The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

H i s t o r i c a l Ba c k g r o u n d 49
plaining why the cen sus figures for Roman citi zens in 70 bc were given as
910,000, whereas the census conducted under Octavian Augustus in 28 bc reported
over 4 mill i on peop l e . An o t h er factor is that the late Rep u blican and
early Imperial census figures may be restricted to a count of the adult males of a
certain property qualification, omitting the very young and the lower classes altogether.
For military purposes, there is the evidence of Polybius, in the context of the
invasion of the Gauls in 225 bc. The Romans and the Italians had met the Gauls
before and had been badly mauled. Polybius (2.23–24) describes how the Italians
re ad i ly coopera ted with Rom e , as every tri be and city sank their differen
ce s , and the Romans con du cted a cen sus of a ll the men capable of be a ri n g
arms, a total of 700,000 infantry and 70,000 cavalry. Of these, the Romans and
t h eir nearest nei gh bors con tri buted 250,000 infantry and 23,000 cava l ry, a n d
the rest came from the Latin and Italian tribes and cities. The value of this pass
a ge has been deb a ted , but there is nei t h er su pporting evi den ce nor any contem
pora ry con trad i ctory cl a i m , so it has to be taken at face va lue wi t h o ut
knowing the nature of Polybius’s sources.
Italian and provincial population figures are harder to estimate than those of
Roman citi zen s . The cities for wh i ch some figures exist are predom i n a n t ly in
the eastern provi n ce s , wh ere there was a long-standing urban trad i ti on , but
even these statistics are not fully elucidated because, in addition to the people
who lived in the city, the su rrounding ru ral pop u l a ti on attri buted to city administration
may also have been included. The population of Rome itself during
the Empire is usu a lly esti m a ted at one mill i on , kept rel a tively stable by a
high birth rate negated by a high death rate. The same stability is postulated for
the major cities of the Empire . As for the non - Roman inhabitants of t h e
provinces, there is no information except for what can be deduced from archaeological
evidence. For instance, aerial photography combined with excavations
suggest that there was an increase in the population of northern Britain in the
second century ad in the hinterland of Hadrian’s Wall, where the assurance of
peaceful conditions promoted prosperity and growth.
An attempt to enumerate the vast number of replacement troops that were
required by the army is one aspect of the demography of the Roman Empire,
and this probl em has been ex a m i n ed by Mac Mu ll en (1980) and Le Bo h ec
(1994). The total number of legions and auxiliary units can be demonstrated, or
at least closely estimated, for most periods of Imperial history from the reign of
Augustus to the late third-century reforms of Diocletian, and some estimate can
be made of the number of men retiring and the number of recruits that would
be necessary each year. The main problems are that losses in battles and natural
w a s t a ge from acc i dents and disease are not known , except in litera ry source s
where the numbers of troops killed in wars or the numbers of replacements are
given but are highly suspect.