What rights did Imperial Roman soldiers have?

However serving soldiers were a different story: Roman army discipline was harsh. Swearing the soldiers’ oath or sacramentum meant explicitly surrendering the citizen’s immunity to corporal and capital punishment as well as promising obedience to orders. read more

The Greek biographer Plutarch credits the fabled founder of Rome, Romulus, with creating the legionary forces (as they would be known in the Republic and Imperial periods), yet the Roman historian Livy says that the early Roman army fought more along the lines of Greek hoplites in a phalanx, most likely as a form of civil militia, with recruitment dependant on a citizen’s social standing. read more