The Roman army

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Rupert Rowling

Introduction

        The Roman army is still admired today by historians and many others alike. How far advanced technologically the Romans were over 2000 years ago still amazes many people today. They built roads that a still used today, their baths are still admired with many still standing and much of today’s archaeology dates back to Roman and Greek principals. The Roman army itself was the most feared army of that period and it too is a cause of fascination. Thankfully, due to the Romans writing a lot down, there are many sources (unlike in the “Dark Ages” for example) available to study how the Roman army worked. In this project, the aim is to find out how the training and organization of the army made it as effective as it was.

How did the training and organization

of the Roman army

make it as effective as it was?

When the Roman army was at its peak, during the 1st and 2nd century AD, it was too strong for most of the other forces to overcome. In this project I aim to show how two parts of the Roman army: a) its training b) its organization, helped make it so effective.

The Roman army was an attractive occupation at that time. This is an important point to note. Although you ran the risk of being killed, soldiers were paid quite well (248 drachmas/year for cavalrymen in AD 81 according to Quintus Julius Proculus’ account); did not have to fight that often (in fact in some times and places in the Roman army they spent more time doing peace time activities than fighting). They were given a large pension when they retired (according to Dio they received either between 3000 denarii and 5000 denarii, depending on the emperor, or could receive a large portion of land, usually 20 by 20 actus) and had the chance to travel around the known world. If you were a member of the auxilium then when you completed your service you would be given Roman citizenship. Therefore, the vast majority of the soldiers in the army were there by choice. This therefore meant that the soldier’s morale was kept high and mutinies were rare.  

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A key reason for the army’s success was the training the legionaries received. The training was so hard that the soldiers became well disciplined and very fit. They were trained to such a high level that most forces they came up against were swept away; this is illustrated in the following passage:

“They [the new recruits to the army] are also taught not to cut with their swords but to thrust. The Romans find it so easy to beat people who use their swords to cut rather than thrust that they laugh in their faces.”  

Vegetius, A Book About Military ...

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