The Roman Army

By Author: Kenneth J. McCormick
Total Articles: 14
Comment this article

The Roman Army
By Kenneth J. McCormick
Webmaster
Http://Aboutfacts.net


It is believed that Rome was founded in 753 BC. Plutarch the historian stated that Rome was actually founded by the survivors of Troy. "at the taking of Troy, some few that escaped and met with shipping, put to sea, and driven by winds, were carried upon the coasts of Tuscany, and came to anchor off the mouth of the river Tiber, where their women, out of heart and weary with the sea, on its being proposed by one of the highest birth and best understanding amongst them, whose name was Roma, burnt the ships. With which act the men at first were angry..."


In 509 there was a revolution where the Etruscans were overthrown and a republic established. When the Roman army was first established it was not the precise fighting machine that the Imperial Roman army was. Its battle tactics were mostly using the Greek Phalanx. The system for recruiting and arming the soldiers would be considered very strange by today's standards. The Romans were classified into five groups with the richest being the first group. ...
... It was better to be in the first group because you got full armor and the best weapons. The lesser the group you were in, the lesser the amount of armor and weapons until you reached the fifth group who had no armor and were only armed with slings. This was not a very good position to be in when you were in a battle. This army was not able to hold back the Gauls and in the fourth century BC Rome was sacked. This led to the entire reorganization of the army and its tactics.


The new army now employed battle lines three deep instead of the slow phalanx. The first line was manned by what used to be the second class of soldier, a solder with body armor, the traditional large rectangular shield and spears. He was backed up by what was formerly the first class soldier, the soldier who had the best armor and weapons. This group was known as the heavy infantry. New units were formed out of the old third, fourth and fifth class soldiers. Later the bronze helmets were abandoned and a new iron helmet was used as it better protected against larger swords. By the third century BC, the Roman army was one of the finest in all of the Mediterranean countries. It was composed of about 28 legions which each contained 5,000+ soldiers and additional cavalry. The total amount of cavalry in the entire Roman army was 3,000. Along with allied soldiers which added 30,000 more soldiers and 2,000 more cavalry. But this was not the end, Rome could call upon her allies for much more infantry and calvary. Quite an army for those times. A young Roman General, who took command of the Roman army in Spain began training his troopers in tactics. He worked the army very hard but it paid off when he beat the great tactician Hannibal. This method of training was adopted by many other commanders and improved the army immeasurably.


Weapons and armor began to improve in the second century BC. Chain mail was worn by some of the wealthier soldiers. A special short javelin was carried and it was made in such a way that if it were shoved into you, it would bend and you would not be able to removed it. Some of the organization of the ranks was changed. Gone were the iron helmets and back was a thicker bronze helmet. The gladius was issued to the soldiers, it was a short sword. In 153 BC the army draft was changed to a lottery system which made service six years. More and more soldiers came from the conquered territories. The Roman army had evolved into the finest army in the world. All their equipment had become uniform and it was the first the first army to do this. If a Roman soldier lost a piece of equipment in battle, he could pick up the exact same type from a deceased soldier on the field. This was very handy since this would be the equipment he had trained with.


The Roman army changed as time passed. As the Romans began breaking up the units to fill in for other units, the army got more and more disorganized. It was doing a lot of protection work on the boarders keeping the barbarians out. The army was shifting away from heavy infantry and leaning more to cavalry. A large central reserve of men was created. In 357 AD the Germans were defeated by the Romans still using Legions but in 378 AD the Goths attacked the Eastern Army with their cavalry and destroyed it. The very same Goths were now paid to become cavalry for the Romans and over 40,000 of them served the Romans. Roman armor got lighter offering less protection but allowing for quicker movement. The infantry became second tot he cavalry. As time passed the German states became more and more powerful until their armies were able to overrun Rome in the fifth century. The Roman Empire in the east survived until 1203 AD


Copyright © 2004 by About Facts Net and its licensors. All rights reserved.


This article may be reproduced if no changes are made and the title and all links are included.

About the author:

Ken the author of this article, is the webmaster of Http://Aboutfacts.netwhich is a free magazine on the internet that covers many different interesting topics. Articles often include photos, video and/or video.