So do we have a rough estimate on the percentage of people that survived the 16/25 years of the Roman Republic/Roman Empire legionnaire servitude? Was the survivability of soldiers on the field worse or better than in modern warfare?

by Lx62

This has troubled me a lot, i tend to think that ancient battles were bloodbaths in such a manner that they cant even compare to battles today (hacking and slashing face to face compared to aiming down the sights) and that the fatality rate was much higher, so how come that any of the legionnaires survived the 16/25 years of servitude?

Was it like just a small percentage and also given the lifespan, if the lifespan of a roman citizen at that time was approx 50years, how long did they have left to live if they got out of the army after a full term?

Also please forgive me if i was wrong in some of my assumptions, thats why im asking the experts here! Thanks a ton!

EvilGeniuseses

Theres always more to say, but for now check out this answer (well it's actually a 2 in 1) by /u/amp1212 https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/fbhuan/long_term_mortality_and_attrition_in_roman_legions/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

If you do some more searching around you'll find that your intuition on ancient/medieval warfare is off the mark. Answers I've seen addressing the topic usually give casualty estimates in the low single digits % for the victor, and maybe as high as the teens for the loser.