{"id":66685,"date":"2023-06-22T11:15:54","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T16:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=66685"},"modified":"2023-06-22T06:10:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T11:10:14","slug":"know-your-military-history-the-roman-legion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/22\/know-your-military-history-the-roman-legion\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Military History: The Roman Legion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

Roman Legion<\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Roman Army comprised a series of legions, each consisting of around 5,280 men (excluding officers).<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • \n

    The basic structure of the legion was the Contubernium<\/em> (the tent group): 8 men (roughly a squad).<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n
  • \n

    The Centuria<\/em> (Century) consisted of ten Contubernium<\/em> (80 men) (roughly a company).\u00a0\u00a0Its commanding officer was called Centurion.<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n
  • \n

    The Cohort<\/em> included six Centuriae (480 fighting men (not including officers).\u00a0\u00a0A cohort was a rough equivalent to a modern-day battalion.\u00a0\u00a0The first cohort, however, was double strength (960 men) (two battalions), but with five centuries instead of the normal six.<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n
  • \n

    Generally, a legion consisted of ten Cohorts plus 120 Alae<\/em> (cavalry).\u00a0\u00a0A Roman Legion was roughly equivalent to a modern U.S. Brigade.<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Cohort I was made up of the legion\u2019s most elite troops.\u00a0\u00a0Its commander was called Primus Pilus (First Spear), the highest ranking and most respected of all centurions.\u00a0\u00a0Primus Pilus was the second in command of the legion.<\/h3>\n

    Cohorts III, V, VI, VIII, and X were the strongest (most experienced) legionaries.<\/h3>\n

    Cohorts II, IV, VII, and IX were inexperienced men, soldiers in training, or raw recruits.<\/h3>\n

    Beginning around 107 B.C., the Roman Senate demanded a more professional army.\u00a0\u00a0The Senate required a senior officer to serve in the overall command of a legion.\u00a0\u00a0He would be called\u00a0Legatus \u2014\u00a0<\/em>the Roman version of Commanding General.\u00a0\u00a0Most of Rome\u2019s provincial governors also served as Legates, exercising overall command authority over one or more legions assigned to his province.\u00a0\u00a0A Legate\u2019s relative seniority as a military commander depended on the size of his command.<\/h3>\n

    Each legion had five to six military tribunes (Tribunus Militum<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0They were mid-range officers, subordinate to the Legate, but senior to centurions.\u00a0\u00a0Generally, young men of Equestrian rank served as military tribunes as a stepping-stone to the Roman Senate.\u00a0\u00a0One tribute served as second in command under the Legate.\u00a0\u00a0He was called the broad stripe tribune (Tribunus Laticlavius<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0A wide stripe appeared on his tunic (and toga).\u00a0\u00a0Subordinate tribunes were referred to as thin-stripe tribunes (Tribuni Angusticlavii<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0Beyond their tactical responsibilities in combat, Tribunes performed certain administrative tasks \u2014 likely like the modern-day function of adjutant, operations, training, logistics, and signals.<\/h3>\n

    Third in command of the legion was the Camp Prefect (Praefectus Castorum<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0This individual served a critical function in the command.\u00a0\u00a0He was likely trained as an engineer, a long-serving veteran promoted through the ranks of centurions.<\/h3>\n

    Legions were known to march 30 to 50 miles in a single day.\u00a0\u00a0At the end of the day, legions set up a defensive perimeter using available woodland materials.\u00a0\u00a0The temporary enclosure looked like a Hollywood-style fort, with wood pike walls, an outside moat-like trench, elevated sentry stands for observation, two guarded and reinforced gates, camping areas large enough to accommodate up to six thousand men, and a corral for horses and other pack animals.\u00a0\u00a0The legionary enclosure had to be set up before the men were allowed to have their evening meal.<\/h3>\n

    The next morning, the entire defensive enclosure was disassembled before dawn, and the men prepared to step out on the next day\u2019s march.\u00a0\u00a0The camp prefect commanded the legion in the absence of the Legate and\u00a0Tribunus Laticlavius.<\/em><\/h3>\n

    Each legion had around sixty centurions \u2014 one to command each Centuria.\u00a0\u00a0Centurions were the backbone of the professional army, somewhat like company-grade officers in the modern world.\u00a0\u00a0The Centuria that each Centurion commanded reflected his rank.\u00a0\u00a0Command of the First Centuria of the First Cohort was the highest-ranking Centurion.\u00a0\u00a0He was called Primus Pilus (First Spear).\u00a0\u00a0Some today equate this man as roughly equivalent to a major.\u00a0\u00a0Successful service as a Primus Pilus opened the door to the advancement into the equestrian social class (upon retirement).\u00a0\u00a0Most centurions earned promotions from the ranks of common soldiers, who generally served 25 to 30 years of service before they were eligible for retirement\/discharge.<\/h3>\n

    The legion<\/h3>\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n

    <\/h3>\n

    Sources:<\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. \n

      Rich, J.\u00a0\u00a0Military Organization and Social Change, War and Society in the Roman World.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Graham Shipley (Ed.) Leicester-Nottingham Studies in Ancient Society, 1993.<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n
    2. \n

      Dando-Collins, S.\u00a0\u00a0Caesar\u2019s Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar\u2019s Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Wiley Publishing, 2002.<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n
    3. \n

      United Nations of Rome Victrix (UNRV): History of Ancient Rome (online)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Roman Legion   The Roman Army comprised a series of legions, each consisting of around 5,280 men (excluding officers). The basic structure of the legion was the Contubernium (the tent group): 8 men (roughly a squad). The Centuria (Century) consisted of ten Contubernium (80 men) (roughly a company).\u00a0\u00a0Its commanding officer was called Centurion. The Cohort…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[475,5064,478,479,6096,1286],"tags":[16049,7666,763,16048],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66687,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66685\/revisions\/66687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}