Lasting 500 years with the republic and roughly a thousand and five hundred more with the Roman empire, the Roman Army was an extremely effective fighting force. Creating new tactics, some still used to this day, the ancient Romans were able to conquer most of Europe, northern sections of Africa and parts of the Middle East. With a complex chain of command, adaptability, formations and equipment, the Roman armies were the best for their time. In the beginning of the first Roman army, the Romans followed the Greek Phalanx formation, a rectangular formation made up of heavy infantry units. In the 4th century the Romans changed the Phalanx formation and renamed it the Triplex Acies, or triple line (Ricketts, Colin).
It was made up of 10 cohorts (About 480-500 men each), which there were 4 cohorts in the front lines and the rest in the second and third lines. The Roman Legion was a powerful tactic, as for it destroyed almost every Phalanx tactic known, and it was very good at attack and defense within the Legion(s). The Legion consisted of enough men that it could be helpful on both flat and rocky terrain. It is very open to arrows and flammable items, but defended almost everything else. The Roman Legion was very powerful, but was defenseless to big attacks, such as a war elephant or catapults.
The nature of Roman society and in particular the army was highly evident in the choice of the gladius as the primary fighting weapon. Without every soldier performing their role effectively, ensuring no weak space in
This was seen during the Punic Wars when Rome was able to defeat Carthage. It was able to defeat Carthage because unlike Rome it did not have a strong standing army. It was important for Rome to be able to defeat Carthage because not only did they conquer new land, reach new people, but also gained more resources for trade therefore, making their wealth prosper. The military also helped when choosing a new leader that would make changes for the empire. If it wasn’t for Julius Caesar army he wouldn’t have been able to take over Rome and implement better social and political reforms for the empire.
C). The army was organized by the amount of men, the most basic unit was 10 men, and it went all the way up to “tunman”, the number they used for 1000 (Doc. C). Not only were they serious in doing their “work” right, but they could not stand doing their “work”wrong. If men decided to leave the battle, others would be punished by death (Doc.
First of all the Roman People did not want to serve in the military. They were used to the lavish lifestyle that the Roman people enjoyed (class notes). In order to fill this hole in the Roman Army they had to hire German Mercenaries. The loyalty of these mercenaries was questionable since they did not pledge allegiance to the Emperor (class notes). “The Roman Army was composed entirely of Germans” but the worst part was that the army could not even defend their own territory (DBQ, Doc.
Training began before birth as the strongest men and the strongest women bred and the fastest men and the fastest women bred to achieve ultimate fighting machines. Once a child was born, they were inspected by an elder, and if deemed too small or deformed, the child would be thrown off the edge of a cliff(AncientMilitary.com). At the age of 7, Spartan boys were sent to the agoge, a part boot camp part military academy. The boys recieved education focusing on physical, mental and spiritual toughness and theb training was often intense and exerting. Boys were trained to push through difficult times and often were pitted against other students to see who was tougher.
Unfortunately these two things were things that Carthage lacked. The Roman army was much larger than the Carthage army which gave them an immediate advantage over carthage. Rome's lack of knowledge and strategies were apparent when Carthage beat them in the first punic wars easily, but their army size and growth of knowledge led them to victory in the third. If the two armies were the same size, the Carthage army would destroy the Roman army because even with the Roman improvement they would not even come close to the knowledge and strategies that Hannibal had studied all of his
Alexander the great’s military organization from the passages was very diverse and one nation did not get along with the with other nations within the army, Alexander uses the military structure to unite by placing foreign soldiers in army formations with the Greek soldiers, Alexander tried to change the relationship between the Greeks and the Persians by having a big feasts, sharing drinks, and singing with one another. What can we learn about Alexander the Great’s military organization? Alexander’s military organization was very mitch matched in the sense that when he conquered a new nation he would simply add the members of that nation's army to his own, this caused many of the soldiers to become enraged with Alexander. The
In the Kingdom of Macedonia, cavalry traditionally appear in battles only with the purpose of pursuing enemy phalanxes or skirmishing. Under King Philip II, the preexisting Companions expanded to include more men and adopted more effective tactics - Philip brought the Macedonian cavalry out of a support role and gave them an offensive role in battle. In most encounters the cavalry would mobilize in solid formations and deliver quick, concentrated attacks to enemy