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- Main article: Military history of ancient Rome
The Military establishment of the Roman Republic refers to the state of the Roman Army following the abolition of the Roman Kingdom and before the subversion of the Republic into the Roman Empire.
==Introduction== DONE
The early republic almost always drew its armies from the property-owning classes for the purpose of a single campaign or battle, after which this legion would be disbanded. In common with classical republican thought, this served the purpose of giving men something to fight for that was dear to them; namely, their own property and the esteem of their fellow citizens. Furthermore, by drawing from the class that could afford to equip and sustain itself, the republic itself incurred little expenditure in raising an army.
However, this situation changed before the foundation of the Empire. The reforms of Gaius Marius in the late republic (107 BC professionalised the army and removed the property requirement for army recruitment. This was deemed necessary because of the increasing external threats to the Roman Republic from across Europe, which required a larger number of soldiers. These soldiers were also being utilised more often and sent further afield. For the property-owning soldier who primarily fought to defend his property and honour, lengthy wars across the continent were less appealing than defensive battles, or campaigns near Rome.
The changes that ensued are known as Marian reforms.
Pre-Marian military edit
The draft edit
Legions were raised annually, with soldiers generally serving for one year at a time, although no doubt able soldiers were re-selected for the next year. The men who were to enter the legions were selected by tribuni plebis (Tribunes of the People), who were tribal officials or magistrates. These tribunes were selected by a tribal working group (comitia, or committee), making the military ultimately subservient to the citizenry. The tribuni plebis were joined in military service by the tribuni militares (military tribunes), of whom 6 were assigned to each legion and acted as its senior staff. These tribunes initially had to have 5 or 6 years of service split between the military and civilian life, although this was later changed.
The men selected were then placed under the authority of the consuls, who commanded the legions. The two consuls were head of the executive branch of government as well as the highest ranking military officers. Each of them ordinarily commanded an army group of two legions that they had the responsibility of raising. They answered only to the senate.
Selection was usually a lengthy and thorough process. The presiding tribune sent four men at a time to the military tribunes. These tribunes took turns at selecting these men for their legions. Each legion would then fill its quota of at least 4,200 men each in this way. This could take several days.
As this was a long and formal process, it proved unsuitable at certain times. In times of dire need, the legions would recruit more men, or the consuls could draft as many as 4 legions each. If the consuls were away, proconsules ("in place of the consuls") could step in to draft more forces. (In the later republic, the relatively small number of legions commanded by the consuls (2-4) resulted in their power being overshadowed by the proconsuls, the provincial governors. They would often have more loyalty from their troops than their consular counterparts, and at the same time have the ability to raise vast numbers of troops.)
Eventually, this system was replaced due to the need to raise legions quickly to replace those lost in battle. The government appointed two boards of three military tribunes each, who were empowered to enter any region in Roman jurisdiction for the purpose of enlisting men. These tribunes were appointed, not elected, with the 5 or 6 years experience requirement dropped in the case of aristocratic appointees. Some were as young as 18, but this age was considered acceptable for a young aristocrat on his way up the cursus honorum, or ladder of offices.
The appointed tribunes conducted an ad hoc draft, or dilectus, to raise men. They tended to select the youngest and most capable-looking, sometimes with only a small amount of due process. If they had to, they drafted slaves, as after the Battle of Cannae.
Soldiers who had served out their time and had obtained their discharge (missio), but had voluntarily reenlisted, were called evocati.
MOVE THIS TO POST-MARIANWhile the provincial armies were technically supposed to stay within the provinces over which their governors had jurisdiction, this rule was ignored by the middle of the 1st Century BC. By the end of the Republic, the various commanders participating in Rome's republican civil wars had raised the number of legions throughout the Republic's provinces to more than fifty, many at the command of a single man. MOVE THIS TO POST-MARIAN
===The Standard Legion=== DONE
| Pre-Marian Structure of the Roman Republic Military | |
|---|---|
| Manipuli: Heavy Infantry (Hastati, Principes, Triarii§) | |
§Triarii cohortes were typically smaller, containing 1200 men max. | |
| Velitae: Light Infantry | |
| |
| Equites: Cavalry | |
====Composition==== DONE
A standard Republican legion at this time contained about 4200-5000 men. The infantry was divided into roughly the following fashion:
- 1,200 velites
- 1,200 principes
- 1,200 hastati
- 600 triarii
In addition to the infantry was a cavalry unit. Each legion was supported by up to 800 eques, or horsemen, formed into an equite. An equite was organized in 10 turmae (squadrons) of 80 horsemen each. Cavalry was used for scouting, skirmishing and various sorts of clean-up, as well as being another reserve that could be thrown into the battle, but as was the case for most of Rome's history, cavalry was never the dominant unit in the army.
====Equipment and Formation==== ALMOST DONE
Equipment depended on the role and wealth of any individual soldier. Chest armor ranged from basic breastplates for the poorer soldier to chain mail for the rich, as well as a crested helm with a visor for identification and protection. Soldiers would also variously carry a parma (round shield), scutum (long shield) painted with the legion's insignia, a pilum (spear), a gladius (short sword) and a hasta velitaris (a javelin, lighter than the pilum.)
Usually, each type of infantry would carry the same combination of the above. Most typical was a line of principes armed with spears and swords. The hastati would use either the same as the principes, or the javelin and round shield for more mobile attacking. The young, fast velites would rely primarily on the javelin.
The principes and the hastati would be at the front of the Roman contingent in a battle, with the triarii at the rear. The velites would, when directed (usually at the start of a battle) advance to the front, launch their javelins or spears, and immediatley retreat by running. The equites, as well as scouting, would sometimes be called to the front as a reserve unit.
The flow of command corresponded to the structure of the legion. The smallest formal unit used on the battlefield was not the contubernium but the centuria. The leader, the Centurion, was assisted by two junior officers who would take charge of ad-hoc sub-units as directed by the centurion. Each junior officer also had a standard-bearer who offered an easy visual target on the battlefield for his comrades, as well as being provider of a visual symbol of morale and pride for the unit. Centurions were subordinate to a legion commander. (finish later.)
The Legion in Battle edit
Servius Tullius, most likely originally an Etruscan soldier of fortune (to whom he built temples), identified the disadvantages of an army recruited from landowners—that is, such an army depended heavily on a large farmer class of citizens to provide troops. Therefore Tullius pressed for land reform that granted veterans land. Although he was assassinated he did establish the precedence of granting land to veterans.
The army had not at first been overly successful, partly because it faced superior generals, and partly through inexperience. Roman commanders gave up trying to defeat Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, by direct combat as he ravaged Italy. The most successful, Fabius Cunctator (“the delayer”) camped at a distance and watched the doings of the Carthaginians, while harassing the Carthaginian army.
Perhaps much can be said for watching. At any rate, the army came into the hands of a family of careerists and professional soldiers, the Cornelii, a gens of the most ancient stock, patrician through and through in the best sense of the word. They were the first real successors to Servius. After much trial and error, suffering personal losses, they produced one of the best and most influential generals Rome ever had, Publius Cornelius Scipio. He built the Servian army into a victorious fighting machine.
Let the Carthaginians ravage Italy. Scipio took the war to Carthage, landing in North Africa with a republican army. The strategy succeeded; Hannibal was recalled at once, he came home immediately with a disrupted army and was beaten by Scipio at the Battle of Zama, 202 BC. Using the tactics developed by Scipio, now entitled Africanus, and good generalship, the army at last lived up to the potential imparted to it by King Servius. The tactics worked as follows.
The general first picked his ground. The Roman military now understood fairly well the importance of taking the initiative and picking your ground, with some infamous exceptions. If the terrain was not right, the army remained within its fortified camp (which was virtually unassailable) until the enemy moved on, and then followed him, waiting for an opportunity to engage.
The ideal terrain was a gently sloping hill with a stream at the bottom. The enemy would have to ford the stream and move up the slope. The film, Spartacus, recreates this sort of scenario.
The legion was drawn up in three lines of battle, with the turmae and the velites placed as the situation required. The hastati in front and the principes behind were stationed in a line of maniples like chess pieces, 10 per line, separated from each other. The two centuries of a maniple fought side by side. The line of principes was offset so as to cover the gaps in the hastati, and the Triarii, somewhat more thinly spread, covered the principes.
Roman soldiers fought in long thin lines. Such open formations allowed the Romans, often outnumbered, to outflank an enemy using a deep formation. The last thing they wanted was to be crushed together and cut down without being able to use their weapons, as they had been so many times before, and as so many armies who never studied Roman warfare were to be later. Every man must by regulation be allowed one square yard in which to fight, and square yards were to be separated by gaps of three feet.
Now came the moment of battle. The turmae and the bands of velites (skirmishers) made forays opportunistically, trying to disrupt the ranks of the enemy or prevent them from crossing the stream (if there was one). While they were doing this the rest of the legion advanced. At a signal, the skirmishers retired through or around Roman ranks (there probably were trumpet calls, but we know little of them).
Picking up speed, the first and second ranks launched spears, the second rank over the heads of the first using light lanceae with launchers, the first rank at the last moment with pila, or javelins. On impact the heavy iron points drove through shields and armor both, pinning men together and disrupting the line. The hastati now drew gladii and closed. So great was the impact, we hear from Caesar, that sometimes the men would jump up on the enemy shields to cut downward.
What happened next depended on the success of the hastati. If they were victorious, they were joined by the principes, who merged into their line to fill the gaps and make up losses. The triarii moved to the flanks to envelop the enemy. If the hastati were not victorious, they merged backward into the principes. The third line remained in reserve unless the other two failed, in which case the front two merged into the third.
As Roman Legions were mostly composed of heavy infantry, they displayed the advantages and drawbacks of classical heavy infantry. It is notable that three of the biggest defeats (Battle of Carrhae, Battle of Teutoburg Forest, Battle of Ctesiphon) all came at the hands of light infantry/light cavalry forces.
Marian reforms edit
Problems in the military edit
By the end of the 2nd century BC the Republican army was experiencing a severe manpower shortage. Also, soldiers were having to serve for longer periods and fight wars further away from their homes.
Marius takes a hand edit
The Gracchi had attempted to resolve the former problem by redistributing public land to the lower classes, thereby increasing the number of men eligible for military service. They were assassinated before they could achieve this social reform. Rome instead followed the opposite but logical path of making any able-bodied citizen eligible to enlist.
The popular Gaius Marius at the end of the 2nd century used his popularity to reorganize the Republican army. He took liberties with the letter of the law, to which few objected, and which later were ratified. Firstly, he recruited men from the lower classes who did not meet the official property requirement. Then he reorganized the legions into the cohort system, doing away with the manipular system.
The new legions were made up of 10 cohorts, each with 6 centuries of 80 men. The first cohort carried the new legionary standard, a silver or gold eagle called the aquila. This cohort had only 5 centuries, but each century had double the men of normal centuries. All together, each legion contained approximately 4,800 men.
Professional army edit
The Marian reforms had great political fallout. Although the officer corps was still largely composed of Roman aristocrats, the rank-and-file troops were all lower-class men - serving in the legions became less and less of every citizen's traditional civic duty to Rome and more exclusively a means of rising in society. This trend was accelerated by Rome's wars of conquest which resulted in huge influxes of slaves. Freemen with or without land could not compete with free labor. Signing up with a legion allowed the possibility of loot and land enfranchisement.
The reforms also meant that legions were now (more or less) permanent formations, not just temporary armies deployed according to need (the Latin word 'legio' is actually their word for 'levy'). As enduring units, they were able to become more effective fighting forces; more importantly, they could form lasting loyalties to their commanders. The 1-year consular system began to break down and generals served for greater durations.
Evaluation edit
On the one hand the reforms of Marius created a professional army for extended service abroad. On the other it increased the stature of the generals and encouraged competition between them, which is what made the civil wars possible, and it is why scholars often cite the Marian Reforms as the beginning of the end for the Roman Republic. The subsequent emperors ruthlessly eliminated powerful men and potential successors.