Topic summary
Roman legions
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Roman legion.
Later Empire (from 284 AD)
Despite a number of organisational changes, the legion system survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It was continued within the Eastern Roman Empire until the 7th century, when reforms begun by Emperor Heraclius to supply the increasing need for soldiers resulted in the Theme system. Despite this, the Eastern Roman armies continued to be influenced by the earlier Roman legions, and were maintained with similar levels of discipline, strategic prowess, and organization.