Milan — AS Europe frets over what to do about the hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring onto the Continent, it occurs to me that the ancient Romans, as they so often do, might offer a solution.

The ancient Romans used to reward their legionnaires with plots of land, through a system known as “centuriation.” The Romans adopted the system in the fourth century B.C., when Rome was still a vibrant republic. But it lasted for hundreds of years, involving former servicemen from all over the empire.

Centuriation had several advantages. The first was, obviously, strategic, as it created a permanent military presence. The second was economic: Veterans would farm uncultivated areas, produce wealth that went back into the community, and take care of themselves. The third was demographic: Those early pioneers and their families populated vast tracts of Italy and the lands beyond.

One particularly aggressive proponent of centuriation was Emperor Septimius Severus, who ruled from A.D. 192 to 211 and whose 400,000-man army was spread across an empire of 70 million people, from the Atlantic to the eastern shores of the Black Sea and from northern England to southern Egypt. Severus didn’t want to leave his veterans idle, and when they retired he gave them plots of uncultivated or abandoned land, either free or for a very low price.