Roman Soldiers example essay topic

The Roman Empire is known for its, amphitheaters, aqueducts, fountains and baths, great palaces, and roadways that stretched to every corner of the empire. What really made Rome great were its indomitable legions. They marched through Europe and the Middle East, defeating everyone from the civilized Greeks to the barbaric Gauls and kept the Empire together for over seven hundred years in the west and for an additional millennium in the east. The highly trained and disciplined soldiers were equipped superbly with sword, shield and armor, and were deployed and organized with tactical superiority.

The Roman soldiers were the best fighting force of their day. In early Rome (753 BC-509 BC) the soldier's equipment was based on that of the Greek hoplite. Each soldier carried a spear (hasta), a round shield, greaves, helmet, and a cuirass (lorica). The early Roman army was limited to infantry made up of property owners, since they had the most to lose in times of war; poor, landless citizens were exempt.

As such, the soldiers were required to provide their own defensive armor. No real changes began to reform the legion until the time of Marius (approximately 100 BC). Each soldier was given a throwing javelin (pila) which was made of a malleable metal shaft with a hard iron tip and a weighted handle. The pila would pierce the shield with its hard iron tip and the weighted handle would push it through.

The malleable shaft would then bend; making the shield it had hit too cumbersome to use, in most cases the shield was discarded. When striking human flesh, the results were similar with the unfortunate victim being severely injured or killed. The soldiers were also issued a short sword (gladius). This sword, based on a spanish model, was used to jab and thrust, making short work of barbarians who used long, slashing swords. Also issued were a breastplate (pectoral e), a helmet (cassis) and a rectangular shield (scutum) which curved around the body to protect it from frontal attack and made the tortoise (testudo) formation possible. At the center of the scutum was a metal embossment (umbo) where the handgrip was located.

The umbo protected the hand and was used in an offensive manner by bashing the opponent in an attempt to knock him down. With all the marching, an equally important piece of equipment was the sandals the soldiers wore. They were simply made, with one piece of leather attached to a thick leather sole. Nails were hammered into the bottom to support the foot, the nails ingeniously being placed where most support was needed, such as the arch.

Soldiers would also wear red cape to keep dry during inclement weather and to identify the wearer as a Roman soldier. Each legion had the benefit of a siege workshop that could design, build, repair, and deploy siege engines. Each legion had a certain number of ballistae, catapultae and onagers meaning "wild ass". Ballistae were essentially large crossbows that shot a metal bolt into enemy ranks, but with limited range so they were ineffective during sieges. Onagers were medium sized catapults which could rain rocks, drums of flammable liquid and scorpions, snakes, and diseased animals into enemies ranks, the latter three being shot into resisting cities to frighten or induce illness in the populace.

The larger catapultae were only used during sieges because of their increased range and weight throwing capacity but had slower firing speed, but they served much the same duties as the onager. The Roman army's armament and armor was of superior quality, especially compared to that of the barbarian tribes in Gaul, Germania and Britannia. In many other armies, the weapons and defensive armor was bought at the expense of the user, which meant poorer soldiers had inferior equipment. All Roman legions were equipped the same way, so any two Roman soldiers could perform the same task (the exception being Roman soldiers in Northern climes were issued winter gear, while those in the Southern provinces were not). The quality and uniformity of the equipment combined with extensive training and discipline gave the Romans a distinct edge in battle. "Let him who desires peace, prepare for war", the Romans took this to heart.

The Romans rigorously trained their soldiers and even throughout the Pax Romana, a highly trained military remained. To be accepted potential soldier required a letter of recommendation, exulting his moral character, he was required to be literate and be a minimum height of 5'10". A Roman soldier's six month training included, 30 km marches three times monthly, building camp, stone slinging, pila throwing, swimming, and riding and dismounting in full gear. Hand to hand combat was handled by running through drills twice daily and dueling with your comrades with wooden gladia and scutum that were twice as heavy as their actual counterparts.

Mock battles were held with gladia and pila covered in cloth to hone battle skills. Soldiers were taught how to march in step, how to take and comply with commands from their centurion, and the formations the Roman army used in battle. Even after training was complete, a soldier was not allowed to marry for the entire length of his service, usually some 25 years. The discipline, which was essential to a legion, came from the centurion, who carried a cane with them for the purpose of hitting his subordinates. Physical "encouragement" was accepted and expected. Floggings and whippings were common punishments, but so were fines and reductions in pay.

If sentries were found sleeping on the job, they were stoned to death. If an entire century showed cowardice in battle it was punished through decimation, each tenth man was sentenced to death by execution by his colleagues. The best demonstration of Roman discipline is the military camps (castra) they built. Each night, no matter far they had marched, a castra was built. A moat was dug and earthen wall was built up around the periphery. Occasionally sharpened sticks were placed in the wall, creating a palisade wall.

Models of efficiency, the castra were built the same way in every part of the empire; each soldier slept in the same bed in the same tent every night and the roads within the camp were always given the same names. Discipline was brutal but necessary, the melee combat a legion partook in required nerves of steel and total confidence in your peers to fight and not run. If a legion's lines broke and retreated, the integrity of the entire unit would be compromised and all would be forfeit. The Roman's belief of manifest destiny and inexorable discipline made their tactics and formations possible. To fully realize the strengths of the Roman legions, superior organization and tactics were employed. The smallest unit was the contubernium, which contained 8 men all of which shared a tent.

The contubernium was not a functional military unit per se; each contubernium had one tent and one mule or donkey to carry the tent parts. The smallest functional unit was the century. Commanded by a centurion, each century consisted of 80 soldiers and 20 support staff, which included, cooks, messenger, scribes, aides, medics etc. Every two centuries comprised a maniple (160 soldiers) and in turn three centuries comprised a cohort (480 soldiers).

A senior tribune commanded a cohort and was a self-contained unit, capable fighting independent of the legion it was attached to, but with a lessened effect. Often several cohorts were sent on missions in which the expense of an entire legion was unwarranted. The legion was the primary fighting unit in the Empire. It contained 10 cohorts for a total of 4800 soldiers in commanded by a legate. For most of the Empire this and the auxiliaries were Rome's military. Under Diocletian and Constantine, another group was formed, the limitanei or static frontier guardians, to help the comitatensis or the legions.

The limitanei were drafted from landless peasants and barbarians and were the lowest rung on the military social ladder, since an invasion of any significance would wipe them out. This organization was a far cry from the barbarians the Romans fought with for territory in Gaul and Germania. In these encounters the Romans almost always triumphed, their advantages being at the zenith except in numbers, provided the battlefield was flat. Standard practice on the battlefield was to place your legionaries in the center, light infantry auxiliaries (velites) on the flanks and cavalry on their flanks and archers and slingers in the back of all the lines. The cavalry was used for flanking manoeuvers and to prevent the same manoeuvers from the enemy. Romans fought shoulder to shoulder, holding their shields right next to their neighbor's, with just enough space between them to thrust with their gladius.

This was devastating against the lightly armored Gauls who used long slashing swords. When in battle, the Roman could easily thrust his sword into a barbarian as he brandished his long sword over his head. Barbarians did not fight in formations but in unorganized mobs, their bravery not making up for their lack of training and discipline. A Roman legate had many formations to choose from including the wedge, which could pierce the enemy line, or the teeth, which literally could chew up an opponent and cause panic when they realized they had Romans on three sides of them.

The most famed of all was the testudo formation. Named for it's resemblance to a tortoise, the soldiers in the front would keep their shields in front of them, but those behind would lift their shields above their heads and the heads of those in front of them, the curve allowing them to see out. This formation was nearly impervious to archer and slinger fire. If during battle a soldier was felled, the next in the line would step up to take his place.

Once the enemy line broke, the velites and cavalry would cut the retreating army down from behind. To avoid enemy troops fighting to the death, care was given not to completely surround and give them a way out. It was the army that built Rome, but also led to its decline. The Roman army remained very much the same throughout its history, it was unable to cope with the barbarians coming over its frontiers.

After centuries of lapping at Rome's gates, the barbarians began to adopt Roman tactics, which the overburdened legions could not deal with. In its heyday, the Romans controlled territories from southern Scotland to Mesopotamia to Morocco and parts of Romania. One quarter of the world's population resided within its borders. This can be attributed to the Roman army, the foremost military of its day.