numerous and proved no match for its opponents in the Second Punic War. The light troops came off even worse when engaged either with mountain tribes fighting on their own ground or with the skilled archers and slingers of Carthage or Macedon. So early was this recognized that, in describing an offer made by Hiero of Syracuse to furnish a thousand archers and slingers in 217 B.C., Livy is able to make the Syracusans justify the suggestion to Roman pride by asserting that it was already customary for the Republic to use externi in this capacity.[1] To make up their notorious deficiency in this respect the Government could have recourse to three sources of supply. They could, as in this case, accept or demand contingents from allies outside the Italian military league, such as Hiero, Masinissa, or the Aetolians; they could also make forced levies among subject tribes, such as the Ligurians, Gauls, or Spaniards; or, finally, they could imitate their opponents and raise mercenaries, although they might save their pride by including such contingents as 'allies'. In fact all these sources were freely drawn on during the first half of the second century B.C., and all troops of this kind were known as auxilia, to distinguish them from the socii of the old organization. This at any rate seems to be the distinction recognized by the grammarians, and it agrees generally with the terminology employed by Livy, who may be supposed in such a matter to be following his sources.[2] A good example both of republican methods and of the
- ↑ Livy, xxii. 37 'Milite atque equite scire nisi Romano Latinique nominis non uti populum Romanum: levium armorum auxilia etiam externa vidisse in castris Romanis'. Cf. Polybius, iii. 75.
- ↑ Cf. Varro, De Lat. ling. v. 90 'auxilium appellatum ab auctu, quum accesserant ei qui adiumnto essent alienigenae'. Festus, Epit. 17 'auxiliares dicuntur in bello socii Romanorum exterarum nationum'.
