Quote:
Originally Posted by wajahat
no empire can survive on an mercinary army.
the empire collapsed because it's people were too lazy to fight.
now, this may sound a bit oversimplistic , but it's a fact.
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But it ignores the fact that most of the "Romans" who were in the army while the Republic and Empire were doing most of their expanding were not in fact "Roman." They were members of conquered tribes who were brought into the Legions and trained in Roman tactics and somewhat "Romanized." That was the practice the Empire was built on, and it wasn't until the 260's that most of the army became "Roman" (and that was because all members of the Empire were granted citizenship at that point). I would make the argument that the largely Germanic "Roman" army of 395 was founded on a very similar system of recruiting to the "Roman" army of 200 BC-260 AD. Where things change is with the system of "Federates" (also in use since before the Empire... it is just the "Federates" became larger and more powerful as time went on, and thus better able to take advantage of the Empire's civil wars) and the ruralization of the Empire.