12-15-2013, 04:20 AM
Thanks for the help, I knew this was the place to ask these questions.
Was that law still in effect around 395, so the sons of soldiers would be required to serve whether they wanted to or not? I remember reading that there was an edict pased to punish potential conscripts who cut off their thumbs to avoid military service; is it safe to assume because of this that military service was an onerous, mandatory burden that citizens commonly tried to avoid? From what I've read, it seems like the only young men actually volunteering to serve in the legions at this point were foreigners who lived beyond Rome's borders.
If the minimum age was 17, wouldn't recruiters be looking for kids as soon as they became eligible? It just seems like if military service was mandatory, most young men would have already been approached by a recruiter by the time they turned 20 (at least if the recruiters were doing their jobs diligently, which might not necessarily have been the case).
Quote:You can also work backwards from Diocletian's requirement that sons of soldiers become soldiers. As barbarians joined the Roman army on a voluntary basis - except when they had been captured and made prisoners of war - it then follows that the sons of barbarian soldiers were citizens, as only subjects of the empire could be conscripted.
Was that law still in effect around 395, so the sons of soldiers would be required to serve whether they wanted to or not? I remember reading that there was an edict pased to punish potential conscripts who cut off their thumbs to avoid military service; is it safe to assume because of this that military service was an onerous, mandatory burden that citizens commonly tried to avoid? From what I've read, it seems like the only young men actually volunteering to serve in the legions at this point were foreigners who lived beyond Rome's borders.
Quote:I'd imagine most recruits were in their 20's or 30's until the collapse of the Roman frontiers in 406-onward. After that it was anyone and everyone you could get because manpower ran short.
If the minimum age was 17, wouldn't recruiters be looking for kids as soon as they became eligible? It just seems like if military service was mandatory, most young men would have already been approached by a recruiter by the time they turned 20 (at least if the recruiters were doing their jobs diligently, which might not necessarily have been the case).
