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The current military would also love to recklessly throw you at some foreigners…
Yeah, there is a conspiracy argument to be made that the shit job market is intentional to drive young people to join the military because basically everyone has realized that dying for corporate interests is stupid as fuck and that is all the military has become.
On the history of this:
In the Republic, Roman soldiers had to provide their own equipment. They were counted and drafted by wealth classes, then expected to bring or buy their own weapons and armour in line with the regulations.
On one hand, this allowed the state to push expenses (and the overhead for collecting taxes to fund them) on the citizens instead. On the other, that meant that citizens were motivated primarily by duty to their city, as well as social expectations (nobody wants to look bad in front of their peers, particularly if you might depend on their assistance at some point), rather than a pure expectation of profit.
They did get a decent salary, so it’s not like that was a net loss, but having to shoulder the initial cost (and armour wasn’t exactly cheap, particularly if you wanted to rely on it for survival) meant not every family could afford to send their kids to war for money. For families that had previously served, the arms of the fathers could obviously be passed to the children if they were still in good shape, which would reduce the burden - if they could afford to shoulder it once, it would be lighter down the line.
There is also an intermediate option, where poorer or younger soldiers could serve not as legionaries, but as lighter velites, whose equipment would be much cheaper. They’d move out in front of the main body to screen the army and harass the enemy with javelins, then retreat before the main engagement happened. The loot from that service might enable them to buy heavier equipment and subsequently serve as heavy infantry.
The evidence isn’t entirely clear, but it seems that this shifted at some point, possibly along the shift from a draft army to professional volunteer soldiers, which was formalised primarily by Augustus. By the end of the first century CE, it appears as if state-operated arms production was the main source of soldiers’ equipment. This would enable poorer classes to voluntarily serve for money (and maybe a shot at some land of their own, at least until Roman expansion started to falter), as the meme describes, which places it somewhere in the Imperial era. As memes go, this one is fairly accurate.
Largely accurate, just a couple of nitpicks!
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The change to state-issued equipment is suggested to have occurred as early as the Second Punic War, with velites, hastati, principes, and triarii being sorted by experience rather than wealth, as in Ye Olde Days.
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The change to volunteer, professional legions occurred about ~100 years before Augustus. Gaius Marius is often credited with the change, but it’s generally accepted nowadays that the change happened organically throughout the whole 2nd century BCE, and Marius probably only formalized it, if he was involved at all in changing formal regulations. Augustus just standardized the term length (previously, terms of 5-10 years were common; Augustus set it to ~20 years, adjusting it upwards a few times) and instituted the retirement bonus.
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The equipment was issued by the state, but centralized state manufacturing would not occur until the Late Empire (and would prove to be disastrous). The equipment was bought from private contractors (and retiring soldiers who didn’t want to keep their gear, which was most of them). Some specialized pieces would have been created by the specialist blacksmiths (who traveled with the legion and fought in combat as well) in each legion, but much of it was externally acquired. There’s a whole array of fascinating tidbits we’ve gleaned about the arms trade and military-market integration in recent decades of research on the Roman Empire!
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Cool, that’s explain the amount of myths and stories involving the heirloom arms and armor on ancient roman media
In the days of the militia-legions, even, it was expected that fathers would be the ones who trained their sons in the art of war, and gear was so expensive (and being equipped for duty core to the identity of a Roman citizen) that it was rarely sold off. “This is my father’s blade, as it was his father’s…”
… of course, given the necessity of repairs and maintenance, there may be some “Ship of Theseus” thought that needs to be applied over a long enough period of time, but the basic idea applies!
to be fair you can still go work in the army
I’ve been told the food sucks now, though 😔
And they tell you you’ll never get rich! 😭
It’s not like the food was great back then
You might be surprised! For all the complaints we have of legionaries, and they are manifold and sometimes petty, food quality isn’t one of them - something which has been noted by historians as unusual considering that food is usually one of the top complaints of pre-modern (and often modern) soldiery. Considering the high quality of medical treatment and that the Romans considered diet to be a core part of health, and the known rations supplied to legionaries, it’s likely that most legionaries were eating as-well-as or better than their civilian counterparts!
TIL
Standard rations of grain (to be made into bread), meat, beans and lentils, cheese, salt, wine, and vinegar. Fucking ancient legionaries are eating better than I am*.
*because my diet is shit by choice, but still. why eat good when eating bad is so easy
Never get rich? Have they abandoned pillaging? Like, without that, what’s the point?
“Souvenirs” only, and that only if you can sneak them past your officers 😔
I guess it was easier for both back in the day when you got paid in salt
Mandatory fun-killing note: the evidence suggests that Roman soldiers were never actually paid in salt. 😔
You could get rich as a literate legionary, though. A legionary’s standard pay was about as much as a common worker. But the enlisted-to-NCO pipeline was very real, and NCOs got 1.5x pay, 2x pay, and then, at the rank of centurion, 16x pay! That pay scale also applies to the share of loot you receive after a battle, and, in the Imperial period, also to your retirement bonus!
Of course, centurions were expected to lead from the front, and had high casualty rates. In the Battle of Gergovia, centurions died at four times the rate of enlisted men.
… what’s your tolerance for danger…?
Is the job as emperor still available?
It’s something of a “make your own opening” position
Okay, so here’s my application. I think all people are equal and if they work against the greater good for society, they should be banned from participation.
Shit. Now I see it as well. I don’t have what it takes to be a leader.
Well, I meant more “open up the position by killing the previous Emperor”
Food service vs military
Apples and olives, my legionaire
Beg to differ. I remember trying get a job I was qualified for, but being told I was over qualified for. I asked why that would be a problem, they said, “because you’ll just quit when you get bored or find something better.”
Need to be literate to get the good promotion opportunities, though!
