Absolutely fearsome in battle.
Incredibly well-disciplined, and well-organized, the Roman army was arguably the most brilliant
military force in the history of warfare, and this was no more evident than in its largest
unit, the Roman Legion.
But what was it that transformed men from farms and villages into veritable fighting
machines?
What did the Romans do that other societies didn’t, or at least as well?
That’s what we’ll find out today.
When we’re talking about the armed forces of Rome we are getting into a very complex
topic.
Things changed a lot during the lifespan of Rome.
The Roman Kingdom goes back to the 8th century BC.
Then you had the Roman Republic from 500–31 BC and after that all the way until 395 AD,
the Roman Empire.
Many things in the military changed over those centuries, from the size of the army to its
tactics, to its weapons, and to how it was organized, but even though it was such a long
period of time, many of the foundations of the military remained very similar.
If you were to ask when its heyday was, you’d get a lot of different answers, but many people
in the know might tell you it was under the great Julius Caesar, who you’ll remember
played a major part in the Republic becoming the Empire.
So, today, when we’re talking about the Roman legion, just remember that a few fundamental
things changed over time.
Typically, around the era of Caesar and just before, the legion would be made up of anywhere
from 4,000 to 5,000 men, and they’d be split into units.
The vast majority of men were part of the infantry and fewer men served as cavalry.
There were also non-Roman mercenaries fighting alongside the legion.
There were many reforms within the Roman military, especially during the period of the late Republic
when Rome was expanding, fighting among itself, and so was constantly at war.
Rome was good at war partly because it had so much practice at it.
In the time of the late Republic, the army became more professional, when under the statesman
Gaius Marius, there were what we now call the Marian reforms.
Prior to the reforms, men fought in the military but when the various campaigns ended, off
they went back to wherever they’d come from.
This was not ideal in terms of having a professional army.
These men were divided into classes, and since the poorest couldn’t afford to buy their
swords and other equipment, they were not expected to hold the battle line.
The higher classes had more weapons and more armor, and these men might have become very
valuable veterans with a lot of experience.
They certainly held the battle line.
They were the bee’s knees of fighting and strategy, and that’s what the Romans under
the new reforms wanted all their soldiers to be.
There were still ranks, though.
The complex ranking of men is a thing in any military still today.
At the top of the classes was the cavalry, usually made up of wealthy Roman men who could
afford a horse and the best equipment.
It goes without saying that when all these men were fighting for Rome, they were followed
by a large contingent of servants and slaves to work in the camps.
There were even specialist artisans who could knock you up a decent abode for when you were
on the road.
But we said that kind of thing wasn’t ideal during a time of great expansion and war,
so the reforms created a permanent army.
An army that knew what killing felt like.
An army that didn’t go back home after battle.
It also meant all men who joined the legions were able to retire with some land.
Dedicating much of their life to the military sometimes paid off, and so many men wanted
to be in the legion.
Ok, so how did a man become part of the legion?
Firstly, he had to be a Roman citizen.
There were non-Roman soldiers who fought alongside the legion called the Auxilia, who might win
citizenship one day, but the new recruits were all Romans.
Step one for them was proving their citizenship, and only then could they go through the process
of being checked out.
This process was called the “probatio”, which, of course, we can think of as a probation
period.
It ensured the person was legally Roman and that he wasn’t lying about his age.
Most recruits were usually aged between 17 and 23.
The Romans were keen to have men that looked physically powerful and healthy.
They didn’t have a clue about genes, but they had an idea of what you might call good
fighting stock.
You would have struggled to get into the legion if you were vastly overweight or if you were
as skinny as a bean pole.
There was also a medical examination.
There are papyrus records from the year 52 AD that tell us about a weaver that had first
gotten into the legion but then was kicked out because of his weak eyesight that was
caused by a cataract.
Seems Steve Rogers would’ve needed a super soldier serum to make into the Roman legion
as well.
They wanted strong men, often tall men no shorter than 173 cm (five feet seven/eight).
It seems the height stipulation changed over the years, and it also seems that if you were
muscular and short, that would be taken into account.
Still, they definitely preferred taller types of guys.
The records show that strong backs and broad shoulders were also preferred.
Remember, these men would be going through hell.
They’d be doing heavy lifting, marching for miles and miles carrying the equipment
we’ll talk about soon, and then fighting in battles.
The Romans only wanted the best kind of men for this, and this pickiness is another reason
why their armed forces were so good.
The man’s background was also taken into consideration.
The Romans were aware that his upbringing could affect how good he was at being a soldier.
They preferred guys that had sweated it out in the countryside, living a hardcore rural
life that had hardened them.
These folks were usually better recruits than the city kid who had lived a relatively comfortable
life.
They wanted kids that were used to going hungry, that knew what toil felt like.
We get most of our knowledge on recruitment for the Legions from an ancient work known
as “Epitoma rei militaris”, written by a Roman writer named Vegetius.
He went into detail about what went down in the Roman army but was mostly talking about
the early Empire.
As you know, we’re discussing post-Marius reforms today, so the late Republic and early
Empire.
We should tell you that Mr. Vegetius may have idealized how fantastic the army was, but
let’s face it, the results speak for themselves.
Sure, the legions got battered now and again, such as when they were decimated, and we mean
annihilated, in the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, but they were victorious a lot more than
they had their behinds handed to them.
Moving on.
As you know, the Romans discriminated a lot when picking their recruits.
They certainly didn’t have human resources departments talking about equality and fairness.
The Romans were often racist and… geographist?...
believing that young men from more temperate climates would be better soldiers than those
from hot climates.
Skin color mattered to some extent.
They wrongly thought folks who’d grown up with harsh winters would be better men on
the battlefield than those that were used to warm weather.
Still, maybe they had a point, as the legionnaires often had to campaign in horrible weather
conditions.
Vegetius said what job the young kid had before also mattered, saying soldiers who’d been
hunters or maybe blacksmiths were preferred over people who’d had let’s say less hardy
jobs such as weaver.
He said a butcher would make a better soldier than a cook would.
Yep, total discrimination.
How did they know a cook wasn’t hard as nails and kicking butts when he wasn’t making
stuffed dates fried in honey?
That was apparently a favorite dish of some Romans.
It wasn’t all about brawn, though.
Brains also mattered.
The texts tell of a recruit named Julius Apollinarius in 107 AD, who it’s said was able to join
the legion and get a cushy number as a clerk (librarius) after he’d handed in a letter
of recommendation.
He wrote to his father and said he was lucky not to be outside with the other guys who
were all breaking rocks, maybe for some construction project.
A good recruit would show that he could think on his feet.
Roman texts even talk about men having “lively eyes,” which was thought to mean a quick-thinking
brain.
This is why the Romans valued the standard of literacy in their recruits.
It not only showed intelligence, but it helped since the Roman armies always kept records
of what they’d done, where they’d been, and how things had gone.
It goes without saying that if you were tall and built like a barge but couldn’t read
or write, you might get a different job from a genius built like a broom.
The book “GLADIUS: The World of the Roman Soldier,” explains that many men would keep
records, and sometimes when a fellow soldier died, they’d write his details on his tombstone.
This didn’t mean everyone was educated.
You could be of the lower class, a plebian, and still join the ranks of the legion, which
was a way to improve your status.
That’s why many uneducated men entered the legion.
We should add that some historians have talked about men joining up to avoid prosecution
or a life of crime, and there were many petty criminals in the legions.
Still, if you’d committed a serious crime, there’s little chance they’d have let
you in.
The same goes for most militaries today.
Recruits who were seen as having a good sense of humor or able to hold sway in talks with
other men were also preferable.
That’s because when it came to long campaigns, they could keep morale up when men were down
in the dumps.
No army wants a constant whiner whose glass is always half-empty when people are dying
left, right, and center.
Being smart as a whip and personable might help if you were not as tall or strong as
some of the other guys.
So, one major reason why the Roman legion was so strong is each recruit was sized up
first and told to buzz off if he didn’t suit the criteria.
It goes without saying that we don’t know how strict this was and if hiring standards
didn’t get lax when men were in demand for campaigns.
We know there are records of some prominent ancient Romans complaining that the military
was hiring way too many vagrants.
The training was certainly no walk in the park.
It was usually four months of hell and was supposed to prepare a young guy for the ravages
of campaigns.
It wasn’t all physical, though.
Remember that the Romans were renowned for their strategy and tactics, which would transform
depending on the era.
The recruits had to learn how to do war, not just be able to fight in them.
They had to learn all the formations of the day.
You’ve probably all seen one formation called the testudo (the tortoise).
The men formed a shell that made it hard to be attacked and then when the time was right,
they came out of their shell.
We won't go into all the formations today but will say that training recruits to learn
a bunch of them gave the Romans an upper hand in battle.
During the late Roman Republic, legions were divided into cohorts of 480 men; what you
could say were battalions in the modern sense of the word.
The entire legion during this period would usually be about 10 cohorts, with the first
usually consisting of the most experienced men and the least experienced being the tenth
one.
That would mean after passing training, you’d usually join number 10, but not always.
It depended on your ability.
Before those reforms came about, a cohort would be split into “centuria”, 100 soldiers,
and each of these was commanded by a centurion, who were also ranked by experience.
After the reforms, some things changed, the numbers for one thing, but the general divisions
remained similar.
There were lots of different ranks and we won’t talk about them all.
Just know that the centurion that led the men was uber-important.
He was the lodestone keeping men disciplined and battle-ready.
What’s important is that each cohort had a bunch of equipment that the men should all
be familiar with.
This included their own weapons, which we’ll talk about soon, but also often siege weapons
that could launch heavy objects for use in destroying enemy fortifications.
These weapons changed over the years, but the systems remained very similar.
It’s thought that during the late Republic, the Romans were not all that advanced as far
as war machines were concerned.
Recruits would be taught how to scale walls and use battering rams, but technical prowess
in terms of machine use was not high on the list of things to learn.
Still, machinery was used during sieges, and the recruits had to know how to use them.
But much of the training would simply be marching.
That’s right.
Marching all day long until their feet were sore as hell.
The reason is obvious.
There was no other way they could get to a battle than walking, so they practiced walking
until they practically walked themselves to near death.
But marching also taught them how to stay in formation.
It taught discipline.
Any soldier will tell you that marching in formation is still a really important part
of being a soldier today.
It not only fosters synchronicity between large groups of men, but it also makes men
familiar with following orders all day long.
For the Romans, it ensured that when they did finally march towards battle, the men
stayed in formation, and none got lost or, for some reason, went missing.
It was quite common during training for men to march 20 miles a week, which might not
sound like a lot, but they could be carrying around 20 pounds of equipment while going
over some rather tricky terrain.
They were also often told they had to complete a set distance within 5 hours.
Sometimes more distance was added and the men had to march faster.
This was on top of all the other training, so trudging over mountains would likely happen
when the men were already tired.
What also made it so hard is they would practice marching in full armor, something you’ve
likely seen in the movies.
They might also be carrying their shield (the scutum) or wearing their helmet (the galea).
On top of that, they might have a javelin on them as well as their short sword (the
gladius) and a dagger (pugio) tucked into their belt.
We can’t be sure how all the practice marches took place, but it is certain recruits at
times would also have to carry a backpack (sarcina), possibly containing food, water,
and equipment to set up camp.
Now 20 miles over a mountain doesn’t sound all that easy, does it?
It's worth noting here that training in the cold was seen as a good thing since it toughened
a recruit up and was thought to encourage good health.
Still, if was too cold, the men trained in large structures built for various kinds of
practice.
Year round training gave the Romans a distinct edge in battle.
A weak immune system, even though they had no idea what an immune system was, was not
good when marching many miles in the winter for a scrap.
This is why the men also had to show they were strong swimmers.
Not only because being able to navigate water was important, but being able to handle freezing
cold water made the recruits hardened and what the Romans believed was less prone to
sickness.
They were probably right.
What doesn’t kill you can make you stronger.
They totally embraced this adage many years before Friedrich Nietzsche made it famous.
Training sure could get a recruit down, and that’s why so much of the training wasn’t
just based on following orders but trying to generate camaraderie among the men.
In battle, this would be very important.
There was some fun in training and certainly lots of fun once in the legion.
R&R was just as important as it is for troops now.
It should be said that legionnaires weren’t supposed to get married by law, but many had
families, anyway.
They also learned that if they should ever turn away from a fight once recruited, the
outcome might be being beaten to death by the guys you’d shared jokes with in training.
Nothing makes a soldier braver and more willing to fight than good relationships or the threat
of being stoned or cudgeled to death by your best buddies.
Even falling asleep on lookout duty could mean a very serious beating, or death if those
50 winks had dire consequences.
As far as the fighting practice was concerned, the men trained with javelins, which were
very effective instruments.
These short-range weapons could be used with great accuracy after weeks of training.
They weren’t very heavy and could be thrown quite a distance, helping soften up an enemy
before hand to hand combat.
Recruits were also taught to be competent swordsmen, learning how to use thrusts and
controlled slashes when necessary so they wouldn’t harm the brother next to them.
Then there were the slings, a tool that was actually very important.
These could be used from a distance, whereby a stone would be hurled through the air.
Again, each recruit, over the four or so months of training, would be taught how to use these
with impressive accuracy.
They were cheap and effective, taking the place of archers, which weren’t very common
in the ancient Roman armies.
Once the slings and the javelins had been used, it was then that the men could approach
with swords and spears.
All this would be practiced over and over in drills, often with the help of gladiators.
Drills came first and sparring came after.
Notably, the wooden weapons they used in training would often be heavier than the ones they’d
use in real battles.
This conditioned the men’s muscles, gave them greater speed, and helped with accuracy.
Once they got the real thing in their hands, it felt light to them.
If the recruits complained, or worse, spoke out of turn or attacked someone, the punishment
could be severe.
It might have meant anything from being told to sleep outside in the cold to being beaten
up with sticks or even being stoned.
Still, if they were good little recruits, they usually received praise and honors.
Some scholars have said the fear of being beaten to death was a greater motivator than
being slapped on the back when it came to not being a coward or lazy.
We didn’t say much about cavalry training, only because after the Republic, the cavalry
was mostly made up of the Auxilia we mentioned earlier.
They were trained similarly to the legionaries, except, of course, marching was riding and
the formations were different.
There were plenty of them, too, as time went on, seeing as they consisted of a lot of conquered
tribesmen, many from the Gallic provinces.
At the same time, also fighting with the legionnaires were archers from as far as North Africa.
Usually, after four months of training, sometimes as many as six months, the recruits could
pass and be sent to their respective legion.
They swore an oath to the legion and their emperor, although unlike what some scholars
have said, it’s unlikely they were branded or got a tattoo to show they were now a legionnaire.
That kind of thing was usually reserved for criminals, although it’s not out of the
realm of possibility that some recruit got inked.
They each received a “signaculum”, which was an inscribed lead tablet they could put
around their necks.
Think dog tags.
Even when in service, life wasn’t all about campaigns.
They often enjoyed their downtime, although when the Empire was in full swing, when not
on a campaign, they were usually working on a project building roads or dams or other
infrastructure.
And if no work in that regard was available, policing the people was another of their jobs.
As the saying goes, all for the glory of Rome!
The legionnaires might fight for 20 or 25 years and if they survived, would likely have
a fairly comfortable life with their land and money.
That’s why so many of them did it in the first place, but the data shows that only
40-50% of legionnaires survived to the age of retirement.
Now you need to watch “Why You Wouldn’t Survive Living In the Roman Empire.”
Or, have a look at “The Insane Real Life of a Roman Gladiator.”