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In a Roman province with only one legion, the legatus was also the provincial governor. In such circumstances, the legatus was dual-hatted as both legionary legate and imperial legate. The legionary legate also served as commander of the auxiliary units attached to the legion, though they were not formally a part of the legion's command structure.
The barbarisation of the lower ranks was paralleled by a concurrent barbarisation of its command structure, with the Roman senators who had traditionally provided its commanders becoming entirely excluded from the army. By 235 AD the Emperor himself, the figurehead of the entire military, was a man born outside of Italy to non-Italian parents. [98]
By 250 BC, there would be four Legions, two commanded by each Consul: two Roman legions which would be accompanied by an additional two allied Legions of similar strength and structure. For every Roman Legion there would be an allied Legion. Turma – A unit of cavalry in the pre-Marian army, which usually consisted of 32 horsemen.
Nero, Sestertius with countermark "X" of Legio X Gemina. Obv: Laureate bust right. Rev: Nero riding horse right, holding spear, DECVRSIO in exergue; S C across fields. This is a list of Roman legions, including key facts about each legion, primarily focusing on the Principate (early Empire, 27 BC – 284 AD) legions, for which there exists substantial literary, epigraphic and archaeological ...
A diagram of a late 1st-century AD Roman legion. The dual-structure configuration of legions/auxilia established by Augustus remained essentially intact until the late 3rd century, with only minor modifications made during that long period. The senior officers of the army were, until the 3rd century, mainly from the Italian aristocracy.
Ten cohorts of 480 legionaries would comprise a legion. [9] Like the ranks of the centurions, cohorts would also follow a pattern of seniority; a legion's tenth cohort was its most junior, while the first cohort was the most prestigious, with its ranks filled with either veteran troops, or the best recruits.
The role and structure of the military were then altered during the empire. It became less Roman, the duties of border protection and territorial administration being more and more taken by foreign mercenaries officered by Romans. When they divided at last into warring factions the empire fell, unable to keep out invading armies.
This structure was probably introduced in c. 300 BC during the Samnite Wars. Also probably dating from this period was the regular accompaniment of each legion by a non-citizen formation of roughly equal size, the ala, recruited from Rome's Italian allies, or socii. The latter were approximately 150 autonomous states which were bound by a ...