fretensis10

Is there any information about Crassus' legions at Carrhae? I think Plutarch says he had seven legions. Were they simply numbered 1-7? Did any see battle before- I am guessing some were left over from the Spartacus fight. Otherwise, were the rest mostly green untested legions? Any information on republican legions of this period would be helpful, especially on order of battle. I have found Plutarch, Cassius Dio, and Arrian are our only sources on the battle. Am I missing any others?

Woops OK maybe not 90% non-Italian in first century- my mistake. Here are three views on the issue: "Tiberius complaint reveals that Italy was no longer considered the major source of manpower for the Roman Army" (Cowan, Roman Legionary 58BC-69AD, [Osprey 2003], p.11). "[by the time of Trajan] The proportion of Italians among the legionaries had now fallen from its first century figure of well over half to a mere 20 percent" (Grant, The Army of the Caesars [barnes and Noble Books 1974] p. 233) "It has been conclusively shown that in the first century of the imperial period there was a gradual and steady decline in the number of of Italians in the legions and that in thei rplace Roman citizens were recruited from the provinces... By the time of Hadrian very few Italians served as legionary soldiers..." (Campbell, The Emperor and the Roman Army [Clarendon Press 1984], p. 11)

To clarify: when did the backgrounds of the soldiers in the legions in general become more than 50% non-Italian? I have read books on the legions that say the armies were 90% non-Italian as early as first century AD. If true its an amazing tribute to the strength of the institutions of the army that so many 'barbarian' peoples were effectively trained and disiplined as traditional legionaires. Though I wonder if part of it is that the 'non-Italians' included children of veterans in the colonies. Apparently alot of sons who grew up in the provinces followed their fathers into the legions.

At what point do you think the legions to become majority non-Italian? My impression from readings is that it happened pretty early- perhaps by Augustus' reigh??!! Tacitus talks about how the 'degenerate Romans' maimed themselves rather than serve in the army in the 60s AD.

"The story of Claudius II denying marriage to soldiers (a precedent set by Septimius Severus nearly a century earlier) has no traceable evidence." Actually Septimius Severus LIFTED the ban on marriage, allowing the soldiers to settle into a more permanent life, with tremendous consequences for the military. Previously, Roman legionaries were not permitted to marry during active duty to ensure a mobile force that was highly trained. In reality, the soldiers kept common-law wives, but Severus's decision ensured the legions would be more resistant to orders to uproot and move. But yes Valentines seems to have been based on the Roman holiday Lupercalus. See: http://www.nisbett.com/holidays/origin_of_valentines_day.htm

"Romans in China. This idea was first proposed by Homer Hasenphlug Dubs, an Oxford University professor of Chinese history, who speculated in 1955 that some of the 10,000 Roman prisoners taken by the Parthians after the battle of Carrhae in southeastern Turkey in 53 B.C. made their way east to Uzbekistan to enlist with Huns against the Han Chinese amry who were battling the region at the time. Chinese accounts of the battle, in which Jzh Jzh (a branch of Huns) was decapitated and his army defeated, note unusual military formations and the use of wooden fortifications foreign to the nomadic Huns. Dubs postulated that after the battle the Chinese employed the captured Roman mercenaries as border guards, settling them in Liqian, a short form of Alexandria used by the Chinese to denote Rome. While some Chinese scholars have been critical of Dubs' hypothesis, others went so far as to identify Lou Zhuangzi as the probable location of Liqian in the late 1980s." This theory hasn't found much support among serious scholars. There was a PBS TV program on this topic recently that made points mentioned in the article below. Basically, Dub's thesis rests only on the 'fishscale' quote, but comparison with conventional historical Chinese use of the term suggests it could refer to a tight-packed formation, not necessarily a testudo. The palisades were widely used Central Asia, too. And efforts to trace European DNA in Lou Zhuangzhi residents have turned out nothing, either. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/...ent_3396301.htm