proportion as personal valor and military
skill declined with the Roman empire. When men were no longer found,
their place was supplied by machines. See Vegetius, ii. 25. Arrian.]

Chapter I: The Extent Of The Empire In The Age Of The Antonines.--Part III.

The camp of a Roman legion presented the appearance of a fortified city.
[60] As soon as the space was marked out, the pioneers carefully levelled
the ground, and removed every impediment that might interrupt its
perfect regularity. Its form was an exact quadrangle; and we may
calculate, that a square of about seven hundred yards was sufficient for
the encampment of twenty thousand Romans; though a similar number of our
own troops would expose to the enemy a front of more than treble that
extent. In the midst of the camp, the praetorium, or general's quarters,
rose above the others; the cavalry, the infantry, and the auxiliaries
occupied their respective stations; the streets were broad and perfectly
straight, and a vacant space of two hundred feet was left on all sides
between the tents and the rampart. The rampart itself was usually twelve
feet high, armed with a line of strong and intricate palisades, and
defended by a ditch of twelve feet in depth as well as in breadth.
This important labor was performed by the hands of the legionaries
themselves; to whom the use of the spade and the pickaxe was no less
familiar than that of the sword or pilum. Active valor may often be the
present of nature; but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of
habit and discipline. [61]

[Footnote 60: Vegetius finishes his second book, and the description of
the legion, with the following emphatic words:--"Universa quae ix
quoque belli genere necessaria esse creduntur, secum Jegio debet ubique
portare, ut in quovis loco fixerit castra, arma'am faciat civitatem."]

[Footnote 61: For the Roman Castrametation, see Polybius, l. vi. with
Lipsius de Militia Romana, Joseph. de Bell. Jud. l. iii. c. 5. Vegetius,
i. 21--25, iii. 9, and Memoires de Guichard, tom. i. c. 1.]

Whenever the trumpet gave the signal of departure, the camp was almost
instantly broke up, and the troops fell into their ranks without
delay or confusion. Besides their arms, which the legendaries scarcely
considered as an encumbrance, they were laden with their kitchen
furniture, the instruments of fortification, and the provision of many
days. [62] Under this weight, which would oppress the delicacy of a
mo