How the Roman Legionary evolved in the Republic.

before rome was ruled by emperors throughout the height of its power it was governed by elected representatives in the world's first republic it was during the republic that rome became an empire the imperial roman legionary of the 1st and 2nd centuries a.d is perhaps the most iconic and successful infantryman in all of history however it is the republican roman legionary who conquered much of the empire later roman infantry would spend centuries defending according to roman tradition the republic was founded after its last king was overthrown in the year 509 bc during the early republic rome was one of many minor regional powers competing for supremacy on the italian peninsula like many of their neighbors the roman heavy infantry men of this period closely resembled the ancient greek hopalites to the east of rome in their equipment organization and tactics they fought in a large dense formation of spearmen called a phalanx which was composed of rome's wealthier land-owning citizens who could afford expensive bronze armor and iron weapons less well-off citizens provided light infantry support for the roman phalanx either as light spearmen or skirmishers armed with slings or javelins in this system the wealthy who had the most to lose or gain from a engagement or deployed front and center in the battle line while the middle and lower middle class light infantry and scrimmagers were deployed either on the right and left wings or to the rear of the phalanx protecting it from being outflanked or an attack from the rear during this period rome's poorest citizens were exempt from military service as it was generally believed that those with little to lose would be poorly motivated in battle like most other italian and greek city-states of the time early republic in rome formed an army from a draft of its abled-bodied citizens when at war citizens were required to purchase and maintain their own arms and armor which were often passed down from father to son once formed the army was split in half by age with the older half of each class acting as the home guard defending rome itself from attack the younger half formed to the field army and campaigned on enemy territory this first legion numbered around five to six thousand men and fluctuated in size depending on the needs and available resources of a particular campaign during the fourth century bc rome greatly expanded its potential pool of manpower as the city grew and as it granted limited citizenship to many of those in newly conquered territory particularly to the nearby latin tribes they defeated this allowed rome to increase the number of levied field legions from one to four legions were also standardized in size to 4200 infantry with 300 cavalry attached after a series of three wars with the samnite confederation of hill tribes rome became the master of central italy on the roman road to glory and victory in the fourth century bc the romans also experienced humiliation and defeat in 390 bc a marauding gallic war band defeated the romans and then proceeded to sacrament itself the romans were also decisively defeated by the samnites they ritually shamed an entire surrendering roman army after the battle of the codeine forks these devastating setbacks brought out rome's best quality adaptation which was manifested by a willingness to adopt elements of their enemies arms armor and tactics rome fundamentally changed the structure organization and tactics of its army during the fourth century bc exactly when as a matter of scholarly debate the greek style phalanx at the vanguard of the army was abandoned it had proved to be especially vulnerable when deployed on the uneven hilly terrain of central italy it is generally believed that the manipular formation which replaced the phalanx was copied from or inspired by a similar samnite system the manipule was a tactically flexible unit typically consisting of 120 men a brief transitional iteration of the legion was used which shuffled around the classes in the battle order and introduced the manipular system the following reorganized legion which was used for two centuries with minor adjustments had 30 maniples of heavy infantry deployed in three rows maniples were deployed in a checkered board formation like their predecessors the manipular legionaries were levied from eligible property owning citizens obliged to purchase their own arms and armor however they were not only motivated by patriotic duty but were semi-professional soldiers that were monetarily compensated for their time out on campaign like the former systems inventory units were initially arranged on the battlefield according to their wealth prior roles were reversed from earlier times with the wealthiest of the three heavy infantry classes the triarii deployed in the rear the next most affluent the principes were in the center and the less well-off hastati in the vanguard the first line infantrymen the hastadi meaning spearmen derived their name from the roman word for spear hasta they did not carry a spear but were likely reorganized from earlier units that did carry a spear and kept the name while losing the spear replacing it with a pair of heavy javelins called pila like the later imperial roman legionary the hastati was a swordsman who threw his pila immediately before the charge in early republican times the greek sifu short sword was most commonly used until it was abandoned in favor of the gladius hispaniensis the romans encountered the blade during their wars with carthage as it was commonly used by iberian mercenaries during the conflict they were impressed by a superior thrusting capability and tendency to cause grievous wounds so they adopted it along with the implementation of the manipular system the scrutum a large curved oval shield was introduced the scrutum incorporated design and construction elements from the flat oval gallic shield and earlier italian shields it was made of three layers of wood glued together which was covered in canvas and leather this heavy shield weighed about 10 kilos with its prominent boss and metal rim it was also used as an offensive weapon as well as a defensive protection it dealt a formidable punch which could off-balance an enemy or break a leg or foot with a well-placed blow initially hastati were selected solely based on their wealth however as time went on their delineation was determined based on a combination of their age and experience consequently hastati tended to be younger men from their late teens through mid-20s energetic with minimal experience and eager for a fight the middle line of heavy infantry the principes where typically family men considered to be in the prime of life most of them would have been in their late twenties to mid-thirties the principy pests were more heavily armored compared to the hastati it was usually equipped with a symbol pectoral plate which protected his heart and other vital organs this form of armor was cheap and effective and depending on the soldier's budget it was either made of copper brass bronze or iron the principes were generally able to afford an expensive greek style muscle kirase or a chainmail coat chainmail was invented by the celtic kagals and was worn by their chieftains and elite warriors ever since the gauls had sacked rome in 390 bc the romans hated and despised them they described the gauls as primitive and brutish barbarians however they were not above stealing a good idea the romans wholeheartedly adopted chainmail and improved its design and manufacturing techniques eventually mass producing it for thousands of soldiers for almost all of the roman empire's very long history chainmail was the most common armor used by roman infantry principas also commonly wore higher quality helmets compared to the hastati like the popular italio corinthian helmet both the principes and hastati wore a single greave on the left leg the reason for this was the legionary stance while fighting with the gladius while defending or striking the left foot was forward and the right back further away from the enemy consequently the extra weight and expense of a grieve worn on the right leg was viewed as unnecessary and the one greave look may have become quite fashionable for a time the third line of heavy infantry the triarii were initially just the old first class hoplites moved to the rear of the battle order and reduced in size sometime around the early 3rd century bc the triarii adopted the scrutum the triariosal adopted the gladius hispaniensis as a backup weapon while remaining first of spearman sticking to their hoppolite roots other than that the triarii were armed in a similar fashion to the hastati and principas although usually with better quality weapons like the other heavy infantry the triarii were also first elected based on property class this transitioned to selection based on age and battlefield experience but they still tended to be wealthier the typical age in a triarii manipule was from the mid-30s to late 40s in contrast to these grizzled veterans the wallets were the youngest and least experienced members of the legion still meeting the minimum property requirement for service though elitas were lightly equipped armored only with a helmet and a light shield they also usually wore animal skins over their helmets this allowed them to quickly identify each other during battle added an additional layer of padding to protect the cranium and it probably just looked cool or intimidating to see a thousand plus man wolf pack prowling the enemy harassing them and testing them for weak spots they carried up to seven light javelins during a battle after the elitist had potentially thrown thousands of javelins at enemy troops they retreated through the gaps in the maniples to the rear of the army waelitas were also used to retrieve and transport wounded soldiers to safety during a battle the most distinctive feature of the republican roman legion was a manipal swap if the first line hastati failed to break the enemy after throwing their pila and engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand combat they withdrew through the gaps in the principas who then threw their pila drew their swords and charged the enemy a second time usually this broke an enemy army if it did not the principes withdrew behind the triarii this dire battlefield situation gave rise to the common rome insane so it has come to the triarii this phrase being used to describe an intense desperate or stressful situation in everyday life this style of roman army completed the conquest of italy and defeated the empire of carthage the republican roman manipular system was so successful that it made itself obsolete as the empire grew rome's campaigns were further away and they took longer to complete which reduced the morale of its conscripted citizen soldiers the empire became too large to effectively use a levy system designed for a city-state to wage summer campaigns against local neighbors property owners supplying their own arms and armor was no longer efficient on such a large scale most importantly there was a massive manpower shortage the minimum property requirement to serve in the army was reduced several times but that was still not enough to meet the empire's demand in 107 bc the roman general and politician gaius marius enacted numerous military reforms including but not limited to the removal of any property requirement for enlistment in the military soldiers were now provided their equipment by the state previous classes of infantry were homogenized all legionaries were equipped as heavy infantry with pilum gladius and chainmail most importantly legionaries became professional soldiers as early as the 4th century bc some payments were made to compensate soldiers for their time out on campaign but these payments were inconsistent and constantly subject to renegotiation it was not uncommon for a republican roman soldier to return home from a long campaign financially ruined with small-scale farmers being particularly vulnerable marius gathered the citizen landless poor and filled rome's legions they were relatively well paid and enlisted for up to 16 years in the legion around the time of marius's reforms the larger and simpler cohort replaced the maniple as the core strategic and organizational unit within the legion this style of army was used through the late republic and was the basis for the imperial roman legion if you enjoyed this video i believe you'll also enjoy the video i have done on the imperial roman legionary or the late roman infantrymen a big thanks to my patrons who support the creation of these videos and all of you subscribers likers and commenters who make this channel possible this has been epimetheus thank you so much for watching

Channel: Epimetheus

Views: 222,180

Keywords: roman army documentary, ancient rome, ancient roman history, roman legion, roman tactics, history of rome, educational rome, rome, history, documentary, Roman history, roman documentary, Roman Empire crash course, Roman republic, hastati, principes, triarii, maniple, manipular legion, polybian legion, camillian legion, roman legionary, roman hoplite, gaius marius, marian legion, velites, hoplite, Roman Republic infantry, infantry, Roman republic army, Roman legion republic, Roman

Id: APuh6rokd_w

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2020