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Weaponry and Tactics of the Ancient Roman Legionaires
It was the loyalty to their generals and strict training that demonstrated the benefit of discipline for the Roman legionaries. Although training was intensive and obedience demanded more firmly, they created a better, well-rounded fighting machine for the Roman Empire. Proficiency that was almost unmatched made the individual legionaire deadly, but it was the devotion as a whole that made the entire legion formidable.
Weapons, both of offense and defense, adapted throughout the course of Roman dominance in the early western world. In this paper, I will be focusing primarily on those which existed from about the 1st century A.D. until the 3rd century A.D. Also, it is important to note that there were different divisions in the great army of ancient Rome and each one carried with it different sets and combinations of weapons as well as different tactics. There were city guards, bodyguards to generals and the emperor, auxiliaries, light infantry, legionaries and cavalry. Again, I will be directing my attention to one group in particular, the legionaries.
The first defensive weapon was the helmet (cassis). Closely resembling a bowl, the cassis, made of iron or bronze, mainly protected the skull. The main features of the helmet were a neck guard that defended blows to the neck, cheek pieces which protected the sides of the face and a brow guard to defend against downward blows to the face. Many helmets had fixtures at the apex which allowed for the attachment of crests or accoutrements like dyed horsehair. 2 Typically, such a display was reserved for centurions or other high-ranking officers.
There were three main types of armor that the Roman legionaire used: mail, scale and segmental. The most commonly depicted type being the segmental body armor (lorica segmentata). This type of armor provided shielding to the torso and some of the upper arms. It was as effective as the older Greek breastplate (hopla) yet provided a greater amount of mobility. Segmental armor was comprised of curved, iron bands that overlapped one another and were fastened together with leather straps. This style of armor closely resembled the plates of armor that make up the shell of an armadillo.
The legionaire’s initial weapon was his spear. The Roman army used quite a range of different spears, but the one employed by legionaries was called a pilum. The pilum resembled a javelin more than a spear; two-thirds of the lance was made of wood and the other third involved the metal tip and neck. “The tip was arrow-pointed and intentionally made of a softish metal, so that it bent rather than broke. It was a weapon of offense, when in charge it was hurled at short range - .”3 The fact that the pila usually “self-destructed” on impact was key to its purpose. It was as much of a shock weapon – [next page]