The Roman army

The history of the Roman army During the first 5 centuries, the Roman Empire had no army. That is: the empire had no standing army (an army that is permanently established at a tactical place). When the authorities in Rome thought it was necessary to take military action, they called up the citizens who had subscribed to a list. When these citizens were called up, they took their own armour with them and formed a temporary army. At the end of such a campaign the 'part-time soldiers got a reward: some money or a patch of ground. In these centuries, when there was no real army, the Roman Empire very often used allies. When the Roman Empire became bigger and bigger, and the military actions took place further from Rome and Italy, the people weren't satisfied with the citizen-army anymore. About 100 B.C. the Roman general and consul Gaius Marius had made a regular army out of the Citizen-army. Because the army was regular now, it became much better and stronger, because the soldiers were better trained and armed. A disadvantage of such a regular army was, that it could be used as a personal political means of power. A good example of this is Julius Ceasar. More about him in the chapter Emperors.
When Augustus became the first emperor of the Roman Empire, he started to demarcate he frontiers of the Empire. Before the reign of Augustus, the Roman Empire was a hegemonic empire, which means an empire with zones of decreasing influence around the center of Rome and Italy. Apart from that, Augustus conquered big territories in
the middle of Europe, and he also tried to conquer northern Europe, but he made no progress there. When Varus was defeated with his legions at the Teutoburgerwald (9 A.D.), the Roman Empire began to demarcate frontiers very clearly around the territory where the empire was in control. Augustus kept peace inside the frontiers of his empire. That peace was named after him: Pax Augusta. Along the northern frontier of the empire (on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube) a lot of forts were build in order to bring enough pressure on the barbarians outside the empire. In this way the Roman army became a standing army, which was unparalleled for those centuries.

The organisation of the Roman empire The Roman army consisted of two parts: the legions and the auxiliaries. The Roman Empire had about 28 legions, each containing 4800 men infantry. Besides, every legion had a lot of other people engaged: bakers, trumpeters, doctors id. Auxiliaries often consisted of horsemen, archers and slingers. When a couple of legions started a big campaign, the auxiliaries were brought in too. The Legion A legion consisted of a few parts. In sequence from small to large: Contubernium Centuria Cohort Legion Here follows an explanation of de subdivisions of a legion:
Contubernium A contubernium consisted of eight legionarii (pl. of legionarius, soldier). The eight men of a contubernium shared a tent in a camp together. Such a tent wasn't very spacious: about 4 by 3 meters, with a tiny front room. Each contubernium had a mule, to carry the heavy stuff when the army was marching.
Centuria 10 contubernia formed a centuria (80 men) together. Every centuria had his own fieldsigncarrier, a signifer. The leader of such a centuria was the centurio. When you were a good soldier, you could become, via the rank of optio (assistent of a centurio), a centurio. When you were centurio, you were the leader of a low ranked centuria. Sons of senators and other rich persons in Rome became the commander of the high ranked centuria. They became this because they needed military experience for a good political career. The centurio of the highest centuria (the first centuria of the first cohort) was the primipilus. A skilled centurio had also a good chance to become commander of a camp (prefects castrorum). Cohort 6 centuriae formed a cohort of 480 men together. Actually, a cohort was no more then a size, it had no leader or whatever Legioen 10 cohorts were a legion together (4800 men). The leader of a legion was the legatus. Very often, he was helped by 5 or 6 tribuni, lads who needed military experience for their career. A legion had more than 4800 infantry: it had the disposal of about 60 catapultae en ballistae. A catapulta shot arrows, and a ballista shot rocks. A legion had also the disposal of a lot of doctors, trumpeters, bakers, executioners, veterinary surgeons, novelist, writers, carpenters and blacksmiths. The legion could provide for itself like this. Altogether a legion counts about 5500 to 6000 men.

Auxiliaries Auxiliaries (auxilia) were always much more varied than the legions. An auxiliary often consisted of horsemen, archers and slingers. Auxiliaries were used for 2 things: helping legions and, most of all, defending the frontiers. The soldiers of these auxiliaries, called auxiliarii, were never Romans. They were always employed far away from their birthplace, for understandable reasons. For example, we know from the information found on tomb-stones, that horsemen from northern Africa were employed near the Rhine. The auxilliarii had a status much lower than the legionarii from the legions, and they got only 1/3 of the pay of the legionarii. An auxilirarius served 25 years, and after that he got the Roman civil rights for himself and his kids. The sons of an ex-auxiliarius almost always served the Roman army as a legionarius. When an auxiliarius got the civil rights, he got the name of the reigning emperor. A Roman fort or army camp (castra) The Roman army wasn't always on the way. At strategical places they built camps, and sometimes even forts. Army camps and forts were always build according to the same model (see image). A camp or fort was rectangular, and surrounded by a broad ditch. When the army built a camp, they threw up an earthen rampart with the earth from the ditch. Upon that ditch the soldiers built a stockade of wooden poles. A fort had a ditch too, but instead of the earth wall the Romans built a heavy wall of stones, complete with watchtowers. Four gates were the entrances to the fort or army camp. From gate to gate 2 main streets crossed the camp or fort: the Via Principalis (Mainstreet) and the Via Praetoria (Street along the preaetorium). The gates on the left and right side of the fort or camp were called after the Via Principalis, with the extension dextra (right) and sinistra (left). The praetorium (headquarters) was in the centre of the camp, the tents or houses of the leadership were there too, as well as the isolation hospital. The sheds or tents of the contubernia were placed around the centre of the camp. Every camp had also a small prison (carcer), it was located near the Porta Principalis sinistra.

The life of a Roman soldier.
A lad who wanted to serve in the Roman army as a legionarius, became a tiro, soldier in training, when he was about 17-18 years old. After he was trained for legionarius he was put in a centuria. When the legionarius was trying to do the best he could do, and he had talent, he could become an optio. When the optio was good and had succes, and a centurio died or resigned, the optio could be promoted to the rank of centurio. When the centurio was very good, and was respectedhe could even be promoted to primipilus. A normal soldier couldn't reach any higher rank then that. It wasn't easy to make such a career, and it almost never succeeded. So the most soldiers became after their 22 years of serving a veteranus, veteran. He was about 45 years old then.
A Roman soldier was always dressed the same: the tunica served as underwear and over the tunica he had an hauberk. As foot-wear a Roman soldier had a pare of sandals with some iron spikes on the sole so he wouldn't slither. On his head he had a bronze helmet, and the higher people like commanders had a feather of horsehair on it. Such a soldier had 3 weapons: a sword, a spear and a schutchion. Characteristic for the Roman schutchions was the big knob on the front of it. The soldiers had a hard job to do when the legion was marching: the marchings were quite long, about 40 kilomitres a day, and every soldier carried a stake for the palisade of the camp, and rucksack with provisions for about 3 days, pans and his weapons.