litary Service.=--To be admitted to service in the Roman army one
must be a Roman citizen. It is necessary to have enough wealth to
equip one's self at one's own expense, for the state furnishes no arms
to its soldiers; down to 402 B.C. it did not even pay them. And so
only those citizens are enrolled who are provided with at least a
small fortune. The poor (called the proletariat) are exempt from
service, or rather, they have no right to serve. Every citizen who is
rich enough to be admitted to the army owes the state twenty
campaigns; until these are completed the man remains at the
disposition of the consul and this from the age of seventeen to
forty-six. In Rome, as in the Greek cities, every man is at once
citizen and soldier. The Romans are a people of small proprietors
disciplined in war.

=The Levy.=--When there was need of soldiers, the consul ordered all
the citizens qualified for service to assemble at the Capitol. There
the officers elected by the people chose as many men as were necessary
to form the army. This was the enrolment (the Romans called it the
Choice); then came the military oath. The officers first took the
oath, and then the rank and file; they swore to obey their general,
to follow him wherever he led them and to remain under the standards
until he released them from their oath. One man pronounced the formula
and each in turn advanced and said, "I also." From this time the army
was bound to the general by the bonds of religion.

=Legions and Allies.=--The Roman army was at first called the Legion
(levy). When the people increased in number, instead of one legion,
several were formed.

The legion was a body of 4,200 to 5,000 men, all Roman citizens. The
smallest army had always at least one legion, every army commanded by
a consul had at least two. But the legions constituted hardly a half
of the Roman army. All the subject peoples in Italy were required to
send troops, and these soldiers, who were called allies, were placed
under the orders of Roman officers. In a Roman army the allies were
always a little more numerous than the citizens of the legions.
Ordinarily with four legions (16,800 men) there were enrolled 20,000
archers and 40,000 horse from the allies. In the Second Punic War, in
218 B.C., 26,000 citizens and 45,000 allies were drawn for service.
Thus the Roman people, in making war, made use of its subjects as well
as of its citizens.

=Military Exercises.=--Rome had no gymnasi