Rome’s Legions were the finest fighting force in the ancient world; however, even this great war machine had limitations. To mitigate the shortcomings, the Romans created support forces called the Auxilia. The Romans were never natural horsemen, so they recruited cavalrymen from their provinces to fill this role in the Auxilia. The Roman army was principally heavy infantry, so archers were enlisted from the eastern Mediterranean and slingmen came from the Baleric Islands to provide a light and more mobile missile infantry. These Auxilia units would be assigned to serve with an established legion. Lighter armed and lower paid than the legionnaires, the Auxilia could look forward to Roman citizenship at the end of their twenty-plus years of service.