Dilectus
The levying of soldiers for military service among the Romans. In the republican age all
the citizens who were liable to service assembled in the Capitol on the day previously
announced by the consuls in their
edictum, or proclamation. The
twenty-four
tribuni militum were first divided among the four legions to
be levied. Then one of the tribes was chosen by lot, and the presence of the citizens
ascertained by calling the names according to the lists of the several tribes. The calling was
always opened with names of good omen. (See
Omen.) If a
man did not appear he would be punished, according to circumstances, by a fine, confiscation
of property, corporal punishment, even by being sold into slavery. Four men of equal age and
bodily capacity were ordered to come forward, and were distributed among the four legions;
then another four, and so on, so that each legion got men of equal quality. As the proceeding
was the same with the other tribes, each legion had a quarter of the levy for each tribe. No
one man had exemption (
vacatio) from service unless he was over forty-six
years of age, or had served the number of campaigns prescribed by law—twenty in the
infantry, ten in the cavalry—or held a city office or priesthood, or had a temporary
or perpetual dispensation granted on account of special business of State. In ancient times
the levy of the cavalry followed that of the infantry, in later times it preceded it. On the
oath taken after the levy, see
Sacramentum.
About the year B.C. 100, Marius procured the admission of the
capite
censi, or classes without property, to military service. (See
Proletarii.) After this the legions were chiefly made up out of this
class by enlistment; and though the liability to common military service still existed for all
citizens, the wealthy citizens strove to relieve themselves of it, the more so as after Marius
the time of service was extended from twenty campaigns to twenty years. In B.C. 89, Roman
citizenship was extended to all the inhabitants of Italy, and all, therefore, became liable to
service. The levies were, in consequence, not held exclusively in Rome, but in all Italy by
conquisitores. These officials, though they continued to use the
official lists of qualified persons, assumed more and more the character of recruiting
officers. They were ready to grant the
vacatio, or exemption, for money
or favour, and anxious to get hold of volunteers by holding out promises. The legal liability
to military service continued to exist in imperial times, but after the time of Augustus it
was only enforced in regard to the garrison at Rome and on occasions of special necessity. The
army had become a standing one, and even outside of Italy, except when a special levy of new
legions was made, the vacancies caused by the departure of the soldiers who had served their
time were filled up by volunteers. The levy was carried out by imperial commissioners (
dilectatores), whose business it was to test the qualifications of the
recruits. These were, Roman citizenship—for only citizens were allowed to serve,
whether in the legions or in the guard and other garrison cohorts of Rome (
cohortes urbanae)—physical capacity, and a certain height, the average of
which was 5 feet 10 inches under the Empire. For the republican age we have no information on
this point. See
Exercitus.