Essay --

When the struggle against Antony and Cleopatra ended, Octavian found himself commander of some 60-70 legions and 900 warships. The Roman state could not, as a matter of course, support such a military establishment, nor was it politic to have so many men in service. He therefore discharged the majority, reducing the number of legions to 26; with the annexation of Galatia in 25 B.C., two new legions were added. The loss of three under Varus (see below) left only 25. There were thus about 150,000 legionaries, with an equivalent number of auxiliaries. The navy had two main bases, Misenum on the Bay of Naples and Ravenna along the Adriatic coast, with smaller flotillas elsewhere, such as at Forum Julii in southern France. Attendant upon the emperor were the nine cohorts of the Praetorian Guard.In the later years of Augustus' principate, seven cohorts of vigiles, who served as police in Rome, were established. There were also three cohortes urbanae. In the Res Gestae, his final statement of his activities and expenditures for the Roman state, Augustus spoke frequently of his military a...