As far as we can conclude from the ancient authorities, great changes in the military system were made in the time of Marius; but we cannot assign to him every innovation. We have no history of these changes; and we must collect what they were from scattered passages. It is only in Caesar's writings that we have the campaigns of a Roman army written by a Roman commander, and a living picture of the Roman military system. We now possess from a modern soldier a commentary on the campaigns of Caesar. It is a small book, like the original, but as unassuming and as full of matter as the immortal work of the conqueror of Gallia.

It is sometimes affirmed that in the time of Marius the Roman cavalry was no longer employed, and that the legion consisted only of infantry. A certain number of cavalry, as we learn from Polybius, was a part of the old Roman legion; but it is said by some modern writers that the men in the Roman cavalry (equites Romani) now served only in the praetorian cohort of the commander, or as tribunes of the legions and as praefecti, or were employed on extraordinary commissions. This conclusion is derived from some passages in Sallust's Jugurthine war; but Sallust is not evidence enough for a fact of this kind, nor do these passages prove the conclusion, even if we accept them as evidence. In Caesar's campaigns the cavalry appears to have consisted entirely of auxiliaries; and in the Gallic campaigns his cavalry was raised in the Provincia and in the Gallic states which were friendly to him; and he also had some German cavalry. To mount his men properly Caesar got horses even from Italy and Spain; and he had some Spanish horsemen in his

service.

The artillery, as we may call it, or the engines for the discharge of missiles, and those used in sieges, must have been carried with the armies, for we cannot suppose that materials for constructing and repairing engines could always be found on the spot; nor if the materials could be found would there always be time and means for making engines. We shall see in the Gallic campaigns of Caesar how he

1 Heerwesen und Kriegführung C. Julius Cäsars, von W. Rüstow, Zweite, verbesserte Auflage, 1862.

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employed his artillery. In the campaigns of Metellus and Marius in Africa, it is certain that engines must have been carried with the armies, if Sallust's description of the assaults on some of the strong places is true. The conveyance, the repairs, and the management of this cumbrous machinery would require the services of a set of men trained for the purpose; but, as Rüstow observes, we do not know how this part of the service was managed. He conjectures that the Fabri, or engineers, had this duty assigned to them, and as we know no other body of men who could manage the engines, we may assume this conjecture to be true. Marius' campaigns in Gallia and North Italy, there would be no occasion for the employment of the heavy artillery, but he must have had a large body of Fabri, as will soon appear. These Fabri were under the direction of a Praefectus Fabrorum, or officer of engineers, and they formed a distinct part of the army. They were employed to build bridges, make roads, construct huts for winter-quarters, and to form the defensive works of the camps. But a good part of the hard labour was also done by the legionary soldiers under the inspection, as we may suppose, of the Fabri. There were Fabri Ferrarii, or workers in iron, who, as Rüstow conjectures, also repaired the weapons, and particularly the Pilum, which would be damaged in every fight. The carpenters' work was done by the Fabri Lignarii.

I find nothing about surgeons in the Roman army, and yet broken limbs and ugly wounds would require more skill and attention than a soldier could have from his comrades. The Fabri, who were able to use their hands, might give some help; but it is hardly possible that there were no surgeons or physicians in a Roman army, when they were employed to look after the health and wounds of gladiators. Caesar on one occasion speaks of delaying some days on a battle-field to look after the wounded, but he does not say how this was done.

The Fabri were attached to the staff of the army, which consisted of the commander-in-chief and various officers.

First were the Legati, a term which means men with a commission." They were generally men of senatorian rank,

perhaps always, who were assigned to the commanders of the armies, and served as generals of division or in any other way that the commander-in-chief might employ them. The Quaestor, an officer who was assigned by lot to the commander-in-chief out of the body of the Quaestors who were annually elected, had the care of the military chest, paid the soldiers, looked after the supplies of the army, and with his subordinates discharged all the duties of a commissariat department. The Quaestor made the arrangements with the contractors or great merchants for the delivery of all that was required for the use of an army; and we even find instances of a Quaestor commanding a division of the army when his services were wanted.

It was the practice for young men of rank to accompany a general on a campaign as volunteers, for the purpose of learning the art of war. If they showed talent and courage, they would have opportunities of being employed by the commander and distinguishing themselves. They were named Contubernales, and formed a part of the Cohors Praetoria, or body immediately attached to the general-in-chief. We read of the younger Scipio Africanus forming a body-guard for his own protection, when he undertook the Numantine war with an army which was in a disorderly state (vol. i., p. 87). This may have been the origin of the Cohors Praetoria.

The body-guard of the general was composed of such troops as he enlisted for this special purpose, such as the German cavalry for instance, which Caesar employed in the Gallic War, and of the class called Evocati. These Evocati might be any men who joined the general upon his invitation; but they were properly veterans who had completed their term of service, and either stayed with an army or joined it again on the summons of an old commander.

The Roman discipline allowed no women in the camp; but when large bodies of sutlers followed an army, we must assume that they were accompanied by women, for women would follow the army, even if men did not. Lipsius contends that the two thousand whom Scipio drove away when he was reforming his army before the siege of Numantia (vol. i., p. 88) were not women, and his interpretation is

possible; but, if it is true, it would show a state of demoralization which is incredible. The change in the way of raising soldiers did not corrupt the discipline of a Roman army. It is probable, as Rüstow suggests, that it contributed to the maintenance of the old discipline, which Polybius tells us was very strict. The men who now voluntarily took service in the Roman army would be of the lowest class, often coarse and brutal, and such men both submit to, and require, a very severe discipline. The ancient discipline, it is true, was as severe as it well could be; but in the altered condition of Roman society after the Punic wars, it would hardly have been possible to keep up this discipline in an army where all the soldiers were citizens and electors, and by their votes could help to give or refuse the consulship to an officer according as he was popular or unpopular. "But discipline was maintained by surer and better means than merely by the fear of punishment. Of such means the traditional military system of the Romans supplied abundance to a general who knew how to use them. The daily fortification of the camp during a march left the soldier little time to think of any thing except his duty. In the longer intervals of rest, the completion of their fortifications, the making the camp comfortable, and the strict watches that were kept, all contributed to the same object. The Roman method of fighting made the personal dexterity of the soldier a necessary condition of success, and consequently there was constant practice in the use of arms, which occupied the time of the men profitably. To all this we must add the rewards for faithful discharge of duty and for great courage, which rewards at this time did not consist of crowns of leaves, but sums of money. Thus we may conceive that a Roman commander was not driven to the necessity of punishing continually" (Rüstow).

The pay of the Roman soldier in the time of Marius is uncertain. Polybius in his time says that it was two oboli a day for the soldier, four for the centurion, and six oboli, or a drachme, for those who served in the cavalry. About two-thirds of an Attic medimnus, or four modii of corn, were allowed for each soldier monthly. The cavalry had

seven medimni of barley a month, and two medimni of wheat, which is twelve modii. The barley was for the horses. The auxiliary infantry had the same as the legionary soldiers; and the cavalry one medimnus and a third of wheat, and five medimni of barley. The medimnus is estimated by modern metrologists at twelve imperial gallons nearly, or one bushel and a half. But in the case of the Roman soldiers a deduction was made from their pay both in respect of clothing, arms, and food. The auxiliaries received no pay from Rome, but the allowance of corn was made to them cost free. Caius Gracchus either carried or proposed a law for supplying the soldier with his clothing by the state without any deduction being made from his pay (vol. i., p. 263). From a passage in Tacitus we learn that in the time of Tiberius the soldiers still complained of deductions being made from their pay for their clothing, arms, and tents.

Polybius says that the regular strength of a legion was 4200 men and 300 horse; but we read on many occasions of the number of a legion being much larger. There is no authority after that of Polybius for determining the regular force of a legion. We do not learn this even from Caesar's writings. We only know on certain occasions what the actual strength of his legions was. In the time of Polybius, and before his time, the legion consisted of four divisions, differently armed, Hastati, Principes, Triarii, and Velites, light-armed soldiers or skirmishers. The three first divisions were completely armed, and a man's place in one of them was determined by his age.

In the legions of Marius the distinction of Hastati, Principes, and Triarii did not exist. All the soldiers of the legion wore complete armour, and all were armed alike. The Velites are mentioned for the last time in a passage of the Jugurthine war (c. 46). Probably from the time of Marius, and certainly in Caesar's armies, all the light-armed troops were auxiliaries, and formed no part of the legion. The offensive weapons of the legionary soldiers under Marius were the pilum or heavy javelin and the sword. The pilum is particularly described by Polybius, who says that every soldier had also a light pilum. We do not know when the