Army Life as an Ancient Roman Soldier
For the unprivileged, serving in the ancient Roman army was a path to wealth building, social climbing, and citizenship
Coolus type helmet tagged by four owners, suggesting up to 100 years of use, 1st century AD. Fittings rarely survive attached; this helmet has its original side tubes for plumage but is shown with a separate check-piece and crest fitting. Found in Walbrook, England (helmet) and Kew, England (cheek-piece). Bronze, H: 28 cm, W: 23.5 cm, D: 27 cm. British Museum, London
Body Content
Apion was a second-century CE soldier from Egypt, the most well-known Roman province.
Like many who voluntarily enlisted, he wasn’t a Roman citizen. A career in the military offered a better and brighter future: a salary high enough to build wealth, a respectable social standing by retirement age, and, most importantly, citizenship.
He is one of the men whose careers Richard Abdy partially reconstructs—through scholarship and the letters real soldiers left behind—in Legion: Life in the Roman Army, an engaging and long overdue look at the life and career of these soldiers, their families, and the military communities that made up Rome’s might.
Through Apion’s story we learn what joining the army would have been like a young aspiring soldier:
Segmental cuirass, an almost complete find from the battlefield of the Varus disaster, AS 9. It exemplifies the earliest form of segmental cuirass, without the extended shoulder protection of later finds. Found in Kalkriese, Germany. Iron., H: 79 cm, W: 57 cm, D: 52 cm
The scabbard of the Sword of Tiberius, a Mainz type sword, AD 14–19. The scabbard is decorated with scenes of Germanicus presenting a Victory statue to an enthroned Tiberius who is flanked by Victory and Mars. It also features a wreathed profile of Augustus. Found in the River Rhine, Mainz, Germany. Silvered and gilded bronze, L: 58.5 cm, W: 8.7 cm. British Museum, London, donated by Felix Slade
The scutum of Dura-Europos, a unique survival of a wooden and leather shield, painted with victorious and regimental symbols: an eagle, Victories, and a lion, 3rd century AD. It was originally flat and its metal boss is missing. Found in Dura-Europos, Syria. Painted wood and leather with bronze edge binding, H: 105.5 cm, W: 41 cm, D: 30 cm
Are You Fit for Service?
First, you’d have to pass a recruitment suitability interview (probatio): an in-depth examination to determine if and where you’d serve.
Interviewers would dig into your background for details about your heritage, socioeconomic station, and marital status. Next, a physical examination to check your health, weight and height—army recruits had to be at least four inches taller than the estimated average height at the time.
If at any point the presiding official deemed your answers unworthy or found you physically unfit, you’d be sent home, your dreams of citizenship and glory crushed.
Where You’ll Be Stationed
Apion, Abdy reports, passed his first trial with his background coming back clean and his physique passing muster.
But because he was a provincial non-citizen, he was assigned to a lowly auxiliary marine force made up exclusively of non-citizens in Misenum, on the Bay of Naples.
That meant traveling halfway across the Roman Empire from his home in Egypt to his base, a 15 to 20-day journey fraught with dangers like pirates and the threat of shipwreck.
Tombstone of the daughter of Crescens the standard-bearer, 2nd–4th century AD. The woman (whose name is missing) banquets with the help of a female attendant. A gaming board is propped on its side underneath her couch. Found in Kirkby Thore, England. Stone, H: 72 cm, W: 77 cm, D: 15.5 cm. British Museum, London
Coin showing a blood oath sworn by two soldiers who touch their swords over a sacrificial pig held by an attendant, late 3rd century BC. Minted in Rome. Gold, diam: 1.8 cm, weight: 6.9 g. British Museum, London
The Pay
Once you check in at your new base, you'll received your first pay, which Apion considered quite generous.
You'd have to use part of it to pay back the debt you incurred during travel, and more to cover the cost of your new uniform. But you'd still have more money to your name than ever before, and the promise of upward mobility would start feel real.
Hopefully that steels you for what came next: daily training, grueling chores, seemingly never-ending marches, and the promise of glorious victories.
The Book
Apion’s story is just the beginning. Legion tells the real story of Ancient Rome which was, for all its glitz and glamour, a society built on the back of imperialism and common soldiers.
Stories of women, conquered subjects, and enslaved people through 250 color photographs and illustrations of the soldiers’ letters, armor, weapons and more.
You can pick up your copy of Legion: Life in the Roman Army here, or visit the companion exhibition Legion: Life in the Roman Army on view through June 23 at the British Museum, London.
