Roman Army

The Roman Army was active for a long time but withstood countless wars and many changes to the organization throughout the years.

The Roman armed forces of Rome, were active for approximately 2205 years during which the Roman armed forces underwent numerous permutations in composition, organisation, equipment and tactics while conserving a core of lasting traditions. The time periods that this army was active can be split into 3 main periods which are the Early Roman army, the Roman army of the mid-Republic and the Imperial Roman army.

The early Roman army was the armed forces of the Roman kingdom and the Roman Republic in this period were warfare chiefly considered small scale, it was suggested that the Roman army followed Etruscan or Greek in models of weapons and organization. 7 army but a series of clan-based armies which combined together for major foreign threats. This early Roman army consisted of adult male citizens taken from a compulsory levy during times of war.

The Roman army of the mid-Republic was also known as the "manipular army" or the "Polybian army" after the Greek historian Polybius. They started having full-time strength of 150,000 at all times. During the time they used the levy system adopted the Samnite manipular organisation for their legions and also bound all the other peninsular Italian states into a permanent military alliance. The letter required to supply roughly the same number of troops to joint forces as the Romans to serve under Roman command. After the Second Punic War (218–201 BC) they acquired an overseas empire meaning standing Force us to fight a lengthy war of conquest and to garrison the newly gained provinces. The minimum property requirement for service in the legions, which had been suspended during the Second Punic War, was effectively ignored from 201 BC onward in order to recruit sufficient Participants.

The founding emperor, Augustus, had 5000 strong heavy infantry formations compiled of only Roman soldiers. This number varied from time to time. By the end of the rule of this emperor, the army had 250,000 men and peaked at around 450,000 soldiers. These soldiers only spent a little time on the campaign and were usually on routine military duties like training, patrolling and maintaining equipment. They also played an important role in civil infrastructure (building roads, ports, public buildings and cities) and constructed forts and fortified defences.

In conclusion, the Roman Army was active for a long time but withstood countless wars and many changes to the organization throughout the years.

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Author biography

Ibrahim Maadh Sajid was born and currently live in Male', the capital of the Maldives. He is a very good swimmer and practises swimming almost every day. He also loves flying drones and taking pictures. He captures time lapses of the sunset and pictures of unique places. Below is also a picture he captured!

Cite this article as:
Ibrahim Maadh Sajid, Roman Army, theCircle Composition, Volume 1, (2021). https://thecirclecomposition.org/roman-army/