Roman Army : What Made this Army Great.

[Endiminion]

All of what that has been said about the romans is true, there has been a very important part skipped. Roman ingenuity. This is important because the romans more specifically took current technology and either integrated it or improved it. We can see this when we look at when rome was first forming. They looked upon their neighboring greeks to learn from them, as well as many other cultures.

The romans knew that greeks were a very intelligent people, so they captured them and made alot of them tutors for their children.
They also copied basic chain mail armor designs at first from the celtic tribes.
A very important weapon for the roman cohorts was the Gladius, which was originally a spanish design, which was occupied by the visigoths I believe. This was a great weapon because a well disciplined cohort would use this weapon only for stabbing.
The romans also knew not to use the gladius as a cavalry weapon because it was too short. so they adopted the gaulic spatha.

 

[godofthunder9010]

The Roman army's tactics, weapons and overall discipline were just amazing. Just as the Greek empire before them, they so completely outclassed all opposition that its almost scary. They also were their own engineering core, that is to say, they Roman soldiers built all the stuff that we still sit in awe of. The roads, the aqueducts, etc, etc.

Rome is completely unsurpassed in human history for what they did with the technologies they had.

 

[MosquitoMan]

P.S> my most liked piece of equipmwent of the roman legioner is the spear ( or was it javelin?!) after throwing them the enemy lines had to continue fighting mostly without shields :twisted:

That would be the phalanx, but spear or javelin is close enough.

Romans had awesome tactics, awesome training, and awesome leadership (well, most of the time). Their turtle formations were perfect for protecting them from arrows and spears. They were also one of the first armies to form ranks, where the older soldiers would be farther back, and the newer soldiers would be more towards the front.

 

[godofthunder9010]

I was under the impression that Phalanx was a military formation developed by the Greeks and perfected by the Macedonians. Is there a weapon by that name as well? Anyways, I thought he was talking about a Pilum.

 

[Gunner13]

godofthunder9010: No, you're correct when you say the Phalanx was a battle formation and not a weapon (not before the late 20th Century anyway!). As I mentioned in a previous posting:

The Pilum came in a couple of flavors, but it was primarily a throwing weapon - a javelin. The Roman Army did make use of thrusting spears, the Hasta, on more than one occasion, but those were different than the Pilum.

 

[Josh678]

Id say they were great for their Legions and for throwing the pilla which either killed the enemy or made him ditch his shield.Also because they always fought a war all out and were persistent in getting what they wanted.

 

[Del Boy]

They were battle-hardened veterans who hardly ever went home, I have read. And they were absolutely relentless. For insurrection against the occupation of Rome they would crucify men along the roadside from town to town.

And having destroyed Jerusalem for rebellion against Rome at the last quarter of AD1, they performed holocaust on the Jews without mercy, and cleared the land completely.

THEN - over a few hundred years, they kept returning at intervals and repeating the medicine - another holocaust each time - just to make sure it stayed fixed. Making your way back to start again did not work.

Worse than the Sopranos!

 

[Cdt Matteo]

Orginized, great formations/drill, superb equipment, merciless (not so great but made them all the better), great training, and the use of inducted barbarian soldiers on the front lines. All of this put together equals a very effective army.

 

[Del Boy]

Agreed. Battle, travel hardened professional soldiers. I suppose that the pre -WW11 armies of the British Empire were somewhat like that. Professional, experienced, highly trained and unemotional.

There is an exhibition regarding their presence in Northumbria, guarding our northern borders from the Picts, in autumn of this year in London. It contains recently unearthed personal documents of the Roman soldiers stationed there, letters home etc, very detailed, very personal, very human accounts of soldiers abroad by their own hands. There is a very good book recounting it.

 

[perseus]

All of what that has been said about the romans is true, there has been a very important part skipped. Roman ingenuity. This is important because the romans more specifically took current technology and either integrated it or improved it. We can see this when we look at when rome was first forming. They looked upon their neighboring greeks to learn from them, as well as many other cultures.

The romans knew that greeks were a very intelligent people, so they captured them and made alot of them tutors for their children.
They also copied basic chain mail armor designs at first from the celtic tribes.
A very important weapon for the roman cohorts was the Gladius, which was originally a spanish design, which was occupied by the visigoths I believe. This was a great weapon because a well disciplined cohort would use this weapon only for stabbing.
The romans also knew not to use the gladius as a cavalry weapon because it was too short. so they adopted the gaulic spatha.

I also understand they copied the modular construction techniques of the Carthagian ships which eventually led to their dominance of the Mediterranean. They also took many of Hannibal's techniques and the conscripts themselves (eg. Numidian horsemen). Obviously Carthage had forgot to patent these!

However they failed to copy the techniques of the invading tribes of the East, was this due to their number, fierceness or what?

 

[Papashah41]

Which Roman army are we to write about? Pre Marius or after Marius reforms. The Army at the height of the republic. The army of the first 200 years 0f the empire. The later army of the empire, or the army of The Theodosian dynasty during the time of the Barbarian migrations. After Aetius stalled Attila at Chalons around 454AD, the army changed radically once more. Oh hell, they were all magnificent. As to what made them the envy of the world as they saw it, what made them great, that is too much to put in one small quip of this size.