Roman Army Essay

Submitted By answer101
Words: 1144
Pages: 5

The Roman Army:
How They Became Successful

It is for a fact that the Roman Army was known to be the most ruthless empire ever constructed, and it had won over 2400 battles. During the times of the Roman wars, they had struggled to keep their victories consistent. Over the 60 BC-AD 200, Romans dominated their battles due to the realization of the army’s strength and routine which was weakening, and strategy which failed a good number of times. This led Rome into creating an entirely new system guaranteeing Romans’ victory against all battles. Recognizing that, they began to build new facilities where Romans can practice new techniques, learn new equipment, strategies, etc to use to their advantage, and win against their enemies. Although they had their few mishaps, the Romans dominated after revolutionizing their training, the new designs in arms and armors, and the organization and tactics of the army.
City to city, Romans scouted for people to join the army. A group of Archeologists estimated that Romans attained at least 5000 men each year for the legions to sustain the strength they had built.1 The young soldiers that join first went through a series of interviews, where they are questioned on their knowledge of the army and their combat expertise.2 After, they were medically examined, insuring the leaders that the soldier was healthy and strong, and be placed in a training facility where they are taught to become a skilled combatant. When a soldier began his training, it was a critical must that he would be able to perform a military step ( a style of walking used by armies) properly, and after a few days, was essential for that the soldier could complete a 20 mile military step in a minimum of 5 hours.3 When this task was finished, the warrior would be push to his limits and was tested to perform a 24 mile fuller step (a quicker pace than the military step) in the same amount of time.4 After, the soldiers were educated in jumping and leaping over ditches and surmounting any height that’s blocking their way.5 During the same time, they would be taught to swim properly for the choice to flee and to build their back strength. After they had completed their main criteria, they would head on to the weapons and fighting.
The warriors learned new techniques on where the weakest point of the opponent is to attack and defend with the use of the wooden swords and shields. Soldier would also be taught and expected to throw a javelin (a long spear) 30m across the field in the case of attacking far enemies and the strengthening of the throwing arm.6 Because of these new way of training, the Romans were insured a great victory. But training can’t just fix everything, the Romans also needed to reconstruct the designs of their armors and weapons for better defense and offence.
The Roman army created the finest arms and armors for battles in terms of weaponry and protective gear. They emphasized mainly to creating new ways of making arms and armors easier and efficient to use, as well as decorating each part of the arm and armor with exquisite, unique details. During battles, the Romans were well prepared and informed on what to bring for each specific war. They had included different source of equipment such as short swords, daggers, spears, flexible armors, helmet, shields, and marching boots with studs for immense grip.7 As they brought their main weapons and armors, they also had massive weapons to bring to battle such like the baluster, which was used to launch vast rocks across to the opposing enemy.8
The equipment brought to the battles all had different and unique uses on the field of war. For example: the spears were specially designed to bend after landing so that the enemy couldn’t use the spear to attack.9 Another example would be the long curved rectangular shields also known as Scutum, and was used to hold edge to edge to shape a Testudo( a formation where the shields covers the front, top, and