When we think of Rome and its legions, most of us immediately think of the Asterix and Obelix comics or, for the older ones, the Ben Hur or Gladiator movies. The problem is that although they are all entertaining, they have little to do with reality.
Take the Roman legionaries from the Asterix comics, for example. They all wear the lorica segmentata, i.e. the well-known articulated, splint or buckled armour, and rectangular scutums (legionary shields), but as we all know, the story takes place during the Gallic War under Julius Caesar. However, Caesar's legionaries still wore oval shields, according to legend, so that they could not lean on them while on guard and fall asleep, and the lorica hamata, i.e. a chainmail shirt. The well-known lorica segmentata armour and square shields were not introduced until the 1st century AD.
If we look at the film Gladiator, things become even more striking. The Praetorians don't just wear black armor, but black leather armor in the style of the already mentioned and well-known lorica segmentata, and their tunics are also dark purple/lilac, probably to underline their elite status and their proximity to the imperial family.
However, both of these are completely made up by Hollywood, the color purple/lilac was reserved for the emperor and there is no evidence that anyone outside the imperial household wore this color in everyday life. The Praetorians, like most legionaries, wore red tunics and white tunics on ceremonial occasions. And if we look at the black leather armor, it looks very stylish, but the Romans did not generally use leather as armor, especially not in the elite Praetorian units.
But what did the real Romans look like?
The appearance of Rome's armies can be roughly divided into three periods. The early Republican period, the period of the late Republic or Caesarian era, and the Imperial period. We will ignore the late period of the late Empire with the migration of peoples for now.
The early Republic was characterized by the fact that its army consisted of Roman citizens who were called to arms only for the time of war. Their appearance therefore has absolutely nothing to do with the images we have of Roman soldiers in our heads. All citizens were obliged to maintain equipment for a branch of the military according to their income class and to use this to fight for the Senate and the people of Rome under the command of the consuls in the event of war.
Their formation on the battlefield is called the Manipel-legion and probably arose in the early to mid-4th century BC after the conquest of Rome by the Gauls. It was characterized by a high degree of mobility and replaced the rigid and rather immobile formation of the phalanx that had been used until then.
The actual battle order of the individual maniples was to be formed in three rows. The first row was made up of the hastati (usually the youngest soldiers), the second row was made up of the principes (soldiers in their late twenties to early thirties) and the third row was made up of the triarii (older veterans who were often well-equipped and armed with long spears).
In front of the closed ranks of the individual maniples were the Velites, the lightly armed skirmishers whose job it was to disrupt the enemy's formation or threaten their flanks. The formation was in turn secured on the flanks by their own cavalry. Their job was to carry out quick attacks on the enemy's flanks and to chase away the enemy's cavalry.
In addition to the Romans, however, their allies, the socii, also fought in Rome's wars, more or less voluntarily. These allies were recruited from cities and regions allied with Rome and often provided troops of the same or similar strength to Rome's own.
In this formation, the Romans fought the well-known Punic Wars, which ended with the complete destruction of Carthage despite Hannibal's spectacular march over the Alps.
After the defeat of Carthage, Rome rose to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean and the time of successful expansion began. This period also saw the emergence of the familiar image of a uniformly equipped legion. The legions' eagles became a symbol of recognition and identification, the legions' marching speed was significantly increased and equipment was standardized, resulting in the legionary we know today, coupled with the change from the maniple legion to the cohort legion. Traditionally, these reforms are attributed to Marius, coupled with the joking name Marius Mules for the legionaries thus created, who now carried their own personal equipment like the mules had done in the past. However, as is so often the case in history, it can be assumed that the reforms were a progressive development rather than a sudden change.
Nevertheless, these military reforms, with the creation of a well-trained professional army with a service period of up to 25 years, enabled Rome's further rise to an empire.
The professional army that was created in this way also had disadvantages, however, as its soldiers became much more closely tied to their generals due to their long service, which led to the turbulent events of the 1st century BC. During this time, first Marius and then Sulla tried to realize their personal wishes and interests through their military power, which shook the Republic to its foundations and then ended in the civil wars of Caesar and Augustus, which led to the downfall of the Republic and the creation of the Roman Empire.
From the very beginning, the Roman army was the main pillar of power of the Roman Empire. The Roman army was one of the most modern of its time. With its tactics and armament, it was far superior to most of its opponents. The Roman legions preferred open terrain, where they could get into their formations (including the turtle formation we know from Asterix) and their less disciplined opponents could break at their shields.
Augustus, the first Roman emperor, was forced to reduce the size of the army after the civil war. And he also carried out an army reform during his reign.
During the Empire, a legion usually consisted of ten cohorts of six centuries of 80 men, although it is often assumed that the first cohort had twice the number of men. A legion was led by a legionary legate with a staff of tribunes, with the actual work being carried out by the centurions, the professional soldiers who had worked their way up from the ranks of the ordinary soldiers.
The legion was supported as a pure infantry unit by a small unit of cavalry, the equites legionis, consisting of 120 horsemen in four squadrons of 30 men each. Their task was primarily to reconnoitre and maintain their own communications rather than that of an offensive cavalry.
If you add up all these numbers, you arrive at the impressive total of 5,120 legionaries, although here too it can be assumed that very few legions had their full strength, but were accompanied by a considerable entourage and contingent of auxiliary troops.
As impressive as this display of military power is, it is not invincible. As Rome subdued more enemies, more appeared.
The most famous of these, apart from our small Gallic village mentioned above, was probably the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, or the Battle of Varus. In the second half of 9 AD, three Roman legions, including auxiliary troops and baggage trains, under Publius Quinctilius Varus suffered a devastating defeat in Germania against a Germanic army led by Arminius, a prince of the Cherusci. This showed how vulnerable the Roman war machine could be when it did not determine the rules of battle. When the battle did not take place in the open field according to its rules, but in impassable, confusing terrain where the tactics of closed formations could not be effective.
But the Parthians were also a constant thorn in Rome's side, as they did not stick to the Romans' preferred method of warfare, but relied on light cavalry armed with bows, which would wear down the Roman foot soldiers from a distance and then finally ride them down with their heavy armored cavalry.
In summary, we can say that the Roman military went through several reforms in the course of its history. From the citizen army of the Republic to Caesar's legions to the mighty war machine of the Empire. And there were always enemies to fight against.
Roman history offers enough material for exciting stories and battles with the WoFun miniatures shown above. Just take a look in the shop and see if you might want to raise your own little legion and sweep away the barbarians.
I hope you enjoyed my little summary of the history of Rome and we'll see you here again soon
See you soon, your Martin