The ancient world, from the earliest times to 800 AD . chthe will of the government is carried out. §602] THE ARMY 487 as a rule, needed only a handful of soldiers for police hundred sufficed to garrison all Gaul. It is a curious fact that the civilized Christian nations whichnow fill the old Roman territory, with no outside barbarians todread, keep always under arms twelve times the forces of theRoman emperors. One chief cause of the Empire, it will beremembered, had been the need for better protection of thefrontiers. This need the Empire met nobiy and economically. 601. Sour
The ancient world, from the earliest times to 800 AD . chthe will of the government is carried out. §602] THE ARMY 487 as a rule, needed only a handful of soldiers for police hundred sufficed to garrison all Gaul. It is a curious fact that the civilized Christian nations whichnow fill the old Roman territory, with no outside barbarians todread, keep always under arms twelve times the forces of theRoman emperors. One chief cause of the Empire, it will beremembered, had been the need for better protection of thefrontiers. This need the Empire met nobiy and economically. 601. Sources. — Roman citizens had long ceased to regardmilitary service as a first duty. The army had become astanding body of disciplined mercenaries, with intense pride,however, in their fighting power, in their privileges, and inthe Roman name. Even in the Early Empire, the recruitswere drawn from the provinces rather than from Italy; andmore and more the armies were renewed from the frontierswhere they stood. In the third century barbarian mercenaries. A GKUiViii-N Bodyguard. — A detail from the Column of Marcus Aurelius. were admitted on a large scale, and in the following period thejcame to make the chief strength of the legions. From the hun-gry foes surging against its borders, the Empire drew the guard-ians of its peace. 602. Industrial and Disciplinary Uses.— The Roman legionswere not withdrawn wholly from productive labor. In peace,they were employed upon public works. They raised the 488 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 [§ 603 marvelous Roman roads through, hundreis of miles of swampand forest; they spanned great rivers with magnificent bridges;they built dikes to bar out the sea, and aqueducts and baths toincrease the well-being of frontier cities. The steady disciplineof the legions afforded also a moral and physical training, forwhich there were fewer substitutes then than now. The legions proved, too, a noble school for was carefully promoted,
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