Where were legionaires recruited from?

[Dayve]

Just from Italy or all over the empire? I mean the heavy legionary infantry, not auxilia.

[tk-421]

Before Marius they were only recruted from Italy. After Marius men from any subjugated area could serve so long as they were citizens.

[Reverend Joe]

The Marian legions were generally recruited from the Western territories of Australia, but some were recruited from Madagascar.

[NightStar]

@Zorba

You can´t fool me, in those days the world was flat so they couldn´t recruit people from down under

[Rodion Romanovich]

Just from Italy or all over the empire? I mean the heavy legionary infantry, not auxilia.

Initially mostly Latium, a small part of Italy. Post-marian they were recruited elsewhere too. The rest of the Italian peninsula came into action as recruitment center quite early. Out of provincial areas, Iberia was AFAIK one of the major areas used for recruitment of legionaries, and it didn't come into action until very, very late, something like 150 AD.

[cunctator]

Here is a list of the known homelands of legionaries in the early empire (augustus-caligula):

Until the civil war era most legionnaries were recruited in Italy, thereafter increasingly from all areas of the empire. As you can see soldiers of celtic origin were already the largest group at this time, while the roman heartland became much less relevant. Perhaps service in priviledged units as the Praetorian guard in Roma itself was more attractive than the legions. Later recruitment shifted more towards the border areas were the bulk of the army was stationed.

[edyzmedieval]

From my house.

[Dayve]

From my house.

From everywhere in your house or just the regions where people posted rubbish to add a point to their post count?

Thanks for your answers everybody.

[Cheexsta]

@Zorba

You can´t fool me, in those days the world was flat so they couldn´t recruit people from down under

Actually, I recall seeing some Greek maps/globes which clearly displayed the world as being round, but I could be wrong...

As for the Legions, it depends. Pre-Marius, the Roman Legions were recruited anywhere, as long as they were made of Roman citizens (which generally restricted it to Roma but there were also colonies and such scattered around the place to "split up" the various allies to prevent them from ganging up on Rome...kinda failed with the Socii Wars...), while allied Legions were usually Italian allies. After Marius, it was pretty much the same thing, except Roman citizenship wasn't quite as exclusive.

So the Legions could be/were recruited from pretty much wherever you would have found decent numbers of Roman citizens.

[Moros]

Yes, Greeks new the world was round. Someone even calculated it's size, I can't remember the name, with the use of shadows and the orbit of the sun. But he was a bit off, he tought the earth was about 1/4 to 1/3 smaller as it actualy is. (I'm not good with numbers and names lol).

[Kralizec]

Eratosthenes of Cyrene

[Dayve]

The world isn't flat?

[Moros]

Eratosthenes of Cyrene

thanks err..what was your..ow yeah Kralizec. I'm just bad with names and numbers.

[Avicenna]

They even guessed that the North and South poles existed and were coold.

[Trithemius]

@Zorba

You can´t fool me, in those days the world was flat so they couldn´t recruit people from down under

They could, but it would not be heavy infantry since the ropes that hold them on would break under the weight of armour.

[nameless]

The world isn't flat?

The world being flat is nothing more than a hollywood myth.

[Dayve]

The world being flat is nothing more than a hollywood myth.

I can finally go a sailing without having to worry about falling off the edge of the world. Hoorah!

[Reverend Joe]

The world being flat is nothing more than a hollywood myth.

Oh, yeah? Go to Iowa and tell me the world isn't flat.

[Dayve]

It boggles my mind how people so many thousands of years ago knew the earth was round, knew about gravity, predicted (correctly) a very cold north and south pole of the earth...

Yet 200 years ago they were worrying about falling off the edge of the world whilst sailing and burning women for being witches just because they got a zit on their face... Humanity took such a massive step backwards around the 5-600AD mark...

It's almost as if, in 600AD, civilisation stopped... All scientific knowledge was locked up... All logic banished, and then like 150 years ago they unlocked the room where it all was locked up and banished to and civilisation continued.

[nameless]

Yet 200 years ago they were worrying about falling off the edge of the world whilst sailing and burning women for being witches just because they got a zit on their face... Humanity took such a massive step backwards around the 5-600AD mark...

Didn't you read my post? That's a myth spun by hollywood which even today people see believe is true.

Even before Columbus set out everyone already knew he wouldn't fall off the edge of the world because the world is round. People were concerned more about the Earth's circumference in regards to his journey. They thought he wouldn't be able to make the journey and die due to starvation or thirst.

[Dayve]

I thought you were joking.

[Ludens]

Yet 200 years ago they were worrying about falling off the edge of the world whilst sailing and burning women for being witches just because they got a zit on their face... Humanity took such a massive step backwards around the 5-600AD mark...

It's almost as if, in 600AD, civilisation stopped... All scientific knowledge was locked up... All logic banished, and then like 150 years ago they unlocked the room where it all was locked up and banished to and civilisation continued.

Actually, it was 200 years ago that the myth was invented that the middle-agers thought the earth was flat. The middle-agers (at least, the educated ones) knew very well the earth was round because they had read Aristotle. They even speculated that there was a continent on the other side. When Columbus was challenged by the clergy, it was not because they thought the earth was flat, but because they believed that his calculation regarding the circumference of the earth was overoptimistic. And they were right. They were also right (though I do not know whether they mentioned it) that there might be a continent in between Europe and "India".

Or at least, this is what Terry Jones says in "Medieval Lives". It is quite a good read if you are interested in the middle ages, but aren't an historian. He is very much opposed to the idea that the Rennaisance was a rebirth of civilization, and I rather agree with that. A lot of the things we associate with the Middle Ages, like tyranny, witch hunting and religious intolerance, reached new heights in the Rennaisance.

[Baldwin of Jerusalem]

Is that the truth? Well, you live and learn. Definately one to add to my knowledge repertoire, that is.

[nameless]

I thought you were joking.

Nope.

Taking History and Astronomy classes showed me that alot of things have been lied to me and not everything is what it seems. Especially people like Isacc Newton and Einstein.....

[Dayve]

Well i really thought they thought the earth was flat... This is what i've been taught all my life... I do intend on taking history courses at college though so one day hopefully i'll be as educated and knowledgable as the EB people.

[Trithemius]

There were a succession of "lesser renaissances" before the big famous one in Italy. There was a kind of Saxon flowering before the viking troubles and continental Europe had a couple of periods of major cultural development. The Italian Renaissance, which eventually spread to most of Western Europe, grew out of these earlier experiences.

Islamic society also had its phases of cultural growth, and then reversion to militarism, in much the same way that Western Europe did too.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

They weren't stupid in the middle ages, in fact they were more stupid in the 19th Century, because they thought they knew what they were doing. Yes, a lot of knowledge was lost in the Middle Ages and slavish copying of the ancients meant there was little actual progress but I'm in Exeter and we've had running water here for over 1,200 years.

The big thing about the Renaissance was that people stated thinking again and started testing what they thought, the way the Greeks did. The reason for this was a proliferation of rediscovered ancient works which helped them to see that the Ancients didn't know everything, and they knew they didn't know.

Then the Enlightenment arrived and it all went belly up until about 1850. They actually thought it was good to be very dirty.

[Forgus]

Eratosthenes of Cyrene

Who has a nice ancillary portrait btw.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Well, before the Greeks thought the world was round they thought it was cylinder. They never seem to have worked out the tild, though. Tacitus says in the Agricola that the days are longer in Britannia and the nights shorter, which seem odd, since you would tend to notice the long winter nights.

[sithlord85]

Then the Enlightenment arrived and it all went belly up until about 1850. They actually thought it was good to be very dirty.

I thought that was just a myth

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