eir weapons are worthless unless they have the third requirement for a successful army, that of brilliant battle tactics. Preparation for a battle was very important. As Vegetius, an ancient author notes:Before any engagement with the enemy it is necessary for the troops to be rested and adequately fed so that they are ready for the rigors of the day. The men must also be of good heart and instilled with a rage against the foe by exhortation...the sun must be behind you and dazzle the enemy and if there is strong wind and dust it should blow away from you and give advantage to your missiles and blind the enemy with dust.(Webster 221) There were three lines of heavy infantry: The front line consisted of the youngest recruit and the second line of chief men. Veterans formed the third line of battle but were rarely brought in except in an emergency (Adkins 79). To help the legionaries, specialist soldiers called auxiliaries were recruited from the Peregrines. These also served for twenty five years and were organized into cohorts, but they fought differently to the legions. Often they were archers or cavalry, doing thing which the legions couldn=t do. If an auxiliary served his full twenty five years, he was granted Roman citizenship, and this was recorded on a sealed tablet he could take with him called a Diploma Militaria. This was the main reason for joining the auxiliaries. (Romans) When the Romans would overtake a castle. They would build a siege tower. A tall, wooden structure several stories high that was used for soldiers to climb over the wall, or for a siege engine to be set on top of the tower to bombard the inner castle. The only drawback for this was the heavy archer fire being shot from the castle. In general, roman battle tactics were very sneaky. This combination of tactics is one of the things that made the Roman army the most successful one in ancient civilization.In conclusion, now from what this paper ha...
