hello I'm Simon Whistler you're watching
top 10s and in the video today we're
looking at the top 10 horrifying facts
about the Roman legions number 10 their
military training around Rome's
beginning its army was only comprised of
local farmers who would be hurriedly
called into action fighting skirmishes
with neighboring settlements all of this
would change however in 390 BC when an
army of Gauls
utterly defeated the Romans and then
descended upon the city itself they
continued on sacking and pillaging Rome
for the next six months until finally
they were paid off to leave the Romans
got a wake-up call which would change
their destiny forever they spent the
next following centuries perfecting
their legions by systematically training
and organizing a professional military
machine like nobody had seen before
there were endless drills and marches to
the point of exhaustion Roman soldiers
were attending weapons training every
morning and practiced melee combat with
wooden swords spears and shields twice
as heavy as their real counterparts part
of their daily training also involved a
nineteen mile long march to be completed
in five hours while carrying a full pack
of weapons shield food rations cooking
supplies in a short Spade along with
their own personal kit no other army in
the world at the time would receive such
a rigorous training which gave the Roman
legions a tremendous advantage in waging
war a benign discipline through fear
following orders to the letter and not
questioning one's superiors is something
which most don't naturally have built
into their consciousness severe
punishments for even the slightest of
offenses was something common within any
Roman legion soldiers would oftentimes
be stoned to death by their comrades for
cowardice in battle or even for falling
asleep at their posts while on sentry
duty minor offenses were handled by the
Centurions military officers who always
carried vine branches in order to strike
at their legionaries and since these
officers were held directly responsible
for the behavior of the men serving
under them whippings were commonplace in
a Roman military camp this ruthless
tremens nevertheless proved useful time
and time again as the men became more
reliant and trusting of each other for
their very survival in the extremely
harsh conditions they endured at the
fringes of the Empire in short this
discipline installed through fear gave
Roman soldiers a far better chance of
survival if they blindly obey
their superiors than if they did not
number eight the decimation one
particularly brutal punishment for any
Legion was the decimation and it was as
bad as it sounds the word itself comes
from this Roman military disciplinary
measure used on large groups of soldiers
guilty of capital offenses like mutiny
treason or desertion decimation is
derived from the Latin term meaning
removal of a tenth the way they went
about it was to have the guilty men
divided into groups of ten and to have
them draw straws the soldier who drew
the short straw was to be killed by the
other nine by clubbing him to death and
since the decision of who will die was
left to chance all soldiers were liable
for execution regardless of their level
of involvement rank or distinction
whereas because killing off 10% of the
army is almost never a good idea the
decimation never really became
commonplace number seven weapons in
armor as room expanded its borders the
army became more standardized with the
equipment being provided by the state
their first line of defense was the
chainmail shirt
the main advantages of the chainmail
were its light weight and that it
offered good protection against slashing
swords during the 1st century AD however
the chainmail was partially replaced by
segmented plate armor though heavier
ends with a higher maintenance plate
Armour offered a great deal more
protection against piercing attacks the
Roman helmet was redesigned and improved
over the centuries it was fashioned in
such a way as to offer maximum
protection but without blocking the
sensors it had large cheek pieces as to
protect the side of the face but not to
cover the ears so the soldiers could
hear the commands given by the
Centurions the crests oftentimes made
out of horsehair or sometimes feathers
had the purpose of making the wearer
appear larger and fiercer as well as to
distinguish between the ranks further
protection came from the roman shield it
was made of layers of wood glued
together and covered with leather and
metal the shield was also curved thus
offering more protection to the sides
due to its size the shield was also used
as an offensive weapon and works
perfectly in combination with the Roman
short sword number 6 battle tactics and
formations but what truly made the Roman
legions the best fighting force in the
ancient world was the structured nature
of the army and the formations they used
in battle a legion was comprised of four
thousand eight hundred men divided into
ten cohorts of 400
which in turn contained six centuries of
80 soldiers each commanded by a
Centurion the highly structured form
offered the army both unity among the
ranks as well as a great deal of
coordination on the battlefield most of
the barbarians the Romans were in
conflict with fought in loose
arrangements and each warrior sought
individual glory but every one of the
4,800 soldiers in a Roman legion had a
precise role to play in a master
strategy a typical assault would begin
at long range using catapults which
shower the enemy with boulders and iron
bolts next the Legionaries would launch
their javelins made of a wooden handle
and a long iron head the pillar as it
was called by the Romans would Bend on
impact preventing the enemy from
throwing it back then the soldiers would
stand shoulder-to-shoulder swords out
and begin their advance as a moving wall
of death and destruction with the shield
extending from their chins almost down
to their ankles
there wasn't much a group of
disorganized tribesmen could do number 5
see battles fought on land a shortage of
skilled Roman soldiers came in the form
of sea warfare as Rome took control of
most of the Italian peninsula they
turned their attention out to see here
they met the Carthaginians and in 264 BC
the first pinna quarried begun this 23
year long conflict between the two
Mediterranean superpowers was fought
over control of the strategically
important islands of Sicily and Corsica
while Carthage both did a sizable
military fleet Rome did not nevertheless
the Romans quickly countered that
disadvantage by building their own Navy
following a design stolen from the
Carthaginians themselves still lacking
any real seafaring experience in while
waiting for the ships to be built the
Legionaries began practicing rowing in
unison while still on dry land since
they were expert melee fighters they
came up with an ingenious invention to
turn sea battles into land battles this
secret weapon came in the form of the
Corvis a boarding bridge four feet wide
and 36 feet long which could be raised
or lowered at weld it had small railings
on both sides and the metal prong on its
backside which would pierce the deck of
the Carthaginian ship and secure it in
place with it the Romans were able to
defeat their enemy and win the war
number four bellum Gallican the Gallic
Wars or bellum Gallican were a series of
military campaigns waged by the Roman
legions under
Caeser against the goals living in
present-day France Belgium and parts of
Switzerland these wars lasted from 58 BC
to 52 BC and culminated with a definite
Roman victory and expansion of the Roman
Republic over the whole of Gaul but
these wars weren't waged for the glory
of Rome per se that rather for the
political ambitions of Caesar himself he
recruited and paid his own legions which
made the soldiers highly devoted to him
and him alone even though the region was
home to somewhere around 15 to 20
million people his successes were in
large part due to the fact that the
Gauls were a conglomeration of loose
tribal armies that lacked any real
discipline and cohesion this way Caesar
had to fight each band of warriors as he
encountered them and the campaign
stretched on for much longer than he
initially anticipated burking get uruk's
victory of a hundred battles managed to
finally rally the tribes against the
Roman legions but it was too little too
late at the Battle of Alesia in 52 BC
perking get Eric's almost prevailed
against Caesar that ultimately lost the
battle by the time the Roman conquest of
Gaul had ended over 1 million Celts lay
dead and another 500 thousand were sent
into slavery
number-three crucifixions the Romans
were notorious for the ways in which
they treated and disposed of anyone who
would stand in their way against total
domination one particular way they dealt
with the people they thought threatened
the Roman Way of life was by crucifixion
this particularly brutal form of
punishment was often used as a means of
torture there as well as to send a
message those people who were crucified
were oftentimes accused of sedition or
conspiracy to rebellion Jesus was
crucified for the exact same reason and
not for his religious teachings the two
men besides him were also considered
insurgents not thieves though not the
inventors of this horrific practice the
Romans did excel in it during Spartacus
rebellion in 72 BC six thousand captured
rebels were crucified since Rome's
population was about 40% slaves and
Spartacus and the other rebels were
slaves themselves their crucifixion was
a definite message to those still living
do not stir dissent or this will be your
end too number two the Praetorian Guard
the most powerful of all Roman legions
was the Praetorian Guard which was
stationed in Rome itself and oftentimes
at the Praetorian said the power of life
and death over the Emperor's themselves
they came into being as elite soldiers
protect
generals during the Roman Republic but
the Praetorian garden itself didn't
officially appear until or Gustus became
Rome's first emperor in 27 BC they acted
as bodyguards to the emperor emergency
firefighters the secret police crowd
control and even fought in the arena to
show off their prowess to the masses but
as Rome's power grew so did its
corruption and intrigue and the
Praetorian Guard was at often times
right in the middle of it all even
though their task was to ensure the
interests of the Emperor
if those interests didn't coincide with
their own they would just replace him
disgruntled Praetorians famously
engineered the assassination of Caligula
in 41 ad many other Emperor's were also
killed by the Praetorians in 193 ad they
even put the crown up for auction
one man Juliana's won by promising them
each a bribe of five years pay but since
he couldn't deliver he too was murdered
66 days later in 306 ad the Praetorians
tried to play the role of kingmaker one
last time by supporting Maxentius as the
western emperor in Rome they were
defeated by Constantine at the Battle of
Milvian bridge in 312 and he then
disbanded the guard number one making
and breaking the Empire without a doubt
of the Roman Empire in all its might was
made by the many legions who fought and
killed for it but in the end the army is
what brought Rome down as we've seen up
until now room was a highly militarized
society with an army of about a hundred
and thirty thousand soldiers one man in
eight was in the army and while in the
beginning only men with property were
allowed to fight for the glory of Rome
once it expanded beyond the Italian
peninsula the ranks were opened to a
great deal more people foreigners were
employed as axillary xand after 25 years
of fighting they would be granted
citizenship since these men were not
citizens of Rome they didn't believe in
the idea of Rome and the civilization it
brought with it most never even seeing
the city itself
now many soldiers had less interest in
defending it and instead making their
fortune through the spoils of war
their loyalty was no longer to the city
or Empire but to the generals who they
were serving under like was the case
with Caesar and his legions army
generals then realized they could become
Emperor just by marching into Rome that
which they often did by 395 ad the
Empire would be divided into the east
and west and by 476 only its eastern
part would survive the
in Roman Empire would rule from
Constantinople and be a dominant force
in the region for the following 1,200
years so really hope you found that
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