The Roman army

This is further information to support pages 12-13 of The Romans in Britain Book. Here is a thumbnail of the page in the book.

---

(Supports pages 12-13 of The Romans Book)

The time of the Romans, when they were ruled by the senate, was known as the Republic. The army at that time was called the republican army. The time of the Romans, when they were ruled by emperors, was called the empire. The army at that time was called the imperial army.

The republican army was divided into groups of soldiers called legions. Each legion had about 4 200 men. The legion was divided into groups of 120 men called maniples. When a legion in the republican army lined up for battle it had a special formation. At the front were maniples of the youngest soldiers. They had the poorest equipment and were the first to engage the enemy. Behind them were maniples of young soldiers who were armed with spears. Behind the spear throwers were maniples of well armed soldiers and at the back were the maniples of the most experienced fighters. So what were your chances of beating them. You may defeat the young men at the front and dodge the spears from the maniples behind them. It would be tougher fighting the well armed soldiers but if you did get past them you would meet some very tough opponents who would be fresh to the fight while you were probably exhausted.

If you were a soldier in the imperial army you would belong to a group of eight men called a contubernium. You would camp together when the army was making a journey and share the same room when stationed in a fort. Your contubernium joined with nine others to form a group called a century even though it only had eighty men. The century was led by an officer called a centurion. Six centuries formed a larger group called a cohort and ten cohorts made a legion. One of the cohorts was larger than the others. It had 800 men but some of them did not fight. They cooked the meals, carried messages or helped, as clerks, in the organising and accounting of the legions food and weapons. The legion was led by a Legate, he was assisted by six officers called tribunes. The foot soldiers in the legion were called legionaries.

Activity - The soldier's uniform

Analysing artefacts, empathy

From the clothes, equipment and pictures left behind artists have been able to reconstruct a soldier's uniform and weapons and produce pictures like the ones you can see in the spread.

You can understand a little more about the design of the uniform and weapons if you think about what they had to do.

1.The face guards to the helmet are cut away at the top around the eyes. Why?

2. What would happen if the face guards were not cut away like this?

3.Why is the armour across the shoulders and around the body not in one piece?

4.Why do you think the soldier did not have a long sleeved tunic?

5.The boots had got nails in their soles, which did not stick in the feet. What was the purpose of the nails?

6.Look at the sword. There is a weight at the top of the handle. How do you think this might have been useful? To answer this question try the following.

a. Stick two 30 cm rulers together to make a "sword" about 60 cm long.

b. Hold the "sword" with your hand at one end and move it up and down and side to side.

c. Now move your hand in about four centimetres and repeat the moments.

You should find that the sword is easier to move.

7.The weight at the end of the handle made the sword even easier to move because allowed it balanced the weight of the sword blade. Test this idea by getting a heavy stick and holding one end then adding a weight like a large lump of modelling clay and feel how the blade is easier to move.

8. What do you think is the purpose of the weight on the javelin?

9. As you moved forwards to throw your javelin what would you be thinking to make the attack successful?

10. What would you be thinking to successfully defend yourself as you go forward and then throw your javelin?