High officers are constantly passing through Rome. Some of these men have had long and distinguished careers, and among them is a certain Aulus Quadratus, a gray and grizzled veteran, now in the capital for honorable retirement, after an unusual term of service. By tracing his experience, a good insight can be gained into the organization and duties of the legionaries. =268. A Private in the Legions: the Legionary Organization.=--Quadratus was born in South Gaul (_Gallia Narbonensis_), a country that has already been well Romanized, and from which the government draws many excellent legionaries.[164] He was a poor free laborer on a great estate, but when he was only about eighteen an enrolling officer appeared and demanded a certain number of recruits of his master. The latter naturally suggested taking several of the youngest and least valuable of the hands. Quadratus was strong, courageous, and adventuresome, and he did not object to this informal type of “selective draft.” Thus he soon found himself a private in the camp of the “Second Augustan Legion” (_legio secunda augusta_) stationed in a great fortified camp guarding the Rhine somewhere near later Mayence or Strassbourg in “Upper Germany” (Alsace and the Rhenish Palatinate). Once enlisted, Quadratus realized that at least twenty years of unremitting service lay ahead of him. Home life and marriage were forbidden the soldiery, and their whole lives revolved around the army. The Roman discipline caught each man, and each became a valuable and contented soldier only so far as he submitted to this discipline and merged his personality in the vast organization. [Illustration: A SLINGER.] Quadratus was, therefore, promptly “put under the vinestock,” the stout cudgel of twisted vine twigs with which the centurions vigorously corrected their tyros. At first he was a very ignorant and unimportant part of the “Second Augustan,” but soon he understood its organization and became proud of its history. Every legion consisted of ten _cohorts_, each in turn divided into six centuries.[165] Each century contained in theory a hundred infantry, making 6000 for the entire legion. Besides these, there was a small cavalry force for scouting attached to each legion, four _turmæ_ (squadrons) of 30 horsemen each. The various contingents, however, were seldom quite full. When the Second Augustan went to battle it reckoned, therefore, somewhere under 6000 men. [Illustration: ROMAN SIEGE WORKS: restoration of Caesar’s siege works at Alesia.]