Essay on roman army

Submitted By Spencer-Newton
Words: 1829
Pages: 8
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World Civ.
2/28/15
Roman Army
I have always been interest in the structure of armies and that of battle tactics. This innate interest could come from my love of the military, which I was a part of the United States Army so as you can tell there are like interests. The operation of the armies of centuries ago was complete different from what modern day warfare is like. I would consider it to be of a more violent nature in my opinion due to the close contact with swords and spears. All this being said what I would like to write about and discuss with you the Roman army and there operation and tactically techniques.
The first websites I have reached said the Roman army was one of the most successful military forces in history (Soldiers, PBS). The Roman military was a feared source of sere violence’s. The site refers to the fact that the Roman army was the source of politics (Soldiers, PBS). The Roman military was key for the expansion that took place throughout the rain of their empire. Without such power of the military they would have never expanded in such a way or establish the fear that they did within the surrounding civilizations.
The first article I looked at starts by discussing the start of the Roman Empire which was started and controlled by the Roman army (Soldiers, PBS). As I said in the last paragraph and confirmed from the readings without the Roman army there would be no Rome. The Roman army was separated in what are called legions (Soldiers, PBS). By the time Augustus came to power there were sixty separate legions that were then separated in the cohorts, which contained four hundred and eighty men each (Soldiers, PBS). The site sourced information said that the minimum service for a military man in the Roman army was twenty years.
The men in the each legion were not called soldiers then they were established as legionnaires or another term the site used was miles (Soldiers, PBS). They carried a short sword called a gladius, which was there main weapon (Soldiers, PBS). This is why I referred to the violent nature of their conflicts due to the short range of battle. Unlike modern warfare where guns are the widely use source of weapon, they didn’t not have such technology to establish separation between each army. They also carried such items as javelins, helmets, shields, and a pack of necessary items for long distances of travel (Soldiers, PBS). Found a section of the site interesting about their writings to home. When I was in the service I remember training, for a year they removed us from our technology for the most part and we had to go back in time and write are families or friends in hopes of a hasty response. The article talks about how in certain areas there was not much to do and they would write their families in hopes of warm clothing or just news from home as I once did (Soldiers, PBS). When a legionnaire retired from service they received a plot of land of their choosing for one’s service and would often choose a rural roman area (Soldiers, PBS).
The area of the land a soldier was supposed to receive did not always go as smoothly as expected. The PBS article talks of a time period of mutiny that broke out around 14 AD about the promise of land that some were not receiving (Soldiers, PBS). With this sort of promise not being fulfilled was a bad situation for the Roman Empire due to the creation of it all fell on the military force to hold the fear and power it had over the other civilizations of this time.
The loyalty to Rome was not based on the loyalty of the Emperors, but more so to that of the commanders of the military forces (Soldiers, PBS). This was for two reason in my opinion. One due to the fact the men spent twenty years under their commanding officers. The army is what built to empire of Rome so in that sense it was Rome, not the man behind the curtain.
Another website talks about early Roman Empire and how it wasn’t always a superior fighting sources
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