 One estimate places the proportion of Italian troops at 65% under Augustus in c. 1 AD, falling to around 49% by the end of Nero's reign.Since the legions were officially open only to Roman citizens, Max Cary and Howard Hayes Scullard argue that at least in some provinces at this time "many provincials must have been recruited who lacked any genuine claim to Roman citizenship but received it unofficially on enlistment," a practice that was to increase in the 2nd century.This is most likely in those provinces where the pool of Roman citizens was not large enough to fulfill the provincial army's recruitment needs.