The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t1.4

c11.t1.4

In order to appreciate the age-long militarism of the Hindus and their organization of the general staff it is necessary to have an idea of the Roman institutions of national defence and war-machinery.¹ In B. C. 225 the republic placed 65,000 soldiers on the field and had 55,000 in reserve at Rome.² At Trebia (B. C. 218), as Polybius writes in his *History of the Roman Conquest from B. C. 264—146*, the strength of the army was 38,400. And the largest force that the Romans are known to have mustered during their republican period was that under Scipio for the Second Punic (Hannibalian) War (B. C. 218—202).³ On this occasion the army consisted sometimes of 18, 20, or even 23 legions. A “legion” at that time was made up of 4,000 or 5,000 soldiers, and of this number about 300 or 400 constituted the cavalry.