Explanation: While somewhat exaggerated (by the Imperial era, a Roman loss of 15,000 men was history-changing, while in the mid-Republic it was 'merely' devastating), the Romans put a great deal of effort into preserving and retrieving their standards - when one was lost, it was considered a major blow to Roman pride and prestige, and entire military campaigns were undertaken in hopes of retrieving lost standards. Follow the eagle!
this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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Was the supply of fresh troops heavily diminished by the imperial era or did this have other causes? The difference between imperial and republic era I mean
Someone else asked that question, so I made a pretty full response here: https://piefed.social/comment/8560959
tl;dr; The Empire needed highly-trained troops volunteering for thankless duties on the far frontiers; while the mid-Republic could conscript a bunch of militia anytime, who were generally terrified that failure would mean their families getting butchered by barbarians.
So when the mid-Republic loses troops, it can keep calling up forces until Italy itself runs dry of healthy young men. And those men know that their service lasts only as long as the war (or less).
When the Empire loses troops, it needs time and incentives to get a bunch of people from all over the Mediterranean to agree to sign over 20-25 years of their life to harsh military discipline, and then train them to an exacting degree, and the Empire has, additionally, to answer to political rivals and the population why losing so many good Roman lads for far-off frozen barbarian wastelands is so goddamn important.
Tyvm!