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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Drusus, post: 553887, member: 6370&quot;]Yes, Roman soldiers received a base pay of roughly 200 to 500 Denarii a year depending on the time period and rank (sometimes much more, centurions often were paid in the thousands of denarii but I was concerned more with the base roman soldiers)...deducted from this would be clothes, food and many other things provided to them thus their actual pay was far smaller than this...in fact if I am not mistaken, a relatively recent discovery in Britain showed that a roman legionary soldier, when all was said and done, might have been left with something like 20 denarii (spending money) give or take (I dont recall the exact amount but it was rather small but this does not include bonus and tributes)....the find consisted of records kept at an outpost in Roman Britain which not only included official records but personal letters written on strips of wood. There were actual letter from home found where family had sent care packages as well as official records for pay. </p><p><br /></p><p>This does not include donatives (payments in gold and silver, often silver ingots which have been found, on the Emperors accession and every fifth year) which were often rather large and a rather large sum given once they retire (full service was something like 15-25 years depending on the time period) which included land grants, the right to marry, a pension, citizenship, etc.., some received part of the spoils, bonuses, gold and silver gifts. It was a hard life but if it were between slaving away on your masters land or traveling the world and getting a decent pay, land, etc...I can see why people joined up.</p><p><br /></p><p>The LATER empire is different...for one...the denarius was no longer in use and soldiers were not stupid...they WOULD receive part of their pay in large sums of debased copper coinage called a Stipendium (annual salary) or in silver ingots....the amount of which highly fluctuated given the time frame. They also received an Annonae which consisted of goods such as salt, oil, meat, wine, etc...rank accorded how much you got....these came right from land owners and was made up of what they could get from them...it could be anything of value...they also receiving land grants, tributes, and rights and the like once they retired. </p><p><br /></p><p>It all mattered when and where and often these things changed with a new ruler who had a new plan on how to make this befuddled system work better. Though the military was far better and more efficiently run that the civil government.</p><p><br /></p><p>So without doubt the army was big in dispersing money throughout the far flung empire and as you say...where they went also went legions of support personal and merchants...many modern towns and cities started off as roman military bases. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Sorry about the rambling posts, you might notice this is a passion of mine <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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