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Ancient Rome Legion vs the FFL

Kronenberg

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For those who are interested in ancient military history, a nice short video lecture on the recruiting system of legionnaires in Ancient Rome. Two main similarities between the Roman Legion and the modern French Foreign Legion are obvious, and also unexpected (at least from me!).


Great find FdG.

A lot of similarities... Quite amazing.

I think the idea of branding Legionnaires at the end of their 4 months (rather than giving a Kepi after 1 month) should be employed.

It would warn the public of "inapte civile" - which most of us are of course despite the barriers we build :)

"You can take the man out of the Legion, but you can't take the Legion out of the man."

Anyway - very interesting.
 
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Great find FdG.

A lot of similarities... Quite amazing.

I think the idea of branding Legionnaires at the end of their 4 months (rather than giving a Kepi after 1 month) should be employed.

It would warn the public of "inapte civile" - which most of us are of course despite the barriers we build :)

"You can take the man out of the Legion, but you can't take the Legion out of the man."

Anyway - very interesting.

It's not mentioned in this video, but I remember from school days that legionnaires enjoyed a special status even after their 20 years of service within roman society and that had some perks like they would get a piece of land somewhere where they could live and would get also an emolument that corresponds to our idea of pension for their whole life. Which is quite amazing if you think that also in the FFL right now 20 years of service grant you a pension benefit once you leave. Anyways all things considered, it seems like making war for a living hasn't changed much in the last 2000 years!
 
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