Why Were The Roman Legions So Effective?

the Secret of Roman Warfare. A Roman legion was the largest unit of the Roman army, consisting of centuries as the basic units. For most of the Roman Imperial period, the legions formed the Roman army's elite heavy infantry, recruited exclusively from Roman citizens, while the remainder of the army consisted of auxiliaries, who provided additional infantry and the vast majority of the Roman army's cavalry. A legion consisted of several cohorts of heavy infantry known as legionaries. It was almost always accompanied by one or more attached units of auxiliaries, who were not Roman citizens and provided cavalry, ranged troops and skirmishers to complement the legion's heavy infantry. From the time of Gaius Marius onwards, legionaries received 225 denarii a year; this basic rate remained unchanged until Domitian, who increased it to 300 denarii. The soldiers did not receive all the money in cash, as the state deducted a clothing and food tax from their pay. To this wage, a legionary on active campaign would hope to add the booty of war. Slaves could also be claimed from the prisoners of war and divided amongst the legion for later sale, which would bring in a sizeable supplement to their regular pay. All legionary soldiers would also receive a praemia on the completion of their term of service: a sizeable sum of money and/or a plot of good farmland; farmland given to veterans often helped in establishing control of the frontier regions and over rebellious provinces. Link to teespring to check out the Metatron's merchandise! https://teespring.com/it/stores/metatron Link to the video how did the Romans beat the Greek    • How Did The Romans Beat The Greeks?- Legio...   Link to my video about historical documentaries coming soon!    • New Monthly Historical Documentary Series ...   Link to my patreon and thanks!   / themetatron   Follow me on my social networks:   / themetatron     / metatron_youtube   https://www.facebook.com/Metatron-153...   / puremetatron     / realmetatron   Royalty free music by Epidemic Sound: intro ES_Knights Templar 1 - Johannes Bornlöf intro 2 ES_Medieval Adventure 01 - Johannes Bornlöf outro ES_Knights Templar 2 - Johannes Bornlöf Check out the facebook page of the photographer who works with me, he has lots of fantastic pictures https://www.facebook.com/amedeo.capor... and his instagram https://www.facebook.com/amedeo.capor... Check out my friend Salvo's channel    / @littlesalvo000