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The ancient Roman scholar Pliny the Elder thought that the word salarium (salary) came from salarius (salt), and said this was because in the old days soldiers were paid in salt. However, he wriote in the mid-first century A.D. and was referring to a nonspecific and hazily remembered distant past. This was unlikely to have been the case. At most the soldiers would have received an allowance for the purchase of salt, probably because the price of salt was liable to increase at times of military conflict.
The ancient Roman historian Livy wrote that pay for the soldiers was introduced in 405 B.C. when Rome decided to besiege the neighbouring Etruscan city of Veii. Livy also said that this pay was called stipendium and that a tax, which was called tributum, was raised to fund this pay. The soldiers were paid with money. The first mention of the amount of money the soldiers received was by the Greek scholar Polybius, who, writing in the second century B.C., said that they were given two (Greek) oboli per day which was the equivalent of 100 Roman asses a month.
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Rene
TaigaThe Roman army was paid in the good old silver sisterces and bronze denarii. There is an old myth of them being paid in salt, but the term "salt money" could be considered to be a slang term for a bonus for a particularily difficult undetaking. Afterall, no man would join the army, train, put his life on the line for a sack of salt.
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What Kitchen seasoning was used to pay roman soldiers?
salt
What complaints did Roman Soldiers about life in the Army?
The Roman soldier had the standard gripes about army life as present day soldiers. Some of these were the lack of sleep, the discipline, the amount of deductions from their pay, the attitude of their centurion, and the food.
What did Marius do to reform the Roman army?
a general by the name of Gaius Marius began to change the army. He was afraid Rome was going to be attacked by barbarians. The Romans called everyone who wasn't a Roman or Greek a barbarian. He began to let poor plebians join the army. From now on, generals paid their soldiers. The soldiers were now loyal to their general, not the Republic. Eventually, generals like Julius Cesar came to power. He was the richest man in Rome, and his army was totally loyal to him
Did emperors pay for bloody fights in the Roman Colosseum to gain popularity?
Yes
How did the Roman Empire recruit soldiers?
From 753 BC to 107 BC the Roman army was a citizen militia. It drafted peasant- proprietors who owned a farm. Those who did not own land were exempted. This was because they were poor. The soldiers had to procure and pay for the military equipment themselves. From 107 BC on the army became professional, the state paid for the military equipment and the citizens volunteered to join the army. The poor flocked to the army because it gave them a career, a pay and, on retirement, either a lump sum of money or a plot of land for them to farm.
