Thanks to her legions evolved the Roman Empire to a great and rich empire. Each Legion consisted of about 5500 infantry men, all of them were Roman citizen who joined voluntary - for 20 to 25 years - the Legion .The Legionnaires were disciplined and very good armed.There were 150.000 legionnaires in the 2nd century after C.
A typical Roman Legion was made up of roughly 5,500 men. A breakdown of the structure is as follows:
The basic battle formation of the Roman Legion was made up of three lines. The first two were heavy infantry; the third a mixture of cavalry and light and heavy infantry.
LIGHT INFANTRY employed missile weapons like bows and arrows, javelins and slings. On the attack, they protected heavier troops from torrents of enemy missiles by targeting their opponent's light infantry.
HEAVY INFANTRY carried implements like swords, daggers and pikes--intended more for shock value and close, hand-to-hand combat.
The basic CAVALRY soldier was almost always armed with a shield and stabbing spear, supplemented by a sword. The cavalry scouted ahead of the Roman infantry and filled a vital need by carrying messages quickly between units.
A lot of poor people choosed for a career in the army because they were certain to have a good standard of living and in the army they could learn different professions (mainly in the building/construction).People from the country were rewarded with the Roman nationality for them and their family.Legionnaires on pension received money or land.Talent could lead to a promotion to centurio. Thanks to the army there was peace and prosperity = pax romana or the Roman peace.
Pax romana : one government took care to have peace in all the countries surrounding the "Mare Nostrum".
Who introduced the pax romana?
Fill near the pictures the right name
Choose: helmet - plume (only for officers) - armour - woolly tunic - belt or cingulum - spear or pilum - sandals or caliga - Marius' hinny (named to the general who started with it ) - dagger/pugio - sword/gladius - shield.
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Roman helmets were made of iron or copper alloy (both bronze and brass are known).Soldiers often punched or scratched their names and those of their centurions onto their helmets as a mark of ownership.
The Roman soldier's breastplate (armour) protected his upper vital organs, particularly the lungs and heart.
The pilum was the standard polearm/spear weapon of the Roman legions. There were two varieties of the pilum: the heavy and the light pilum. The weapons were almost identical except for the thickness of their shafts and the handguard on the heavy pilum which was not present on the light pilum. The heavy pilum was used more like a polearm; while it could be thrown, it was used more for thrusting and only thrown when necessary. The light pilum was essentially a javelin and was designed to bend or break upon impact to prevent it being thrown back. A legionnaire also carried two heavy javelin Pilum which could punch through most shields but couldn't be thrown back since the shaft buckled upon impact.
The Pugio was the standard dagger carried by all Roman Legionaires. It was a very utilitarian weapon, as it was used for a variety of other tasks, other than war. But with its long blade, it was an excellent back-up weapon.
A short stabbing sword called a Gladius was the soldier's main weapon. The Gladius was developed to counter the barbarians of the north, who wielded massive swords. The idea was to corral the enemy into very close quarters. This accomplished, the long, heavy swords the barbarians used could not be brought to bear, as there was simply no room. However, the Romans, with the short bladed Gladius, had plenty of room and cut down the enemy. The Gladius saw widespread use in the Legions, and was the basic weapon right up until the death of the Empire, in 476. The Gladius was the perfect weapon for a Legionaire. Simple, strong, lightwieght, and agile, it could be wielded all day in battle.
The Roman shield was made up of different layers.
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