The Roman army in the late empire faced many challenges, and leaders attempted to make it stronger in a variety of ways. In De Re Militari (On Military Matters), written about the year 500, the otherwise unknown author Vegetius sets out what he sees as ideal military recruitment and training, looking back somewhat nostalgically to the way he thought things were in the early days of the empire. The book was recopied many times over the centuries, was translated into other languages, and became a standard manual on warfare in the Middle Ages.

The Proper Age for Recruits. If we follow the ancient practice, the proper time for enlisting youth into the army is at their entrance into the age of puberty. At this time instructions of every kind are more quickly imbibed and more lastingly imprinted on the mind. Besides this, the indispensable military exercises of running and leaping must be acquired before the limbs are too much stiffened by age. For it is activity, improved by continual practice, which forms the useful and good soldier….

Signs of Desirable Qualities. Those employed to superintend new levies [groups of recruits] should be particularly careful in examining the features of their faces, their eyes, and the make of their limbs, to enable them to form a true judgment and choose such as are most likely to prove good soldiers. For experience assures us that there are in men, as well as in horses and dogs, certain signs by which their virtues may be discovered. The young soldier, therefore, ought to have a lively eye, should carry his head erect, his chest should be broad, his shoulders muscular and brawny, his fingers long, his arms strong, his waist small, his shape easy, his legs and feet rather nervous than fleshy. When all these marks are found in a recruit, a little height may be dispensed with, since it is of much more importance that a soldier should be strong than tall.

Trades Proper for New Levies. In choosing recruits regard should be given to their trade. Fishermen, fowlers, confectioners, weavers, and in general all whose professions more properly belong to women should, in my opinion, by no means be admitted into the service. On the contrary, smiths, carpenters, butchers, and huntsmen are the most proper to be taken into it. On the careful choice of soldiers depends the welfare of the Republic, and the very essence of the Roman Empire and its power is so inseparably connected with this charge, that it is of the highest importance not to be intrusted indiscriminately, but only to persons whose fidelity can be relied on.

Initial Training. The first thing the soldiers are to be taught is the military step, which can only be acquired by constant practice of marching quick and together. Nor is anything of more consequence either on the march or in the line than that they should keep their ranks with the greatest exactness. For troops who march in an irregular and disorderly manner are always in great danger of being defeated.

Source: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, The Military Institutions of the Romans (De Re Militari), trans. Lieutenant John Clarke, 1767, http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~madsb/home/war/vegetius/.

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