Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/106

* LEGION. each maniple was subdivided into two centuries, or •coinpunies.' But there was also a division ac- cording to age and experience. Each legion had 1200 liusttili, or younger men, forming the first line in biillle, 1200 piiiwipes, men of rijjer years, and 000 triurii, or veterans; and this was the legion proper, as divided into manii)les and cen- turies. They were armed with bronze helmets villi plumes" {cussis), cuirass {lurica) , greaves (ocicw), a long semi-cylindrical shield (scutum), and a short, pointed, double-edged sword (gla- dins). The hustdfi and principes carried also each two pila, or long, heavy javelins, while the triurii bore lighter lances. In addition to the above, each legion had 1200 veliUs, light-armed troops drawn from the prolctarii, armed with leather helmet {ijalea), round shield (panna), and short sword (.(y("f/iHs). The 300 horsemen (aiuitin) atlaelied to the legion were divided into ten furmw of thirty horse each, each tiirtna under the command of three decurions. Each infantry manijile was captained by a centurion, and had its own standard, while the legion as a ■whole had its eagle (cifiuila Icijionnriu). A new reform in army organization was due to Gains Warius at the" end of the second century B.C. The census or position according to social rank wholly ceased to lie regarded. The Italian allies of Rome were admitted to the legions. The class of vclitvs was abolished, and the cavalry was no longer made up exclusively of Roman cquites. The army was now a permanent body, and twenty years was the usual term of service. An impor- tant change was eiTccted also in the internal organization of the legion. Its tactical division was no longer the maniple, but the cohort (coliors). The three lines were assimilated, and the legion was divided into ten cohorts, each consisting of three maniples, or six centuries. At the same time the efl'ective strength of the legion was increased, but during the civil wars the actual number of men varied with the exigencies and possibilities of the case. The normal strength of the cohort was soon raised to COO, making a legion of fiOOO men, besides aux- iliary troojis and cavalry drawn from the bar- barian sidijects and allies of Rome. In battle, the legion was arranged in two lines of five cohorts each ; but Copsar altered the formation to three lines, of four, three, and three cohorts, respectively. The chief centurion of the triarii, or veterans, Icnown as primus pilus, was the ranking officer of the legion, but the respon- sibility of command was vested in the Icgatus lc;/ionis, or lieutenant-general, while the six trihuni miliUiiit remained a sort of honorary staff of young nobles, who used this irrespon- sible form of military service as a first step in their pulilic career, but were actually rather a nuisance in the army. When the battle of Actium (b.c. 31) left Oetavius in sole control of the Roman world, there were renmants of fifty legions under his command. In B.C. 27 he eflfected a thorough reorganization of the Roman armies, reducing the total nrimber of legions to twenty-three, to which he added two new ones about n.c. .'5. Under the Empire, when whole legions were annihilated in war, either they were newly recruited or the name was dropped. The number of legions, how- ever, gradually increased. Claudius added a new one after his conquest of Britain; Nero created three more; Galba, one; and so on until 94 LEGION. under Septimius Severus there wa.s a total of tliirty-three legions, which remained the full number until the reign of Diocletian, Under the late Knijiire, the quota of men to the legion was reduced, but the numljer of legions was vastly increased. In the fourth century there were more than 175 legions in the field. The legions of the Empire were distinguished by numbers and names, as legio VIII Augusta, Icgio XII Fulmiiiata, legio XV Apolliniiris. Titles were sometimes bestowed Ijy the Emperors, as special marks of honor, as pia (loyal), vindex (avenging). Sometimes they were derived from the name of the reigning Emperor, as tieveriana, Anfouinicina, and often from the place of sen'ice, as Itiilica, Mdtcdunica. On the legions of the Empire, consult Pfitzner, Gcschiclitc der ro- mischcn Kaiscrlegionen (Leipzig, 1881). LEGION,. TiiEBAX (Lat. Legio Thrbana). A legion of Christians, said to have suffered mar- tyrdom to a man under the Emperor Maximian (280-305 ) . As the story goes there was a legion in the Roman army recruited in the Thebais, the region round Thebes in Egypt, led by Mauri- tius, and made up entirely of Christians. This legion the Emperor reviewed at Agaunum in Switzerland, and required to swear allegiance in the usual heathen manner. This they refused to do and were massacred to a man. This event, first recorded in writing in the fifth century, made so profound an impression that the name of the place was later changed into Saint Mau- rice and a Benedictine monastery built there: the commander became Saint Maurice, patron saint of Magdeburg and many other places; his lance became the ensign of the Burgundians, and his spe.ar part of the investiture of the Bur- gundian kings. The arguments pro and eon for this story are given in the Ada Htmctorum of the Bollandists under September 22d. LEGION, The Thunderino (Lat. Legio Ful- minata). A legion of the Roman army. During Marcus Aurelius's war with the JIarcomanni (A.D. 174), his army, according to the narrative, being shut up in a mountainous defile, was re- duced to great straits by want of water; and when a body of Christian soldiers prayed to the God of the Christians, not only was rain sent seasonably to relieve their thirst, but this rain was turned upon the enemy in the shape of a fearful thunder-shower, under cover of which the Romans attacked and utterly routed them. The legion to which these soldiers belonged was thence, according to one of the narrators, called the Thundering Legion. This legend has been the subject of much controversy; and it is certain that the last-told, circumstance at least is false, as the name 'Thundering Legion' existed long be- fore the date of this story. There would appear, nevertheless, to have been some foundation for the story. The scene is represented cm the col- umn of Antoninus. The event is recorded by the pagan historian Dion Cassius (Ixxi. 8). who attributes it to Egj'ptian sorcerers, and by Capi- tolinus and Themistius, the latter of whom as- cribes it to the prayers of Aurelius himself. It is appealed to by the nearly contemporary Ter- tullian, in his Apnlogii (c. 5), and is circum- stantially related by Eusebius, by .Terome. and Orosius. It may be conjectured that the fact of one of the legions being called 'Thundering' may have led to the localizing of the stoi'y, and the ascribing of the name to this particular legion.