Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Legionarii

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

LEGIONA'RII. Legionary soldiers; i. e. the body of five or six thousand heavy-armed men, who formed the contingent furnished out of the Roman citizens to each legion, the rest of its entire complement made up by auxiliaries and cavalry. (Cic. Fam. x. 32. Caes. B. G. 1. 42.) The annexed figure (Legionarii/1.1), from the Column of Trajan, probably represents a legionary of the Imperial age; he wears a close helmet, a sword suspended by a shoulder belt (balteus), and hanging on the right side, has an oblong square shield (scutum), a cuirass formed of flexible plates of metal (see LORICA, No. 7.), and military shoes (caligae). On the Arches of Trajan and Septimius Severus, and the Columns of Trajan and Antoninus, numerous bodies of men are represented with the same accoutrements, and engaged in all the various duties which the soldiers of a legion were expected to perform.

2. Legionarii equites. Legionary troopers; i. e. the soldiers comprised in a detachment of three hundred horse, who were always joined with a Roman legion. (Liv. xxv. 21. xxxv. 5. Veg. Mil. ii. 2.) Their defensive armour appears to have been the same as that of the infantry, at least during the Imperial epoch, as shown by the annexed figure (Legionarii/2.1), from the Column of Antoninus.

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