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Weaponry and Tactics of the Ancient Roman Legionaires
– able to pierce shields and body armor – as it was a deterring force. Once lodged in an enemy’s shield, the pilum rendered it awkward or unusable and often resulted, beneficially, in the shield being discarded.
Just as the citizens of the expanding Roman empire consisted of new peoples of different cultures – who had been conquered and assimilated into Roman society – so did the weaponry of the army of Rome consist of designs from newly conquered lands.2 The Romans came to adopt a long, pointed sword called the gladius (Proper name, gladius Hispaniensis - meaning ‘Spanish-sword’). This type of sword was a close-quarters weapon, meant for jabbing and piercing more so than swinging and hacking.
Roman shields (scuta pl.) depended on multiple layers glued together for their strength. Usually, two or three layers of plywood were framed by a metal binding, some type of iron or copper alloy, and finalized by a layer of leather. These large, rectangular shields were semi cylindrical in shape and large enough to reach from the chin to the knees, protecting half of the body. Legionaries would use their scutum in cooperation with their gladius in a repeating push-stab-push-stab combination.2 This increased mobility on the battlefield would be central in the tactics of the Roman legionaries.
As previously mentioned, legions were split up into squads whose weaponry dictated their purpose, whether it be to soften up the opponent, fiercely engage the enemy or finish off the remaining adversaries. A couple of such groups included ballistic force, use of large-scale missile projectors that were able to break up large chunks of the opposition while they were still at a distance, and cavalry, superior and intimidating troops who served to flank and/or finish off remaining enemies.
The most notable of these tactics was the Roman battle system of their foot soldiers in the legion. Men were divided in a number of basic, tactical units called maniples. A typical legion was “divided into three successive lines of ten maniples, each maniple separated from its like counterpart by about the width of its own formation.” 4 The result was a checkerboard arrangement among the three different lines of soldiers. This composition allowed men openings in the following lines for them to fall back through and recuperate while the next line continued the fight. If it so happened that the initial line were to fight again, their strength would be notably restored and the process could repeat itself until the enemy was defeated. “Exceptionally well drilled and trained, the legion was controlled with discipline and organisation that enabled it to manoeuver smoothly on the battlefield and to keep up a constant replacement of the men actually in the fighting line.”1 The discipline and proficiency of this system, along with adaptability to suit the enemy, was what gave the Rome the edge in [next page]