Quality of Late Roman Legions

[Nicholas Gaukroger]

The point I'm trying to make is that Rome had always accepted outsiders into the Empire and successfully assimilated them, both into their society and into their military. Why is it that suddenly this concept of 'barbarisation' crops up in the Late Empire, beginning some time in the late 3rd Century? And why is it suddenly seen as something that led to a fall in the quality of the Roman military when it had obviously been going on for some time.

To be honest I think that the "barbariasation" is more in the mind of more modern authors than contemporaries or for those of the latter who do make a point about it they are using it as a way to make a political point against their (or their patron's) enemies rather than it being based in fact.