Bigger Roman army

[mattep74]

Every time i hear about the battle of teutoburg forrest the aftermath is described as leaving Rome vulnerable since they had to get troops from other direction. Why is that. Why did Rome not field a larger army? Could they have made reforms during the height of the republic/empire so that they had reserves? Maybe Augustus after teutoburg forrest instituted a draft and every able body man had to serve in the military for a time. Maybe take a portion of their slaves and put them into a fighting formation and place them in a area were they were not taken. And generals in charge of the units and officers were moved as often as possible to prevent them forming ties so that they could rebell.

Would this have worked and saved the empire a bit longer or would this shorten the time of the downfall?

 

[Alstein]

Every time i hear about the battle of teutoburg forrest the aftermath is described as leaving Rome vulnerable since they had to get troops from other direction. Why is that. Why did Rome not field a larger army? Could they have made reforms during the height of the republic/empire so that they had reserves? Maybe Augustus after teutoburg forrest instituted a draft and every able body man had to serve in the military for a time. Maybe take a portion of their slaves and put them into a fighting formation and place them in a area were they were not taken. And generals in charge of the units and officers were moved as often as possible to prevent them forming ties so that they could rebell.

Would this have worked and saved the empire a bit longer or would this shorten the time of the downfall?

Supply and logistical limits were what limited the Romans during this time. The other ideas likely could not have been done for political reasons.

 

[StevenIronside]

At this time the romans had something like 30 or just under that many legions. The most the republic had was during the triumvirates, with around 50 to 60 legions. However having this many men was very expensive and a huge drain on the empire. And with a more consolidated approach to conquest there was not as much need for this many men, and having that many legions was just not viable as you would experience manpower shortages at some point like Marcus Aurelius did, who at point was forced to call up an army of freedmen and slaves after the plague.

 

[Avalon]

For every early imperial legion, there was another equivalent unit of Auxilia in addition to other units such as Alae cavalry easily making it so that when you're estimating the total size of the armies your best doubling your figure of legions to include the rest FYI. At that metric at 30 units of 5,000-ish men each so 150,000 men and doubling that to 300,000-400,000 men that's quite a large army even for a modern-day country of the population size of the Roman empire (40 million-ish in 14 CE) and the legions from Roman citizens only (a lot less to put it scientifically).

 

[SunKing105]

Every time i hear about the battle of teutoburg forrest the aftermath is described as leaving Rome vulnerable since they had to get troops from other direction. Why is that. Why did Rome not field a larger army? Could they have made reforms during the height of the republic/empire so that they had reserves? Maybe Augustus after teutoburg forrest instituted a draft and every able body man had to serve in the military for a time. Maybe take a portion of their slaves and put them into a fighting formation and place them in a area were they were not taken. And generals in charge of the units and officers were moved as often as possible to prevent them forming ties so that they could rebell.

Would this have worked and saved the empire a bit longer or would this shorten the time of the downfall?

There was a contemporary rebellion in Illyria and Pannonia taking up 9 legions, leaving Germania dangerously undermanned. Add in Varus' idiocy and the terrain, and then you have Teutoberg.

 

[mial42]

No. Armies are extremely expensive, and Rome did not have the fiscal or administrative capacity to field a larger one for extended periods of time. When army sizes were increased later in the Empire in response to new military threats, the increased fiscal burden helped bring about the collapse of the WRE.