Legion anon her; thanks for the great answers. But regarding #4, what I meant was that even excluding the landless & urban poor, there must have been hundreds of thousands of Roman citizen of the eligible age. But Romans rarely fielded more than 18-20k men in one year (4 legions*4-5k men). So is it possible that many eligible citizens were never called up for service simply because there was a surplus of manpower?

Unless they’re choosing the same men over and over again, I would think it was more the case that your odds of being chosen in any given year weren’t particularly high, but over time, they would add up. 

But then again, I’m a historian asked to do math. What do I know?

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