Only half of a legion was deployed in battlefields at any given time. So call it eight man-days per legionnnaire to outfit a legion, which is nothing in the era

Only half of a legion was deployed in battlefields at any given time. So call it eight man-days per legionnnaire to outfit a legion, which is nothing in the era of slavery. Add to this that the equipment would be expected to last the 20 years that Roman served in the legion, and it looks pretty good