The Main Features Of Military In The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was one of the biggest and strongest civilization at the first age. They applied extensive political and that’s why, their effects are apparent still at these times. According to historian scientists the Roman empire categorized in two ways as Principatus and Dominatus. Principatus starts with the emperor Augustus and finishes with third emperor crisis, Dominatus finishes with the fall of West Roman Empire. The think that growth this civilization as an Empire was their military. They applied extensive political and it requires a huge amount of units and force. Roman Empire’s military was definitely special with its tactical and technological improvements, one of the significant result of these improvements is spreading quickly than other civilizations and it makes Roman Empire the strongest one in first age. The features that make Roman military special are tactics and formations, variety of weapons and social life of soldiers.
A soldiers objective was live during war, independed on the result of it. When determining the outcome of wars, the Roman Imperial Army was one of the first fighting forces to understand the immense impact of morality and mental strength, and its methods reflect this realization. The military was an organization that was perfect organized. A specific rank structure and a number of different branches of the basic unit, the legion, existed. Around thirty legions were there. The armies were counted, but the figures tended to repeated. There were five legions numbered III at one point. If a legion was killed, its number could not be repeated, such as the XVII, XVIII, and XIX massacre. There were about 5500 people in each legion. The legion was divided into ten cohorts. There were 480 soldiers in nine of the cohorts. The cohorts were divided into six groups, each with approximately 80 men. Each century was managing by a centurion. There were like 800 men and also five centuries in the first cohort, some of them had special missions as builder. The whole basis of Roman strategy of infantry was the belief that one could fight more efficiently by keeping troops in order. Many of the day's military commanders actually rushed their troops desperately against the enemy, depending on higher numbers or stronger men. The Romans noticed they were not always able to count on them, so they turned to strategy.
The variety of weapons also plays a significant role in Roman Military. One this weapons is The Gladius (sword), its used for short range war and belong Spain. The scabbard of this sword was making with Tin and wood and the blade part was not too long, it was almost 50cm. The name of this modern swords were also the Gladius. There were parallel sides and a shorter point on these modern blades. Weight of this swords was another advantage.
They were like 1 kilogram and their weight were in suitable weight. When you apply high force with this blade, it can easily kill the enemy. In addition the Pilum was also a dangerous spear that used by Roman military. If the swords were not enough, the soldiers rely on the Pilum. It was almost 2 meter long. Similarly, the other type of the pilum were installed in the first century, but the thick pila was much smaller, weighing around 2 kg. This weapon can be used for throwing or hand to hand combat and its more effective against to enemy with sword.
Armor plays a significant role for a soldier. Armor technologhy has changed, but the concept of shielding the wearer during combat remains the same. Although modern armor focuses primarily on bullet defense, Rome's armor was designed primarily to protect against bullets like spears or javelins, missiles, knives, or daggers. Scutum is the famous shield of Roman Military. Many materials could be using for producing it. Most common size was rectangular but also curve sided style was using. There is another artillary named “Ballista”. The history of ballista is older than Roman Empire. It comes from ancient Greek. A rock or bolt was throwing with this ballista and sometimes fire has used. Over the years, the size has growth, it become lighter and the using material has changed as metal, instead of wood. There was also a basic machine that named “the Onager”. The foundation and the resistance against which the firing arm was shattered were created by two pieces, one horizontal and one vertical. This pulled down the shooting arm to the bottom.
Furthermore, height is benecifial in warfare and it was a portable source of siege towers. The Romans were masters of these technological breakthroughs, which date back to the 9th century BC at least. Most Roman siege towers were used to enable men on the ground to work to break the fortifications while covering fire and protection from above, rather than sending soldiers to the tops of city walls. Height was the most important point for towers of siege. If the height was not enough, they builded ramps or mound. The most famous sieges in BC 73-74 can be visit at the site of Masada. When the Legions have to go for far away. They was walking and was finding some suitable places for resting. They were building their camp area and the area was usually square or rectangular. The camps are essential part of Roman Military. It immediately gave the camp high ground against any threat of siege.
Constructing these tents often takes an hour, however it is indispansable by resting. If the camps will stay long time, setting up time has been longer and camps were setting up more carefully and strong. If there is a chance to victory, the Roman Military never give up.
During the siege attacks on enemy forts and castles, it has shown clear. There were special plans commissioned by Rome to encourage these long battles and sieges to be undertaken in constructing a fort to defend troops and give them something to fall back on. Such war forts were designed for fighting themselves. Such forts were built on the general model of the square or rectangle, so they would be designed in the sides towers at each corner and at defensive points. Such forts were often large enough to hold a whole army and some were only large enough to hold a few hundreds but the forts gave to Roma a chance of conquer the world. In addition to Roman great army, they had great Naval force. Importing a material was costing a lot, as a solution of this problem they used ships. Such ships provided cover and a safe place for heavy artillery to be anchored.
Using ships was widespread after they get Carthage. These ship forts were a significant advantage that Rome offered itself when it invaded the Empire's far reaches.
One of the important part is social life of soldiers. Firstly marriage was forbidden after Claudis it is promoted but not accepted. Normally the unit to which the soldier was attached valued these relationships, but not the Roman government. Nevertheless, a soldier's sons would often join the legion of their father, and thus the armies of the legion were replenished with their own men's offspring. This is very advantageous because, because of his informal parenting, he gave his son Roman citizenship, which would otherwise be rejected. Food supply was one of the biggest issues of maintaining a large standing army. There was no exception to the Roman army. Each soldier ate about one-third of a ton of grain a year. It is estimated that only UK soldiers eat more than 33.5 tonnes of grain per day. A soldier always walked with at least a good supply of bacon, hard skillet biscuits and sour wine. An army was often accompanied by a herd of cattle, a lively food source. While the military was in a long term battle as the blockade of Caesars against Gaul, the sources run out rapidly. The army was taking foods from someone else. Contributions from friends anf family members were another source of food in the army. Several letters on this subject and the question of payment concerning it have been retrieved. Essentially, this is where much of the soldier's diet information comes from. Also, the only way to be a citizen is become a soldiers or soldiers child. May the citizens be fired with three ways. They are ignominiosa that means bad discipline, causaria means fired because of health issues and honesta that means completing the service. Honesta people was taking a part of land and an amount of money, named denarii. This is a kind of retirement. The amount of money was enough to live for the rest of life of him. An important part of the Roman economy was the Roman military. They extended the territory of the Empire, enabling the economy to expand, defending trade routes, and consuming large quantities of food and metals. The soldiers also received Daily infusions of monetary supplements that were paid by the government. Unfortunately the thing that we know about salaries are limited, according to historians the salaries were great for a member of working class. Officers were taking more money than soldiers however, the soldiers could support their budget with some gifts from government or from trophies.
To sum up, Roman Empire had a really strong military at the first age, as technological tactical and amount of soldiers. They were using special formations and tactics according to enemies position. Furthermore, one of the reason that makes Roman Empire stronger was their tools and battle machines. They were using gladius and Pilum as a sword and spear. Their artillery and siege towers were usefull. When they were going a long way, they were building camps. In addition, they had war forts and naval forts. As a feature of the soldiers, they could not marry. It was legally forbidden in a short time. The soldiers consume a huge amount of food. The government had to supply this amount. Sometimes they were providing it from the cities that they passed through. Everyone could not get citizenship. The person had to be a soldier or soldiers son. After retired the soldiers were getting an amount of money and there is not exact information about the amount of money. According to resources, it was enough to the rest of their life.
