Note 038 Dion (l. lxxviii. p. 1343) informs us, that the extraordinary gifts of Caracalla to the army amounted annually to seventy millions of drachmae (about two millions three hundred and fifty thousand pounds). There is another passage in Dion, concerning the military pay, infinitely curious; were it not obscure, imperfect, and probably corrupt. The best sense seems to be, that the Praetorian guards received twelve hundred and fifty drachmae (forty pounds) a year (Dion, 1. lxxvii. p. 1307) . Under the reign of Augustus, they were paid at the rate of two drachmae, or denarii, per day, 720 a year (Tacit. Annal. i. 17). Domitian, who increased the soldiers' pay one fourth, must have raised the Praetorians to 960 drachmae (Gronovius de Pecunia Veteri, 1. iii. c. 2). These successive augmentations ruined the empire, for, with the soldiers' pay, their numbers too were increased. We have seen the Praetorians alone increased from 10,000 to 50,000 men.

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Note to Chapter 6 of DECLINE & FALL by Gibbon