Under US Public domain
Exercitus Romanus as it was then known, the Roman Army was the major element in the survival and expansion of the Roman empire.
Known to be fierce, swift and effective, it contained up to 450,000 men who were well trained in combat and very disciplined.
A lot of people are familiar with some aspects of the Roman army, and in this article we're going to be talking about various aspects of the army from organization to weapons to the life of soldiers.
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC 2.0
Just before we begin this story of the Roman army however, it is good to know that in total, the Roman army existed for about 2,205 years (753 BCE – 1453 CE).
This obviously means that the army would have undergone a lot of change. And as a result the characteristics of the army varied greatly at different points in time.
To keep this article concise however, we're going to be examining the Roman army through the period we know today as the Imperial period (27 BCE – 476 CE). A lot of the interesting things we know about the Roman army are related to this period.
Armor and Weapons
One of the important characteristics that made the Roman army so effective was the equipment they used in battle. The first and most important equipment being the armor they wore.
By armor we mean such protective equipment like breastplate and helmets.
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC 3.0
During the Imperial period, Roman armor was made with a variety of materials, ranging from animal hide to chainmail. But the most popular armor that the Roman army is famed for is the Lorica segmentata.
This armor was made of overlapping plates of metal that were held together by leather straps.
The way the metal straps were forged made this armor amazingly protective, but it was also very expensive to construct.
It was mainly soldiers from the Legions that wore Lorica segmentata. Auxiliary soldiers may have worn this armor too, but they wore chainmail most of the time.
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC 3.0
Though it was very protective, the Lorica segmentata was also more uncomfortable than other types of armor. It mostly fell out of use after the Imperial period with both legion and auxiliary soldiers using chainmail.
Another part of a soldier's protective body armor is the helmet. Roman army helmets were made to be practical.
During the imperial Roman army period, soldier helmets were made of metal. The helmets were bowl shaped to protect the whole head, they had check gaurds to protect the sides of the face, a horizontal strip across the front to protect the nose and face from a downward slash, and a neck gaurd to protect the back side of the neck.
The helmet was designed to provide protection without unnecessarily constraining a soldiers flexibility or his senses.
Roman soldiers also wore tactically designed sandals to protect their feet.
Weapons were another element that made the Roman army so effective during the imperial Roman army period. The Romans had many types of weapons, but the basic ones a soldier usually had were sword, sheild, dagger, and spear.
The sword came in two types, the regular sword (gladius) and the long sword (spatha).
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC 3.0
The gladius was about 450mm long and was designed for close quarter stabbing. It was the type of sword infantry soldiers normally used.
The spatha on the other hand was a much longer sword at 750mm. This sword was used a lot by calvary men, where a longer reach was needed.
Roman soldiers also often carried a dagger known as pugio which seems to have been a supportive stabbing weapon. (The Romans loved to stab 🙃. It was their major striking technique)
The popular sheild from the Imperial period was known as scutum. It was a large rectangular sheild which was convex and had rounded edges.
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC 3.0
It was primarily made of wood and leather, but the shield usually had a metal boss at the front that made it useful as a punching weapon.
The scutum was however not the only sheild that the imperial army used. For example, most auxiliary soldiers and some specialist legion soldiers carried a sheild known as clipeus. It was a round sheild which was smaller than the scutum.
There is also the Roman spear known as the pilum.
It had a design that was not only deadly, but allowed it to be thrown just once (thereby making useless to the enemy who it was thrown at). The pilum was mostly a weapon for legion soldiers. Auxiliary soldiers carried more boring spears.
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC 4.0
For archery, the Romans used recurved composite bows.
Organization
During the Imperial Roman Army period, the army was divided into two main groups. The Legions and the Auxilia.
A legion is a unit of the Roman army made up of about 5000 men. At the army's peak, there were as many as 90 legions in the Roman empire.
The Legions were made up of heavily armed infantry (plus a few calvary) and all members of a legion were Roman citizens.
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC 3.0
Legions were also broken down into smaller subunits of 500 soldiers.These subunits were known as cohorts.
The Legions were the bonafide members of the roman army and so, they were the ones who had access to full state given privileges.
Just as their name suggests, the Auxilia (meaning support) were supporting soldiers to the legions.
Despite the naming convention, there were usually as many Auxiliary soldiers as there were legionaries.
The auxiliary soldiers were recruited from the non-citizen population of the empire and as a result they didn't always get all the privileges of legionaries (for example they were usually not paid at the same rate).
In addition to serving as infantry, the auxiliary soldiers were the ones who made up the specialized units of the Roman army. So calvary, archers, slingers etc were usually auxiliary soldiers. They were grouped as cohorts (in groups of about 500.)
Hierarchy
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC 3.0
Hierarchy in the Roman army was a complex system determined both by the number of men under one’s command and the role each one played in the army. Legion and auxiliary armies had very similar ranking structure.
This ones a bit tricky, you'll need a basic knowledge of math.
Legion
For the legions, At the base of rank, there is the regular soldier who makes up the basic unit of the army.
The next high rank was the centurion who commanded 100 soldiers, and above the centurion was the tribune who commanded 2 cohorts.
Under CC3.0
(Like we earlier said a cohort is composed of about 500 men, so a tribune will have a total of 1000 men under his command.)
This will also mean that a tribune will have 10 centurions under his command as there are 10 groups of 100 men in 2 cohorts.
Stay with me here.
We have soldier, then centurion, then tribune.
From this information we can see that a legion (5000 men), will have 5 tribunes, and 50 centurions.
In the Roman army however, there was an extra tribune who oversaw all other tribunes. He is known as the broad tribune.
This brings the total number of tribunes in a legion to 6.
The next high rank is that of the senior most ranking army officer in a legion known as the legate. The legate was over all the soldiers and ranking officers that made up a legion So for now we have;
Soldier —› Centurion —› Tribune —› Broad-tribune —› Legate
Under CC3.0
Understood???🤔
However there is another important rank in-between the tribune and the broad tribune known as prefect.
The prefect was the third most highest ranking officer in an entire legion and he served as the legions quartermaster. So the correct order is;
Soldier —› Centurion —› Tribune —› Prefect —› Broad-tribune —› Legate
Under CC3.0
I hope you survived!
This is only a basic overview of legion rank. There are other subranks in-between these ones, mainly derived from the roles the ranks played in the army.
This however is the overall basic rank structure when it came to the number of men under ones control.
Auxilia
Hierarchy in the Auxilia was very similar to that of the Legion.
However, since the Auxilia's highest unit was the cohort, the tribune was usually the highest rank in the Auxilia (these tribunes controlled one cohort instead of two).
Under CC3.0
Auxiliary cohorts were sometimes attached to the legions (so they could be under a legate) but at other times they functioned on their own.
Attaining a higher rank in the Roman army came either by birth or by military promotion. The higher a soldiers rank, the more multiples of the basic salary he received. (Regular soldiers recieved just the basic salary).
Life of a Roman soldier
Now we go into what the life of a Roman soldier was like.
Given that the Roman army was well known for its fierce effectiveness, it may be easy to feel that Roman soldiers spent most of their time slashing away at the enemy, but that's not entirely correct.
In fact, only a fraction of a soldier's time was spent in battle. Most of their time was spent training and attending to other duties.
For example, soldiers served as guards, policed the city, and they patrolled their designated area.
In addition, Roman soldiers also had to attend to non-military duties as well.
One duty of great importance was performing chores in the forts where they resided. These chores included cleaning, washing, repairing battle equipment, and procuring supplies.
Another important duty soldiers performed was construction.
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC3.0
If their services were not immediately needed in battle, they were the ones to build just about any structure that needed to be built. In fact, Roman soldiers spent more time in construction than they spent in battle.
They built roads, bridges, aqueducts, docks, fortifications, public buildings etc. They also cleared forests, drained marshes and mined.
In ancient Rome service age started from 16 and on reaching this age a Roman male could volunteer to serve in the army. Service could last up to 25 years, and throughout this time, soldiers were under state payroll.
A regular soldier would earn about 225 a year. Sometimes it was as much as 450 per year.
Via Wikimedia Commons under CC 4.0
Serving soldiers were not allowed to get married, but when soldiers were settled in an area, many usually got married and raised families though it was against the rules.
On successfully completing service, soldiers were usually given a plot of land or a pension (worth 13 year's pay) when land was unavailable. They also gained higher status in society.
A good deal of a Roman soldier's time was spent training. This training included Combat training as well as physical exercise. Roman soldiers were trained to be able to run, jump, bear heavy loads, and endure.
Combat training was about improving how soldiers perform in battle with weapons. It taught them accuracy, agility and aggression. Soldiers also trained on how to meanuvre in formation and hold ranks.
So now you know a little more about the Roman army. I hope you enjoyed reading this article.
See you next time.
