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Originally posted by KirkVining
Actually the foreign army thing is relative to something that is happening to us right now- the fall in the birth rate of the native dominant class. With the Romans, it was probably the introduction in the widespread use of lead pipe around 200 AD or so that caused a drop in fertility (and smarts). Since bathrooms and such was the high tech stuff of its day, basically the Roman citizenry was affected and not the slaves or foreigners. The low birthrates forced them to need both more slaves and foreign mercenaries to help them get them. The same thing is happening here in a more modern way, except it is being caused by birth control and abortion among whites and blacks. Latinos, our modern wage slaves, do not practice either method widely due to their more orthodox adherence to Catholicism, as well as cultural factors that encourage them to have large families. No telling where that will lead, but you can pretty much predict that America and Mexico will unite as a single nation over the next century.
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The Roman legionaires were originally comprised strictly of Roman citizens. Through time it devolved to citizens as officers and the rank and file mostly non-citizens. Auxiliairy forces were often entirely members of vassal-states.
The analogy with our own armed forces is a good one.Fewer and fewer people of the upper crust consider military service an honorable, worthy vocation for themselves or their class. When you have everything, why risk any of it? What we learned from the Romans was that people who see the military as a ladder between classes make darned good soldiers. So we offer GI Bill, that brought higher education to the masses. This gives soldiers who served honorably a stake in the the nation's middleclass.
Roman legionaires, upon completion of honorable service were given lands on the frontiers. This served three purposes, it kept enlistment high and it put, tough, experienced men on the frontier, and it gave those men a big stake in settling the frontier to Roman civilization.
The retired legionaires were disciplined and knew how to command people so they did fairly well as farmers. Often knowledgeable in maintaining animals. hence the term "veteran" applied to former members of the legion.
So far, we have not relied on foreign armies to fight our wars. In overwhelming numbers and percent, it is our own citizens' lives whom we risk in war and whom we honor in death.
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