Legionary pay in modern money

[FlaviusCrispus]

And presumably an auxiliary footsoldier was paid less than the legionary ?

"Cohort infantryman" (presumably auxiliary) is listed at 100 denari per year, or $2,000 by Doug Smith's "bread gradiant." Of course, a denarius probably went a lot further out in those boondocks provinces...

A few interesting points of contrast:

In the U.S. army, an E-1 infantryman (Private) earns an annual salary of $15,282.

A four-star general with 26 years of service earns $145,596, or roughly 10 times what the entry-level infantryman earns.

So a Primus Pilus, who is technically not as high as a Legate (who, being a Senator and a political appointment, would presumably be paid on a different scale) earns nearly 84 times the salary of a basic infantryman, a much higher spread than one sees in the modern army.