Note 26 — Chapter III · Criticism of The Accepted View

Calculations as to the effective strength of the standing army of Augustus vary somewhat. H. Furneaux (The Annals of Tacitus, I (1884), p. 109), gives 350,000; Mommsen (Hermes, XIX (1884), p. 4—apparently excluding the naval forces), 300,000 as a maximum figure; Seeck (Rh. Mus., XLVIII (1893), p. 618) reckons on the basis of 20 legions (which would be applicable only down to the year 6 A. D.) 132,000 citizen soldiery out of Italy: in his Gesch. des Untergangs d. ant. Welt, 3rd ed., I (1910), p. 255, on a basis of 25 to 30 legions, from Augustus to Diocletian, he calculates the total forces of the empire at 300,000 to 350,000; H. Delbrück (Gesch. d. Kriegskunst, II, 2nd ed. (1904), p. 174) counting only the 25 legions, estimates 225,000 men; if other contingents be included the total would certainly exceed 250,000 even on the basis of his extremely low estimates; Gardthausen (Augustus, I, p. 635) estimates 250,000-300,000. The figure 200,000 which he gives on p. 637 seems to refer to the conditions before 6 A. D., when only 18 legions were maintained. G. Boissier’s number, 500,000 (L’opposition sous les Césars, 3rd ed. 1892, p. 4), seems to count the auxilia three times, once in making up the number 250,000 for the legions, and again in doubling that!