The Roman Army, 31 BC–AD 337: A Sourcebook

1 The soldiers
RECRUITMENT
From 49 to 32 BC about 420,000 Italians were recruited, and this
could not have been achieved without widespread conscription, which
was generally unpopular. Augustus desired to bring peace and stability,
but it seems that there were not enough volunteers to meet the
manpower requirements of his standing army (probably about 5–6,000
men were needed every year to keep the legions up to strength), and he
was unable to dispense with conscription. However he limited its
incidence in Italy, though here too special levies were held in times of
military crisis, as in AD 6 and 9. So, the number of Italians enlisting
declined steadily and by Hadrian’s reign they formed a negligible
proportion of the legions, presumably because they did not wish to
enter a period of lengthy service far from their homes. Legionaries were
recruited from provincial Roman citizens, or men to whom citizenship
was given on enlistment. In the first century AD many recruits in the
west came from Spain, Narbonensis, and Noricum, and in the east
from the Greek cities of Asia and Macedonia. But a disinclination to
serve away from home must also have influenced provincials, and
references to the levy (dilectus) held in the provinces in the first and
second centuries AD, which show that it was often accompanied by
oppression, suggest that it must have involved conscription. Now, the
government presumably preferred willing soldiers, who might be
expected to fight enthusiastically in defence of their homeland and
families, and this was probably a factor in the gradual movement
towards local recruitment, which came to predominate after Hadrian.
There will also have been fewer administrative problems in the transport
and assignment of recruits. The likelihood that a soldier had a reasonable
chance of serving near his home will have made military life more
acceptable and may have encouraged the flow of volunteers. It is
precisely in the late second and early third century, when a military