Editing Roman Empire (section)

== Roman Army ==

While the military of Rome went through centuries of evolution in its equipment and tactics, as a whole the armies of Rome can be divided into three parts, one of which is the skirmishers, the cavalry another, and finally the infantry.  

Roman infantry went through many iterations but the typical Legionary would take the field wearing a metal helmet with metal and leather armor, a broad, curved shield, a gladius (a short, heavy stabbing sword), and one or more pilum (a hybrid javelin-spear effective against armor).  Legionaries would typically fight in a tight formation behind their shields, throw or stab with their pilum and then finish with the sword. The intense discipline of the Legionaries' training allowed them to pull off several maneuvers, the most famous being the Testudo(Turtle in Latin), a tightly-packed shield wall that effectively protected against arrows.

Roman cavalry (equites) were, historically, useless, famous for a number of extremely high profile defeats.  In equipment they were similar to Greek cavalry, using flat shields and spears with long swords and leather/maile armor.  But for most of the history of Rome, cavalry were drawn from the richest echelons of society and were not known for being particularly disciplined or brave. While the other nations often fielded better cavalry, such as Hannibal's Numidians, Roman Cavalry was principally used to occupy the enemy cavalry and keep them away from the army; a strategy that sometimes shifted battles in the Romans' favor.

The skirmishers (velites) were mostly a Republic thing and largely vanished with the appearance of professional armies. In the Pre-Marian army, all new recruits began as Velites before joining the Infantry proper. Typically they were poor young people armed with javelins and slings, put out ahead of the line to soften up the enemy before contact with the infantry. Post-Marian, Skirmishers, as well as archers, were rarely ever used outside of the Auxilia, which consisted mainly of non-Roman support units.

Where Rome really outperformed its peers was in logistics, discipline and military engineering.  Wherever the legions went, they build roads and networks of forts and courier stations.  During Caesar's invasion of Gaul, his legion famously bridged the Rhine in 18 days (and again later in a week).  After the defeat of Carthage, Rome burned the city for two weeks, tore down its walls and enslaved every survivor.  In sieges, where other armies might try ladders, Rome would build a wall around the enemy's wall, and then a wall around THAT wall to protect them from forces trying to break the siege, and finally start slowly building a dirt ramp; [[Rogal Dorn|in the siege of Alesia this amounted to 20 km worth of wall building.]]  '''Roman legions do not fuck around.'''  They'll go to any length, and they don't leave things half-done.

And that is not even the greatest advantage Rome had! In 107 BC for a bunch of reasons Rome reformed it's Army. Before that point the roman army worked like every other army in the world, soldiers would buy there own gear and show up. That meant that armies were small, and had to be composed of troops who had side jobs that let them buy there own swords. If you didn't have property and were poor: you could not be a solider. Under the reforms the Rome would not only pay for there equipment, the state would also give citizenship and Land to veterans. Suddenly every poor person in the empire could suddenly join the army and be assured it have more to fight with then just a sharp stick:  and then it also made sure that solider was supplied and able to fight year around. No more voluntary forces that had to leave when the harvest came or the campaign was done, this was an army that was formed of they poor, they had no land and so they set up a system of contract soldiers, Rome had invented the worlds first professional solider. Sure all that sounds perfectly natural now, but from the fall of Rome it took almost a thousand years for the first professional solider to be fielded again. It meant Rome had an endless reserve of manpower. Rome would lose battles but if Rome wanted to it could Grind an opponent down in attrition fighting.