§ 1. Polybius describes the division of the ranks in this manner: “When the tribunes at Rome have administered the military oath, announcing to each legion the day and place at which they are to assemble, and that without arms, they then dismiss them. But when they have appeared on the appointed day, the tribunes select from among them especially the young and poor for the velites; those nearest to them, for the hastati; those most flourishing in age, for the principes; and those greatest in age, for the triarii. For so many and such distinctions both of names and of ages and of arms exist among them in each legion. They divide them in such a way that the oldest in age, whom they call the triarii, are six hundred; the principes, twelve hundred; the hastati, the same number; and the rest, who are also the youngest in age, the velites. But if the number is greater than four thousand, they divide them proportionately, with the exception of the triarii, whom they always keep at the same number.”
The reason why the triarii remained at the same number was that their dignity was great and their dangers rare. Therefore, lest they keep the most excellent part of the soldiery in the battle-line without employment, they did not wish it to be increased, although the other ranks were increased.
At this point I cannot pass over in silence what he says: that τῶν ἀνδρῶν τοὺς νεωτάτους καὶ πενιχροτάτους εἰς τοὺς γροσφομάχους, the youngest and poorest of the men, were chosen for the velites.
Here regard was had both to age and to wealth. Lipsius thinks that poor men who were strong in age and experienced were chosen for the triarii. But in the case of men who were very poor, or the poorest, I would deny it; and he himself agrees. They were certainly selected according to the census, and this practice continued for a long time. The objection was made against the Romans: “You select your cavalryman according to the census and your infantryman according to the census,” Livy, book 37. In this respect, therefore, the institutions of the Lacedaemonians, in which particular regard was had for valor, are more pleasing. This practice harmed the Roman state very greatly. From it also arose the difficulties of levies, when men were unwilling to answer to their names and refused military service.
Indeed, I possess both a reason for my opinion and the approval of a commander of the greatest name. The reason is that, although, when pay was being given, it was humane for the sixth class to be exempt from service except in a great emergency and tumult, it was nevertheless a great error in a state devoted to military service and living amid perpetual enemies to give freedom from service to so great a multitude, especially when the state itself possessed the right of commanding magistrates. How many brave, active, and industrious men, who clamored for arms and Mars, is it credible there were among them? Certainly the whole of history bears witness that there was a very great multitude of poor men at Rome. Yet now the poorest men, made velites, stand foremost and are exposed to the enemy as light-armed soldiers.
For this reason Marius, as Sallust writes in the Jugurthine War, “enrolled soldiers not according to the custom of the ancestors nor from the classes, but as each man desired, for the most part men counted by the head.” Behold Marius, a great commander in the most dangerous wars, changing the custom of selecting soldiers which had been practiced for so many years through the ambition of the rich: passing over the rich, he selected those counted by the head. These, according to Aulus Gellius, book 16, chapter 9, are the men assessed at no property or at exceedingly little. Plutarch also relates this: “When declared consul, he splendidly held a levy at once contrary to law and custom, enrolling very many men from the poor and from the servile class, although earlier commanders did not accept men of this kind but gave arms, like any other honorable thing, only to honorable and worthy men, since each man seemed to pledge his family property as a security.”
He adds freedmen and the sons of freedmen. Macrobius, Saturnalia, chapter 11, teaches that this was retained in the Social War and proved worth the labor: “In the Social War, the service of twelve cohorts enrolled from freedmen displayed memorable valor.”
Indeed, afterward poor men for the most part went to serve as soldiers and gained both property and reputation. The legions themselves indicate this fact: when their terms of service had been completed, they received lands, so that after exhausting labors they might not waste away in a destitute old age. In this manner, therefore, better provision was made for the state. For this reason also I approved above more strongly the levy of volunteers.
The velites, accensi, and rorarii, therefore, were not to be selected in this manner according to the census. Because they were going to be the bravest and most ready men in battle, they were thus being neglected.
§ 2. The hastati were so called because in ancient times they fought with spears, but afterward with pila and swords. That was a heavy manner of service and not of great use, since, when two pila had been cast in vain or received upon shields, they immediately came to swords. The hastati were young men. Livy, book 8, calls them “the flower of young men reaching maturity”; the principes, however, were mature men—Livy calls theirs the more robust age. From this you may gather that rich men, although recruits, were not among the velites.
§ 3. The triarii were so called because they sat down in the third rank or battle-line, or, as Varro says, were posted as a reserve in the last positions. They were weighty in age and in courage. They sat with one knee firmly bent. They were formerly called pilani; they numbered six hundred. With them were the eagle and the commander, the picked and extraordinary men, and also the evocati.
I see that our commanders have preferred another arrangement. For they place each of the bravest men in the first battle-line and in advantageous positions, whereas among the Romans the bravest rarely fought. Sometimes the velites, often the hastati, and ordinarily the principes routed the enemy; the greatest danger was announced when the affair had come down to the triarii. In arranging this rank, therefore, the rich consulted more for their own safety than for the public good, and wished the dangers to belong to the poor and the younger men. Yet it had this advantage, that very rarely was the whole battle-line put to flight. For when the younger men had been slain or had fled, the triarii, who possessed strength and courage, remained steadfast; but if they had received defeat at the beginning, the younger men would have scattered swiftly from fear alone. For it is easier to possess a soldier who fights bravely than one who, having seen defeat, does not flee.
This entire multitude, properly composed, was called a legion by the Romans. In it the velites, hastati, and principes numbered twelve hundred each; the triarii, six hundred. The total number of all was four thousand two hundred. If the legion was larger, the fixed number of triarii remained, while the others were increased in equal proportion, as has been said. The legion of Romulus consisted of three thousand; it did not have the velites separated from the rest.
§ 4. Another division of these soldiers is into maniples and cohorts. Polybius describes it in this way: “After this, together with the leaders of the ranks, they divide each age or class into ten parts, with the exception of the velites. They distribute the velites, however numerous they are, equally among all the parts. And they call each one of these parts a rank, a maniple, and a standard.” There are thirty maniples: each class is divided into maniples.
Thence Romulus divided the hundred Fathers into groups of ten, and established ten companies of hastati. The principes had the same number of companies, the pilani the same, and likewise those who served on duly allotted horses.
The velites were distributed equally among these. There were four hundred in each rank and forty in each maniple. A maniple consists of one hundred and twenty men, while a century consists of sixty. This applies to the hastati and principes; for the triarii are half their number. This is without the added velites; if you add these, there will be one hundred and sixty in each maniple and eighty in each century.
A cohort is constituted from three maniples—one of hastati, another of principes, and a third of triarii—with a maniple of velites added; there are four hundred and twenty men, like a small legion, for it contained all the kinds of the legion. Cohorts were named from a rustic enclosure. They were sometimes detached and stationed in garrisons where it was not necessary for an entire legion to reside. The Greeks call them σπείρας, and sometimes ἴλας, as if you were to say wings. At the beginning, however, maniples existed without distinction, and consequently cohorts did as well. For one hundred men, before whom a pole bearing a bundle of hay was carried, were called a maniple. Ovid, Fasti 3:
A long pole bore suspended bundles, whence the manipular soldier has his name.
There are therefore ten cohorts in a legion. Romulus made a legion of three thousand men and then doubled it after the Sabines had been admitted. Scipio, Marius, and other ancestors made the legions larger.
There were three hundred cavalrymen divided into ten squadrons, each of which contained thirty.
§ 5. If we consider the infantry, the allies had the same number, but twice as many cavalrymen. They were stationed on either side, at the right and left. From the six hundred cavalrymen of the allies they called the third part extraordinary men, ἐπίλεκτες, picked men. Concerning them Polybius says: “The prefects first select from all the allies the men most suitable for the personal service of the consuls, both cavalrymen and infantrymen, whom they call extraordinary men. Interpreted, this means ‘picked men.’ The whole multitude of the allies, however, is as a rule equal in infantry to the Roman legions and double in cavalry. From these they take approximately a third part of the cavalry and a fifth part of the infantry for the extraordinary men. They divide the rest into two parts and call one the right wing and the other the left wing.”
A portion of the extraordinary men, who were called the selected, always attended the commander. It was prudently done, first, that they divided the allies on either side for the sake of security. Second, they selected extraordinary men from both the infantry and the cavalry—that is, each man most ready and likely to dare something—and from these very men the selected, who under the appearance of honor were, as it were, hostages around the consul.
Later the number of the allies was much greater; and in the end we see legions enrolled first from Italy and finally from the whole empire. They call the forces of the allies horns and wings even when they speak of infantry.