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By the size of the Roman army is meant the changes (increases and reductions) in the number of its contingents: legions, auxiliaries, Praetorian cohorts, Urban cohorts, vigiles, and naval forces over the course of twelve centuries – from 753 BC to AD 476 (the Fall of the Western Roman Empire).
The Roman army (Latin: exercitus Romanus) served ancient Rome and the Roman people, ... The size of the 4th-century army is controversial. More dated scholars (e.g. ...
Roman-military-size-plot. The first global estimate for the size of the imperial army in the ancient sources is in the Annales of Tacitus. In AD 23, shortly after the end of the rule of Augustus, there were 25 legions (about 125,000 men) and "roughly the same number again of auxiliaries" in about 250 regiments.
The Roman legion (Latin: legiō, Latin: [ˈɫɛɡioː]), the largest military unit of the Roman army, was composed of Roman citizens serving as legionaries.During the Roman Republic the manipular legion comprised 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry.
During the period 395–476, the army of the Roman Empire's western half progressively disintegrated, while its counterpart in the East, known as the East Roman army (or the early Byzantine army) remained largely intact in size and structure until the reign of Justinian I (r. AD 527–565).
A cohort (from the Latin cohors, pl.: cohortes; see wikt:cohors for full inflection table) was a standard tactical military unit of a Roman legion. Although the standard size changed with time and situation, it was generally composed of 480 soldiers. [1] A cohort is considered to be the equivalent of a modern military battalion.
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]
As the extent of the territories falling under Roman control expanded and the size of the forces increased, the soldiery gradually became salaried professionals. As a consequence, military service at the lower (non-salaried) levels became progressively longer-term. Roman military units of the period were largely homogeneous and highly regulated.