Melinte Diana-Maria

SD 2nd year

Summary of the text II

Brian Campbell – War and Society In Imperial Rome

The army existed to fight battles and to extend and safeguard the interests of Rome by
killing sufficient numbers of the enemy. As for literary sources, manuals on ancient warfare and
military science tend to be technical or concerned with the ploys of famous generals, and remote
from the crush of battle. It has been argued that the Roman narrative tradition rather than the
Greek came to dominate later European literature and military history, simplifying
characterization and motivation, and portraying legionaries as pliant automatons.
The Romans favoured the usage of legions, divided in cohorts. But there were no more
than three legions in any one province, and Britain had one of the largest provincial armies with
a combined strength of about 50,000 legionaries and auxilia. In general the Romans did not use
diplomacy to recruit military allies for their wars.They did not regard other peoples to be of
sufficient standing and military capability. However, the Romans did sometimes require foreign
peoples by the terms of a peace settlement to supply troops. In the later empire, however, it
became increasingly common for the Romans to employ barbarians, even former enemies, to
fight for them. Subsequently, more squadrons were based on rivers and coasts where the Romans
were militarily active, principally in Germany, Britain, on the Danube and on the Pontic sea.
Roman tactics tended to be straightforward, based on the structure of the army, traditional
military practices, and a restricted range of manoeuvres and stratagems, in which the exploits of
earlier generals were an important influence. Auxiliary infantry, cavalry and specialist fighters
were grouped in substantial cohorts or alae, units of about 480 or sometimes about 800 men,
which could be manoeuvred in the same way as the legionary cohorts.
Regarding the battle experience the great commander Gaius Marius made his soldiers
observe the enemy closely and he urged them to study their equipment and how they moved, so
that eventually what had at first seemed terrible became familiar and obvious as they got used to
the sight’. Sight and noise were the two most important factors in an ancient battle. The
throwing-spear (pilum) was the traditional weapon of the legionaries. After throwing their spears
the legionaries came to close quarters using a two-edged sword. Therefore, this kind of fighting
required a disciplined battle line.
Melinte Diana-Maria
SD 2nd year

For protection, legionaries were equipped with a helmet made of iron with a deep neck
guard and flaps to protect the cheeks. The most important piece of defensive equipment was a
rectangular curving shield. The equipment of auxiliary soldiers presumably at first reflected the
differing fighting styles of the native peoples recruited. Infantrymen usually carried a flat shield,
a stabbing sword and spears. The Germans do not wear breastplates or helmets, and even their
shields. Cavalrymen had defensive armour, and helmets with deep neck guards and ear
protectors.
Furthermore, the Romans were cruel, especially after achieving capitulation or employing
different means to weaken the opposing force's discipline and cohesion.The auxiliaries were
occasionally utilized as the first layer of troops deployed, although most likely causing division
among the various types of Roman forces. This was done to limit the number of casualties in the
ranks of the Roman legions. Due to the fact that medicine organization existed, it was not
sufficiently developed to raise the percentage of survival among the ranks of Roman troops, most
casualties were not expected to live longer than the duration of the conflict.
To sum up, Roman Impire was a great mediteranean state. Everything comes from the
Sea, so in order to protect their theritory, they needed a strategy of liminal defence. Thus,
Romans were the first who came up with the idea of fortification. Also, the Roman grand
strategy involved political startegy (hand in hand with military startegy), religion, cultural
dominance and so forth. Regarding Roman legion, it was important that everything to work
together, because of the individual vulnerability in the case of any type of troops.