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Pay in the Roman army was defined by the annual stipendium received by a Roman soldier, of whatever rank he was, from the Republican era until the Later Roman Empire. It constituted the main part of the Roman soldier's income, who from the end of the Republic began to receive, in addition to the spoils of war , prize money called donativa .
By comparison tax officials calculated the annual cost of a soldier at 36 solidi covering pay, provisions, and equipment. [24] This was worth 500 silver denarii of the first century A.D. Even if inflated to boost gold income to pay mercenaries as replacements for Roman recruits it suggests a wide range of hidden costs.
[5] [6] Livy mentions that the stipendium was established in the year 407 BCE during the war with Veii; he states that the patricians in the Senate decreed that payment shall be provided for Roman soldiers from the coffers of the Senate. Previously, according to Livy, Roman soldiers had financed their own military service. [7]
All soldiers of the army were paid 168 sestertii (equivalent to 42 denarii) [h] each from the spoils of war, officers were paid twice as much while cavaliers were paid thrice as much. [77] The loot Vulso brought to Rome was used by the Roman Senate to pay off the debts it had incurred during the Second Punic War.
With money as the mainstay of the Roman Republic’s military success, the collection and use of tributum allowed Rome and its allies to pay their soldiers and bestow their armies with food, transport, equipment and support personnel, which effectively enabled Rome’s legions to remain in the field for lengths at a time. [3]
The Complete Roman Army, by Adrian Goldsworthy; The Military System Of The Romans, by Albert Harkness; From the Rise of the Republic and the Might of the Empire to the Fall of the West, by Nigel Rodgers; The Roman Army at War 100 BC – AD 200 (Oxford, September 1998) by Adrian Goldsworthy
The Praetorians received substantially higher pay [2] than other Roman soldiers in any of the legions, on a system known as sesquiplex stipendum, or by pay-and-a-half. So if the legionaries received 250 denarii, the guards received 375 per annum.
Third-century Roman soldiers battling barbarian troops on the Ludovisi Battle sarcophagus (250–260) Rome was established as a nation by making aggressive use of its high military potential. From very early on in its history, it would raise two armies annually to campaign abroad. The Roman military was far from being solely a defense force.