"Have you never wondered?" Topic

Have you never wondered what happened in the alae and cohortes of auxiliaries in 212AD when Caracalla issued the Constitutio Antoniniana? We all know that Caracalla's Edict granted Roman Citizenship en masse to every free man (and maybe the women?) living within the Empire. As we ALL know, a principal if not exclusive means of acquiring Roman citizenship open to a provincial BEFORE Caracalla's Edict was to enlist in the army's auxiliaries. IF a provincial survived the 25 years of the enlistment, then upon completion of his service the discharged auxilia would earn his citizenship --- and so would his sons (and daughters too, I think). Not sure about his "wife;" she might have had to be content with having her "marriage" finally officially recognized by the army and the state, and the knowledge her children were citizens.

The problem with the Edict then was that, at a stroke, every single man in the auxiliaries in 212AD had gained the citizenship, regardless of how long they had served -- eight years or eighteen!! What was the incentive to serve longer in the auxiliaries after 212AD? Okay, I imagine that the auxiliaries' oath never mentioned citizenship upon discharge, so a quick argument would be --- the incentive to continue to serve was the threat of crucifixion or beheading as punishment for desertion!! Another argument (or arguments) that could be advanced was/were the possibility or possibilities that a) the army increased the pay or discharge bonus of the auxiliaries to entice provincial Roman citizens to agree to continue to serve in the alae and cohortes instead of opting for the better conditions(?) in the legiones, and/or b) as "old boys" who had enlisted before 212AD reached retirement, they were simply replaced by peregrini enlisted especially from north of the Rhine and Danube, and less specially from north of the Black Sea and/or east of the Euphrates (or Tigris).

Another option is that as new legions were created during the "Crisis of the 3rd Century" one quick way to assemble one (at the old organizational structure and strength) was to pull in ten auxiliary cohorts, who were citizens then anyway -- IIRC the thinking goes that at least Legio I Noricorum was built exactly that way? The place of the units disbanded (or absorbed) that way may have been taken by units of irregulars, numeri of barbari, or tribal foederati, which were transformed in their turn into units of new regular auxilia. The ala I Sarmatarum in Britain may have been built exactly that way -- out of numeri originally built of some of the 5500 Sarmatians that Marcus Aurelius was supposed to have transferred there after a victory on the Danube ca. 175AD [Dio Cassius, Roman History, LXXI].

Carrying this a bit further in hopes of learning something, some researchers note that by the early 4th Cent., 25% of regular army recruits were barbarians. If the auxiliae were still at least half -- if not MORE than half -- of the army's strength, then its surprising that the estimate is put that LOW! Assuming that the legions still exclusively recruited citizens (at least in the 3rd Cent.), it begs the question of why were ONLY 25% of army recruits (presumably 50% of auxiliaries) barbarians? Why would Roman citizens still wish to enlist in the auxiliaries? For example, some estimate that in Constantine's elite auxilia palatinae, ONLY between 30% and 50% of recruits may have been barbari [Hugh Elton, Frontiers of the Roman Empire (1996), 148–52]. Considering Constantine is usually thought to have enlisted those units from barbarians precisely for their un-civilized warlike character and war-fighting skills, why were they not 100% barbari?? Furthermore, didn't he NEED barbarian units, since his part of the empire didn't have the population or the wealth of the rest???

Hmmm…

No, I never wondered.

Stop that.

Sure, I wondered.

Anybody have any theories with sources?

That is an excellent point!!
they auxillia would be caput! Basically….
maybe at this point the propaganda machine kicked back on, and Rome went from being the really bad guys to the Kinda good guys again….recruiting based on free will, instead of threats.

When I saw this thread I instinctively knew that the OFM would make that reply. Heck, I even thought about doing it. It was setup as a slam dunk!

Were there tax breaks for being in the auxiliae?

Grelber

Dio accused Caracalla of extending the franchise from a crass desire to expand the tax base, as according to him, citizens paid levies from which non-citizens were exempted. Personally I find it hard to believe the empire didn't tax the krrapp out of everyone, simply camoflauging the taxes under different titles for citizens and non-citizens. If auxiliaries got tax breaks it should have been because they were soldaten, in which case, legionaries should have gotten them too.

I agree with the OFM. Life's too short. Get out more!