09-22-2017, 10:39 PM
(09-22-2017, 07:25 PM)Protectores Donutici Wrote: Is there an established theory for the Roman policy on individual transfers between legions? Does anyone know when they began to take place?
Do you mean ordinary soldiers, or centurions? As far as I'm aware, soldiers usually stayed in the legion in which they first enlisted throughout their careers.
Centurions, on the other hand, could be transferred between legions as a promotion, and we have evidence of this from the Augustan period onward. In the earlier empire this seems to have been arranged by the governors of the provinces and so the transfers only occured between legions in the same province, or later in neighbouring provinces. Later still (perhaps Nero onwards?) these transfers could be more wide ranging - by the 2nd century centurions were regularly being transferred between legions at the opposite ends of the empire, sometimes repeatedly.
One of the best surveys of centuron transfers between legions is this one (starts on p.13):
Summerly: Studies in the Legion Centurionate (1992)
Nathan Ross
