Roman Army
The Roman Army employed by the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and later Roman Empire as part of the Roman military. Its most important infantry constituent for much of its history was the Roman legion.
In the mid-republic each Roman legion had an equivalent complement of allied infantry equiped and modeled after the legion and a three times larger complement of cavalry. The army of the Late Republic and Early to Mid-Empire consistet of legionaries and auxiliaries. The auxiliaries were named so after the earlier allied complement, but with structure and equipment differing from the legionaries. They were non-Roman citizens, recruited mostly from the Roman provinces with less pay than the legionaries, but at the end of their service they would be granted Roman citizenship. In the Late Roman army the distinction was between comitatenses, reserve troops and limitanei, border troops.
The army was enmeshed with Roman political life with political offices such as the consulship entailing military responsibility or the cursus honorum that was a military and civilian career mix. In the Late Roman army command had changed to professional career soldiers rising of the earlier career soldiers of low rank.
The Roman army conquered the regions around the Mediterranean and some adjoining provinces. The Roman army remained as the East Roman army after the decline of the Western Roman Empire and was succeeded by the Byzantine army, which served under the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire).
Roman Army Structure:
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.
Roman Army personal equipment:
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 in sporadic use in the early 1st century but commonly worn in the next two centuries.
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), leggings or greaves, an apron (for decoration and protecting the groin), 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 miles.
Personal armour
The lorica hamata is a type of chainmail crephole armor used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire as a standard-issue armor for both the legionaries (higher quality version of the lorica hamata) and secondary troops (Auxilia).
The lorica segmentata was a type of armor introduced in the early 1st century AD. The armor itself consisted of broad ferrous (iron) strips ('girth hoops') fastened to internal leather straps.
he lorica squamata was a type of scale armor used durig the Republic and at later periods.
The Scutum, (Latin for shield), was the standard, rectangular, semi-cylindrical shield carried by Roman legionaries during the Principate. Republican-era scuta had the form of an oval, and in the late fourth century the Roman Army began to exchange their rectangular scuta for oval or large circular shields.
The cingulum was a military belt worn at all times, even without the rest of the armor.
Roman Army weapons:
- The pugio was a small dagger.
- The gladius was the short sword, 18 to 24 inches long, used by Roman legionaries from the 3rd century BC until the late Roman Empire. It was primarily used for stabbing and thrusting. The gladius was made by Spaniards
- The hasta was a spear used by triarii in the times of the Republic, and also as the primary weapon of the hastati and principles in the early Republic.
The pilum, was a specialized javelin that would bend after being thrown to prevent enemies from re-using it.
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)
Training of Roman Army:
Enlistment:
Vegetius argues that enlsitment occurs whenever puberty begins, but a study of Roman Military Tombstones by Schiedel, has revealed that of a sample of 531 epitaphs, 265 show the age of enlistment to occur at between ages 17-20, with an increase to 430 (around 80%) if ages 17-24 are included. One example exists of enlsitment at age 13, and 5 of ages 33-36
Fitness:
The proper need for a member of the Roman Army was fitness. The first thing the soldiers were taught to do was to march. During the summer the soldiers had to march 18.4 miles in five hours. Another thing they did in basic military training was physical exercise such as long distance running, high and long jumping, climbing over walls and carrying heavy packs with full armour on. During the summer, swimming was also a part of training. If their camp was near the sea, a lake or a river, every recruit was made to swim. Some of them would sometimes have to swim in their armour so they could continue fighting on the other side of the river. They also had to be fit to be able to fight well and cope with any injuries. Stamina was brutal. Soldiers would be expected to be able to last a long time without food in case of a break in supplies.
Group training:
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.
Drill and weapons training:
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 also 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 remain raised. They also trained in the use of the thrown javelin and pilum. The Higher ranked men were harsh on the lower ranked men, training was brutal and discipline played a huge part in the success of the legionaries.
History of the Roman army:
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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