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the roman army

the roman army Throughout history, no other era was more significant than that of the Roman Empire. The power and influence of the Roman government and it=s rule over the world was accomplished by the Roman Army. The Roman army was the ultimate weapon of war because of the well trained men, their effective weapons and their brilliant battle tactics. The first requirement for a successful army is to have brave and well trained men. Recruits were taught to march and performed parade drill twice a day. They were taught how to build a camp, swim and ride. A Roman was half a soldier from the start, and he could endure discipline which soon produced the other half (Adcock 5). Weapons training concentrated on sword and javelin. For sword training, recruits used a wooden sword and wicker shield, both twice the normal weight. More advanced training consisted of fighting in full armor, battle tactics and mach battles with the points of the swords and javelins covered to avoid serious injury. To a soldier, war was not romantic nor an intellectual adventure: It was a job of work to which he brought a steady, stubborn, adaptable schooled application (Adcock 6). A grouping of men called Legions were the main force in the Roman Empire. In the Republican times the legions were given a serial number (I, II, III, etc.) each year they were recruited. The smallest unit in the legion was the century, made up of one hundred men. Legionaries used javelins to begin the battle at long range and disrupt enemy battle lines before charging forward to engage the enemy at close range with swords and shields. The normal strength of a Legion was four thousand infantry and two hundred calvary, which could be expanded to five thousand in an emergency. The second requirement for a successful army is effective weapons to be used by the well trained soldier. In early Rome, only the wealthiest soldiers wore armor and then only a helmet and breast plate of beaten bronze. (Adkins 82) The most common form of body armor was the Greek style bronze cuirass, consisting of a front and back plate held in position by leather straps, past through loops in back of the plates. (Adkins 82) The soldiers carried a shield, sword, dagger and a javelin. The shield was a very large, curved item, usually the size of a man=s entire body. It was made similar to plywood, with thin sheets of wood, glued together so that the grain of each piece was at right angles to each other. Outside, the shield was covered with leather, and was then decorated with fancy silver and bronze symbols. Usually, these symbols would represent the Caesar of the day. The sword was a double-bladed weapon, about two feet long and two inches wide. While the sword was carried nearly chest high, the dagger was carried on the left side of the roman soldier. The shape of the dagger was similar to a leaf of a plant, usually nine to ten inches long. All of these weapons had ornaments of some type. The javelin was designed to break when it hit something, so that if the enemy blocked it with his shield, the javelin would make it useless to the enemy and the shield would have to be thrown away. Then the legionary would charge behind his own big shield, trying to knock him over, and would stab him with his Gladius. This very successful tactic made the Roman legionary the most feared soldier in the ancient world (Romans 34). As the Army came into military contact with new people, various weapons and armor of those culture were adapted to be used by the Romans, including those of the Italians, Etruscans and Greeks. One of these adaptation was the throwing machine or engines. As the name implies, throwing engines were devices used to send all sorts of damaging objects through the air toward a target, which was usually a town under siege. Rocks were commonly used, but sometimes they would even use diseased animals or even human heads. Well trained men and their 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 has stated it is obvious to see why the Roman army was so successful, the Roman army became the turning point in the history of warfare. Even today, military strategy is built around the strategy developed by the Roman=s nearly twenty two hundred years ago. Bibliography: Works Cited Adcock, F.E. The Roman Art Of War Under The Republic. New York: Barnes & Noble Inc., 1970. Adkins, Lesley, and Roy A. Adkins. Handbook To Life In Ancient Rome. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1994. Balsdon, J.P.V.D. Roman Women: Their History And Habits. New York: The John Day Company, 1963. Caesar, Julius. The Battle For Gaul. Trans. Anne & Peter Wiseman. Boston: Davis R. Godine, Publishing Inc., 1980. Coggins, Jack. The Fighting Man: An Illustrated History Of The World=s Great Fighting Forces Through The Ages. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966. Heichelheim, Fritz, Cedric A. Yeo, and Allen M. Ward. A History Of The Roman People. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1984. Keegan, John and Richard Holmes. Soldiers: A History Of Men In Battle. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1986. Rich, John and Graham Shipley. War and Society In The Roman World. London: Routledge, 1993. Stevens, Phillip H. Artillery Through The Ages. New York: Frankin Watts, Inc., 1965. The Romans. Webster, Graham. The Roman Imperial Army. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1969.

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