Even as (the Late Roman Empire's) urban population remained much the same since Constantinus's victory at the Milvian Bridge, recruitment among roman citizens by the year 390 a.d had plummeted to barely 15% of what it was was 50 years prior — what is made more dire when one realizes that the Roman Empire after Diocletianus's reforms required a standing army at least twice the size of that of the time of the roman golden age under Vespasianus.
The attempt to replace roman soldiers for the Foederati (immigrants mostly settled illegally on roman land) led to a swift competence crisis among the ranks, as well as the disappearance of roman veteran culture. Among the most shocking anecdotes are reports of roman armies mutinying over 'the absurdity that roman soldiers had to build roads and infrastructure'.
As political, demographical and economic factors coalesced, the roman recruitment crisis can be understood as an existential crisis of the empire itself. Simply put, roman citizens rich and poor no longer believed that a military career would be beneficial to them, nor they believed the existence of the military and the empire itself were worth any sacrifice.
The attempt to replace roman soldiers for the Foederati (immigrants mostly settled illegally on roman land) led to a swift competence crisis among the ranks, as well as the disappearance of roman veteran culture. Among the most shocking anecdotes are reports of roman armies mutinying over 'the absurdity that roman soldiers had to build roads and infrastructure'.
As political, demographical and economic factors coalesced, the roman recruitment crisis can be understood as an existential crisis of the empire itself. Simply put, roman citizens rich and poor no longer believed that a military career would be beneficial to them, nor they believed the existence of the military and the empire itself were worth any sacrifice.