in Roman antiquity, a body of foot, which consisted of different numbers at different periods of time. The word comes from the Latin *legeres*, to choose; because, when the legions were raised, they made choice of such of the youth as were of the proper age to bear arms. In the time of Romulus the legion consisted of 3000 foot and 300 horse, although, after the reception of the Sabines, it was augmented to 4000. In the war with Hannibal it was raised to 5000; after which it declined to 4000 or 4500, the number in the time of Polybius. The number of legions kept in pay together differed according to times and occasions. During the consular state, four legions were organized every year, and divided between the two consuls; yet we meet with as many as sixteen or eighteen, according as the situation of affairs required. Augustus maintained a standing army of twenty-three or twenty-five legions; but so large a number is seldom found in after times. The different legions borrowed their names from the order in which they were raised, thus legio prima, secunda, tercia: but as there might be many primae, secundae, tertiae, they were surnamed from the emperors, as Augusta, Claudiana, Galbiana, Flavia, Ulpia, Trajana, Antoniana; or from the provinces which had been conquered by their means, as Parthica, Scythica, Gallica, Arabica; or from the deities under whose protection the commanders had particularly placed themselves, as Minerva, Apollinaris; or from the region where they were quartered, as Crete, Cyrenaica, Britannica; or from particular accidents, as adjuvatrix, martia, fulmi-atrix, rapax, victrix. Each legion was divided into ten cohorts, each cohort into ten companies, and each company into two centuries. The chief commander of the legion was called legatus or lieutenant.

The standards borne by the legions were various. Originally 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. The figures of a horse and a boar were also borne; and Marius, we are told, was the first who exchanged all these for the eagle. See Army.