Was military service a privilege?

[Basileus_ton_Basileon]

Traits cannot be restricted to a certain time-period, so the reformator trait will appear even when the reforms cannot occur yet.

As for the historical accuracy: in the Classical age, warfare was seen as a social duty, so military reforms often were the result of social changes. And social change takes time. The Romans did not reform their army because they wanted to, but because they had. The citizen-soldier was a deeply ingrained ideal, so it took an extended manpower crisis to make the switch to a professional army tenable.

Sorry for OT, but I want to ask: To a citizen in the classical age, was soldiery as much a privilege to them as it was a social responsibility?