From the medicines that they got to work on the battlefields they fought on, to the weapons
that they made them able to become an empire, and more!
Allow us to show you shocking inventions of the Roman Army!
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8.
Battlefield Medicine While the modern age that we live in has some
rather fantastic medicine and vaccines that have prevented the spread of certain diseases
and helps treat many ailments, in the time of the Roman Republic and Empire...that wasn't
the case.
In fact, medicine as a whole was very much a crap shoot and as such, the Romans needed
to figure out ways to keep their soldiers alive after battle.
If you don't recall, the armies of Rome were divided up into Legions, and if those Legions
weren't taken care of, they would die very easily.
This is where the Immunes came in.
They were a group of highly trained specialists who were specifically employed to maintain
the logistical and medical sustenance of the legions.
Ranging from doctors, engineers to architects, it was their job to keep the Legions going
at all costs.
The battlefield medicine as it became known that was born from these Immunes was quite
fascinating, including the use of tourniquets of a sort as well as figuring out how to stop
blood loss within one of their patients (a major cause of death back in that time).
They also realized that they needed to sterilize and disinfect their items before using them
in surgery.
Which no doubt stopped many infection-style deaths among the soldiers.
But wait, there's more, because these were also the people tasked with making sure the
camp of the Legions was sanitary.
Because when they weren't, diseases could very easily spread in that time.
As such, when you combine all of these factors, you see why these Immunes were not just vital
to the Roman war machine, but you can see why the Roman war machine lasted so long.
This battlefield medicine would shape things for many centuries to come, and all should
be grateful for that.
7.
Carroballista While it's true that the Roman Legions were
one of, if not the, most feared unit in the world during its time, that didn't mean that
they were the only thing Rome relied on.
Many nations had their own specialty weapons and aides to go and make fighting easier for
them.
Such as Hannibal Barca and his legendary elephants.
The Greeks were the ones who first came up with the idea of the Ballista, a massive arrow-shooting
weapon that could have many purposes.
However, it was the Romans who took this to the next level with their Carroballista.
An item that has been described as the “most advanced two-armed torsion engine used by
the Roman army.”
A high claim given all the Roman's had to bear in their armies.
So what made this so special?
Lots of things, actually.
But the key one was its mobility and how it was constructed.
Usually, ballistas are put on the ground and wound up before firing.
But the Carroballista was put on a cart, and thus made it mobile and gave it a greater
aiming capacity.
Here's a longer description of the device from Michael Lewis who actually reconstructed
the weapon once: "The caroballista: a powerful descendent of
the Roman ballistae and catapultae.
This two-man example is being used at some point in the Dacian War.
It shoots heavy bolts, and is an extremely powerful weapon, thanks to the wide sweep
of the arms, which transmit a huge amount of stored spring-energy to the ammunition.
The sinew-loaded spring frames are made of iron, and have tough leather covers to protect
them from enemy fire- and the weather.
The machine is mounted on a universal joint, atop a stand, and can be pointed in any direction.
To shoot, one man turns the windlass to draw back the slider and rope, while his crew-mate
holds it steady, and places a bolt on the slider; he then holds the tiller and aims,
while the first pulls the trigger-bar.
The whole weapon is light enough for its two-man crew to move it around and load it onto a
cart when the division has to move; in this way, it is the equivalent of a WW2 Bren-gun."
Another interesting claim, but as with all technology that is new in their age, they
put it to good use.
It was said that for every single Roman Legion, there were 55 of these machines.
So imagine 55 of them lined up around a battlefield firing heavy bolts into the enemy lines before
they can realize what's happening.
Truly terrifying.
6.
Corvus Rome as a whole (both in its Republic and
Empire times) can absolutely be defined by both the rulers that led it, and the wars/battles
it fought.
One of its most famous though, was that of the First Punic War where they fought against
the Carthaginians.
The reason this war was so important was that if you were to scale them up, the people of
Carthage had an advantage in that they were experienced sailors and able to more easily
adapt to Naval combat, but the Romans didn't...at the start.
So that's why they went and made a device known as the Corvus that helped them win what
some call the greatest naval battle in history via the Battle of Cape Ecnomus in 256 BC.
If you don't know, this epic battle had around 350 Carthaginian ships (with more than 150,000
rowers and marines) against 330 Roman vessels (with around 140,000 rowers and soldiers);
all the figures being according to the account of Polybius.
So kind of even, and yet, the naval vessels and warriors of Carthage outnumbered Rome
both times.
And that's where the Corvus came in.
In short, the Corvus was a spiked pillar or "bridge" that would go and be put into the
nearby Carthage ships and lock them together.
Then, not unlike pirates centuries later, the warriors would board the ship and overwhelm
the enemy fighters.
While Carthage had the edge on water, the Romans were better fighters in close proximity.
While Rome didn't keep the Corvus due to how it tended to hurt Roman ships as well, you
can't deny that this invention helped them big time in that naval battle.
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5.
Greek Fire "Wait, aren't we talking about Rome here?"
Yes, yes we are, and that's what we're still doing, they just happened to call one of their
inventions "Greek Fire".
You see, while incendiary ammunition and fire bombs are common in a certain way in modern
times, the ancients only tampered with this at times.
And even became myths of history like with the infamous "Archimedes Death Ray".
However, the Romans honestly did have an incendiary device that was apparently so powerful and
deadly that multiple cultures wrote about it.
But here's the twist, it wasn't specifically made by Rome, but by a Syrian Engineer named
Callinicus who was a refugee in Roman.
To best compare this "Greek Fire" to something, the "liquid fire" was said to be like napalm
in nature in that it could go and burn on anything...even water.
What would be good about using this kind of fire in battle?
Well, in naval warfare, it would be perfect for destroying enemy vessels.
And that's what the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Eastern Roman Empire) did to
great success.
So much so that they used this to beat back Arab sieges of Constantinople.
If you're wondering why Greek Fire hasn't been used since then, it would be because
the formula for it has been lost to time in terms of a key ingredient that was used to
make it.
Some have guessed what it was, but with the invention of Napalm and other incendiary devices
it doesn't need to be fully replicated now.
Still, back then?
It would've been a terror to face.
4.
Highways Here's one that might confuse some of you
because the Greeks through Alexander helped bring roadways that spanned his empire (which
is why Greek was the common language of the world for a time), but like with the ballista,
the Romans went and cranked things up to another level entirely.
Because not unlike what would happen in the United States under President Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Romans went and made highways not for commerce, but for the military.
So much so that the massive road networks after 2nd century AD accounted for a whopping
250,000 miles, of which over 50,000 miles were stone paved.
But wait, it gets even more impressed.
Because when the Roman Empire was at its most powerful 29 great military highways radiated
from the capital Rome itself, and these in turn were connected by at least 372 great
roads.
This was a huge boon for the Roman armies as it not only allowed faster travel to various
spots in the empire, but easier travel both by foot, and by cart in regards to the military
weapons they brought along with them (like the Carroballista).
Plus, the Romans went and set up houses along these roads to help with communications so
that Rome proper could know what was going on in regards to the battles being fought.
3.
Onagers When it came to Siege warfare (something that
Rome was very good at, especially under Julius Caesar), it wasn't good enough to just surround
the enemy as they could outlast you if they were prepared enough.
You needed to go and bring their walls down so the armies could infiltrate.
As such, the Romans went and made a kind of catapult known as the Onager.
This would go and use torsional force to go and fling rocks at the enemies fortifications
and use the impact of the rocks in question to really...pardon the pun...bring the house
down.
Plus, if they felt that the fortifications were REALLY strong, they would mix in various
chemicals to make more incendiary and even explosive ammunitions to go and make it clear
that they were going to get inside.
Apparently, if they got the torsional force just right they would be able to exceed the
range of archers.
2.
Pilum Let's focus now on the more "on-hand" weapons
that the Roman Legionnaires would wield as they went into battle.
Because the Roman Shield is what many think about when they go and picture a Legionnaire,
but that's not a true offensive weapon.
The spear/javelin known as the Pilum however absolutely was.
Interestingly enough, every Roman soldier in the Legions had two different kinds of
Pilum that they would use depending on the circumstances in front of them.
The point of these were simple.
If you look at the construction, you'll see that they're mostly wooden outside of the
steel tip area.
The reason for this was that the Roman soldiers would be able to throw these at the enemy
with incredible power, and then, the tip of the Pilum (regardless of the kind thrown)
would be able to go and penetrate just about any kind of shield or protection that it hit.
Making it a weapon that can injure or kill very easily even when an attempt to block
it is being made.
But wait, we're still not done.
Because if the Pilum got stuck in the shield...it wouldn't get pulled out easily.
To the extent that the enemy would have to drop their shields and thus be open to attacks
while the Romans still had their own shield and their other weapons (like their trust
sword) to go and deal with their foe.
1.
Testudo Remember how we talked about the Roman shields
before?
Well, while they may not have been a primary offensive weapon, when it came to the versatility
in how they could be used in battle, that made them invaluable to the Legions.
Rome made many battle formations for their soldiers to go and use to get closer to enemies
and one of the biggest ones was the shield-based Testudo, which is Roman for "Tortoise".
The soldiers would line up and those in the front would have their shields before them
and locked in tight so that nothing could get through.
Then, the remaining soldiers would lift their shields and turn them so they were horizontal
and protect the soldiers ahead of them, and the ones behind them would do the same.
This made it a formation that couldn't be penetrated easily by arrows or rocks during
siege warfare and thus a group like this could easily go up to the walls of the city they
were trying to invade and get to it without much difficulty.
Thanks for watching!
What did you think of this look at the inventions that the Roman army came up with during their
time as a Republic and Empire?
Were you shocked by the level of ingenuity or creativity needed to make such inventions?
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