The Roman legions are often seen as simply large units of soldiers with no purpose other
than to kill and conquer, but this is very much untrue.
They were highly organised communities of people of all sorts of skills and trades.
The legions would oftentimes function independently, from winning wars in enemy territory to constructing
bridges and roads and even managing the exploitation of mines throughout ancient Europe.
These are just a few examples of what these military units were able to achieve, but the
credit for their success and efficiency is often misplaced.
The backbone of the legions was their wide range of specialised positions, each with
their own tasks, responsibilities and rank.
As the oldest unit in the Roman army, the legions had the MOST complicated internal
organisation and structure, which had evolved since Republican times to consist of at least
150 unique ranks.
Many of these were lost to time altogether, while others are to this day overshadowed
by ones deemed more glorious in the eyes of the public, despite being just as fundamental
to the success of the Roman army.
In this video we will go over these positions, along with their relationship to each other
in terms of rank.
This will be presented from the point of view of a legionary recruit, in continuation of
our previous video featuring the recruitment and training
of
the legions..