foundation army

[drsrob]

Yes, but are these reliable? I always have a feeling that they are too neat, too standard, too legendary. Servius Tullius' reforms sound more plausible and fit into the sixth century. So that's why I referred these, and not to Romulus.

On the contrary, the "reforms of Servius Tullius" are a far to complicated system for this early period.
The Roman Army of the Regal period and early republic was as far as we can tell a hoplite army (phalanx).

Quem "classicum" dicat M. Cato, quem "infra classem". 1 "Classici" dicebantur non omnes, qui in quinque classibus erant, sed primae tantum classis homines qui centum et viginti quinque milia aeris ampliusve censi erant. 2 "Infra classem" autem appellabantur secundae classis ceterarumque omnium classium, qui minore summa aeris, quod supra dixi, censebantur. 3 Hoc eo strictim notavi, quoniam in M. Catonis oratione, qua Voconiam legem suasit, quaeri solet, quid sit "classicus", quid "infra classem".

The so-called classici were not all the men in the five classes, but only those of the first class, who were assesed at 125.000 asses or more. The term infra classem, on the other hand, was applied to those of the second class and the rest of the classes, who were assesed at less than the amount stated.

This suggests that the Servian system originally contained only a single class, the later 1st. And this class just happens to be armed with hoplite equipment.

[...]Classi quoque ad Fidenas pugnatum cum Veientibus quidam in annales rettulere, rem aeque difficilem atque incredibilem, nec nunc lato satis ad hoc amne et tum aliquanto, ut a veteribus accepimus, artiore, nisi in traiectus forte fluminis prohibendo aliquarum nauium concursum in maius, ut fit, celebrantes naualis victoriae uanum titulum appetivere.
'[...]Some of the annalists have recorded a naval engagement with the Veientines at Fidenae, an incident as difficult as it is incredible. Even to-day the river is not broad enough for this, and we learn from ancient writers that it was narrower then. Possibly, in their desire for a vain-glorious inscription, as often happens, they magnified a gathering of ships to prevent the passage of the river into a naval victory.'

Of course this classis cannot have been a fleet as Livy rightly states. It was however the army consisting of only a single classis.

A single class of 40 (junior) centuries comes very close to the curiate system of 30 centuriae. The original purpose of the Servian reform was IMO probably to include a large group of men that could not easily be absorbed by the curiate system. The extra classes must have been added much later.