10-10-2007, 04:23 PM
Quote:A thing which I'm ignorant about - when did the Roman army introduce conscription? I know it from late Roman times as a given, but I have no idea as to when it was introduced.It was normal in Republican times. A man was supposed to serve for at least six campaigns between his eighteenth and forty-third (-second?) birthday. When Rome's empire expanded, these were often six consecutive years in a faraway country, which was the first step towards a standing army. Keppie has an excellent chapter on it in The Making of the Roman Army.
