Why not fight with these guys? So they essentially hired them, and soon the Roman legions were teaming with these mercenaries who were loyal mostly to gold, secondarily to their commanders, and not at all to Rome, which was a place that very few of them ever even saw. I mean, why would they even give a crap about the health and well-being of the Roman empire? Am I allowed to say crap, Stan? Nice. This was of course a recipe for civil war, and that's exactly what happened with general after general after general declaring himself emperor of Rome. So there was very little stability in the West.