ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

praetor, except in a supervisory role. He states that "when the consuls are about to enrollthe army they give public notice of the day on which all Roman citizens of military agemust appear," and he subsequently describes only the role of the military tribunes. 44Gargola takes this to mean that Polybius' account comes from the commentarii from amilitary tribune with consular powers, written some time between 444 and 367 BCE,but it is more likely that the consul or praetor in charge oversaw the process of enrollingsoldiers, while delegating the brunt of the work to the military tribunes, who became subcommanderstied to a particular legion after 367 BCE. In the latter scenario, Polybiuswould have omitted the auspices and further action by the commander through lack ofinterest. 46It is more likely that the commander of an army oversaw the dilectus rather thanadministering the enrollment of troops himself because it was a process that must havetaken several days. Polybius stipulates 4,200 to 5,000 infantrymen per legion in additionto the 300 cavalrymen. 47In the early Republic, the consuls enrolled one legion each, butthere were as many as twelve to fourteen active legions in 215 BCE, eighteen in 214, andtwenty five in 212-211, which shows the extensive amount of time it must have taken toenroll all of the soldiers required.Thus, it is highly unlikely that the commander ofeven one or two of these legions would have enrolled each soldier himself since thethey, as a body, parceled out. It is important to remember that the individual magistrates of the RomanRepublic ran particular functions of the Roman state; the senate was merely an advising body.44 Polyb. 6.19 (Shuckburgh, trans.)45 Gargola (1995), p. 65.46 Rawson (1971), pp. 13-31. See also Gargola (1995), n. 80 p. 214.47 Polyb. 6.20. See also Keppie (1998), pp. 89-90 and Richardson (2004), pp. 14-15, who calculates thepre-Polybian army at 17,280 infantry and 2,160 cavalry, with allies and citizens. This means a legion of4,320. Richardson thus calculates the Polybian army at 16,800 infantry and 2,400 cavalry.48 Southern (2006), p. 131.112