adsidui

In ancient Rome, adsidui (sg. adsiduus; also assiduus, assidui, Latin for "diligent, loyal", and collectively, "taxpayers"[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0060%3Aentry%3Dadsiduus Adsiduus in Charlton T. Lewis, An Elementary Latin Dictionary]) were the citizens who were liable to military service in the main line of battle, that is, for much of the history of the Roman Republic, as legionaries. The adsidui were the members of the first five census classes, which were, according to the Roman historian Livy, created under the reign of Servius Tullius, the sixth legendary king of ancient Rome.Livy, History of Rome, [http://old.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0026;layout=;query=chapter%3D%2342;loc=1.42 Book I, chapter 42] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091002082639/http://old.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0026%3Blayout%3D%3Bquery%3Dchapter%3D%2342%3Bloc%3D1.42 |date=October 2, 2009 }} and [http://old.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0026;layout=;query=chapter%3D%2342;loc=1.43 Book I, chapter 43] Under Tullius' original organisation, the first class was made of the richest, and thus best-equipped citizens, with helmet, shield, greaves, cuirass, spear and sword. As one went down through the classes and the corresponding levels of wealth, equipment went lighter and lighter.Connolly, Peter, Greece and Rome at War, pp95-96. According to Peter Connolly, the goal of Tullius' reform was to base military service on wealth, and not race, thus better integrating the Etruscans, who at that time ruled Rome and the Romans themselves; he points out, however, that in the beginning most members of the richest first class must have been Etruscans.Connolly, Peter, Greece and Rome at War, p95.

The adsidui were, as opposed to the proletarii, eligible to serve in the legions. In 107 BC, Gaius Marius enrolled the landless capite censi in his army, a one-off occurrence,Rich, The supposed manpower shortage as in the following Cimbric War, Marius returned to conscripting from the adsidui.

• {{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Michael J |chapter=Goodbye to all that: the Roman citizen militia after the great wars |editor-last=Balbo |editor-first=Mattia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6CyWEAAAQBAJ |title=A community in transition: Rome between Hannibal and the Gracchi |editor-last2=Santangelo |editor-first2=Federico |date=2023 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-765524-5 |page=160 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Michael J |date=2019 |title=Tactical reform in the late Roman republic: the view from Italy |url=https://biblioscout.net/article/10.25162/historia-2019-0004 |journal=Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte |volume=68 |issue=1 |page=79 |doi=10.25162/historia-2019-0004 |s2cid=165437350 |issn=0018-2311|url-access=subscription }}