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Roman army |
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This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008) |
This article is part of the series on: Military of ancient Rome (portal) |
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| Structural history | |||
| Roman army (unit types and ranks, legions, auxiliaries, generals) |
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| Roman navy (fleets, admirals) | |||
| Campaign history | |||
| Lists of wars and battles | |||
| Decorations and punishments | |||
| Technological history | |||
| Military engineering (castra, siege engines, arches, roads) |
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| Personal equipment | |||
| Political history | |||
| Strategy and tactics | |||
| Infantry tactics | |||
| Frontiers and fortifications (limes, Hadrian's Wall) |
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The Roman army was a set of military forces employed by the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and later Roman Empire as part of the Roman military. For its main infantry constituent and for much of its history, see Roman legion; for a catalogue of individual legions, dates and deployments, see List of Roman legions. For the non-citizen auxiliary forces of the Roman Empire, see Roman auxiliaries. For Rome's naval forces, see Roman Navy. The size of the army in the late Roman Empire was about 375,000 men. It was very well organized hierarchically. The main Roman soldiers in the Empire were the legionaries. There were, of course, other soldiers in the army; these were known as the auxilia. Auxilia were non-citizens recruited mostly from the provinces. They were paid less than legionaries but at the end of their service they were granted Roman citizenship.
Among Roman soldiers, the smallest organization unit was called a "contubernium". This was a group of 8 soldiers (however originally it was made of 10), that shared a tent and ate together. There were 10 contubernia in a "century". A century was the next largest group of soldiers. A century was a group of originally 100 men in the Early Roman Republic but later reduced to 80 men during the Roman Empire. The next largest group of soldiers were called "maniples". Next were the "cohorts". These were made up of 6 centuries (480 men). A "prima cohors" was the first cohort in a legion; it was much larger than the other cohorts, containing about 5 double strength centuries (800-men). Finally, the largest group in the Roman Army was the legion.There were ten cohorts including the "prima cohors" in a legion. A full-strength legion contained 6,000 men though it was not uncommon for most legions to be undermanned due to previous battles. All of these numbers depended on the date (ex. Scipio Africanus reformation, Gaius Marius reformation). The republican army's strength, in peace, was four legions, but the number was increased during wartime. The highest number of legions was 70 after the civil war between Octavian (Augustus) and Mark Antony, due to having two whole Roman empires fighting when the remainder of Antony's forces joined with Octavian's. The number was decreased to 28 legions soon after, as the economically strained empire could not pay such huge numbers. After the Varus disaster, only 25 legions remained.
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In an early to mid-Republican era legionaries usually bought their own gear. Hastati, the first line, usually had breastplates and occasionally wore lorica hamata, or chainmail. The wealthier principes could afford lorica hamata but they were sometimes seen wearing the cheaper cuiriasses. Both hastati and principes were each armed with a gladius - a short, 60 centimeter sword - and each had two pila (javelins). The Triarii's primary weapon was the hasta, a 2 meter long spear. They were also armed with the gladius and had an early form of the lorica segmenta. All legionaries had a large rectangular shield (scutum) which had rounded corners. By the late Republican period, all legionaries carried a gladius, two pila, a new, larger version of the scutum, and wore chainmail. Lorica segmenta, or the iron band armor, was only commonly worn between the 2nd and 3rd century AD.
A set of Roman armor would include one of a variety of body armor types (usually designed to be flexible but strong; a centurion's body armor differs from that of the legionary), a shielders and turtlesith a special design/decoration for each legion), leggings or greaves, an apron (for decoration and protecting the groin, mostly made of metal), marching sandals called Caligae (with studs on the sole), a coarse woolen tunic, a belt (showing a soldier's position/rank in the army), and lastly a helmet called Galea (with cheek, ear and neck protection). A helmet might have also held a crest if the Roman was an officer or of higher rank than a peer.
Additionally, in the army of the late empire, the gladius was often replaced by a spatha (longsword), up to 1 meter long, the rectangular scutum was dropped in favor of an oval shield, the earlier pilum had evolved into a differently shaped javelin - lighter and with a greater range - and new weapon types such as thrown darts (plumbatae) were introduced. (Santosuosso, A., Soldiers, Emperors and Civilians in the Roman Empire, Westview, 2001, p. 190)
The main prerequisite for a member of the Roman Army was fitness. They were expected to march around 32km in 5 hours. They also had to be fit to be able to fight well and cope with any injuries.
Every day the whole of the legion would practice running, jumping, fencing and javelin throwing. But, before that happened, newcomers would do two sessions of military drill and give their oath of loyalty to their Commander and Emperor.
Both the legionary and auxilia troops also did drill training, from fundamentals such as learning military step and the exact formation of ranks, to practicing tactical maneuvers. Roman tactics also required the soldier to be able to respond instantly to commands to change the shape of his formation, and not simply to fight as a brave individual, as in barbarian armies. This required extensive training and discipline. Weapons training covered how to handle a sword, both to become accustomed to the weight and balance, and also how to deliver blows to an enemy without exposing the soldier's own body to enemy strikes. In contrast to other contemporary styles, Roman sword-fighting was fairly restrained and measured - primarily, the sword was to be used to make short stabbing strokes from behind the protection of the scutum (shield) with minimal risk of the soldier receiving counter-strokes. This is in contrast to the rather looser style of slashing blows favored by many barbarian peoples. A favored tactic was to knock one's opponents off their feet with a ram of the scutum (shield), and then to dispatch him with one or more swift downward stabs while he was vulnerable on the ground, all the while remaining protected by the scutum, which was to remained raised. They also trained in the use of the thrown javelin and pilum.
At a minimum, it was expected that all troops would be competent at swimming, so as to be able to ford any rivers without the aid of a bridge. Some of them would may also have had to swim in their armour so they could continue fighting on the other side of the river.
From a few score men defending a small hill town in Italy, through a citizen militia consisting of citizen-farmers raised annually for a short campaign before returning to harvest their fields, the Roman army grew to be a professional standing army of several hundred thousand men. Roman historian Edward Gibbon estimates in his book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that the peak size of the Roman army in the late imperial period was on the order of 375,000 men.
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