The roman empire has been the most succesful in history with
its renown dominance in history for over a thousand years, being strengthened
by their appreciation to learn and embrace new ideas that failed to conserve
old ways of war that highly depended on luck, this was a major milestone in their journey to wining
several wars with a winning edge, professionalism and
heavy infantry has always
been at the core of the roman military from the old beginnings in their journey
to the western world
For more follow the link for homework help
The typical legion formation consisted of calvary that rode o
n the front protecting the calvary on the sides, in between were two rows of
five cohorts., behind the main groupo was a group of light troops consisting of
sevenunits followed by seven units of reserves. During transit several
formations were used to defend against attacks from the rear, the main calavary
rode front as a vanguard, folowed by infantry in cohorts of long columns, the
lighter units served as scouts on the edges
of the calvary. The marching formation was designed in the event that
the terrain was level where the troops were more powerful, this enabled easy
counter should the enemy make way around the flanks (dodgeon, 1991) . The second
formation relied on the reality thyat the left side of a soldier was weaker due
to the weight of the shield and thus the right wing attacked the opponents left
thus attaking on the rear. The left wing served as support keeping a distance
while reserves supported the left wing thus guarding the enemy attacking the
center. The third formation was considered for establishment in the event that
the left wing was deemed stronger than the right wing. Therefore this attacking
formation used the left wing supported
by the romans best calvary, they thus attacked the opponents right wing with success and less resistance while their
right wing stayed apart for safety purposes. The fourth f ormation was an abrupt startegy that aimed to
intimidate the enemy in shock where all the wings charged at the enemy in a
massive bombardment fighting and opressing them to lower their morale, this was
opressive to the opponent calling for a quick decision on their part, this
split the the army fighting units into three parts, as a result each unit could
be fought indipenedently by ach unit thus breaking their cohesion (Shipley, 1993) .
(dodgeon, 1991) .
For more follow the link for homework help
For more follow the link for homework help
For more follow the link for homework helpThe fifth formation
was suited for a good light infantry, this was used to charge the enemy wings
at once, more emphasis being laid to break the left wing of the enemy, the rest
of the army thus formed a perepndicular line to the front thus advancing to the
enemys in a fast, forward and swift manner to counter the rest of the opponent.
The sixth formation employed the right
wing to attack opponents left wing from
behind, this traded on the fact that the
left wing of the opponent could not be rinforced for fear of leaving an opening for the romans to exploit. When the romans
were otnumbered or had inferior troops they employed a flank or a natural protection like a city,
sea or a river to protect the left wing,
the right wing being protected by the
light troops and the calvary. This was their only hope for a winning
victory in such an event. When the enemy retreated the roman calvary would be called into
action, they ensured that the infantry were not outflanked by the enemy
The Romans considered high ground , however
they preferred rough ground to high terrain in the event that the enemy relied
heavily on their Calvary, the commanders ensured that the sun and the wind was always behind their soldiers to avoid glare and to the disadvantage of the enemy. The roman
engineer’s innovation in developing the catapulta, the ballista and the onager
as machines to throw javelins and swords for long distances was a milestone to
mechanization in ancient ways of war. The Romans attacked in a method known as
tortoise, this ensured that every soldier had a shield at his front and a
shield on their heads and thus advanced with confidence to their enemy without
fear (Shipley, 1993) . The phalanx method
to create a barrier to the enemy ensured that once a soldier at the front was
killed, he was abruptly replaced by a soldier from behind. As this method
seemed futile over years against lightly armed fast moving Calvary, a new system was introduced that used to organize the army into four groups namely;
the hastate, the velites, the principes
and the triarii the velites, the young and inexperienced soldiers(velites) were
put at the front for early attacks. When recalled they would pass through the
open ranks to the back, the front line was now made of the hastati who threw
javelins at about 35 meters to the enemy, if futile the hastate retreated
leaving the principes on the frontline, these were the cream of the
army, the opponent being exhausted by
then would face fresh attacks from the most experienced men, this was usually
the most successful group, if these failed then the triarii would be brought
forward to finish the resisting enemy with new energy (dodgeon,
1991) .
For more follow the link for homework help
The
coming to power of the Sassanian dynasty of Iran marked a new chapter in the
struggle for hegemony. The historical background of the Romans way of war is
systematic with much borrowing and adapting from outsiders. Ancient state of
the art training that encompassed professionalism with marching and exercises
with gymnastics and swimming. Dudgeon approaches their way of war as defensive
and both offensive by use of scuta shields,
armor swords the pila with groupings of eight.
By keeping troops in order they could fight more effectively with great
importance on terrain, the strength of the opponents, and the capability of
their troops to fight the opponent. Their way of war has depended mostly on
formations that ultimately were their secret to success from their opponents (Shipley,
1993) (dodgeon,
1991) .
For more follow the link for homework help
The
Romans are depicted as futuristic (Peddie, 1996) with their way of
using mules attended by non combatants in war for arms, water and food supply
to ensure they fought full scale. Use of mobile bolt throwers, the scorpion was
a competitive edge to the opponents, practices like stripping farms in war
front areas was a winning strategy that gave them space and tactical approach
in their way of war.
The
tactical way of fighting in columns with maneuverability has always been seen
as their succeeding strategy with intelligence information before any warfare
that was gathered from spies, diplomat and collaborators. Terrain was studied
several days before war and the appropriate quincunx planned. Shipley explains
how war formation and approach to sun and wind direction offered them a
competitive advantage. Ultimately, the Romans with these well versed and
working strategies emerged victorious in many wars in ancient times (Peddie, 1996) (dodgeon,
1991) .
For more follow the link for homework help
References
dodgeon, m. h. (1991). The roman eastern frontier
and the persian wars (AD 226-363); a documentary history. london; new york:
routledge publishers.
Peddie,
J. (1996). The roman war machine. london: conshohocken and penn
publishers.
Shipley,
J. R. (1993). war and society in the romen world. london; new york:
routledge publishers.
For more follow the link for homework help
No comments:
Post a Comment