The pay of the Romans was from of old a hundred _asses_ per month for one man, which was in a fair proportion to his wants. Such a pay is to be met with among the Athenians since Pericles’ days, but scarcely ever before. The pay of a hoplite at Athens was immense; in Rome, where the allies paid no contributions, it could not but be much less. The sum of one hundred _asses_ continued to be paid also in later times; when the _asses_ were made too light, they were calculated in silver at the rate of ten to one. Every third day, the soldier got a _denarius_ (as much as one drachma), which is two obols daily. The stipendium was considered as a unit; yet it was multiplied afterwards (_multiplex stipendium_: _Domitian_ added a _quartum stipendium_). But this is always to be understood of one month only. The excellent Radbod Hermann Schele makes the mistake here of drawing from authorities which are not worth any thing, the impossible conclusion that the _stipendia_ were _annua_, which would have been to no purpose whatever: his practical turn of mind failed him in this instance. The pay was only for the time when one was really in the field; if the war lasted for one year, a year’s pay was, of course, allowed. When Appius Claudius says in Livy, _annua æra habes, annuam operam ede_, this is likewise an incorrect opinion of Livy. This innovation was of the utmost importance for the republic, as without a national army Rome could never have become great. If the money for the purpose could be supplied without entailing any fresh tax, it answered perfectly; but if the patrician did not pay the tithe from the _ager publicus_, or the revenue of the state was otherwise insufficient, the war was exceedingly burthensome for the plebeian, as the pay had to be defrayed by a property tax, and the service might last for an unusually long period. This injustice was an unavoidable necessity. That the plebeians had not been taxed before, was, very likely, owing to their inability to pay; but for twenty years Rome had been increasing in welfare, so that it now became possible, although new distress was thus created, and prosperity blighted, until there was even a return of the old system of oppression for debt. But, on the other hand, it also became possible, to keep an army in the field throughout the whole of the year. About the same time, there was a change in the art of war. _Postquam stipendiarii facti sunt_, says Livy, _scuta pro clupeis habebant_; he seems to take it for granted that this alteration in the arms was called forth by the introduction of pay. The first step towards it may indeed have been already taken before the Gallic invasion.