What's the point of having 25 year tenure in the Roman army?

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Father Mars Strider, This man has done faithful vigil for you. We therefore ask you to take him under your protection. May his enemies flee from him. May their city walls crumble. May their cattle and women be taken. This man... is now Evocati.

You don't really start to become much physically weaker until you're 50 or so

>>2594940
>nearly 60 year old soldier

...seriously?

>>2594924
By the time you're 41 you have a wealth of knowledge and are incredibly fit from the 25 years of service.

>>2594924
It was much, much easier to allocate land to veterans after 41 years of service than to allocate a smaller amount every 4 years or so. Plus you have to remember that during the establishment of the Marian system, for a lot of roman soldiers soldiering was literally the last resort. It was either join the legion or starve so they weren't really in a position to complain about the long tenure time.

>>2595009
Sorry not 41 years of service I meant by the time they're 41

>>2595009
The land part makes a lot of sense.

>>2595009

Also, general fitness was a lot higher back then as if you wanted to go somewhere you basically had to walk.

During the early Hellenistic period there are generals in their 70s and 80s still leading cavalry and elephant charges ala Alexander the Great.

40-60 year olds still would have been pretty legit fighters.

Don't compare back then to nowadays. A 17 years old from back then would beat THE SHIT out of a 25 years old gym addict from today.

>>2595410
It's also worth noting that the people of antiquity lived in a world without all the carcinogens and endocrine disruptors that tend to cause the diseases that kill us in old age today.

Back then, if you made it past the diseases of youth, you had a good chance of making it to extreme old age.

They were hoping the old geezers would get killed off before they had to give them anything.

>>2594942
Soldiering is hard work. Plenty of guys who sign up at 18 have knee and back problems within 8 years.

>>2595565

N'aww man, infections were more common and if you had bad teeth you were pretty fucked.

>>2595590

That's because we're not used to walking literally everywhere which people back in the day were.

>>2595712
No, moron. It's because the cartilage in your joints isn't made for lugging military gear around over rough terrain for years on end. Your knees don't magically get tougher if you walk frequently.

>>2594924
I was in the army. You dont wanna fuck with a dirty50s guy...

The age of a person joining the army was probably quite young, 13-15 years old. Maybe younger.

>>2594924
The payment to a soldier was done in a one time payment in the end of service.

They where just literally extending the service as much as possible to make sure as many as possible died without ending their services.

But to be honest extreme physical degradation only starts in the late 50's for most men.

>>2594924
Longer period of time meant that it was likelier for the soldier to end up dead or killed so the government wouldn't have to give him his land.

>>2595554
Bull shit. People are much bigger and stronger now than they were 2000 years ago.