Hey all, this is a question that's been wandering around in my mind for a while, please excuse me beforehand if I commit any faux pas and don't jump down my throat!

Just wondering, is there anywhere in lore, unofficial (trustworthy) lore sites, or in the TES games where the makeup of the Imperial Legion is detailed? I mean like how many men compose a legion, how many legions there are around Tamriel, stuff like that. It's widely known that the Cyrodiliic army was modeled after the Roman legion, who at their height had fifty standing legions composed of 3000-5000 men each. However, my experiences in game lead me to believe that there aren't even this many people on Tamriel (conservatively 150,000 soldiers).

I'd be interested to know the estimations of strength of the Cyrodiliic legions, and I'm also welcoming subjective definitions of what numbers constitute a "big" army. A timeline I read somewhere implied that 500 men wasn't very many, but apart from that, I don't think I read any numbers of armies. Also, any sources citing numbers would be welcomed!

I remember something somewhere stating the the population of Daggerfall at some point was about 200,000. I could absolutely believe that the Imperial City has over one million people living in it. So, legions on the order of hundreds of thousands doesn't seem off to me.

It depends on how we want the Legions to be used. I'd think they'd be used for guarding, general defense, and political maneuvering. There are kings everywhere with their own forces to control, and the emperor can command them to act the way a president would order a governor to use the national guard. In this case, the kings are more likely to fight each other than external enemies of the empire, so you could use the legion to keep the war from getting out of hand. You can even recruit people for the legion out of city-states that are growing too strong, so you can undercut their manpower. The emperor can order kings to send troops where he wants if they desire political favor from him, and this favor could well be having the legions support the king when he needs them later.

Legion bases on their own would operate like counties overseen by a Count of rank in the army. I would guess offhand that you'd have six legions per province spread out strategically, but none operating at ideal strength when times are peaceful. They would keep the ones who train troops on hand at all times, and train new recruits quickly when a situation arises. Three to five thousand for a legion is a good number.

Estimates of numbers are pretty meaningless at this scale. The only reasonable answer is they have almost enough to get the job done.

Your best official source for getting to know the legions is http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Report:_Disaster_at_Ionith. What we've seen of them has been nothing more than a body of over glorified policemen. There's also more than one incarnation of the Roman Legion, so I assume you mean the middle legions, or after Marius' reforms? I don't think they're the best candidate, but the early legions might be. In the end, the legions are a poorly defined apparatus of insignificance. Now, if this was Tsolyanu, the legions would be a polititical party, hiding heirs here and there, for the trials to determine the rightful avatar of the Petal Throne.

I imagine that during periods of time when the Empire is not at war, the Legions are way down in numbers from when they are. Like someone else said - glorified police force. In Morrowind and Oblivion we saw the regulars. The career men. During times of conflict, people like Farmers and other day laborers swell the numbers of the Legions. That's the Roman model which the Imperials are supposedly based on heavily, so I'd imagine it's much the same in Tamriel. I'd say their numbers were at an extreme low ebb during the Oblivion Crisis, which is one reason the gates were such a threat. There was a lack of a well trained and armed military force.

Could you explain why numbers are meaningless at this scale? Just curious as to your reasoning.


I'm no expert on the Roman army so I'm afraid I can't enlighten you, I've only read a short overview of the makeup of the Roman army. You are right about the glorified police force though, and thanks for the book referral. Not sure about your last part though.

Thanks you guys, all answers were pretty helpful!

Aside from the fact that we don't have numbers, the scales of the actual games, from which most information has been gathered, isn't consistent.


You can't blame them for being a glorified police force at this point, because they're pretty much peace-keepers, fighting criminals and putting down revolts within the Empire's boundaries. And the Empire covers all of the continent, with little, if any, contact with the other continents. And they're meme-tastic.

Welcome to the Forums. Have a http://www.uesp.net/w/images/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg!