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1 results

  • 11 - The army and the navy

  • from PART II - THE GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE EMPIRE
  • Edited by Alan K. Bowman, University of Oxford, Edward Champlin, Princeton University, New Jersey, Andrew Lintott, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Ancient History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    08 February 1996, pp 371-396

  • Summary

    By the middle of the first century BC the Roman army had developed over centuries of all but continuous warfare into a professionally minded force. By the middle of Augustus' reign the number of legions in service stood at twenty-eight. Almost all had seen service in the civil wars. Throughout the late Republic the length of service required of a man joining the legions had been a minimum of six years. Initially the cohorts were responsible directly to Augustus himself, but in 2 BC he appointed two equestrians as praefecti praetorio, i.e. prefects of the praetorium. These were men of administrative ability rather than military expertise. Normally, throughout the Julio-Claudian period, there continued to be two prefects, but on occasion a single individual held sole command. The Roman army of the later first century AD could still look on occasion to forward movement, but for the most part it was settling to a static role of frontier defence.