This was as high ordinarily as even a very fortunate soldier, who had enlisted as a mere private, could advance. Even as Præfect of the Camp Quadratus was looked down upon socially by the six young military tribunes, scions of senatorial families, who hung around the headquarters (_prætorium_), wrote verses, patronized the centurions, and boasted of how “they commanded the legion.” But Quadratus was, we repeat, an extraordinarily lucky officer. Grizzled now and battle-scarred, he impressed Hadrian as absolutely to be trusted. The Emperor, therefore, raised him to the rank of “Legate of the Legion,” which carried with it a seat in the Senate, and for the past few years accordingly Quadratus has been on the Rhine in chief command of that same Second Augustan where once he had “submitted to the vinestock” as a raw recruit. He has now returned to Rome to be honorably retired and to end his days in a luxurious villa in the hills, having enjoyed every honor possible in the Roman army save that of being Imperial Legatus over an entire province, a post ordinarily combined with the command of several legions. It is men like Quadratus, hard and fit soldiers of absolute faithfulness, coolness, courage, and efficiency; steeped in the traditions of the army, and obeying automatically the call of military duty, that have been the soul of the Roman war-machine. Perhaps some day there will be degeneracy in the camps, even as in the luxurious city. Then the perils of the Empire will draw nigh--but not in the reign of Hadrian. =280. Care for Veterans: Retiring Bonuses and Land Grants.=--Few enough of Quadratus’s messmates kept near to him in his upward career. To the average recruit, the most to be hoped for is that, before the end of his twenty years’ enlistment, he can be somewhere near the rank of centurion. But many men learn to enjoy the military life even as privates, and when the time for honorable discharge comes, will often be glad to reënlist in picked corps of _veterani_, bronzed and hardened warriors who make invaluable scouts and bodyguards for the upper officers, and who have quite forgotten the modes of civilian life. If, however, they elect to be mustered out, not merely are there accumulations of pay and donations given them from the legion’s savings bank, but along with the _honesta missio_ (honorable discharge) they receive either a grant of land for a modest farm, or a lump sum (some 3000 sesterces--$120) to start them on a peaceful career. If they become sick or disabled while in service, reasonably good care is taken of them. In any case the constant award of honorary spears, pennons, and medals appeals to the soldier’s vanity, and helps to reconcile him to a very long enlistment and an equally stiff discipline.