Greek and Roman military traditions

This lesson will provide an introduction to the military terminology utilized in Ancient Greece and Rome. It will also include practical examples and scenarios, enabling you to be prepared in the event of encountering an ancient Roman or Greek battlefield.

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The Greek Warfare

Although the Greeks are known for being the cradle of western civilization, they also innovated greatly in the subject of warfare. They created the phalanx formation, which was adapted to the Macedonian Phalanx, which Alexander the Great used to conquer the previously superior Persian Empire.

The Hoplite Phalanx

The classical phalanx formation is composed of usually 8 ranks of varying numbers of men, some phalanxes were even deeper - up to 50 ranks in an exceptional battle. The phalanx formation was designed the following way: the soldiers were held closely together, each holding the shield before him and slightly to the left. The result was a heavy juggernaut, a mass of tightly packed soldiers all marching, totally shielded from their opponents by both their shields and their fellow soldiers shields. Each were equipped with long spears protruding 2–7 yards before them. In addition, not only the first line projected its spears forward, but the next ones as well, each in a slightly bigger angle which made the formation even more formidable. And yet, there were two great disadvantages, first; such a formation could crush anything that it met with straight ahead of it, but not anything that attacked it from the flank, or rear. When they marched on an unstable terrain, the close formation exercised during battle and the cumbersome spears that made it practically impossible to change the direction the formation faced, even if one soldier lost his footing on a stone the whole formation would be out of order and most likely fail. The second disadvantage was that the Greek city-states who used the phalanx loved to fight between themselves, so in almost all cases, the phalanx might be fearsome, but the enemy had the exact same ideas as well as training.

The Roman Warfare

The Roman Empire grew from a village in rural Italy to one of the greatest empires. They grew for many reasons. One such reason is; their military. And this will be examined in the coming sections. Remember though - the Gauls sacked Rome in 400 BC, and so we have no preliminary sources for anything before that time, which is the Roman kingdom and the early Roman, and even so the earliest reliable preliminary source is Titus Livius II - who was born in 59 BC.

The Pre-Marian Legion

After the sack of Rome by the Gauls, who was preceeded by a distarous defeat of the entire Roman army against the Gauls in Allia, led to the creation of the pre-Marian legion, a legion composed of three lines of solieirs with varying quality and of support troops, called a manciple. The maniple was lied out in a checkerboard formation designed to easily traverse the hilly landscape of Samnia.

The Marian reforms

Gaius Marius was a Roman statesman in the 1st century BC, he was the one who as a consul (there were two consuls, each elected for a term of a year who were the highest authority in Rome)totally changed the face of the Roman army - before him, a soldier had to own property, be of a high class and supply his own weapons and armor, only to qualify for a soldier. Marius allowed the landless masses to become soldeirs, and as this option offered them a permanent pay and a modest living, many joined the army. In addition and in accordance to this, he eliminated the previous system of a three line battalion. He instituted ten cohorts composing each legion with additional noncombatant troops, each cohort was composed of six centuries of 80 men each, with each century being a unit in itself, with its own supplies and arms. Each century was further divided into eight units of contubernia who's only function was that each contubernia slept in the same tent. The first line in the Marian legion was made up of Hastati. Hastati were the youngest men in the army and therefore having the most stamina, which was perfect for a front line. Hastati carried two throwing spears or Hasta, a Gladius, a dagger, and a heavy shield or Scutum. The second line in the Marian legion was made of Principes. Principes were essentially Hastati, except they were the veterans of the battlefield. The third line in the Marian legion consisted of Triarii. Triarii were the closest Rome would come to a Phalanx. Triarii carried long spears, used effectively against all enemy units. The fourth line in the Marian legion was made up of Velites. Velites carried many small throwing spears and would rain volleys of spears down on the enemy. The last line of Marius' legion was the cavalry. They were called Equites because of Romulus' original army. In Romulus' time, Equite was the name for the richest people in Rome. Only the rich could afford horses because back then, everyone had to buy their own weapons and armor.

The Quality of the Roman Legion

The Qualities of the pre-Marian Roman Legion

The early Roman army was composed entirely of citizens, some without any experience and almost no equipment, and some soldiers with the best equipment in Rome and years and years of fighting behind them. The citizens were organized at first into six tribunes who served under the general, usually the king. Most soldiers were javelin-throwers, others were archers. The legionaries were arranged into three lines, with the addition of cavalry companies (equites, coming from the Latin word for horse - Equus) and velites - light troops who were used to skirmish the enemy and screen the main line. The three main lines of the legion were (from youngest to most experienced)- Hastati, principes and Triarii. The Hastati would be the first line, advancing after the velites attached to them harassed the enemy and retreated, they would engage the enemy and if they failed to break it they would retreat behind the principes line who would then advance on the enemy, if it failed the triarii would advance forward, as the last resort. Behind the triarii the rorarii and accensi stood, the poorest troops, armed only with slings who were used in a support role mainly and probably either never saw battle or were used as one-time cannon fodder. The most obvious question about this tactic is - “why should the Legate use his greatest resource, the trairii, only as the last resort and not as the first line?” the answer is: the triarii, if used, would face an enemy which no matter how superior it was has by now faced two waves of javlines, two waves of charging sufficiently armed soldiers, one of which is experienced, and constantly being flanked by units of cavalry, any force would then fall to a veteran force using the best equipment Rome had to offer. Second, if the trairii would always fight as the first line, then the other soldeirs would never become experienced enough to be the next generation of the trairii.

The Post-Marian Legion

There were many changes in the post-Marian Legion. Here are a few:

• The military is now comprised of professional soldiers training every day and building camps at night.

• The infantry classes now have similar equipment with equal quality.

• The infantry is trained to fight in formations and not as individual fighters.

• The Romans feared the forest as the Romans needed time to deploy into formations and a sudden attack on the Romans could potentiality lead to a massacre.

• They were very vulnerable on the march and so relied on allied cavalry to scout the surroundings and spies to get knowledge of the villages in the surroundings on the public opinion of the Romans.

• Auxiliary troops archers slingers light infantry cavalry would come from non Romans from people that specialized in other traditions than the roman infantry core, this made the roman war machine extremely formidable as it had almost no weakness.

• The Romans knew how to siege cities, they had taken artillery pieces and improved them and improved their tactics.

• One key character of the Romans had been that they didn't care about casualties as long as they won the war.