Michael Grant Thinks You're Wrong!

Sort of. I am currently reading Grant's "History of Rome", in which he says:

"Earlier in the [3rd] century, the Roman state had begun to provide standard weapons and equipment... And so all legionaries wore helmets, breastplates and leg guards (greaves), and carried swords; and thrusting javelins had been superseded by javelins for throwing, more than six feet long, half wood and half iron.".

He also describes the legion as being organised thus:

"... a legion contained an articulated group of thirty smaller units (maniples), each of which could manoeuvre and fight separately on its own... Moreover, every maniple was formed into three lines...".

This seems to me to be a more standardised legion than the one I have been led to believe existed at this time, so I was wondering how far it is true, taking into account that although the book is more than thirty years old and not necessarily very academic, Michael Grant was a quite respected classicist and academic.

I know all the sources I've seen pretty much agree that until around the middle of 2nd century BC the Roman army was very much a buy-your-own-gear reservist outfit, and moreover the citizen-soldiers' exact voting rights depended on what income/equipement class the census classified them in...

"The state providing standard weapons and equipement" does not necessarily mean anything more than the arms manufacturing being brought under state supervision to ensure the citizen-soldiers would be buying good war gear to fill their duties, for that matter.

You were expected to bring your own gear but if you fit the property requirement you could buy it from the state either in lump or have it deducted from your pay. Things didn't really change in the Principate, except that the state provided all your gear and the cost was automatically deducted.

As to the issue of the Manipular legion it was divided into ten cohorts which then each contained three manipules, each cohort was oranised in the same three-line manner as the whole legion so that cohorts could be added or subtracted as needed.

Then you get into the Macedonian wars and the manipules get bigger and it all gets rather complicated.

I see... that makes sense. So I can assume he's just glossing over the details of Triarii, Principe etc? I'm glad EB and Michael Grant can get along.

He's not glossing over, he's just not being specific, Hastati could and did wear mail but it was more expensive, ergo they got less in their pay packet. Princepes on the other hand had seen a bit of action and knew that if they didn't get home they weren't going to spend their wages anyway.

Wages also weren't the only factor in their wealth, not being professional soldiers. Princepes were generally more well established and had other sources of wealth than there wages, making it easier to get expensive equipment like mail.