arly made among the
provincials, who had not yet deserved the honorable distinction of
Romans. Many dependent princes and communities, dispersed round the
frontiers, were permitted, for a while, to hold their freedom and
security by the tenure of military service. [55] Even select troops of
hostile barbarians were frequently compelled or persuaded to consume
their dangerous valor in remote climates, and for the benefit of
the state. [56] All these were included under the general name of
auxiliaries; and howsoever they might vary according to the difference
of times and circumstances, their numbers were seldom much inferior to
those of the legions themselves. [57] Among the auxiliaries, the bravest
and most faithful bands were placed under the command of praefects and
centurions, and severely trained in the arts of Roman discipline; but
the far greater part retained those arms, to which the nature of their
country, or their early habits of life, more peculiarly adapted them.
By this institution, each legion, to whom a certain proportion of
auxiliaries was allotted, contained within itself every species of
lighter troops, and of missile weapons; and was capable of encountering
every nation, with the advantages of its respective arms and discipline.
[58] Nor was the legion destitute of what, in modern language, would be
styled a train of artillery. It consisted in ten military engines of the
largest, and fifty-five of a smaller size; but all of which, either
in an oblique or horizontal manner, discharged stones and darts with
irresistible violence. [59]

[Footnote 55: Such, in particular, was the
state of the Batavians. Tacit. Germania, c. 29.]

[Footnote 56: Marcus Antoninus obliged the vanquished Quadi and
Marcomanni to supply him with a large body of troops, which he
immediately sent into Britain. Dion Cassius, l. lxxi. (c. 16.)]

[Footnote 57: Tacit. Annal. iv. 5. Those who fix a regular proportion of
as many foot, and twice as many horse, confound the auxiliaries of the
emperors with the Italian allies of the republic.]

[Footnote 58: Vegetius, ii. 2. Arrian, in his order of march and battle
against the Alani.]

[Footnote 59: The subject of the ancient machines is treated with great
knowledge and ingenuity by the Chevalier Folard, (Polybe, tom. ii. p.
233-290.) He prefers them in many respects to our modern cannon and
mortars. We may observe, that the use of them in the field gradually
became more prevalent, in