Roman Army Essay-Essay I wrote for school

Humanities Research over Break

Only men were allowed into the roman army. No women were allowed for they thought that they were unable to defend their country, and weren't strong enough. Each Roman soldier was a Roman citizen. If you were in the Roman army, you also had to be at least 20 years old, and you couldn't get married while you were a soldier. But that is the Roman Army. The Roman Empire was just like that only the soldiers where also from country's outside of Italy. These country's included Africa, Gaul, Germany, the Balkans, Spain and the Middle East. , and many more. Each time the Empire took over a city, they would take the 20 year and older men to help them fight in the army.

A Roman legion was an infantry unit consisting of heavily armed soldiers, equipped with shields, armor, helmets, spears and swords. There were about 30 legions in the roman army. In the beginning of the Roman empire each legion only contained about 3,000 armed men. The number soon went up to 4,800 when Julius Caesar reigned. The number got larger when Augustus ruled, going up to a little more then 5,000 soldiers. In one legion there was 10 cohorts. A cohort is made up of about 6 troops, of about 80 legionaries. These were called centuries. Each century, was led by a centurian. They were very, important. You were to obey him and do whatever he said for you to do. The general that commanded the whole entire legian was called a legate. The legion was like the backbone of the roman. It was a hard core, army group. Because they were the best of the army they got paid much higher then any of the other soldiers.

But there was not only legions, there was also other types of soldiers. An auxiliary was not s roman citizen, and was paid, a third of what the legionaries earned. These soldiers would normally guard forts, and sometimes, be on the front line. Artillery soldiers, where the ones in charge of the catapults. So they would be launching big balls of burning tar into the air.

The roman army used lots of different types of weapons. Archaeologist have figured out the armor and weapons the used by the Romans, by looking at Roman pictures and finding some armor. Armor was usually was made of some leather and iron. To protect their heads they would were a metal helmet. They obviously planned out the shields. The were rectangular, but curved so you could protect your body. The average soldiers weapons included a short knife, and a javelin. The short knife was mainly used for stabbing the opponent. A javelin is like a long spear. At the end there is a iron point. This way when they threw the javelin, it would not only hit the man, but stick into them. If they threw the javelin into a shield, most times they people they were fighting against would have to throw away the shield. This was because the javelin was very hard to get out of the shield. And if the javelin was thrown very forcefully it could even make a crack in the shield.

There was also some soldiers who had special talents. These talents were some like shooting bows and arrows, used sling shots, and some even swam. This way the group that could swim could swim and sneak up onto the enemy. This is compared to commandos today.

You must be wondering how the Romans got fit, or trained for fighting against the enemy. They would march for 20 miles each day, dressed up in all their armor. The would cross rivers in boats, swim and beat down forts. As they practiced, and even in the real deal each man held all of there things. This usually included the soldiers weapons and shields, food, spare clothes, a cooking pot and a ax, which was mostly used to chop down trees.

The roman army had some very excelled planning for formations. They would normally stand in a line and fight the enemy. But if the enemy had a catapult, and they were being shot at from above, the would lift there shields above there heads to protect themselves. Sometimes the would all gather together into a square. The people on the sides held their shields normally, upright. The ones in the middle held up their shields to protect their heads. When the did this it made them look like a turtle. This is how the formation got the Latin name of testudo, which means turtle in Latin.