Deviation Actions
Description
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THE MANIPULAR LEGION
Also known as the "Pre-Marian Legion", and the "Polybian Legion" (after the Greek historian Polybius, from whom comes much of our knowledge of the Roman military, political system, and, of course, the Punic Wars).
Prior to the Marian Reforms (circa 107-105 B.C.), which introduced standardized training and equipment for all soldiers, the legion operated quite differently. Roman legionaries were not professional full-time soldiers, but ordinary citizens drafted into service whenever the state was in need. As enlistees were required to provide their own weapons and equipment, and these varied greatly according to the enlistee’s personal wealth and social class, therefore the legion too was divided up along class lines.
The poorest citizens, those who could afford no armor and only a javelin or a sling, were assigned as the velites, or light skirmishers, of which there were 1,200 assigned to each legion. On the other end of the scale, the wealthiest citizens who could afford a horse and good armor served as equites, or “knights”, of which there were roughly 300 attached to the legion. Most of the men in between, those who formed the bulk of the legion’s numbers, were classed according to their experience into three groups:
The Hastati: the young, inexperienced, raw recruits (usually teenage-early 20s). They formed the first line of battle. There were 1,200 of them in the manipular legion, divided into 20 centuries of 60 each. They are named after the Roman heavy spear, the hasta, as they initially fought with hastae in phalanx formations, though after the Samnite Wars, the use of pila and swords became more common.
The Principes: men in the prime of their lives (late 20s-early 30s), with slightly more experience than the young guys. They formed the second line of battle. There were 1,200 of them in the manipular legion, divided into 20 centuries of 60 each. Like the Hastati, they are armed lightly, with pila and gladii.
The Triarii: the older, more experienced veterans who had seen action before, and were therefore the best fighters in the whole legion. They formed the third line of battle, and there were usually only 600 of them in the manipular legion, divided into 10 centuries of 60 each. They fought with the hasta, in a phalanx formation similar to Greek hoplites.
The Roman Legion operated in groups called manipuli, or “maniples”, which was a task force composed of either 2 centuries of hastati or principes, or a single century of triarii. Thus, a maniple was either 120 regular fighting men, or 60 hardened veterans. In principle, the triarii were just there as an elite reserve, ready to turn the tide of battle if the hastati and principes failed to defeat the enemy. Therefore, the Romans had an expression “it came to the triarii”, which meant that shit had really hit the fan!
Thus, the layout of the legion was as follows:
+1,200 Velites – form a massive screening force in front of the main body of the legion
+1,200 Hastati – 10 maniples of 2 centuriae (120 men) each
+1,200 Principes – 10 maniples of 2 centuriae (120 men) each
+600 Triarii – 10 maniples of 1 centuria (60 men) each
+300 Equites – 10 turmae of 30 horsemen each
=4,500 fighting men in total
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NOTES:
+Including command and support staff, each legion was probably closer to approx. 5,000 men in total. In addition, according to Polybius, the Republic would sometimes field larger-than-normal legions, like at the Battle of Cannae in 216 B.C. If and when this happened, the additional men would be distributed equally among the velites, the hastati, and the principes, but the number of triarii always remained at 600.
+As seen in the diagram, the manipular legion follows a quincunx or "checkerboard" pattern, for reasons that will be outlined in detail later. In short, however, the main purpose of leaving gaps was (1) to allow fresh reserves from the rear to march up and relieve the beleaguered frontline troops in battle; (2) to allow skirmishers and frontline troops to withdraw to the rear to regroup; and (3) to allow the legion to traverse rough terrain without breaking or disrupting formation too much (unlike the monolithically solid Greek phalanx formation).
+Standard practice was for the citizen legion to be accompanied onto the battlefield by an equivalent or greater number of allied forces, arranged into two wings (alae) on either side of the legion to guard its flanks. Any forces Rome was lacking in - such as cavalry, archers, or more expendable infantry - was provided by their allies (at least in theory).
+Prior to the Polybian legion, the Roman Army used classic Greek-style phalanxes that they had adopted from the Etruscans. The system of organization described above was itself copied by the Romans from the Samnites, with whom Rome had fought a number of bitter wars during the fourth century B.C.
+Bear in mind of course that before the Marian Reforms, the legion was only a temporary unit: the legion was formed at the start of hostilities, trained, sent off campaigning, and was then disbanded at the end of the campaign season so that the men could return home in time for the autumn harvest (usually). In this way, hundreds of individual legions were formed and disbanded over the course of Roman history. It wasn’t until the Punic Wars that legions became more semi-permanent units.
+For example, the 10,000 or so Romans who survived and escaped the disaster at Cannae were formed into two new legions, then sent packing off to Rome’s frontiers and forbidden from ever returning home until they had defeated Hannibal … which they finally did TEN years later! In addition, although the Second Punic War took a heavy toll on Rome's available reserves of manpower, the war nonetheless created enough experienced veteran troops that, instead of taking time after the war to rest and recover like any other nation would, the Roman Republic instead indulged in a massive campaign of aggressive imperial conquest overseas.