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The central feature of the Roman army of the mid-Republic, or the Polybian army, was the manipular organization of its battle-line. Instead of a single, large mass (the phalanx ) as in the Early Roman army , the Romans now drew up in three lines consisting of small units (maniples) of 120 men, arrayed in chessboard fashion, giving much greater ...
Historian Edward Gibbon estimated that the size of the Roman army "most probably formed a standing force of three hundred and seventy-five thousand men" [3] at the empire's territorial peak in the time of the Roman emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138). This estimate probably included only legionary and auxiliary troops of the Roman army. [3]
Following is a list of topics on the military history of ancient Rome. Structural history of the Roman military; The branches of the Roman military at the highest level were the Roman army and the Roman navy. Within these branches the actual structure was subject to substantial change throughout its history. Campaign history of the Roman military
The core of the campaign history of the Roman military is an aggregate of different accounts of the Roman military's land battles, from its initial defense against and subsequent conquest of the city's hilltop neighbors on the Italian peninsula, to the ultimate struggle of the Western Roman Empire for its existence against invading Huns ...
[1] At the highest level of structure, the forces were split into the Roman army and the Roman navy, although these two branches were less distinct than in many modern national defense forces. Within the top levels of both army and navy, structural changes occurred as a result of both positive military reform and organic structural evolution.
This was a momentous event, and was unforeseen by Marius, as no Roman army had ever marched upon Rome (it was forbidden by law and ancient tradition). Marius fled with no great loss of life and Sulla later disbanded his legions and re-established consular government, but the military had been shown to be able to be used as a political tool of ...
Decimation. Etching by William Hogarth in Beaver's Roman Military Punishments (1725). In the military of ancient Rome, decimation (from Latin decimatio 'removal of a tenth' [1]) was a form of military discipline in which every tenth man in a group was executed by members of his cohort.
The second most important literary source is Ab urbe condita, a massive history of Rome published in c. AD 20, by the Augustan-era Roman historian Livy, whose surviving books XXI–XLV cover the years 218–168 BC. Although a narrative history lacking a specific analysis of the army as in Polybius, Livy's work contains much incidental ...