Military+&+Warfare

=Military and Wafare by Paul Sturgis-Bright Phill Zellar and Andrew Young= The Roman soldiers tended to be equipped with three main weapons.

The first weapon was the pilum. This was similar to a javelin today. The soldiers would throw it at the enemy as they ran at them. It was not for hand-to-hand fighting. The main use of the pilum was to confuse the defense of the enemy. They would be too concerned worrying about avoiding the incoming weapons to focus on what the soldiers were doing. By the time the enemy had realized what was happening, the Romans were upon them.

The next weapon was the gladius. The gladius was the main weapon for the Roman soldier. This was a sword which was kept extremely sharp. Anyone on the receiving end of a blow from a gladius would suffer severe injuries.

The last Weapon was a Pugio. The pugio was a dagger that the soldier would use if he had already thrown his pilum and lost his gladius.

The soldier carried a curved shield called a scutum. This gave the soldiers a lot protection because it curved around his body. It was also used as a tactic that was known as a tortoise formation to move forward to a target that was well defended. A "tortoise" was when the soldiers lifted the shields flat above their heads so that they interlocked and protected them from any projectiles thrown at them from above.



The Beginning of the Roman Army.

At the very beginning of the Roman army it was made up of just citizens who could afford the protection and weapons of an infantry man. The soldiers tended to be farmers in the beginning. This gave the army limitations because the crops came before the army; this meant that the army wasn't around during planting and harvesting seasons. This made the Roman army much weaker than the surrounding countries armies because the other countries had already created a paid army made up of professionals. This caused the Romans to upgrade their army. About 400 B.C. Rome started paying their soldiers. It was not enough to consider being a soldier a career, but it made it so the army and agriculture weren't connected so they could fight any where, any time. soldiers were recruited and had to be in the army until they were discharged. The Roman law stated that a soldier had to serve in at least 16 campaigns, but that rarely happened.



=Command set-up.=

The main unit of the army was the Maniple.

The maniples were split in two, and each run by a centurion.

All this made up a legion.

The legions were run by six elected military tribunes.

media type="youtube" key="5kUW3XKtdHU?rel=0" height="390" width="480"This is one of the many Roman tactics that intimidated the enemy while ensuring a lot of safety for the Roman soldiers.

=﻿Extra facts.= -Normally the winner of the battle was determined after just one clash. -At the peak of Romes militaryit had around 375,000 men in it. -After your time in the Roman military the government would give you land. -The pilum would bend after it impacted on somwething so the enemys could not throw them back at the Romans. -Serving in the military was considered to be one of the most sacred duties that a Roman citizen could do.