Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
Triumph – a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly honour the military commander of a notably successful foreign war or campaign and to display the glories of Roman victory. Ovation – a less-honored form of the Roman triumph. Ovations were granted when war was not declared between enemies on the level of states ...
The military of ancient Rome was one of largest pre-modern professional standing armies that ever existed. At its height, protecting over 7,000 kilometers of border and consisting of over 400,000 legionaries and auxiliaries , the army was the most important institution in the Roman world.
The term late Roman army is often used to include the East Roman army. The army of the Principate underwent a significant transformation, as a result of the chaotic 3rd century . Unlike the Principate army, the army of the 4th century was heavily dependent on conscription and its soldiers were more poorly remunerated than in the 2nd century.
As Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in World War II, wrote, "Every ground commander seeks the battle of annihilation; so far as conditions permit, he tries to duplicate in modern war the classic example of Cannae". [106] "Cannae" has become a byword for military success, and the battle is studied in ...
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 ...
A large number of films made after World War II made the Roman salute a visual stereotype of a proto-fascist ancient Roman society. [121] In the 1951 film Quo Vadis, Nero's repeated use of the salute at mass rallies explicitly presents the Roman Empire as a fascist military state. [122]
The contubernium (Latin for 'tenting-together') was the smallest organized unit of soldiers in the Roman Army and was composed of ten legionaries, [1] essentially the equivalent of a modern squad, although unlike modern squads contubernia seemed to serve no tactical role in battle.