The Impact of Auxiliary Recruitment on Provincial Societies From Augustus to Caracalla

Bibliographic Data

ID20040528
AuthorsI P HAYNES (corresponding author)
Year2001
Pages62-83
Publication date2001-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueAdministration, Prosopography and Appointment Policies in the Roman Empire (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/9789004401617_008
OpenAlexW2919421723
ISBN9789004401617
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited1

our best estimates for the Empire's population. During the first two centuries AD the regular auxilia probably never grew to much more than 215,000 men. To maintain a force of this size in peacetime would, I estimate, require about 10,500 recruits annually. Such a number would be necessary to replace those men who died in service and the approximately 6,500 soldiers honourably discharged each year.2 Even if members of soldiers' families are included amongst those somehow directly affected by the pattern of recruitment and discharge, and even if the resulting calculations are considered across a generation, the total number of individuals involved is small when set against the lowest commonly accepted estimate for the Empire's population, 50 million. Though these figures need to be viewed alongside those for the number of men enrolled into the legions, sustaining such an auxiliary force would not appear to pose a major problem for the Empire as a whole. Nor would the number of veterans ever constitute more than a very small proportion of the total population. Yet it is vital to recall that the burdens and opportunities that arose from the existence of the auxilia did not fall evenly across the Roman world. Understanding regional variation therefore becomes crucial to understanding the impact of maintaining the auxilia on provincial societies. This paper therefore seeks to combine a general overview of both recruitment and discharge of auxiliary soldiers with specific regional case studies

Political science · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Architectural Studies · History

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