in Roman antiquity, a body of foot which consisted of different numbers at different periods of time. The word comes from the Latin legere, to choose; because, when the legions were raised, they made choice of such of their youth as were most proper to bear arms.

In the time of Romulus the legion consisted of 3000 foot and 300 horse; though, after the reception of the Sabines, it was augmented to 4000. In the war with Hannibal, it was raised to 5000, after this it sunk to 4000 or 4500; this was the number in the time of Polybius. The number of legions kept in pay together, differed according to times and occasions. During the conlular burning the flower, you fetch the box from another apartment, and at the same time put in a corresponding flower, which will make the experiment still more surprising. The consul state four legions were fitted up every year, and divided between the two consuls; yet we meet with the number of 16 or 18, as the situation of affairs required. Augustus maintained a standing army of 23 or 25 legions; but this number in after times is seldom found. The different legions borrowed their names from the order in which they were raised; hence we read of legio prima, secunda, tertia: but as there might be many primes, secondes, terties, &c., they were named from the emperors, as Augusta, Claudiana, Galbiana, Flavia, Ulphia, Trajana, Antoniana, &c., or from the provinces which had been conquered by their means, as Parthica, Scythica, Gallica, Arabiae, &c., or from the deities under whose protection the commanders had particularly placed themselves, Minervia, Apollinaris, &c., or from the region where they were quartered, as Cretenis, Cyrenaica, Briannica, &c., or from particular accidents, as adiutrix, martia, fulmi-vatrix, rapax, victrix.

Each legion was divided into 10 cohorts, each cohort into 10 companies, and each company into two centuries. The chief commander of the legion was called legatus, i.e., lieutenant.

The standards borne by the legions were various; at first, the standard was a wolf, in honour of Romulus's nurse; afterwards a hog, which animal was usually sacrificed at the conclusion of a treaty, to indicate that war is undertaken with a view to peace; sometimes a minotaur, to remind the general of his duty of secrecy, of which the labyrinth was an emblem, and consequently the minotaur; a horse was also borne, also a boar; and Marius, we are told, was the first who changed all these for the eagle.