The Roman Legion

Roman (753 B.C.-400 A.D.) Historical Essay

Ever since Julius Caesar led his army into

Rome and made himself military dictator,
Roman emperors have relied on the military
to secure their position and enforce their
will. Not one to hide his light under a
bushel, the 76-year old Caesar Augustus
(Julius Caesar's adopted son) boasted of
having used the military to impose a pax
Romana (Roman peace) on much of the
Western world.

The whole of Italy of its own free will swore

allegiance to me and...Africa, Sicily and Sardinia swore the same oath of allegiance....I
brought peace to the Gallic and Spanish provinces as well as to Germany....I secured the
pacification of the Alps from the district nearest the Adriatic to the Tuscan sea....I added
Egypt to the empire....I recovered all the provinces beyond the Adriatic Sea towards the
east....I formed colonies of soldiers in Africa, Sicily and Macedonia.
Augustus' grandson Claudius extended the Empire to Britain and granted Roman
citizenship to qualified persons from any part of the Empire, an Empire that reached its
height during the reigns of the "five good emperors" (i.e., Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian,
Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius). In the 2nd century A.D. there were 3 legions in
Britain, 1 in Spain, 4 along the Rhine, 11 along the Danube, 9 in the Near East and 2 in
North Africa. Roman legions defended the imperial frontiers from the Scottish border to
the deserts of Arabia, from the Danube to the Atlas mountains in northern Africa.

The imperial army consisted of some 300,00 men, half of whom made up the legions or
units that carried eagles as their standard. There were c.28 legions, with an average
strength of 5000, each made up of 10 cohorts of c.500 men. Cohorts were divided into 6
centuries, each numbering c.80 men under the command of a centurion. Almost all
infantry troops were recruited from the citizenry. (Generally, 100 to 200 of the troops
were cavalrymen.) Auxiliary units of colonial troops drawn from the provinces backed
up the legions. The auxiliary soldiers, who drew less than half the pay of the legionaries,
were granted citizenship on their discharge.

A legionary was protected by wooden shield, iron helmet and a coat of iron mail and
armed with "pilum" or javelin that he hurled when closing in on the enemy and a
"gladius" or short sword used at close combat.

During the many interludes of peace in the first two centuries of the empire, the well-
trained troops laboured on public works, e.g., building and repairing bridges, aqueducts
and the great network of roads, all of which proverbially led to Rome.

The most prestigious (and best paid!) troops served in the praetorian guard, the legion
formed to protect the emperor. Caesar Augustus established this special guard,
consisting of 9 elite cohorts, each consisting of c.500 men and based in Rome with the
sole function of protecting the emperor. In 193 A.D. the praetorians assassinated
Pertinax and declared that the throne would be auctioned off to whoever offered them
the biggest bonus. The winner, Didius Julianus, was promptly overthrown after a reign
of 66 days by Septimius Severus (the first Roman emperor of North African origin),
who promptly killed the praetorians who had assassinated Pertinax and dismissed and
exiled the remainder of the praetorian guard.

Josephus wrote admiringly of the legionaries' excellence. "Their perfect discipline

welds the whole into a single body; so compact are their ranks, so alert their movements
in wheeling, so quick their ears for orders, their eyes for signals, their hands for tasks."

Ranking of Soldiers

auxiliary -- drawn from Roman colonies or provinces

legionary -- the backbone of the Roman army
(librarius legionus -- divisional clerk; a sort of cushy clerical job)
signifer -- standard bearer
optio -- sergeant
cornicularius -- top sergeant
centurion -- the lowest commissioned rank
tribune -- generally a young aristocrat
legatus -- commander of a legion (like a general in charge of a division) who had 6
tribunes as subordinates; these officers were generally drawn from the senatorial class)
Of all Roman emperors, Marcus Aurelius took the most "hands on" approach in military
affairs. Traveling from camp to camp on the far-flung frontiers, he personally led his
armies and even found time between battles to write his famous Meditations. Rome's
standing army remained unequaled for centuries.

The Romans were especially expert at clever and speedy field maneuvers and the
ancient art of siege warfare. Ramps, scaling ladders, mobile assault towers with
galleries for archers, crossbowmen, stone slingers and javelin hurlers, giant catapults
called "ballistas" or "onagers" capable of flinging projectiles 2000 feet or more and
smaller catapults or "scorpios" capable of hurling heavy rocks or bags of small stones or
iron darts (i.e., the ancient equivalent of shrapnel) were all part of their amazing
bellicose weaponry.

The soldiers methodically built fortified

camps at the end of each day's march to
protect against surprise attacks and serve
as a refuges in case of defeat. The
soldiers were so good that the Romans
even found them to be their best weapon
at sea: they equipped their galleys with a
combination grappling hook/gangplank
which both snared the enemy and
enabled the infantry to board. With these
tactics and the best siege techniques of
the ancient world the Romans were able
to best enemies ranging from
Macedonian phalanx to barbarian
hordes, the Carthaginian navy to the
fortress of Alesia.