the provinces, as the knights occupied at Rome; they were the municipal image of the knights. They represented the capitalists and mercantile classes in contrast with the nobility and landed proprietors; they bore the same relation to the municipal senate as the knights to the Roman senate.
SECT. III. — ORGANISATION OF THE ARMY AND FLEET
Augustus introduced some radical changes into the Roman military system. In the first place, he established a standing army. It was quite logical that the permanent imperator should have a permanent army under his command. The legions distributed throughout those provinces, which required military protection, have now permanent camps. In the second place, he organized the auxilia, and made them an essential part of the military forces of the Empire. Thirdly, he separated the fleet from the army; and fourthly, he established the praetorian guards. Augustus spent great care on the organization of the army, but it is generally admitted that he acted unwisely in reducing the number of legions after the civil wars. This step was chiefly dictated by considerations of economy, in order to diminish the public burdens; but the standing army which he maintained, of about 250,000 men, was inadequate for the defence of such a great empire against its foes on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates, not to speak of lesser dangers in other quarters.
At the death of Augustus, the legions numbered twenty-five. Each legion consisted of not more than 6000, not less than 5000, foot-soldiers and 120 horse-soldiers. The foot-soldiers were divided into ten cohorts, and each cohort into six centuries. Each century had a standard (signum) of its own. The horse-soldiers were divided into four turmae. Only those were admitted to legionary service who were freeborn, and belonged to a city-community.
To the legions were attached auxiliary troops (auxilia), recruited from the provincials, who did not belong to urban communities. They were divided into cohorts, and consisted of footmen and horsemen, or both combined. Some foot-cohorts were composed of about 500 men, and were divided into six centuries; such were called quingenariae. Others were larger and contained 1000 men divided into ten centuries; these were militariae. Mixed cohorts of both horse and foot-soldiers, were termed equitatae. The alae consisted only of horse-soldiers and also varied in size. The auxiliary troops, when attached to a legion, were under the control of the commander of the legion. But they could also act separately, and some provinces were garrisoned exclusively by auxilia.
The legions were distinguished by numbers and by names; for example,legio X. gemina, XXI. rapax, or VI. victrix.
Besides these troops there were cohorts of Italian volunteers, of whom we seldom hear; and there were in some provinces bodies of provincial militia. Moreover, Augustus had a body-guard of German soldiers to protect his person; but he disbanded it in 9 A.D.. With the exception of the legions stationed in Egypt, and the auxiliary troops in some small provinces, the military forces of the Empire were commanded by senators. This leads us to an important institution of Augustus, the legatus legionis, an officer of senatorial, generally praetorian, rank, who commanded both the legion and the auxilia associated with it. The military tribune thus became subordinate to the legatus. He was merely a "tribune of the legion", and on an equality with the prefect of an auxiliary cohort, while his position was rather inferior to that of a prefect of an auxiliary squadron. These three posts (tribunatus legionis, praefectura cohortis, praefectura alae) were the three "equestrian offices", open to the sons of senators who aspired to a public career. The prefect of the camp (praefectus castrorum) was not of senatorial rank, and was generally taken from theprimipili, or first of the first class of centurions. He was subject to the governor of the province in which the camp was situated; but he was not subject to thelegatus legionis. He had no power of capital punishment. In Egypt, from which senators were excluded, there was no legatus legionis, and the prefect of the camp took his place.
The time of service for a legionary soldier was fixed (5 A.D..) at twenty years, for an auxiliary at twenty-five. The government was bound to provide for the discharged veterans, by giving them farms or sums of money. It became the custom, however, for some soldiers, after their regular term, to continue in the service of the state, in special divisions, and with special privileges. These divisions were known as the vexilla veteranorum, and were only employed in battle.
The expenses of this military system were very large, and in 6 A.D.., at the time of a rebellion in Dalmatia, Augustus was unable to meet the claims of the soldiers by ordinary means, and was driven to instituting an aerarium militare, with a capital of 170,000,000 sesterces (about 1,360,000). It was administered by three praefecti, chosen by lot, for three years, from the praetorian senators. The sources of revenue on which the military treasury was to depend, were a five per cent, tax on inheritances, and a one per cent, impost on auctions.
Rome and Italy were exempted from the military command of the Imperator; and the army was distributed in the provinces and on the frontiers. But there were two exceptions : the Praetorian guards (along with the City guards and the Watchmen) and the fleet.
The institution of a body-guard (cohors praetoria) for the imperator had existed under the Republic, and had been further developed under the triumvirate. Augustus organized it anew. After his victory both his own guards and those of his defeated rival Antonius were at his disposal, and out of these troops he formed a company of nine cohorts, each consisting of 1000 men. Thus the permanent praetorian guard under the Empire stood in the same relation to the Imperator, in which the temporary cohors praetoria stood to an imperator under the Republic. The pay of the praetorian soldier was fixed at double that of the legionary, his rime of service was fixed (5 A.D.) at sixteen years; and the command was ultimately placed in the hands of two praetorian prefects (2 B.C.) of equestrian rank. In later times this office became the most important in the state; but even at first a praetorian prefect had great influence. The Emperor's personal safety depended on his loyalty, and the appointment of two prefects by Augustus, was probably a device for lessening the chances of treachery. Only a small division of the praetorian troops were permitted to have their station within Rome; the rest were quartered in the neighbourhood. The irregularity of a standing military force posted in Italy, was to some extent rendered less unwelcome by the rule that only Italians and "Italians" was at first interpreted in its old sense, so as to exclude dwellers in Gallia Cisalpina could enter the service.
Besides the Praetorian cohorts, there were three Urban cohorts (cohortes urbanae) stationed at Rome. During the absence of the Emperor, they were under the command of the prefect of the city. The cohortes vigilum have already been mentioned.
Augustus created an imperial fleet, which was called, though perhaps not in his own day, the classis praetoria. Under the Republic the command of the naval forces had always devolved upon the commander of the legions, and consequently no fleets could be stationed in Italian ports, as Italy was exempt from the imperium. Hence the Tuscan and Adriatic seas were infested by pirates. The war with Sextus Pompeius had turned the special attention of Augustus to the fleet, and he saw his way to separating the navy from the army. Two fleets were permanently stationed in Italy; one, to guard over the eastern waters, at Ravenna, and the second, to control the southern seas, at Misenum. They formed the guard of the Emperor, and at first were manned by his slaves. The commanders, under the early Empire, were praefecti, who were sometimes freedmen. Augustus also stationed a squadron of lesser magnitude at Forum Julium; but this was removed when the province of Narbonensis was transferred to the senate (22 B.C.). These fleets were composed of the regular ships of war with three benches of oars, triremes, and of the lighter Liburnian biremes. But the heavier and larger kind afterwards fell into disuse, and liburna came to be the general word for a warship.
Chapter VI.
Provincial Administration Under Augustus — The Western Provinces
SECT. I. — GENERAL ORGANIZATION OF THE PROVINCES
When Augustus founded the Empire, the dominion of Rome stretched from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, from the German Ocean to the borders of Ethiopia. The lands which made up this empire had by no means the same