Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

EXERPCITUS. EXERCITUS. 493
On this we mae remark - Tle number ofJbot soldiers in a Roman legion.1. That several legions bore the same number: Although we can determine with tolerable certainty
thus there were four.Fists, five Seconds, and five the number of soldiers who, at different periods,
Thirds. mere contained in a legion, we must bear in mind
2. The titles. were derived from various circum- that at no epoch does this number appear to have
stances; some indicated the deity under whose been absolutely fixed, but to have varied within mo -
patronage the legions were placed, such as Mklinervia derate limits, especially when troops were required
and Apollinaris; some the country in which they for some special or extraordinary service. The
had been levied or recruited, as Italica, 3lMace- permanent changes may be referred to four epochs.
donica, Gallica; or the scene of their most bril- 1. Under the Kings.-Varro (L. L. v. ~ 89) and
liant achievements, as Parthlice, Scythlica; some the Plutarch (Rom. 1 3), both of whom describe the
emperor under whom they had served or by whom first establishment of the legion, agree that under
they had been created, as A nunsta, F clavia, Ulpian; Romulus it contained 3000 foot soldiers. The
some a special service, as Claudiana Pia Felix, words of Plutarch indeed, in a subsequent passage
applied to the 7th and 11th, which had remained (Romt. 20), would, at first sight, appear to imply
trne to their allegiance during the rebellion of that after the junction with the Sabines the numCamillus, praefect of Dalmatia, in the reign of her was raised to 6000; but he must be understood
Claudius (Dion Cass. lx. 15); some, the fact that to mean two legions, one from each nation. It is
another legion had been incorporated with them; highly probable that some change may have been
at least, this is the explanation given by Dion introduced by Servius Tullius, but, in so far as
Cassius of the epithet Gemins (Ati8vua), and there numbers are concerned, we have no evidence.
seems little doubt that he is correct. (See Eckhel, 2. Frome the eapdulsion of the Kinys until the second
vol. iv. p. 472.) year of the second Punic War. - The regular num3. The same legions appear in certain cases to bher during this space of time may be fixed at 4000
have been quartered in the same districts for cen- or 4200 infantry. According to Dionysius (vi. 42)
turies. Thus the Secunda Augusta, the Sexta Vie- M. Valerius, the brother of Publicola, raised two
trix, and the Vicesimsa Victrix, which were stationed legions (B. c. 492), each consisting of 4000, and
in Britain when Dion drew up his statement, were Livy, in the first passage, where he specifies the
there in the age of the Antonines, as we learn from numbers in the legions (vi. 22, B. c. 378), reckons
Ptolemy (ii. 31), and the first of them as early as them at 4000, and a few years afterwards (vii. 25,
the reign of Claudius. (Tac. Hist. iii. 22, 24.) B. C. 346) he tells us that legions were raised
4. The six legions of Augustus which had dis- each containing 4200 foot soldiers, and 300 horse.
appeared when Dion wrote, were probably the fol- The legion which possessed itself of Rhegium
lowing, whose existence in the early years of the (B. c. 281-271) is described (Liv. xxviii. 28) as
empire can be demonstrated: Prima Germanica; having consisted of 4000, and we find the same
Quarts Alacedonica; Quinta Alauda; Nona His- number in the first year of the second Punic War
pansa; Decisna Sexta Gallica; Vigesimra Prinma (Liv. xxi. 17, B. c. 218). Polybius, in like manner
Rapax; besides these, it would seem that there (i. 16), fixes the number at 4000 in the second
was a second fifteenth and a twenty-second, both year of the first Punic War (B. c. 263), and again
named Primigenia, and one of these ought, perhaps, in the first year of the second Punic W'ar (iii. 72,
to be substituted for the second twentieth in the B. C. 218). In the war against Veii, however,
above table, since the words of Dion with regard to when the Romans put forth all their energies, acthe latter are very obscure and apparently corrupt. cording to Dionysius (ix. 13), an army was raised
5. We find notices also of a Prima Macriana of 20,000 infantry and 1200 cavalry, divided into
Liberatrix raised in Africa, after the death of Nero, four legions; and, according to Polybius (ii. 24),
by Clodius Macer; of a Decima Sexta Flavia Firma in the war against the Gauls, which preceded the
raised by Vespasian; and of a Vigesimza Secunda second Punic War, the legions of the consuls conDeiotariana, apparently originally a foreign corps, sisted of 5200 infantry, while those serving in
raised by Deiotarus, which, eventually, like the Sicily and Tarentum contained 4200 only, a proof
Alacda of Caesar, was admitted to the name and that the latter was the ordinary number.
privileges of a Roman legion. 3. From the second year of' the second Punie
6. It will be seen that the numbers XVII., War until the consulship of' larius. -During
XVIII., XIX. are altogether wanting in the above this interval the ordinary number may be fixed
lists. We know that the XVIII. and XIX. were at from 5000 to 5200. Polybius, indeed, in
two of the legions commanded by Varus, and his treatise on Roman warfare, lays it down
hence it is probable that the XVII. was the third (vi. 20) that the legion consists of 4200 foot solin that ill-fated host. diers, and in cases of peculiar danger of 5000.
7. The total number of legions under Augustus However, the whole of the space we are now colnwas twenty-five, under Alexander Severus thirty- sidering, was in fact a period of extraordinary
two, but during the civil wars the number was far exertion, and hence from the year B. c. 216, we
greater. Thus, when the second triumvirate was shall scarcely find the number stated under 5000
formed the forces of the confederates were calcu- (e. g. Polyb. iii. 107, Liv. xxii. 36, xxvi. 28,
lated at forty-three legions,' which, after the battle xxxix. 38), and after the commencement of the
of Philippi, had dwindled down to twenty-eight Ligurian war it seems to have been raised to
(Appian, B. C. v. 6); but a few years afterwards, 5200 (Liv. xl. 1, 18, 36, xli. 9, but in xli. 21 it is
when war between Octavianus and M. Antonius again 5000). The two legions which passed over
was imminent, the former alone had upwards of into Africa under Scipio (B. c. 204) contained each
forty legions, and his adversaries nearly the same. 6200 (Liv. xxix. 24), those which served against
(Appian, B. C(. v..53.) In order that we may be Antiochus 5400 (Liv. xxxvii. 39), those employed
able to form some idea of the magnitude of these in the last Macedonian war 6000 (Liv. xlii. 31, xliv.
and other annies, we must next consider 21, comp. xliii. 12), but these were special cases.