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Romans used a phalanx for their third military line, the triarii. These were veteran reserve troops armed with the hastae or spear. [26] Rome conquered most of the Hellenistic successor states, along with the various Greek city-states and leagues. As these states ceased to exist, so did the armies which used the traditional phalanx ...
The rugged terrain of Samnium, where the war was fought, was not conducive to the phalanx formation which the Romans had inherited from the Etruscans and Ancient Greeks. The main battle troops of the Etruscans and Latins of this period comprised Greek-style hoplite phalanxes, inherited from the original Greek phalanx military unit.
Roman military tactics evolved from the type of a small tribal host-seeking local hegemony to massive operations encompassing a world empire. This advance was affected by changing trends in Roman political, social, and economic life, and that of the larger Mediterranean world, but it was also under-girded by a distinctive "Roman way" of war.
Roman re-enactors demonstrate a variant of the Roman testudo formation. In the military of ancient Rome, heavy infantry made up most of the Roman army. The heavy infantry of the pre-Marian Roman Republic included the hastati, principes, and triarii (although depending how the hastati were armed and armored, they could also be considered light ...
They served as heavy infantry in the early Roman army, and were used at the front of a very large phalanx formation. After a time, engagements with the Samnites and Gauls appear to have taught the Romans the importance of flexibility and the inadequacy of the phalanx on the rough, hilly ground of central Italy. [4] [5]
The wedge is still used in modern armies, especially by tanks and other armored units. An example of this is the Panzerkeil or "armored wedge" used by the German Wehrmacht in World War II. The hollow wedge formation remains one of the basic infantry formations at the squad and section level, especially when crossing open ground.
The Macedonian phalanx (Greek: Μακεδονική φάλαγξ) was an infantry formation developed by Philip II from the classical Greek phalanx, of which the main innovation was the use of the sarissa, a 6-metre pike. It was famously commanded by Philip's son Alexander the Great during his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire between 334 and ...
At the Great Plains, Scipio, the Roman general, formed his men up in the usual manner, but once the hastati had begun to engage the enemy, he used his principes and triarii as a flanking force, routing the opposing Carthaginian troops. [12] [13] At Zama, Scipio arranged his men into columns, side by side, with large lanes in between.