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ROMAN ARMY
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V23,
Page 474
of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also: ROMAN See also:ARMY . In the See also:long See also:life of the See also:ancient Roman army, the most effective and long-lived military institution known to See also:history, we may distinguish four See also:principal stages. (1) In the earliest See also:age of See also:Rome the army was a See also:national or See also:citizen See also:levy such as we find in the beginnings of all states. (2) This See also:grew into the Republican army of See also:conquest, which gradually subdued See also:Italy and the Mediterranean See also:world. A citizen army of See also:infantry, varying in See also:size with the needs of each See also:year, it eventually See also:developed into a See also:mercenary force with long service and professicnal organization. This became (3) the Imperial army of See also:defence, which developed from a strictly citizen army into one which represented the provinces as well as Italy, and was a See also:garrison rather than a See also:
Throughout, it denoted citizen-soldiers: throughout, it denoted also a force which was chiefly, if not wholly, heavy infantry. But the setting of these two See also: constant features varies from age to age. In the first See also:period legio was the " levy," the whole See also:host summoned to take the field. In the second period it was not the whole levy, but one of the principal See also:units into which developing organization had divided that levy; the " See also:legion " was now a See also:body of some 500o men—the number of " legions " varied with the circumstances, and the army included other troops besides citizens, though they were for the most See also:part unimportant. In the third or Imperial age there were many legions (indeed, a fixed number) quartered in fixed fortresses; there were also other troops, numerous and important, if not yet so formidable as the legionaries. Finally, the legions became smaller units, and the other troops of the army, notably the See also:cavalry, became the real fighting-See also:line of Rome (see LEGION). First See also:Stage.—The history of the earliest Roman army is, as one might expect, both See also:ill-recorded and contaminated with much See also:legend and legal fiction. We read of a See also:primitive force of 300 riders and 3000 foot soldiers, in which the horseman counted for almost everything. But the See also:numbers are clearly artificial and invented, while the pre-See also:eminence accorded to the cavalry has no sequel in later Roman history. We reach firmer ground with the organization ascribed to Servius Tullius. In this system the host included all citizens from 17 to 6o years of age, those under 47 for service in the field, those over 46 for garrison See also:duty in Rome. The soldiers were grouped at first by their See also:wealth—that is, their ability to provide their own horses, See also:armour, &c. into cavalry (18 " centuries "), heavy infantry, a See also:remainder which it would be polite to See also:call See also:light infantry, and some artificers.The heavy infantry counted for most. Armed with long spears and divided into the three orders of hastati, principes and triarii (the origins and real senses of these names are lost), they formed a See also: phalanx, and charged in a See also:mass, while the cavalry protected the wings. The men were enrolled for a year—that is, for the summer See also:campaign; in the autumn, like all primitive armies, they went See also:home. It has been conjectured that about the See also:time of the fall of the See also:kings the normal Roman army comprised some 85oo infantry under 47 years of age, 5000 seniors, l000 riders and 500 fabri, &c. The See also:evidence for the calculation is unfortunately inadequate, but the result is not altogether improbable, and it may help the reader to realize what " may have been." It must be added that this Servian system is closely connected with the See also:political organization (see RoME, History). Second Stage.—From this Servian army a See also:series of changes which we cannot trace in detail produced the Republican army of conquest. Our ancient authorities ascribe the See also:chief reforms to the See also:half-legendary See also:Camillus (q.v.), who introduced the beginnings of pay and long service, improved the armour and weapons, abolished the phalanx and substituted for it an open See also:order based on small subdivisions (maniples), each containing two centuries. Whatever the truth about Camillus, some such reforms must at some time have been carried through, to convert the Servian system into the army which was engaged for nearly three centuries (from 350 B.C.) in conquering Italy and the world. This army See also:broke in See also:succession the stout native soldiers of Italy and the mountaineers of See also:Spain and overthrew the trained Macedonian phalanx. Once only did it fail—against See also:Hannibal (see PuMe See also:WARS). But not even Hannibal could oust it from entrenchments, and not even his victories could permanently break its moral. Much of its strength See also:lay in the same qualities which made the Puritan soldiers of See also:Cromwell terrible—the excellent See also:character of the See also:common soldiers, the rigid discipline, the high training.See also: Credit, too, must be given to the See also:genius of the Scipios and to the more See also:commonplace capacities of many fairly able generals. But the organism 472 itself deserves See also:attention, and, as it chances, we know much about it, mainly from See also:Polybius. Its elements were three: (A) The principal unit was the legion, generally a See also:division of 4500 men—3000 heavy infantry, 1200 lighter-armed (velites), 300 See also:horse—though sometimes including as many as 6000 men. The heavy infantry were the backbone of the legion. They were levied from the whole body of Roman citizens who had some private means and who had not already served 16 See also:campaigns, and in effect formed a See also:yeoman force, For See also:battle they were divided into 1200 hastati, 1200 principes and 600 triarii: all had a large See also:shield, See also:metal See also:helmet, See also:leather See also:cuirass, See also:short See also:Spanish thrusting and cutting See also:sword, and in addition the hastati and principes each carried two short heavy throwing spears (See also:pile), while the triarii had ordinary long spears (see ARMS AND ARMOUR). They were See also:drawn up in three lines: (1) hastati, (2) principes, (3) triarii; the first two were divided into to maniples each (of 12o men, when the legicn only counted 4500), the third into to maniples of half the strength. According to the ordinary See also:interpretation of our ancient authorities, the maniples were arranged in a See also:chess-See also:board See also:fashion (quincunx), the See also:idea being that the front See also:row of maniples could retire through the intervals in the second row without disordering it, and the second row could similarly advance, See also:Recent military writers, however, 1 1 doubt whether this arrangement can be considered workable, and it is possible that our authorities did not really mean what has been supposed. In any See also:case the See also:procedure in fighting seems to have been See also:simple: the front line discharged a volley of pile and rushed in with the short sword—a sequence much like the volley and See also:bayonet See also:charge of the 18th See also:century—and if this failed, the second line went in turn through the same See also:process: the third line of triarii, armed with See also:spear instead of pilum, was a reserve. The velites, armed with javelins, were either broken up among the heavy-armed centuries or used as skirmishers or as See also:aids to the cavalry. The 300 cavalry, however, were (it seems) of little See also:account—a natural result if, as we have See also:reason to think, the horses were small and stirrups were not used. The See also:officers of the legion consisted of : (a) Six tribunes, in part elected by the See also:comitia, in part appointed by the consuls, and holding command in rotation. They were either See also:veteran officers, sometimes even ex-magistrates, or See also:young noblemen beginning their career.(b) Sixty centurions, each commanding one century, or, rather, a pair commanding each See also: maniple. They were chosen by the tribunes from among the veteran soldiers serving at the time and were arranged in a complicated See also:hierarchy, by means of which a See also:centurion might move upwards till he became See also:Primus pilus, See also:senior centurion of the first maniple of triarii, the chief officer in the legion. (c) There were also See also:standard-bearers and other under-officers, for whom reference must be made to specialist publications. (B) Besides the legions, composed of citizens, the Roman army included contingents from the See also:Italian " See also:allies " (socii), subjects of Rome. These contingents appear to have been large: in many armies we find as many socii as legionaries, but we are ignorant of details. The men were armed and drilled like the legionaries, but they served not in legions but in cohorts, smaller units of 400–500 men, and their conventional positions seem to have been on the wings of the legions. They were principally infantry, but included also a fairly large proportion of cavalry.. Despite their numbers, they do not appear to have ranked with the heavy legionary infantry, and they were probably used more as detachments from the See also:main army than as infantry of the line. (C) Besides legionaries and socii, the Roman army included non-Italian troops of See also:special kinds, Balearic slingers, Numidian horsemen, Rhodians, Celtiberians and others: at See also:Trasimene, for example (217 B.c.), the Roman army included 600 Cretan archers. The numbers of these auxilia varied; probably they were not numerous till the latest days of the See also:Republic. See also:Composition and Size of Armies in the Second Stage.—According to the See also:general practice, each of the two consuls, if he took the field alone, commanded an army of two legions with appropriate socii. If the two consuls combined their forces, commanding the See also:joint force in rotation (as often occurred), the See also:total would be—according to our authorities—four legions, each of 4200 infantry, the same number of " allied " infantry (in all 33,600 infantry), 1200 legionary cavalry and about 3600 " allied " cavalry=38,400 men.Such, for example, was the Roman army at See also: Trebia (218 B.c.), where (says Polybius) there fought 16,000 legionaries and 20,000 allied infantry. The total number of men in the field could be increased; we even hear of 23 legions serving at one time in the Second Punic See also:War. Just before this war, in 225 B.c., the total strength of Rome was reckoned at three-quarters of a million, of which about 65,000 were in the field and 55,000 were in a reserve at Rome; of the total, 325,000 were Roman citizens and 443,000 (apparently a rough estimate) were allies. The battle order in normal circumstances was simple. In the centre stood the legionary infantry: on each See also:side of that was the allied infantry: on the wings the cavalry. But sometimes the legions were held in reserve and the brunt (and See also:honour) of the fight was See also:left to the allies. Sometimes, when the army was a See also:double force, one See also:commander's troops fought and the others lay in reserve. Frequently the attack was begun by one wing, as by See also:Caesar at Pharsalus. At Ilipa in Spain Scipio put his Spanish auxiliaries in the centre, his Roman troops on the wings, and attacked with both wings. The chief command of the army See also:fell (as stated above) to the See also:consul, if See also:present, or, if two consuls acted together, to them in turn. In See also:default of consuls, a See also:pro-consul, See also:praetor, or propraetor, in charge of a See also:province, would command. Development from the Second Stage to the Third.—Towards the end of the Republic many changes began to See also:work them-selves out in the Roman army.If Camillus began the system of pay and long service, it was effectually developed by long See also: foreign wars in Spain and in the See also:East. Moreover, the growth of Rome as a wealthy See also:state tended to See also:wreck the old theory that every citizen was a soldier, and favoured a division of labour between (e.g.) the See also:merchant and the military, while the increasing complexity of war required a longer training and a more professional soldier. In consequence, the old restriction of legionary service to men with some sort of private See also:property was abolished by See also:Marius about 104 B.C. and the legionaries now became wholly proletariate and professionals. By a second See also:change, also connected with the name of Marius, the legion was reorganized as a body of 6000 men in 6o centuries, divided into io cohorts instead of (as hitherto) into 3o maniples; the unit of See also:tactical See also:action thus became a body of 600 instead of 120. This was probably an See also:adaptation within the legion of the system of cohorts already in use for the contingents of the socii. Soon after, the See also:extension of the Roman See also:franchise to all Italians converted allies and subjects into citizens, and the socii into legionaries. A See also:fourth change abolished the legionary cavalry and greatly increased the auxilia (C above). And, finally, the See also:appearance of See also:great military leaders in See also:place of civilian statesmen, and of pretenders to a See also:throne in place of patriots, familiarized the world with the notion of large See also:standing armies commanded by permanent chiefs, and at the same time destroyed discipline and military See also:loyalty. Third Stage.—The Imperial Army of Defence.—The evils of the See also:Civil Wars (49-31 B.c.) furnished the first See also:emperor, See also:Augustus, with both the opportunity and the See also:necessity for reforming the army. Disorganization had reigned for twenty years. It was needful to restore loyalty and system alike. Augustus" did this, as he did all his work, by adapting the past: yet there is some truth in the view of his latest historian, von Domaszewski, that his army reforms were his greatest and most See also:original work.The main lines of his work are simple. The Imperial army consisted henceforward of two classes or grades of troops, about equal in numbers if unequal in importance. The first grade were the legions, recruited from Roman citizens, whether See also: resident in Italy or in the provinces. The second grade was formed by the auxilia, recruited from the subjects (not the citizens) of the See also:Empire in the provinces, organized in cohorts and alae and corresponding somewhat to both the socii and the auxiliaries (B, C above) of the Republican army. There were also in Rome special " See also:household" troops (see See also:PRAETORIANS); and a large body of vigiles who were both See also:fire See also:brigade and See also:police. (A) The legion of the Empire was what Marius had left it—600o heavy infantry divided into to cohorts: Augustus added only 120 horsemen to serve as despatch-riders and the like. The supreme command was no longer in the hands of the six tribunes. According to a practice which had sprung up in the latest Republic it was in the hands of a legatus legionis, See also:deputy of the general (now of the emperor, commander-in-chief of the whole army) and a See also:man usually of senatorial See also:rank and position. The six See also:tribune assisted him, in theory: in practice they were now little more than young men of See also:good See also:birth learning their business or wasting their Principes . Triarii Hastati time. The real officers of the legion were the 6o centurions, men who (at least in the See also:early Empire) generally served up from the ranks, and who knew their work. The senior centurion, primus pilus, was an especially important officer, and on retirement frequently became praefectus castrorum, " See also:camp See also:adjutant," or obtained other promotion.Below the centurions were under-officers, standard-bearers, optiones, clerks and the like. The men themselves were recruited from the body of Roman citizens (though we may believe that birth-certificates were not always demanded). During the 1st century Italy, and particularly See also:
See also: Augusta, III. Gallica). The custom of using such titles and numbers can be detected sporadically in the latest Republic, and many titles and numbers then See also:borne by legions passed on into the Empire with the legions themselves. As Augustus gradually became See also:master of the world, he found himself with three armies, his own and those of See also:Lepidus and Antony; from the three he See also:chose certain legions to form his new standing army, and he left these with the titles and numbers which'they had previously borne, although that concession resulted in three legions numbered III. and two numbered IV., V., VI. and X. respectively. Similar titles and numbers were given to legions raised afterwards either to fill up gaps caused by disaster or to increase the army. Here, as elsewhere in the Roman and above all in the Augustan system, precedent defied See also:logic. (B) Besides the legions Augustus developed a new order of auxilia. Auxiliaries (as is said above) had served occasionally in the Republican armies since about 250 B.C., and in the latest Re-public large bodies of them had been enlisted in the armies of See also:con-tending generals. Thus Caesar in See also:Gaul enrolled a division of native Gauls, See also:free men but not citizens of Rome, which ranked from the first in all but legal status as a legion, the " Alaudae," and in due course was formally admitted to the legionary See also:list (legio V.). But this use of non-citizens had been limited in extent and confined in normal circumstances to special troops such as slingers or bowmen. This casual practice Augustus reduced, or rather extended, to system, following in many details the See also:scheme of the Republican socii and veiling the novelty under old titles. Henceforward, regiments of infantry (cohortes) or cavalry (alae), 500 or moo strong, were regularly raised (apparently, by voluntary recruiting) from the non-citizen populations of the provinces and formed a force almost equal in numbers (and perhaps ultimately much more than equal) to the legions.The men who served in these units were less well paid and served longer than the legionaries; on their discharge they received a bounty and the Roman' franchise for themselves and wife and See also: children. They were commanded by Roman praefecti or tribuni, and were no doubt required to understand Roman orders; they must have generally become Romanized and See also:fit for the citizenship, but they were occasionally (at least in the 1st century A.D.) permitted to retain tribal weapons and methods of fighting and to serve under the command of tribal leaders, who were at once their chiefs and Roman officers. These auxiliaries provided both the whole of the archers, &c., and nearly the whole of the cavalry of the army; they also included many foot regiments. A See also:peculiar arrangement (to which no exact parallel seems to occur in any other army) was that a See also:cohort of 500 men might include 38o foot and 120 horse and a cohort of l000 men or 76o foot and 240 horse (cohors equitata), and an See also:ala might similarly include a proportion of foot (ala peditata). Each See also:regiment bore a number and a title, the latter often derived from the officer who had raised the See also:corps (ala See also:Indiana, raised by one See also:Julius See also:Indus) or, still more often, from the tribe which supplied the first recruits (cohors VII. Gallorum, cohors II. Hispanorum and the like). To what extent recruiting remained territorial is uncertain : after the 1st century, probably, the territorial names meant in most cases very little. The total number of the See also:auxiliary regiments probably varied from time to time and can at present hardly be guessed. Composition of Armies and See also:Distribution of Troops in the Third Stage.—If the system of legions and auxilia in the early Empire was novel, the use made of them was no less so. The latest Republic offers to the student the spectacle of large field armies, and though it also reveals a See also:counter tendency to assign special legions to special provinces, that tendency is very feeble. Augustus ended the era of large field armies: he could, indeed, leave no such weapons for future pretenders to the throne.By keeping the Empire within set frontiers, he developed the counter tendency. That policy exactly suited the military position in his time. The early Roman Empire had not to See also: face—as See also:Britain or See also:France or See also:Germany might have to face to-See also:day—the danger of a war with an equal enemy, needing the mobilization of all its national forces. From Augustus till A.D.250 Rome had no conterminous foe from whom to fear invasion. See also:Parthia, her one and dangerous equal, was far away in the East and little able to strike home. Elsewhere, her frontiers bordered more or less See also:wild barbarians, who might often harass, but could not do serious harm. To meet this there was need, not of a strong army concentrated in one or two cantonments, but of many small garrisons scattered along each frontier, with a few stronger fortresses to See also:act as military centres adjacent to these garrisons. Accordingly, a system grew up under Augustus and his immediate successors whereby the whole army was distributed along the frontiers or in specially disorderly districts (such as N.W. Spain) in permanent garrisons. On the actual frontiers and on the chief roads leading to them were numerous cohorts and alae of auxiliaries, garrisoning each its own castellum of 3–7 acres in extent. See also:Close behind the frontiers, or even on them, were the twenty-five legions, each (with a few exceptions of early date) holding its own fortress (castra stativa or hiberna) of 50–6o acres. Details varied at different times.Sometimes, where no See also: Rhine or See also:Danube helped, and where outside enemies were many, the frontier was further fortified by a continuous See also:wall of wooden palisades (as in part of Germany, see LIMES) or of See also:earth or See also:
See also: Valeria Victrix (See also:Deva, See also:Chester). See also:Lower Germany (=lower Rhine) I. Minervia (Bonna, See also:Bonn). See also:XXX. Ulpia Victrix (Vetera, Xanten). Upper Germany XXII. Primigenia (Moguntiacum, See also:Mainz). VIII. Augusta (Argentorate, See also:Strassburg). See also:Pannonia (Danube to $emlin) X. Gemina (Vindobona, See also:Vienna). XIV.Gemina (See also: Carnuntum, Petronell). 1. Adiutrix (Brigetio, near Komorn). Adiutrix (Aquincum, near Buda-pest). Flavia (Singidanum, See also:Belgrade). Claudia (Viminacium, Kostolac). Gemina (A pulum, Karlsburg). Italica (Novae, Sistov). Claudia (Durostorum, See also:Silistria). Macedonica (Troesmis, Iglitza). See also:Apollinaris (Satala, Armenian fron- tier). Fulminata (Melitene, on upper Euphrates).II. Upper See also: Moesia (Middle Danube) IV. Transylvania) . XIII. Lower Moesia (Lower Danube) I. XI. V. See also:Asia See also:Minor (See also:Cappadocia) XV. See also:Syria .Additional information and Comments"hastati, principes and triarii (the origins and real senses of these names are lost)" Hasta is the latin word for spear principes is the latin for chief triarii is latin for the expierience soldiers drawn up in the third rank hence the "tri" part peace from a 15 year old latin schollar
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