What was the requirement for being a soldier in the Roman Rebublic?

Answer 1

Until the late 2nd Century BCE, to be eligible to be an infantryman in a legion it was necessary to have property or a farm. It was not held to be just that someone should have to fight if they had nothing to defend, and it was not expected that the propertyless would be reliable without such motivation anyway. In a little bit of double think, the non-propertied were pulled in as light infantry to throw spears, rocks and as archers, but not join the main battle. Cavalrymen (equites, or knights in later parlance) had a higher qualification - to own a horse, which was rare when the usual farmer owned about a hectare on which to subsist and raise a family. Even this became too high, and rich widows were required to support horses for cavalrymen. Towards the end of the 2nd Century BCE the Germanic people got on the move and overwhelmed legions in Gaul by sheer weight of numbers. To make up the shortfall and match these numbers, Marius drafted the non-propertied. While this was successful in countering the Germans, it created a social problem which became a massive future political one. While the farmer after a campaign returned to his farm, hopefully with some loot, and his sons were given captured land, the non-propertied had none to go to, and looked to their generals to see them right. This gave enormous power to those generals, who had these soldiers to back up their ambitions. This stoked confrontations which resulted in the civil wars, until Augustus placed all the legions under his own command as part of his settlement of the wars.

Answer 2

The qualifications for a man to become a soldier was that he was freeborn and in good health, both mentally and physically. He was supposed to be at least six Roman feet tall, which was about our five feet ten or a little over. However this height requirement was nearly always overlooked if he qualified otherwise.