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FLAVIUS
VEGETIUS RENATUS BOOK
TWO PROMOTION IN THE LEGION Heaven certainly inspired
the Romans with the organization of the legion, so superior does it seem to human
invention. Such is the arrangement and disposition of the ten cohorts that compose
it, as to appear one perfect body and form one complete whole. A soldier, as he
advances in rank, proceeds as it were by rotation through the different degrees
of the several cohorts in such a manner that one who is promoted passes from the
first cohort to the tenth, and returns again regularly through all the others
with a continual increase of rank and pay to the first. Thus the centurion of
the primiple, after having commanded in the different ranks of every cohort, attains
that great dignity in the first with infinite advantages from the whole legion.
The chief praefect of the Praetorian Guards rises by the same method of rotation
to that lucrative and honorable rank. Thus the legionary horse contract an affection
for the foot of their own cohorts, notwithstanding the natural antipathy existing
between the two corps. And this connection establishes a reciprocal attachment
and union between all the cohorts and the cavalry and infantry of the legion.
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