Pay (Roman army)
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.
During 407 BC, when the Roman army was divided into three parts and sent to plunder the enemies' territory under the command of three of the four military Tribunes (Lucius Valerius Potitus headed for Anzio, Gnaeus Cornelius Cossus headed for Ecetra, and Numerius Fabius Ambustus attacked and conquered Anxur, leaving the prey to the soldiers of all three armies), the stipend for the soldiers was established, perhaps at the direction of Furius Camillus himself.
[2] In addition, each infantryman was entitled to a share of the spoils of war (prisoners were sold as slaves, as well as animals, treasure, weapons, and other goods), which were auctioned off and the proceeds distributed to officers and men according to various criteria.
[3] It is also known from Polybius that if the pay distributed to Roman horsemen was one drachma a day, three times what an infantryman earned,[2] the monthly rations were seven medimnoi of barley and two of wheat.
He, meanwhile, enlisted soldiers, not as was the custom at that time, by social classes, but rather by accepting all volunteers, for the most part destitute of (capite censi).Permanent active duty thus underwent a major change in 107 BC.
[8] Caesar did not, in the course of the conquest of Gaul, deprive his soldiers of the opportunity to loot, but the mere legionary had to be clear about the ultimate goal of the campaign, and his actions were not to affect the commander's operational plans.
During the High Empire, supply to the troops, stationed along the imperial borders, was ensured by a system of food collection, including through forced requisitions (against reimbursement), called annona militaris.
He brought order to the financial administration of the Roman state, awarding a salary and leave bonus to all soldiers in the imperial army (both legionaries and auxiliaries) with the creation of an aerarium militare.
[10][17] Septimius Severus favored legionaries in several ways, increasing their pay and granting them the right to marry while in service,[18] as well as allowing them to live with their families outside the camp (canabae).
The aim was to increase tax revenues in the treasury's coffers to attempt to meet the rising costs of military salaries needed to maintain armies along the frontiers.
[23] Below is a table that attempts to summarize, based on calculations made by some modern scholars and the little literary evidence of the time, as well as limited archaeological-epigraphic documentation that has come down to us, the annual pay of Roman soldiers:[24][25] (Cornicen, Tesserarius e Beneficiarius) (Optio, Aquilifer, Signifer, Imaginifer, Vexillarius equitum, Cornicularius, Campidoctor) (Evocatus)[26] The impact of the costs of such a large army (from Augustus to the Severans) on the economy of the Roman Empire can be measured, albeit roughly, as follows: The cost of the entire army grew moderately as a % of GDP between AD 14 and 150, despite an increase in manpower of about 50%, from about 255,000 armed men[33] in AD 23 to 383,000[34] under Hadrian, to about 442,000[35] by the death of Septimius Severus in 211.
[36] Military expenditures thus constituted about 75 percent of the total state budget, since "social" spending was little, whereas all the rest was spent on prestigious building projects in Rome and the provinces; this was supplemented by a grain subsidy for those found to be unemployed, as well as aid to the proletariat of Rome (congiaria) and subsidies to Italic families (similar to modern family allowances), to encourage them to beget more children.
