Lĕgio

, a corps of soldiers in the Roman armies, whose numbers have been different at different times. The legion under Romulus consisted of 3000 foot and 300 horse, and was soon after augmented to 4000, after the admi ion of the Sabines into the city. When Annibal was in Italy it consisted of 5000 soldiers, and afterwards it decreased to 4000, or 4500. Marius made it consist of 6200, besides 700 horse. This was the period of its greatne in numbers. Livy speaks of 10, and even 18, legions kept at Rome. During the consular government it was usual to levy and fit up four legions, which were divided between the two consuls. This number was, however, often increased, as time and occasion required. August us maintained a standing army of 23 or 25 legions, and this number was seldom diminished. In the reign of Tiberius there were 27 legions, and the peace establishment of Adrian maintained no le than 30 of these formidable brigades. They were distributed over the Roman empire, and their stations were settled and permanent. The peace of Britain was protected by three legions; 16 were stationed on the banks of the Rhine and Danube, viz. two in Lower, and three in Upper Germany; one in Noricum, one in Rhætia, three in Mœsia, four in Pannonia, and two in Dacia. Eight were stationed on the Euphrates, six of which remained in Syria, and two in Cappadocia; while the remote provinces of Egypt, Africa, and Spain were guarded each by a single legion. Besides these the tranquillity of Rome was preserved by 20,000 soldiers, who, under the titles of city cohorts and of pretorian guards, watched over the safety of the monarch and of the capital. The legions were distinguished by different appellations, and generally borrowed their name from the order in which they were first raised, as prima , secund a , tertia , quart a , . Besides this distinction, another more expre ive was generally added, as from the name of the emperor who embodied them, as August a , Claudiana , Galbiana , Flavia , Ulpia , Trajana , Ant on i an a , . ; from the provinces or quarters where they were stationed, as Britannica , Cyreniaca , Gallica , . ; from the provinces which had been subdued by their valour, as Parthica , Scythica , Arabica , African a , . ; from the names of the deities whom their generals particularly worshipped, as Minervia , A poll in aris , . ; or from more trifling accidents, as Martia , Fulminatrix , Rapax , Adjutrix , . Each legion was divided into 10 cohorts , each cohort into three manipuli , and every man i pulus into two centuries or ordines . The chief commander of the legion was called legatus , lieutenant. The standards borne by the legions were various. In the first ages of Rome a wolf was the standard, in honour of Romulus; after that a hog, because that animal was generally sacrificed at the conclusion of a treaty, and therefore it indicated that war is undertaken for the obtaining of peace. A minotaur was sometimes the standard, to intimate the secrecy with which the general was to act, in commemoration of the labyrinth. Sometimes a horse or boar was used, till the age of Marius, who changed all these for the eagle, being a representation of that bird in silver, holding sometimes a thunderbolt in its claws. The Roman eagle ever after remained in use, though Trajan made use of the dragon.