# How Big was Rome's "Pentagon"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 22, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-romes-pentagon/669460 "2013-09-22T19:35:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-romes-pentagon/669460/1 "2013-09-22T19:35:05Z")
At its peak, the (Western) Roman Army had over 300,000 soldiers. Presumably, the Romans had some sort of central command to handle purchasing (of armor, swords, uniforms, etc.), and educate the officer classes…I would assume they had to have some kind of finance dept., to handle paying the troops. So, did they have something like the Pentagon? how big was it? And, was it a plum position 9as a Pentagon posting is today)? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-romes-pentagon/669460/2 "2013-09-22T19:48:25Z")
For starters, a lot of the logistics were handled locally, as were payroll details. The level of centralization you’re accustomed to was impossible when the fastest speed at which documents could travel was that of a horse its rider didn’t care to keep alive… ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-romes-pentagon/669460/3 "2013-09-22T20:19:49Z")
Theres some information in this article. Details seem a bit sketchy. I’m not sure the scholars understand how the daily command structure worked. > **[Late Roman army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Roman_army)** > > In modern scholarship, the "late" period of the Roman army begins with the accession of the Emperor Diocletian in AD 284, and ends in 480 with the death of Julius Nepos, being roughly coterminous with the Dominate. During the period 395–476, the army of the Roman Empire's western half progressively disintegrated, while its counterpart in the East, known as the East Roman army (or the early Byzantine army) remained largely intact in size and structure until the reign of Justinian I (r. AD 527–565)... > [@](#): > > The Late Roman army exhibited significant differences in recruitment, equipment, organisation and tactics from those of the army of the Roman Principate which preceded it. In line with the centralising tendencies of the Roman Dominate, the Late Roman army saw the formation of permanent field armies, under the direct supervision of the emperors or their designated military subordinates. As a consequence of this the troops remaining as garrison forces on the frontiers became a largely separate force. Manufacture and provision of military equipment was also brought under centralised state control. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-romes-pentagon/669460/4 "2013-09-23T19:33:15Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > For starters, a lot of the logistics were handled locally, as were payroll details. The level of centralization you’re accustomed to was impossible when the fastest speed at which documents could travel was that of a horse its rider didn’t care to keep alive… That’s not quite true. There was a vast amount of central planning, especially after the reforms of Diocletian. A central budget was computed, and the military upkeep expense was allocated to the provinces proportionally at a very fine level of detail. The last thing the state wanted was to let local officials control military compensation. Most of the grain for soldier pay was grown in Egypt, anyway. So it all had to be expropriated, shipped up the Nile, and distributed all over the empire. The central officials in charge of military supply were the [praetorian prefects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praetorian_prefect). They were typically only just a smidgen less powerful than the emperors themselves. Even though they eventually had no military power, their authority was nearly absolute and their competence was vast. The prefecture did have a finance department that became responsible for the military budget. There was no Pentagon per se because the administration was frequently on the road. By the late empire, about half of the war matieriel was constructed at state operated manufactories called _fabricae_. The rest was made up from private purchases. Other military equipment, like clothing, was either purchased or taxed directly. There was a brief cloak tax documented in Egypt, where small groups of people were collectively responsible for producing cloaks for military issue.