is
simply a faithful competent officer, his public services excel that of
any civil functionary.
Since curiously enough the Emperor usually intrusts to the Prætorian
Præfect the task of hearing legal “appeals to Cæsar” from the imperial
half of the provinces, it is not unusual to name two præfects,
nominally of equal authority but with one of them often a trained
jurist, and the other more concerned with the military management of
the corps. This has the additional advantage of making it harder to
start an insurrection,--each Præfect will keep watch upon his colleague.
Inasmuch as the Emperor is now absent from Rome a detachment of the
guard is away with him, but the world being in general peace there
is no need (as in a major war) for the entire corps to go forth to
reinforce the frontier legions. The Prætorians are therefore on duty
as usual; one cohort at the Palatine, the remainder barracked at their
great camp.
The _Castra Prætoria_[163] is more than a mere cantonment; it
is a real fortress, only to be stormed after desperate fighting. We
enter it from the central gateway (_Porta Prætoria_) which looks
straight westward upon the city. A lofty wall of masonry, brick, and
concrete, crowned by suitable battlements, surrounds a vast rectangular
area about 1400 feet wide, and 1100 feet deep. The greater and lesser
gates are crowned with fine marble sculptures almost worthy of the
Palatine. In the center of the area rises a mass of office buildings, a
residence for the Præfect and a small temple to the military gods such
as Mars, and especially to the deified emperors. The side walls of the
inclosure are extended on the inside by an enormous system of arches
and vaulting, making many deep chambers where thousands of men are
easily barracked.
In the open area fountains are playing, and the sun is sending a flying
glory from the burnished armor of a cohort standing at rest, while
certain officers affix medals of honor, or bestow spears and banners of
honor upon various men who have lately distinguished themselves during
some detached duty in Mauretania. Everything about the place betrays a
perfect “police”; all commands are executed with extreme promptness;
and every individual seems absolutely to know his part, as being one
cog in an enormous war machine, into the making of which has entered an
almost inconceivable amount of skill and energy.
=266. Organization and Discipline of the Prætorians.=--The Prætorians
are organized much as the ordinary legionary troops with certain proud
modifications. The regular legions can be recruited from all over the
Empire; the Prætorians are still drawn only from Italy. They receive
twice the pay of the legionaries, and their term of service is only
sixteen years as against twenty with the regulars. Besides these
advantages, and the joy of living near to the pleasures of Rome, their
discipline is said to be much easier.
The emperors, who fear the mutterings of the guard-corps much more than
they do those of the Senate, often shower special bonuses upon the
Prætorians. Their centurions and still more their tribunes are welcome
guests in the most aristocratic houses in Rome. Their weapons are the
same as the legionaries’, but, of course, their armor is of the finest;
and on gala occasions when the whole corps is ordered out with gilded
or silvered helmets and cuirasses over purple military cloaks, the
sight of these thousands of tall powerful warriors marching in perfect
rhythm is astonishing beyond words.
In one important respect the organization of the Prætorians differs
from that of the regular legionaries: their nine cohorts number 1000
instead of 600 men each and the whole guard-corps therefore amounts
to about 9000 men. Considering that these troops are chosen for their
splendid physiques, and are trained for years in every military
accomplishment, remarkable will be the foe of like numbers that can
withstand them. As for the city of Rome, its whole raging populace is
like mere chaff and straw if the trumpets sound through the camp, and
the centurions thunder down their files, “Open the gates and clear the
streets!”
=267. The City Cohorts (_Cohortes Urbanæ_).=--The Prætorians, however,
have some humbler comrades in Rome, in addition to police-firemen, the
vigiles. Sometimes the guard-corps must follow the Emperor on campaign,
but nevertheless the capital needs a fixed garrison. The City Præfect
(see p. 300), therefore, commands four additional cohorts (_cohortes
urbanæ_) also of 1000 each, in a special camp in the northern part
of the metropolis. These “City Cohorts” are organized much like the
Prætorians, and in a grave emergency would act with them; but they have
longer terms of service, lesser pay, severer discipline.
It is far less of an honor to belong to this force than to the
Prætorians, and there is little “fraternizing” between its members and
the haughty guard-corps. However, they make 4000 more armed men always
available for the defense and control of the city. Added to these
can, of course, be the vigiles (7000 strong), easily changeable into
genuine soldiers in a crisis. This makes the total garrison of Rome,
while the Prætorians are in the city, around 20,000 men, plus usually
some marines detached from the squadrons at Ostia and Misenum.
The frontiers are far away, but the central direction of the great
imperial war machine is inevitably at Rome. From the Prætorian barracks
issue those orders which can set the legions marching against the
Caledonians of North Britain or the Arabs of the Syrian deserts. There
can be no better place, therefore, for inquiry about the organization
and discipline of that grim efficient engine which maintains the
Pax Romana and makes possible the splendid, artificial Græco-Roman
civilization.
High officers are constantly passing through Rome. Some of these men
have had long and distinguished careers, and among them is a certain
Aulus Quadratus, a gray and grizzled veteran, now in the capital for
honorable retirement, after an unusual term of service. By tracing his
experience, a good insight can be gained into the organization and
duties of the legionaries.
=268. A Private in the Legions: the Legionary Organization.=--Quadratus
was born in South Gaul (_Gallia Narbonensis_), a country that has
already been well Romanized, and from which the government draws many
excellent legionaries.[164] He was a poor free laborer on a great
estate, but when he was only about eighteen an enrolling officer
appeared and demanded a certain number of recruits of his master.
The latter naturally suggested taking several of the youngest and
least valuable of the hands. Quadratus was strong, courageous,
and adventuresome, and he did not object to this informal type of
“selective draft.” Thus he soon found himself a private in the camp of
the “Second Augustan Legion” (_legio secunda augusta_) stationed in a
great fortified camp guarding the Rhine somewhere near later Mayence or
Strassbourg in “Upper Germany” (Alsace and the Rhenish Palatinate).
Once enlisted, Quadratus realized that at least twenty years of
unremitting service lay ahead of him. Home life and marriage were
forbidden the soldiery, and their whole lives revolved around the army.
The Roman discipline caught each man, and each became a valuable and
contented soldier only so far as he submitted to this discipline and
merged his personality in the vast organization.
[Illustration: A SLINGER.]
Quadratus was, therefore, promptly “put under the vinestock,”
the stout cudgel of twisted vine twigs with which the centurions
vigorously corrected their tyros. At first he was a very ignorant and
unimportant part of the “Second Augustan,” but soon he understood its
organization and became proud of its history. Every legion consisted
of ten _cohorts_, each in turn divided into six centuries.[165]
Each century contained in theory a hundred infantry, making 6000 for
the entire legion. Besides these, there was a small cavalry force for
scouting attached to each legion, four _turmæ_ (squadrons) of 30
horsemen each. The various contingents, however, were seldom quite
full. When the Second Augustan went to battle it reckoned, therefore,
somewhere under 6000 men.
[Illustration: ROMAN SIEGE WORKS: restoration of
Caesar’s siege works at Alesia.]
=269. Training of the Legionaries: the _Pilum_ and the
_Gladius_.=--Quadratus, under very severe drill masters, learned the
use of weapons. Nothing could take the place, so he was taught, of
cool proficiency with sword and javelin. It was the trained valor of
the average Roman legionary, not the skill often of his commanders,
that had given to the Cæsars the mastery of the world, and while the
discipline was strict, and the training incessant, pains were taken not
to destroy the young man’s self-respect, or those powers of initiative
which were the glory of his profession.
He was taught furthermore to despise those enemies, who, like the
old Macedonians, were so lacking in personal resources that they had
to go into battle wedged together shield to shield with long spears
bristling in front--the rigid “phalanx” formation. This is excellent on
level ground when the foe is all ahead, but often becomes a source of
danger to itself because the closely packed soldiers are deprived of
any chance to display personal valor, and are almost helpless to change
position if attacked on flank or rear. Quadratus in his training was
taught to stand five feet from his comrades on either side with plenty
of room to swing his shield and javelin.
[Illustration: STORMING A CITY WITH THE
_Testudo_.]
Long exercise made him a master of his two weapons. The heavy javelin
(_pilum_) is a devilish missile, as every foe of Rome has learned
to his cost. It is about six and a half feet long with a heavy wooden
butt and a long blade-like head, usually barbed and razor keen. Flung
by a practiced soldier at short range it can knock down any adversary
who is not firmly braced, even if it does not pierce his shield. Once
lodged in the shield it is no light thing to draw it out and not expose
oneself to a second deadlier blow.
The pilum, they told Quadratus, was what had really made the Roman
Empire possible; but it is duly supplemented by the Spanish short sword
(_gladius_). This is a weapon borrowed, perhaps, from Spain but
thoroughly Italianized. The blade is about thirty-three inches long,
two-edged, sharp-pointed, and always used for thrusting. The instant a
legionary has flung his pilum, and while his foe if not wounded is at
least utterly demoralized from the shock, he whips his gladius from his
thigh and leaps upon him. A single good thrust will disembowel a man,
and he who is thus assailed by a trained Roman swordsman should pray to
his native gods--he will need all aid possible.
[Illustration: CATAPULT.]
=270. Defensive Weapons.=--These two very simple weapons Quadratus
was taught to handle to perfection, until across the years their use
became simply mechanical to him. Meantime he was learning to march,
leap, and fight in his heavy defensive armor. He wore a stout metallic
cuirass of fish-scale plates, and a solid helmet of brass upon which in
parades and in actual battle he set a nodding plume of horse-hair. This
helmet had brow- and cheek-pieces giving very perfect protection, but
was so heavy that while marching he was allowed to carry it swung from
a strap upon his breast.
Of course, however, his chief defensive weapon was his shield. This
capital piece of armor is a rectangle of solid leather about four by
two and one half feet, rimmed with iron and with handles for carrying
on the left arm. A trained legionary knows how to fend and lunge with
his shield with marvelous agility, and by means of the solid metal
base in the center he can strike a tremendous blow. Almost no weapon
can penetrate the shield, and thanks to it and his cuirass and his
helmet, a soldier can march unscathed amid a perfect shower of arrows.
Every technical point about his armor has, of course, been worked out
scientifically. Simple as it appears, it represents a triumph of human
skill.
[Illustration: CUIRASS.]
=271. Rewards and Punishments for Soldiers.=--Thus accoutered
Quadratus gained his first experience when the Second Augusta was
ordered over the Rhine to punish a tribe of Germanic raiders in
later-day Hessen. In the fighting that ensued he so proved his skill
and courage that he received his first decoration, the right to wear
a small banderole upon his pilum when his cohort appeared on parade
ground. Discipline was severe, but rewards for faithfulness and valor
were prompt and conspicuous. He had long seen his older comrades
marching about with “spears of honor,” banderoles, and above all with
huge medals and medallions, which, upon gala occasions, they wore upon
their breasts.
Long before Quadratus’s career was ended, he, like many others, had
a perfect collection of these medals, which hung jangling over his
cuirass almost like a second coat of armor. Everybody knew the honors
awarded his comrades, and there was constant emulation to deserve like
decorations as well as more substantial rewards. No system could be
better devised to call out the valorous service of simple-hearted and
often very uncultivated men.
[Illustration: JAVELIN: _pilum_ of the
legionary.]
While Quadratus, without too many blows from his centurions’ vinestock,
was thus on his way to promotion, he could witness the punishment of
less fortunate comrades. Stripes, docking of pay, and extra duty were
the standard penalties; but sometimes there were worse inflictions.
Once a whole century acted in a cowardly manner. It was sentenced for
one month to bivouac outside the camp and to eat bread of barley,--not
of wheat, the food of brave and obedient troops.
Sometimes, of course, capital penalties were demanded. Once a private
was guilty of gross insubordination; he had to “run the gantlet”
(_fustuarium_) between two long files of soldiers who beat him with
cudgels while he dashed vainly down the line, perishing ere he could
reach the end. Once a detachment of half-drilled auxiliaries fled in
an outrageous manner before the enemy. To teach a stern lesson these
irregulars were “decimated”; being forced to stand disarmed before the
whole legion, while lots were cast selecting every tenth man, who was
forthwith dragged from the ranks and beheaded.
[Illustration: SWORD.]
=272. Pay and Rations in the Army: Soldiers’ Savings Banks.=--While a
private Quadratus, of course, drew the private’s pay, 1200 sesterces
($48) a year,[166] out of which, however, was deducted a certain part
of his upkeep and equipment. Even as it was, however, this gave fairly
ample spending money, and every soldier was required to deposit a part
of his wages in the legionary savings bank, accumulating against the
day of his happy discharge, and protected from barrack-room gambling
and squandering. Besides this, brave service often won an increase of
stipend, more valuable than many medals; and Quadratus was presently a
_duplarius_, a “double-pay man,” to the great envy of certain comrades.
Army rations would have seemed to another age extremely monotonous, a
mere succession of huge portions of coarse bread or of wheat porridge.
There were also distributions of salt pork, vegetables, etc., but the
legionaries did not care greatly for meat. There were even cases when
they protested against “too much beef and too little wheat.” As for
drink, everybody in camp enjoyed plenty of _posca_--the dilution of
cheap wine and vinegar.[167]
[Illustration: HELMET.]
=273. The Training of Soldiers: Non-Military Labors.=--Drilling
went on incessantly. Even soldiers versed in their spear play seemed
forever under arms merely to keep up the camp routine and morale. Every
man was trained to be a good swimmer, to run, jump, and indulge in
acrobatic feats like the _testudo_ (when one group of men climbed
upon their comrades’ heads) so useful in storming walls. Thrice a month
the whole legion went on a forced practice march, going at least twenty
miles at four miles (or more) per hour, each man bearing, besides his
heavy armor, an elaborate baggage kit, half a bushel of grain, one or
two tall intrenching stakes, a spade, axe, rope, and other tools--a
weight of sixty pounds.
If strictly military work failed, there were endless civilian labors.
Quadratus learned to use his spade almost as well as he could his
pilum. He assisted in making and in repairing the great network of
magnificent military roads leading to the frontiers. He worked in the
legionary brick kilns, making bricks for the camps and the numerous
small _castella_ used to hold back the onthrusting Germans. He helped
also to rebuild a temple of Jupiter at the garrison town of Mogontiacum
(Mayence), and later to tug up the stones for a new amphitheater in
that city. If he had been attached to a Syrian legion, he and his
comrades might even have been ordered out to repel an invasion not of
Parthians but of the more devastating locusts.
[Illustration: SHIELD OF THE LEGIONARY.]
=274. Petty Officers in the Legions.=--All this experience came
to him while he was earning his first promotions. Everybody in the
legion--except those lowest and highest--had somebody, indeed, whom he
could command while some one else could command him, and there was a
very ingenious division and interlocking of power and responsibility.
Petty officers abounded, and having approved himself, Quadratus became
one of the _principales_ (high privates, and corporals)--first he
became a _tesserarius_, “bearer of the watchword” for his century;
then the “horn blower,” responsible often for important signals,
then the _signifer_, the bearer of the small red flag (_vexillium_),
surmounted with a small image of Victory, which was the standard of
the cohort; then he was named _optio_ (“chosen” man by a centurion), a
centurion’s deputy and assistant, entitled to rank as a real officer
and responsible for the control of a large squad of men.
[Illustration: MILITARY TRUMPET.]
At last came one of the most important days of his life. At a general
parade of the legion the commanding general (_legatus legionis_)
announced that Quadratus was appointed centurion and solemnly intrusted
him with the terrible vinestock. There was no danger he would show
mercy to the raw recruits!
=275. The Centurions: their Importance and Order of
Promotion.=--Quadratus was now a member of that group of officers to
which the Roman army owed the greater part of its entire discipline,
morale, and efficiency. There were sixty centurions in every legion.
They were usually self-made men, sturdy peasants’ sons like himself,
who had risen from the ranks and then been selected by the general on
account of merit.
The six military tribunes of each legion were, indeed, of higher rank,
but they were often untested young noblemen, obliged to get a certain
“military experience” before returning to Rome to sue for seats in the
Senate and the favor of the Emperor. The centurions, however, were
a permanent body. They had enlisted in the legion, and their whole
life was tied up with it. If their methods were harsh, they prided
themselves on showing an example of daring yet scientific valor in
every battle. They were intensely devoted to their corps, its honor,
and the honor of their comrades. With good centurions a motley host of
raw recruits soon became formidable legionaries; without them the most
skilful general might strive in vain to organize an army.
[Illustration:
LEGIONARIES (REGULAR TROOPS-OF-THE-LINE): one
soldier is carrying his equipment upon a “Marius’s Mule,” a
staff arranged to serve as a knapsack, invented by Marius
about 110 B.C.]
As centurion Quadratus found a straight line of promotion before him.
He was obliged to begin as the sixth centurion of the tenth cohort,
and by process of seniority he was entitled to rise to first centurion
of the first cohort. He was making fair progress but advancement was
discouragingly slow, and he might have ended (as did most of his fellow
officers) only part way up the ladder before he reached the retiring
age, when a great good fortune came to him.
While only a private he had won the “civic crown” (_corona civica_)
of oak leaves for saving the life of a comrade in battle; he had also
gained the golden “mural crown” (_corona muralis_) for being the first
in a desperate storming party over the parapet of a crude fortress
held by the Germans. But now, while acting as senior centurion of a
large detachment, with the commanding tribune absent, he learned that
a Roman garrison somewhere in the heart of the Black Forest region
was hard pressed by a horde of Chatti. He led up his men suddenly and
skilfully, broke through and dispersed the Barbarians and saved the
garrison when it was at last gasp. For this he was awarded the “siege
crown” (_corona obsidionalis_), a remarkable honor given by the rescued
garrison, and plaited out of grass and weeds plucked on the spot of
battle,[168] to the leader who had saved them.
=276. The _Primipilus_: the Great Eagle of the Legion.=--This
distinction made it inevitable that when the post of first centurion in
the legion fell vacant, Quadratus should be jumped over the heads of
many others and made _primipilus_ (“first javelin”)--the head of the
whole corps of centurions, entitled to participate with the tribunes in
a council of war, and--being, of course, now a man of great practical
experience--allowed to speak very openly to the Legate of the Legion
himself. Quadratus was now in some respects the most important man
in the Second Augustan. His war pay was considerable, and he added
to it by the permitted usage of taking fees from the men for certain
exemptions from duty.
[Illustration: ROMAN OFFICER.]
As primipilus he had the weighty responsibility of taking charge of the
great golden eagle of the legion. In battle he would sometimes pluck it
from the ordinary bearer (_aquilifer_), and electrify his comrades
by dashing ahead with the full-sized golden eagle with outspread wings,
surrounded by brilliant streamers, now borne on its pole high above his
shoulders. Where the eagle went, there honor and devotion made every
legionary follow with the fury of a man possessed. In a certain shrewd
tussle with the Hermunduri, the valor of the whole phalanx of those
Barbarians was snuffed out when they saw the glistening _aquila_
bearing down on them heading a six-thousand-man wedge, with all the ten
cohort flags like obedient retainers thrusting on behind, and when next
came the pitiless beat of the pila succeeded instantly by the rush of
the expert swordsmen.
=277. Locations and Names of Legions.=--Having become primipilus
while still a fairly young man, Quadratus was not at the end of his
promotion. He had carefully saved his money, and presently he gained
official nobility as an eques. Now he was appointed to an independent
command not in the legionary regulars, but in the “auxiliary cohorts.”
Only about one half of the imperial forces are in the legions. These
are for the heavy fighting; they are kept in large garrisons and are
used for secondary work as little as possible, nor are they moved from
province to province except in serious emergencies.[169] The Second
Augustan has always been in Upper Germany and there presumably it will
stay for generations more. The same is true of the Third Augustan in
North Africa, of the Fourth Scythians on the Danube, of the Twelfth
Thunderers in Syria, and of a good many others. The result is that
each legion, largely recruited in the nearby provinces, has small
desire for distant service; and there is little love between, say, the
“Twenty-first Ravagers” in Upper Germany and the “Sixth Ironclads”
stationed along the Euphrates.[170]
[Illustration: LIGHT-ARMED SOLDIER.]
=278. The Auxiliary Cohorts: the Second Grand Division of the
Army.=--But it is absolutely necessary to have a mobile force,
composed of troops of many kinds, especially cavalry, archers,
slingers, and light spearmen for scouting. These men are often enlisted
in the un-Romanized provinces, and are allowed to keep their native
arms and discipline. As a rule they are organized in unattached
cohorts, either in “large” cohorts of 1000 men with ten centuries, or
“small” cohorts of 480 with six so-called centuries. Their commander
is regularly a “Præfect,” commonly an officer who, like Quadratus, has
graduated from the stern school of the centurion in a legion.
Auxiliary cohorts are often embodied and disbanded, they have no
such glorious history and traditions as the legions, but they have a
distinctive name and a number. Quadratus was assigned to the command
of a new “large” cohort made up of tall blonde Germans who were glad
to forget their feuds with the Romans, cross the Rhine, and take the
Emperor’s pay, swearing to him the great oath of implicit military
allegiance (_the sacramentum_). The government is far too wise,
however, to leave such aliens too near their homes. Quadratus was,
therefore, promptly ordered to march his “Sixth Nervan” (so named in
honor of the then Emperor Nerva)[171] to the Danube.
The day the new Præfect quitted his old comrades of the Second Augustan
he drew from the legionary chest all the savings from his pay, plus
the sums deposited there after each bonus or donation wherewith the
Emperors were always conciliating the army. He had also long since
joined a self-help organization among the officers whereby he was to
receive a fixed sum for his outfit whenever he received promotion.[172]
He thus started upon his career as an upper officer a tolerably rich
man.
=279. The Præfect of the Camps and the Legate of the Legion.=--As
Præfect of the Sixth Nervan he won the good opinion of Trajan in both
of the desperate Dacian Wars and then in the campaign against Parthia.
As the next step, he was appointed by imperial patent “Præfect of the
Camps”--the second in command of a legion, not responsible, indeed,
for its conduct in battle, but with almost complete authority over
its management and discipline while in its great permanent garrisons,
subject only (in extreme cases) to the final authority of the
commanding legate.
This was as high ordinarily as even a very fortunate soldier, who
had enlisted as a mere private, could advance. Even as Præfect of
the Camp Quadratus was looked down upon socially by the six young
military tribunes, scions of senatorial families, who hung around
the headquarters (_prætorium_), wrote verses, patronized the
centurions, and boasted of how “they commanded the legion.” But
Quadratus was, we repeat, an extraordinarily lucky officer. Grizzled
now and battle-scarred, he impressed Hadrian as absolutely to be
trusted. The Emperor, therefore, raised him to the rank of “Legate of
the Legion,” which carried with it a seat in the Senate, and for the
past few years accordingly Quadratus has been on the Rhine in chief
command of that same Second Augustan where once he had “submitted to
the vinestock” as a raw recruit.
He has now returned to Rome to be honorably retired and to end his
days in a luxurious villa in the hills, having enjoyed every honor
possible in the Roman army save that of being Imperial Legatus over an
entire province, a post ordinarily combined with the command of several
legions. It is men like Quadratus, hard and fit soldiers of absolute
faithfulness, coolness, courage, and efficiency; steeped in the
traditions of the army, and obeying automatically the call of military
duty, that have been the soul of the Roman war-machine. Perhaps some
day there will be degeneracy in the camps, even as in the luxurious
city. Then the perils of the Empire will draw nigh--but not in the
reign of Hadrian.
=280. Care for Veterans: Retiring Bonuses and Land Grants.=--Few
enough of Quadratus’s messmates kept near to him in his upward career.
To the average recruit, the most to be hoped for is that, before the
end of his twenty years’ enlistment, he can be somewhere near the rank
of centurion. But many men learn to enjoy the military life even as
privates, and when the time for honorable discharge comes, will often
be glad to reënlist in picked corps of _veterani_, bronzed and
hardened warriors who make invaluable scouts and bodyguards for the
upper officers, and who have quite forgotten the modes of civilian life.
If, however, they elect to be mustered out, not merely are there
accumulations of pay and donations given them from the legion’s savings
bank, but along with the _honesta missio_ (honorable discharge)
they receive either a grant of land for a modest farm, or a lump sum
(some 3000 sesterces--$120) to start them on a peaceful career. If they
become sick or disabled while in service, reasonably good care is taken
of them. In any case the constant award of honorary spears, pennons,
and medals appeals to the soldier’s vanity, and helps to reconcile him
to a very long enlistment and an equally stiff discipline.
=281. Barrier Fortresses; System of Encampments; Flexible Battle
Tactics; Siege Warfare.=--Into the details of the Roman war machine
we cannot enter. We cannot discuss the wonderful system of barrier
fortresses along the junction of the Rhine and Danube upon which
the northern tribes beat in vain, nor the newly completed “Wall of
Hadrian” sundering peaceful and guarded Britain from the stark savagery
of Caledonia. We cannot explain the scientific system of temporary
encampments, whereby every night--when a legion is on the march,--it
occupies a square of ground fortified by solid palisades and with
every tent in precisely the same spot as in the old camp of the
preceding night--a method insuring that every camp becomes practically
a fortress, almost impregnable in case of a defeat in the field. We
cannot visit the permanent garrison towns, such as Colonia Agrippina
(Cologne) on the Rhine, or Vindobona (Vienna) on the Danube, where
extensive cities, with all the paraphernalia of civilization, have
grown up around the cantonments on the very edge of raw barbarism.
It is still less possible to offer here a discussion of the flexible
legionary battle tactics, whereby each particular foe is met with
the formations most formidable to his special arms and weaknesses;
and of the carefully adjusted order of march whereby an army can move
with all its baggage train through a hostile country defiant of any
ordinary harassment and flank attack. We must pass over also the system
of siege warfare, and the use of long-range casting engines--a genuine
artillery; and finally the wonderfully scientific engineering service,
building high-roads through deserts, and throwing strong bridges even
across such mighty streams as the Rhine, and--on Trajan’s Dacian
campaigns--the Danube.
[Illustration: STORMING A BESIEGED CITY: casting
engines in foreground.]
=282. Limited Size of the Imperial Army: its Great Efficiency.=--Two or
three things about the army, however, call for particular comment. The
size of these forces seems decidedly small, considering the vast extent
of the Empire, the slow communications, the careful demilitarizing of
the provincials, and the absence of any reserve corps or efficient
militia. The thirty legions (5000 to 6000 men each) reckon perhaps
175,000 troops of the line. The Prætorians at Rome, the heterogeneous
and scattered auxiliary cohorts, the small naval force, and other armed
groups at the command of the government, in all reckon, perhaps, as
many more; 350,000 men, however, is a very limited number when spread
out from Britain to the confines of Arabia and the Nile cataracts,
although only along the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates are there
now enemies creating serious military problems.
Except at Rome, we have seen that the bulk of these troops is held
in the frontier garrisons, with all their corps kept on edge in full
battle efficiency. Let a frontier be in real peril, however, and there
is no means of reënforcing the local legions save by calling off other
legions from posts at great distance. Governmental policy has not
merely disarmed the provincials, it has systematically discouraged
maintaining the military virtues.[173] If the frontiers are forced
and the legions fail, the civilian population of the Empire (possibly
some 80 to 100 millions) will be nigh helpless before a Parthian raid
or Germanic invader; they can only call on the gods and the distant
Emperor for aid.[174]
However, as yet, the legions have not failed. The Roman armies, never
large, but unsurpassed in quality and composed of highly expert
soldiers steeped in martial tradition, and organized, and commanded
with scientific skill, lie as a solid barrier around the Mediterranean
world, and in Hadrian’s day they are holding back possible invaders
by the mere terror of their name. When one looks, marveling, upon the
huge, luxurious, sophisticated capital, let it not be forgotten that
Rome is imperial Rome because far away on the frontiers thirty brigades
of iron-handed men night and day keep watch and ward.