Dylan Jackson English 10 Period 5 Table of Contents 1. Population 2. Recruitment 3. Organization 4. Strategy 5. Equipment 6. Medicine 7. Policing 8. Campaigns 1. Population At its peak, the Roman Empire contained anywhere from 45 to 120 million people. The Roman army was estimated to have three hundred and seventy five thousand men in legionary and auxiliary troops between 117 and 138. This number increased to seven hundred thousand in the late imperial period. However, some historians state that dead soldiers were still counted in order to draw their wage and rations. 2. Recruitment Initially, The Roman military drafted people to an annual military service as a duty to their state. During this period, Roman would conquer its local adversaries and expand its territory. Roman historian Livy wrote that the early Roman army was a civil militia, with recruitment dependant on a citizen’s social standing. King Servius Tullius (c. 580- 530 BCE) introduced six classes of wealth upon Rome’s citizens; the lowest group had no property and were excluded from the military, whilst the highest group, the equites, formed the cavalry. majority of Roman soldiers would have been recruited around the age of 18- 20 years. As the empire expanded, the military became more professional and salaried. This trend stayed into the later empire when the military started hiring mercenaries. Mercenaries became a large portion of the Roman military. Whilst the pay was not bad, it wasn’t great. The soldier’s food and clothing was deducted from their pay. However, at the same time, the army provided a guaranteed supply of food, doctors, and pay, and it also provided stability. Their pay could be supplemented by personal war booty, pay from emperors, also, there was the possibility to progress through the ranks and thereby increase in a soldier’s take home pay. 3. Organization Main composition of the Roman military were the legions, initially made up of Roman citizens. There were around 28 legions on average. Legions consisted of: ● 10 cohorts to one Legion ● six centuries to one cohort ● 10 tents to one cohort ● eight soldiers to one tent ● 120 cavalry but these played the role of messengers and scouts. The Legions were then beefed by Auxiliary forces. There were four main types of these Auxiliary forces: Alae quingenariae, Infantry cohort, Cohorts equitates; mixed infantry and cavalry and Numeri. The Praetorian Guard was the Emperor’s personal body guard and consisted of 9 cohorts. They were very powerful since they were close to the Emperor. The Praetorians were primarily recruited from Italy. Their service was only for 16 years and they had better pay than the standard legionary soldier, which was 225 denarii per year. In addition to this there was the Roman Fleet and the Urban Cohort. The Urban cohorts acted as a police force to maintain civil order. 4.Strategy Rome would rely on brute force and sheer numbers when they needed to. The soldiers were trained to memorize every move in battle, so discipline and order could not break down into chaos. They were largely successful because of this. Rome's strategy changed over time, implementing different systems to meet different challenges. Elements of Rome's strategy included the use of client states and a fixed system of troop deployments and road networks. Luttwak states that there are "useful similarities" between Roman and modern military strategy. 5. Equipment Rome was not able to develop true steel production. As a result most of their weapons were crafted from bronze or iron. Over the 1300 years of Roman military technology, little changed. Stabbing daggers and swords, stabbing or thrusting swords, long thrusting spears or pikes, lances, light throwing javelins and darts, slings, and bow and arrows were commonly used. There were three main types of armour employed by the Imperial army; the lorica hamate (rows of solid rings followed by rows of riveted rings), lorica squamata (small metal scales sewn to a fabric), and the lorica segmenta (strips of iron attached to leather straps). Besides personal weaponry, the Roman military adopted team weaponry such as the ballista and developed a naval weapon known as the corvus, a spiked plank used for attach and board onto enemy ships. Lorica squamata Ballista 6. Medicine The expansion of the Roman empire was largely in thanks to the strong military force. With this expansion came the threat of attack on the outskirts of the empire. These attacks lead to heavy casualties and a need for specialized medical care for soldiers. Before 31 BC wounded soldiers would tend to their own wounds and look for help from the villages they would come across. After 31 BC, it soon became apparent to the Roman authorities that a structure was needed to care for the sick and wounded soldiers in these outposts. And so with the Romans' knowledge of Hippocratic medicine, they introduced the first hospitals. These were therefore military hospitals or valetudinarium. The care was provided by Physicians who were also soldiers, but supervised and managed by military commanders. 7. Policing For the most part, Roman cities had a civil guard used for maintaining the peace. Due to fear of rebellions and other uprisings, they were forbidden to be armed at militia levels. Policing was split between the civil guard for low-level affairs and the Roman legions and auxilia for suppressing higher-level rioting and rebellion. Roman soldiers who were initially part of the legions were policing among civilians. They enforced laws (including measures against Christians), and furthered elite interests (arresting runaway slaves, for example). Roman policing also helped ordinary people, though corruption and abuse were a constant problem. The early imperial state tried to fix this. 8. Campaigns Caesar defeated the Helvetii in 58 BC at the Battle of the Arar and Battle of Bibracte, the Belgic confederacy known as the Belgae at the Battle of the Axona, the Nervii i n 57 BC at the Battle of the Sabis, the Aquitani, Treviri, Tencteri, Aedui and Eburones in unknown battles, and the Veneti in 56 BC. In 55 and 54 BC he made two expeditions to Britain. In 52 BC, following the Siege of Avaricum and a string of inconclusive battles, Caesar defeated a union of Gauls led by Vercingetorix at the Battle of Alesia, completing the Roman conquest of Transalpine Gaul. By 50 BC, the entirety of Gaul lay in Roman hands. These campaigns show the success of the Roman empire. Bibliography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_ancient_Rome https://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Army/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_military_personal_equipment https://www.collegianjournal.com/article/S1322-7696(08)60346-7/pdf http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199737840.00 1.0001/acprof-9780199737840
