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

494 EXERCITUS. EXERCITUS.
4. From the first consulship of Mlalrius (B. C. events of the first Punic War, he in one place
107) until the extinction of the legion. -For some (i. 16) makes the legions to consist of 4000 incenturies after Marius the numbers varied from fantry and 300 cavalry; and in the passage re5000 to 6200, generally approaching to the higher. ferred to above (ii. 24) the consular legions
limit. Festus (s. v. sex millium et ducentorum) amounted to 5200 infantry and 300 cavalry, but
expressly declares that C. Marius raised the num- both of these were pressing emergencies. The
bers from 4000 to 6200, but his system in this statements, therefore, of Polybius upon this point
respect was not immediately adopted, for in the are directly at variance with those of Dionysius
army which Sulla led against Rome to destroy and Livy, and it does not seem possible to rehis rival, the six complete legions (t rad'y1para concile the discrepancy. There are two passages
viessa) amounted to 30,000 men (Plut. Sull. 9, in the last-named historian which might appear to
Mar. 35, but the text in the latter passage is bear out the Greek (Liv. xxii. 36, xlii. 31), but
doubtful). In the war against Mitbridates again, in the first he is evidently alluding to the asser..
the 30,000 men of Lucullus formed five legions tions of Polybius, and in the second the best edit(Appian. Mithr. 72). Comparing Plutarch (Cic. ors agree in considering the text corrupt, and that we
36) with Cicero (ad Att. v. 15), we conclude should substitute duceni pedites for duceni equites.
that the two legions -commanded by the latter When troops were raised for a service which rein Cilicia contained each 6000. Caesar never quired special arrangements, the number of horsespecifies in his Commentaries the number of men men was sometimes increased beyond 300. Thus
in his legions, but we infer that the 13th did the legion despatched to Sardinia in B. c. 215 (Liv.
not contain more than 5000 (B. C. i. 7), while xxiii. 34) consisted of 5000 infantry and 400
the two mentioned in the fifth book of the Gallic cavalry, the same number of horsemen was atwar (c. 48, 49) were evidently incomplete. In tached to a legion sent to Spain in B. c. 180 under
Appian, M. Antonius is represented as calcu- Tiberius Sempronius (Liv. xl. 36), and in B. C.
lating the amount of 28 legionus at upwards of 169 it was resolved that the legions in Spain should
1.70,000 men, that is nearly 6100 to each legion, consist of 5000 infantry and 330 cavalry (Liv.
but he seems to include auxiliaries (ve aozPTrao- xliii. 112), but in the war against Perseus when
bo-oguCrWv). During the first century the standard the infantry of the legions was raised to 6000 the
force was certainly 6000, although subject to con- cavalry retained the ancient number of 300. (Liv.
stant variations according to circumstances, and xlii. 31.) It must be observed that these remarks
the caprice of the reigning prince. The legion of with regard to the cavalry apply only to the period
Hadrian, if we can trust Hyginus, was 5280, of before Marius; about that epoch the system apAlexander Severus 5000 (Lamprid. Sev. 50), that pears to have undergone a very material change,
described by Vegetius (ii. 6), to whatever period which will be adverted to in the proper place.
it may belong, 6100, and most of the grammarians We now proceed to consider the organisation of
agree upon 6000 (e. g. Serv. ad Virg. Aen. vii. the legion at the five periods named above.
274; Isidor. Orig. ix. 3. ~ 46; Suidas, s. v. First Period. Servius Tullius.-The legion of
AshyecS, but Hesychius gives 6666). The Jovi- Servius is so closely connected with the Comitia
ans and Herculeans of Diocletian and Mlaxinmian Centuriata that it has already been discussed in a
formed each a corps of 6000 (Veget. i. 17), but former article [COMITIA], and it is only necessary
beyond this we have no clue to guide us. If we to repeat here that it was a phalanx equipped in
believe the T-y?/uara of Zosimus and the aprtOloi the Greek fashion, the front ranks being furnished
of Sozomen to designate the legions of Honorius, with a complete suit of armour, their weapons
they must at that epoch have been reduced to'a being long spears, and their chief defence the round
number varying from 1200 to 700. Argolic shield (clipeus).
Number of Cavalry attached to tlhe Legion.- Second Period. Tlze Great Latin War, B.c.According to Varro and the other authorities who 340. —Our sole authority is a single chapter in
describe the original constitution of the legion, it Livy (viii. 8), but it "is equalled by few others in
consisted of 3000 infantry and 300 cavalry. The compressed richness of information," and is in itnumber of foot soldiers was, as we have seen self sufficiently intelligible, although tortured and
above, gradually increased until it amounted to elaborately corrupted by Lipsius and others, who
6000, but the number of horsemen remained al- were determined to force it into harmony with the
ways the same, except upon particular occasions. words of Polybius, which represent, it is true, most
In those passages of Livy and Dionysius, where accurately the state of a Roman army, but of a
the numbers of the legion are specified, we find Roman army as it existed two centuries afterwards.
uniformly, amid all the variations with regard to According to the plain and obvious sense of the
the infantry, 300 horsemen set down as the regular passage in question, the legion in the year B. C.
complement (justus equitatus) of the legion. 340 had thrown aside the arms and almost enPolybius, however, is at variance with these au- tirely discarded the tactics of the phalanx. It was
thorities, for although in his chapter upon Roman now drawn up in three, or perhaps we ought to say,
warfare (vi. 20) he gives 300 as the number, yet in five lines. The soldiers of the first line, called
when he is detailing (iii. 107) the military pre- Hastati, consisted of youths in the first bloom of
parations of the year B. C. 216, after having re- manhood (floresjuvenumpuubescent tium in militiam)
marked that each legion contained 5000 infantry, distributed into fifteen companies or maniples (nzahe adds, that under ordinary circumstances it con- nipuli), a moderate space being left between each.
tained 4000 infantry and 200 cavalry, but that The maniple contained sixty privates, two centuupon pressing emergencies it was increased to rions (centuriones), and a standard bearer(vexilla5000 infantry and 300 cavalry, and this repre- riss); two thirds were heavily armed and bore
sentation is confirmed by his review of the Roman the scutuan or large oblong shield, the remainder
forces at the time of the war against the Cisalpine carried only a spear (hasta) and light javelins
Gauls (ii. 24). It is true that when narrating the (gacsa). The second line, the Principes, was coin