Author | Cold Research Author Team - Le Xiaoyu
Word count: 2717, Reading time: about 5 minutes
Editor's note: When people think of ancient Europe, they always think of the powerful and long Roman Empire. Rome rode through Europe with its mighty legions and established an immortal cause. But there were not too many people who paid attention to the civil military system that supported the Roman legions behind them. So in this article, we will try to uncover the mysteries of the Roman civil military system.
A country's military system is often closely related to its social system. During the time of the Roman Republic, there was a very special history.
In 509 BC, the Romans expelled the king and established the Roman Republic, but the internal contradictions of Rome were never resolved. Even though it is called "republic", the country is still controlled by the nobility, and the shortage of grain and the prevalence of debt slavery among the commoners have always been oppressed and exploited by the nobility. In 495 BC, Rome was invaded by the Volcians and was in urgent need of soldiers, but how could the Roman civilians, who had been exploited in ordinary days, be willing to contribute?
At this moment, they resolutely launched an evacuation campaign, moving from Rome to the "Holy Mountain" and refusing to serve. It can be said that the civilians of ancient Rome were actually seeking their legitimate rights and interests from the state through "military service". In three successive protests, the Roman aristocracy had to compromise with the commoners and introduced the Twelve Bronze Watches Law, which also gave up some of its benefits, and the conscription was able to continue.
▲The Ancient Roman Code of the Twelve Bronze Tables
Resentment among the Roman populace was a natural thing. According to the Laws of Guro, citizens aged 17 to 46 who meet the property requirements are obliged to serve. Before the 2nd century BC, the weapons and equipment of serving citizens needed to be equipped by themselves. This belongs to the ultimate white prostitute.
However, the plebeians of Rome were exploited by the nobility for a long time. In order to further eat its flesh and bones, the nobles even invented the strange slavery relationship of "borrowing slaves" on the basis of borrowing. How can civilians, who have lost their land and property under exploitation, be willing to contribute to the country? It was not until after the roman plebeian resistance movement that the situation of the civilian population was improved that the Roman citizen soldier system was maintained.
▲ Ruins of the ancient Roman Colosseum
It is precisely because of the requirement to prepare their own weapons and equipment, so Rome divides the order of battle according to the level of property: the richest part of the horse serves as cavalry, the family is still in good condition to serve as heavy infantry, and the poorest naturally can only do light infantry. In the military system, the conventional combat sequence is generally 63% of heavy infantry, 26% of light infantry, 10% of cavalry, and 1% of engineers, and its main composition is still heavy infantry. At the time of Julius Caesar's death, Rome had only a cavalry force of 10,000 men, consisting mainly of strong Gauls (Celts) and Germanics. In the Army, veterans and recruits with seniority are grouped into different hundreds and cooperate with each other tactically during combat.
During the reign of Camerus, the practice of distributing soldiers' battle sequences based on property was abolished, and Roman legions began to reconfigure battle sequences according to the degree of training and age of soldiers, forming Rome's three-column legion model. Among them, the infantry regiment is divided into young soldiers (
Hastati
), The Prime Soldier (
Principles
) with the Reserve (
Triarii
）。
The first column is of the young soldiers. The young soldiers are equipped with javelins, short spears, short swords and a long shield.
The second rank of prime soldiers, generally equipped with a long Haast spear and a short sword, equipped with a helmet and breastplate, and the richer ones with a pair of shins.
The third column is reserve, they are composed of experienced soldiers, because the armor needs to be prepared by the soldiers themselves, except for a small number of wealthy families, the armor of the rest of the soldiers is not complete, but the helmet and breastplate are often necessary. Soldiers' weapons are basically uniformly distributed by the state, but generally soldiers still need to pay for themselves.
Relatively speaking, the neat line of the three-column corps also requires that it be kept neat in combat. In this method of warfare, the cross-sections of the queue are arranged in a jagged manner, and there is a certain gap between each combat unit. Different battle sequences can alternate through these gaps. The depth formed between the gaps can also better split the enemy's formation. Once the enemy has entered the line, it will be attacked by young soldiers from the front and prime soldiers from the rear.
▲ The conventional arrangement of the three-column corps before the war
However, in order to maintain the formation, the three-column legion was necessarily inflexible. So Rome usually had a mobile unit in addition to the three-column legion, which consisted of about 1200 light infantry and 300 cavalry. These light infantry were usually armed with several javelins, a short sword, and a circular shield with a diameter of about 0.9 meters.
In combat sequences, light infantry are not responsible for close combat, nor do they have thick armor. After the battle began, these light infantry and scattered soldiers shuttled between the phalanx, projected javelins or opened bows and arrows, and with their high mobility, they threw the javelins and ran, and then the heavy infantry corps was responsible for close combat tasks. It is also for this reason that the small round shields of light infantry are sufficient to cope with ranged attacks from enemy forces. If the enemy attacked the flanks of the Roman legions, it was the turn of this mobile force to take the field.
▲ Ancient Roman armies throw javelins
Unlike in China, the Role of the Roman Cavalry was relatively weak due to its sparse number, often on the flanks or tails of heavily armored legions, with the main task being to contain the enemy's cavalry. For example, in chapter 40 of book XIII of the Chronicle, it is recorded that "the weight was placed inside the queue, and a thousand cavalry were guarding the rear, and the order to these cavalry was to counterattack when the enemy was approaching, but not to pursue if the enemy retreated." Arranged on both flanks were archers on foot and the rest of the cavalry, the left flank stretching out along the foothills of a row of hills, so that if the enemy forced in, they could both meet and encircle them from the front. ”
However, if it encounters a large-scale cavalry invasion by the enemy, the cavalry, which accounts for only 10% of the total, is naturally difficult to resist. For example, during the First and Second Punic Wars, Carthage once gained an advantage by attacking the flanks and tails of the Roman legions in the plains with war elephants and highly mobile light cavalry. This was because, despite the invincibility of the heavy infantry of the Roman legions, they could not withstand the onslaught of war elephants; and the cavalry was much smaller than the Carthaginian army, and the mobility was severely lacking, almost becoming a living target. It was in this light that the Carthaginian army defeated the Roman legions several times during the Punic Wars.
Therefore, in the later period, the Roman legions hired a large number of cavalry in various places to ensure the absolute number of cavalry in the legions. When the fatal weakness of the lack of cavalry was compensated, the Roman legions attacked more fiercely, eventually conquering the Italian peninsula.
▲ 1. Roman heavy cavalry, which was very well equipped for the early republican era; 2. Samti heavy infantry 3, Luganian heavy infantry
In the early and middle period of the Republic, the Roman army, with its system, firmly held the hearts of citizens and enabled them to work for the army. For example, Rome suffered heavy losses in the battle with Carthage, but in a short period of time, it once again built up a strong army, relying on the sense of belonging brought about by its political system. In addition to the tactics, its unique three-column legion was more flexible, able to quickly divide the enemy when faced with the bloated queue of ancient Greece, and later made up for its own shortcomings by large-scale mercenary cavalry, providing a solid foundation for its hegemony.
When Roman rule gradually expanded throughout the Italian peninsula, it was difficult for new citizens to form a sense of belonging to Rome, so around the 2nd century BC, Rome promoted the system of employment in the military, and weapons and equipment were supplied by the state. Although the cost has increased a lot, the implementation of the employment system has also promoted the professionalization of the army and enhanced the combat effectiveness of the army. Originally, the Roman military system was a citizen soldier system, although it was also subject to military service, but the rest of the time was mainly engaged in production rather than military training. In the early days of the professionalization of the army, the combat effectiveness of the Roman legions increased without decreasing. Although armies and dynasties decayed over time, the legend of the heroic Roman legions is still remembered.
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