Post by Sovereign Lord Xerxein on May 26, 2006 14:20:53 GMT -5
The Military Oath
To be placed on the rolls of the legion, a recruit had to swear the military oath.
The oath, the sacramentum, naturally changed in time as the Roman state and the empire evolved.
In republican times, one man would recite the oath out loud (praeiuratio), thereafter each oteh man in turn would say the words, 'idem in me' ('the same in my case').
It may well have been that new recruits who joined the army all had to speak the full oath, if numbers allowed this. But the renewal of the oath, will have been conducted in the shorter fashion described above.
In early republican times, the historian Dionysius tells us, the oath sounded something like this;
'to follow the consuls to whatever wars they may be called, and neither desert the colours nor do anything else contrary to law.'
The renewal of the oath was always conducted on New Year's Day, up until either the reign of Vespasian or Domitian when it was moved to 3 January.
A Christian version of the oath is described by the historian Vegetius,
'They swear by God, by Christ and by the Holy Spirit; and by the majesty of the emperor, which, next to God, should be loved and worshipped by the human race... The soldiers swear to perform with enthusiasm whatever the emperor commands, never to desert, and not to shrink from death on behalf of the Roman state.'
To be placed on the rolls of the legion, a recruit had to swear the military oath.
The oath, the sacramentum, naturally changed in time as the Roman state and the empire evolved.
In republican times, one man would recite the oath out loud (praeiuratio), thereafter each oteh man in turn would say the words, 'idem in me' ('the same in my case').
It may well have been that new recruits who joined the army all had to speak the full oath, if numbers allowed this. But the renewal of the oath, will have been conducted in the shorter fashion described above.
In early republican times, the historian Dionysius tells us, the oath sounded something like this;
'to follow the consuls to whatever wars they may be called, and neither desert the colours nor do anything else contrary to law.'
The renewal of the oath was always conducted on New Year's Day, up until either the reign of Vespasian or Domitian when it was moved to 3 January.
A Christian version of the oath is described by the historian Vegetius,
'They swear by God, by Christ and by the Holy Spirit; and by the majesty of the emperor, which, next to God, should be loved and worshipped by the human race... The soldiers swear to perform with enthusiasm whatever the emperor commands, never to desert, and not to shrink from death on behalf of the Roman state.'