ABSTRACT
The pay scales for both the auxilia and the legions remain uncertain due mainly to the lack of evidence, though a number of scholars have attempted to reconstruct the pay scale for the auxilia, based on different fractions (one-third, two-thirds or five-sixths) of the legionaries pay (Domaszewski 1900; Brunt 1950; Watson 1959; Speidel 1973). Troops were divided into four classes in matters of pay: auxiliary infantry; cavalry in a cohors equitata; cavalry in an ala; and legionaries, and there were three pay scales: basic pay; pay-and-a-half (sesquiplicarius); and double pay (duplicarius). A further class, the equites of a legion, is added by Speidel (1973, 146). The legionaries are believed to have received the highest pay, although it has been suggested that the cavalrymen of an ala would have been paid the same or more (Speidel 1973). In the auxilia, the alae received the highest pay, with the equites of the mixed units receiving more than the pedites. A pay record (stipendium) of papyrus from ad 84 for a legionary soldier (Fink 1971, no.69), states that he was paid 297 drachmae (Speidel 1973, 141–2), and a similar papyrus of ad 81 for two auxiliarymen, possibly cavalrymen of a cohors equitata since their stipendia include deductions for hay (Lewis and Reinhold 1966, 513–4; Fink 1971, no.68), records that they were paid 247 https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> 1 2 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203060162/5d9ceffb-a8f5-468a-a57e-8dac49bbd3fd/content/inline-math_4_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> drachmae (Speidel 1973, 142–3). The auxiliary total of 247 https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> 1 2 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203060162/5d9ceffb-a8f5-468a-a57e-8dac49bbd3fd/content/inline-math_5_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> is not, however, five-sixths of 297. This led Speidel to suggest that a 1 per cent deduction, possibly for an exchange fee for the conversion of denarii into drachmae, had been made before the amounts were credited to the men, giving totals of 300 and 250 respectively, making the auxiliary pay exactly five-sixths of the legionary (1973, 144).
