CHAP. I.
----familiarised themselves with the practice of war; and it is prettily remarked by an ancient historian who had fought against them, that the effusion of blood was the only circumstance which distinguished a field of battle from a field of exercise[1]. It was the pohcy of the ablest generals, and even of the emperors them- selves, to encourage these military studies by their presence and example; and we are informed that Hadrian, as well as Trajan, frequently condescended to instruct the unexperienced soldiers, to reward the diligent, and sometimes to dispute with them the prize of superior strength or dexterity[2]. Under the reigns of those princes, the science of tactics was cultivated with success ; and as long as the empire retained any vigour, their military instructions were respected as
the most perfect model of Roman discipline.
The legions under the emperors.Nine centuries of war had gradually introduced into the service many alterations and improvements. The legions, as they are described by Polybius[3], in the time of the Punic wars, differed very materially from those which achieved the victories of Caesar, or defended the monarchy of Hadrian and the Antonines. The constitution of the imperial legion may be described in a few words[4]. The heavy-armed infantry, which composed its principal strength[5], was divided into ten cohorts and fifty-five companies, under the orders of a correspondent number of tribunes and centurions. The first cohort, which always claimed the
- ↑ Joseph, de Bell. Judaico, 1. iii. c. 5. We are indebted to this jew for some very curious details of Roman discipline.
- ↑ Plin. Panegyr. c. 13. Life of Hadrian, in the Augustan History.
- ↑ See an admirable digression on the Roman discipline in the sixth book of his history.
- ↑ Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. ii. c. 4, etc. Considerable part of his very perplexed abridgement was taken from the regulations of Trajan and Hadrian ; and the legion, as he describes it, cannot suit any other age of the Roman empire.
- ↑ Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. ii. c. 1. In the purer age of Caesar and Cicero, the word * miles' was almost confined to the infantry. Under the lower eihpire, and in the times of chivalry, it was appropriated almost as exclusively to the men at arms who fought on horseback.
