Roman Republican Legionary 298-105 BC (Osprey Warrior 162)

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Название: Roman Republican Legionary 298-105 BC

Автор: Nic Fields, Sean O' Brogain

Издательство: Osprey Publishing

Серия: Osprey Warrior 162

ISBN: 978 1849087810

Год издания: 2012

Язык: English

Количество страниц: 68

Формат: PDF

Размер: 8,3 MB

Soon after the Caudine Forks fiasco, where Roman citizens had suffered the humiliation of being forced to pass under the yoke, an act symbolising their loss of warrior status, the tactical formation adopted by the Roman army underwent a radical change. Introduced as part of the Servian reforms, the legion had originally operated as a Greek-style phalanx, a densely packed block of citizens wealthy enough to outfit themselves with the full panoply of an armoured spearman or hoplite. The function of a hoplite had been the privilege only of those who owned a certain amount of property, poorer citizens serving either as auxiliaries or as servants. Now, however, the Romans adopted the manipular system, whereby the legion was split into distinct battle lines, each consisting of tactical subunits, the maniples. In contrast to the one solid block of the phalanx, the legion was now divided into several small blocks, with spaces between them. The Romans, in other words, gave the phalanx 'joints' in order to secure flexibility, and what is more, each soldier, or legionary, had twice as much elbow room for individual action, which now involved swordplay instead of spear work.

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