Roman Legionary Ad 69-161

Between AD 69 and 161 the composition of the Roman legions was transformed. Italians were almost entirely replaced by provincial recruits, men for whom Latin was at best a second language, and yet the `Roman-ness` of these Germans, Pannonians, Spaniards, Africans, and Syrians, fostered in isolated fortresses on the frontiers, was incredibly strong. The legions of the era may have been provincial, but they were definitely Roman in organization and ethos.