Roman Armor

[Titus Marius Secundus]

They might have arrived in the legions with a pugio or a sword, unlikely tho, but a raw recruit would probably have nothing to begin with, plus when Marius reformed the army to be open to citizens who didn't even own land, many new recruits with nothing would have arrived, thus the state had to provide mass amounts of equipment for them, either all being hamata, and maybe then at higher ranks being given lorica... I think it's possible rank also had to do with armor type.