Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/41

CHAP. I.
----their countrymen^[1]. Since the alteration of manners and government, the most wealthy of the equestrian order were engaged in the administration of justice, and of the revenue^[2]; and whenever they embraced the profession of arms, they were immediately intrusted with a troop of horse, or a cohort of foot^[3]. Trajan and Hadrian formed their cavalry from the same provinces, and the same class of their subjects, which recruited the ranks of the legion. The horses were bred, for the most part, in Spain or Cappadocia. The Roman troopers despised the complete armour with which the cavalry of the east was encumbered. Their more useful arms consisted in a helmet, an oblong shield, light boots, and a coat of mail. A javelin and a long broadsword were their principal weapons of offence. The use of lances and of iron maces they seem to have borrowed from the barbarians^[4],

Auxiliaries.The safety and honour of the empire was principally intrusted to the legions; but the policy of Rome condescended to adopt every useful instrument of war. Considerable levies were regularly made among the provincials, who had not yet deserved the honourable distinction of Romans. Many dependent princes and communities, dispersed round the frontiers, were permitted, for a while, to hold their freedom and security by the tenure of military service^[5]. Even select troops of hostile barbarians were frequently compelled or persuaded to consume their dangerous valour in remote climates, and for the benefit of the state^[6]. All these were included under the general name of auxiliaries ; and howsoever they might vary according to the differ-

1. See Livy almost throughout, particularly xlii. 61.
2. Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 2. The true sense of that very curious passage was first discovered and illustrated by M. de Beaufort, R6publique Romaine, 1. ii. c. 2.
3. As in the instance of Horace and Agricola. This appears to have been a defect in the Roman discipline ; which Hadrian endeavoured to remedy, by ascertaining the legal age of a tribune.
4. See Arrian's Tactics.
5. Such, in particular, was the state of the Batavians. Tacit. Germania, c. 29.
6. Marcus Antoninus obliged the vanquished Quadi and Marcomanni to supply him with a large body of troops, which he immediately sent into Britain. Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxi.