Comment on It was a lot easier to get a job back in the day

• MyVeryRealName@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  It’s not like the food was great back then

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  • PugJesus@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    You might be surprised! For all the complaints we have of legionaries, and they are manifold and sometimes petty, food quality isn’t one of them - something which has been noted by historians as unusual considering that food is usually one of the top complaints of pre-modern (and often modern) soldiery. Considering the high quality of medical treatment and that the Romans considered diet to be a core part of health, and the known rations supplied to legionaries, it’s likely that most legionaries were eating as-well-as or better than their civilian counterparts!

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    • MyVeryRealName@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      TIL

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      • PugJesus@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        Standard rations of grain (to be made into bread), meat, beans and lentils, cheese, salt, wine, and vinegar. Fucking ancient legionaries are eating better than I am*.

        *because my diet is shit by choice, but still. why eat good when eating bad is so easy

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• CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Never get rich? Have they abandoned pillaging? Like, without that, what’s the point?

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  • PugJesus@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    “Souvenirs” only, and that only if you can sneak them past your officers 😔

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• Skullgrid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  I guess it was easier for both back in the day when you got paid in salt

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  • PugJesus@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Mandatory fun-killing note: the evidence suggests that Roman soldiers were never actually paid in salt. 😔

    You could get rich as a literate legionary, though. A legionary’s standard pay was about as much as a common worker. But the enlisted-to-NCO pipeline was very real, and NCOs got 1.5x pay, 2x pay, and then, at the rank of centurion, 16x pay! That pay scale also applies to the share of loot you receive after a battle, and, in the Imperial period, also to your retirement bonus!

    Of course, centurions were expected to lead from the front, and had high casualty rates. In the Battle of Gergovia, centurions died at four times the rate of enlisted men.

    … what’s your tolerance for danger…?

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    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      So where did that apochrapha(sp?) come from?

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      • PugJesus@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        A misinterpretation of a line from Pliny the Elder. Pliny traces the etymology of ‘salary’ (when talking about soldiers and government officials) to ‘salt’ because of salt’s value in prior times, but doesn’t actually say soldiers (or government officials, for that matter) were paid in salt.

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    • SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Is the job as emperor still available?

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      • PugJesus@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        It’s something of a “make your own opening” position

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