ABSTRACT
The army that Severus advised his sons to cherish was a fossil. Its organization descended in a direct line from the sixth century BC, its tactical doctrines (when not influenced by archaizing fantasies) descended from the era of Marius and Sulla, and its size and mission had been virtually frozen since the reign of Augustus. The core of the military remained the legion, consisting of 5,400 heavy infantrymen. As a form of organization it had been sanctified by the Servian constitution in the sixth century BC. It had evolved into a dominant fighting organization against the Samnites, Etruscans, and Gauls in the fourth century, defeated the Carthaginians and Macedonians in the third and second centuries, developed again in the first century BC into an effective formation against Celtic tribes, and then ossified.
