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4,02

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practice first introduced upon a large scale, after the Mithridatic wars, of granting pensions for long service in the shape of donations of land. Hence, when Augustus in compliance, as we are told by Dion Cassius (Hi. 27), with the advice of Maecenas, determined to provide for the security of the distant provinces, and for tranquil submission at home by the establishment of a powerful standing army, he found the public mind in a great degree prepared for such a measure, and the distinction between soldier and civilian unknown, or at least not recognised before, became from this time for­ward as broadly marked as in the most pure mili­tary despotisms of ancient or modern times. In this place, we are required simply to call attention to the fact — it belongs to the philosophic historian to trace the results.

The numbering of the legions and their titles. The legions were originally numbered according to the order in which they were raised. Thus in the early part of the second Punic war, we hear of the fourth legion (rb rerapro]/ crrpctTOTreSoj/), being hard pressed by the Boii (Polyb. iii. 40) ; the tenth legion plays a conspicuous part in the history of Caesar as his favourite corps (Dion Cass. xxxviii. 17), and the cabinets of numismatologists present us with an assemblage of denarii struck by M. Antonius in honour of the legions which he commanded, exhibiting a regular series of numbers from 1 up to 30, with only four blanks (25, 27, 28, 29). As the legions became permanent, the same numbers remained attached to the same

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corps, which were moreover distinguished by various epithets of which we have early examples in the Legio Martia (Cic. Philip, v. 2 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 61 ; Dion Cass. xlv. 13 ; Appian, B. C. iv. 115), and the Legio Quinta Alauda. [alauda.] 1 Dion Cassius, who flourished under Alexander i Severus, tells us (Iv. 23) that the military estab­lishment of Augustus consisted of twenty-three or twenty-five legions (we know from Tac. Ann. iv. 5, that twenty-five was the real number), of which nineteen still existed when he wrote, the rest hav­ing been destroyed, dispersed, or incorporated by Augustus or his successors in other legions. He , gives the names of nineteen, and the localities where they were stationed in his own day, adding the designations of those which had been raised by subsequent emperors. This list has been consider-abty enlarged from inscriptions and other autho­rities, which supply also several additional titles. We give the catalogue as it stands in the pages of the historian, and refer those who desire more complete information to the collections of Roman Inscriptions by Grater and Orelli, to the fifth book of the Comment. Reip. Rom. of Wolfgang Lazius, fol. Francf. 1598, and to Eckhel, Doctrina Numm. Vet. vol. vi. p. 50, vol. viii. p. 488. In the follow­ing table an asterisk is subjoined to the nineteen legions of Augustus, to the remainder the name of the prince by whom they were first levied ; the epithets included within brackets are not given by Dion, but have been derived from various sources : —

List of the Legions in the Iteign of Alexander Severus.

Where stationed in the age of Dion Cassius.

Number of the Legion.

By whom raised.

Title.

Prima

Nero

Galba

Domitianus

Sept. Severus %

Vespasianus Trajanus M. Antoninus Sept. Severus

Italica

Adjutrix

Minervia

Parthica

Augusta

Adjutrix

j^gyptia Trajana

Italica

Media (Parthica)

Augusta

Gallica

Cyrenaica

Italica

Parthica

Scythica

Flavia (Felix)

Macedonica

Victrix

Ferrata

Claudia

(Gemina)

Augusta

Gemina

(Fretensis)

Claudia

Fulminatrix

Gemina

Gemina

Apollinaris

Valeria Victrix

Ulpia (Victrix)

Hiberna in Mysia Inferiore.

Pannonia Inferior.

Germania Inferior.

Mesopotamia.

Hiberna in Britannia Superiore.

Pannonia Inferior.

(Egypt ?)

Noricum.

Italia.

Numidia.

Phoenicia.

Arabia.

Rhaetia.

Mesopotamia. -

Syria

S}Tia.

Dacia.

Britannia Inferior.

Judaea.

Mysia Superior.

Hispania.

Germania Superior.

Pannonia Superior.

Judaea.

Mysia Inferior.

Cappadocia.

Dacia.

Pannonia Superior.

Cappadocia.

Britannia Superior.

Hiberna in Germania.

(Germania ?).

Secunda

Tertia

*

M. Antoninus

Sept. Severus

*

Vespasianus

*

•5S-

*

Quarta

Quinta Sexta

Septima

Octava Decima

Undecima Duodecima Decima Tertia Decima Quarta Decima Quinta Vigesima

Galba

*

*

*

*

*

*

Trajanus

Trigeshna