One was no longer a soldier
from a sense of duty, but as a profession.
The soldiers enrolled themselves for twenty years; their time
completed, they reengaged themselves at higher pay and became
veterans. These people knew neither the Senate nor the laws; their
obedience was only to their general. To attach them to himself, the
general distributed to them the money taken from the vanquished.
During the war against Mithradates Sulla lodged his men with the rich
inhabitants of Asia; they lived as they chose, they and their friends,
receiving each sixteen drachmas a day. These first generals, Marius
and Sulla, were still Roman magistrates. But soon rich individuals
like Pompey and Crassus drew the soldiers to their pay. In 78 at the
death of Sulla there were four armies, levied entirely and commanded
by simple citizens. From that time there was no further question of
the legions of Rome, there were left only the legions of Pompey or
Caesar.
THE REVOLUTION
=Necessity of the Revolution.=--The Roman people was no longer
anything but an indigent and lazy multitude, the army only an
aggregation of adventurers.
Pages:
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383