Roman ArmyBy Charles Smith

What they had worn to battle

The highest ranked warriors (hoplite) wore a helmet, round shield, greaves, and a breastplate all made of bronze with a sword and spear

The lower ranked warriors had no armor and there weapon was a sling

Sling roman armor

Who could join and how they were given there ranks.

The legion was the basic unit of Rome's standing army of career soldiers, the legionaries, who were all Roman citizens(slaves could not join) and fought primarily as foot-soldiers (infantry). The number of legions under arms varied in different time periods (there were, for example, 28 legions under Augustus in 25 BCE), and each legion had both a number and a title, though some numbers were duplicated (for example III Augusta, III Cyrenaica, III Gallica, III Italica, III Parthica).

How they were trained to be warriors

They were first taught to march, because it was know as a great importance that they marched at speed.

Then were trained to run long distances and jump high to meet physical fitness

The third thing was the usage of weapons they trained with wickerwork shields and wooden swords and were designed to be as heavy as the real equipment

Wood wicked shield wooden sword

How it came to be The roman army started out

like the part-time Greek army, with farmers going back to their fields after a small summer campaign.

When the Roman Empire became bigger and bigger, the military actions took place further from Rome and Italy, and soon the Roman general Gaius Marius had made a regular army out of the citizen-army. Because they had a regular army now, the soldiers were better trained and armed. Part-time soldier

The early legion

There were now three lines of soldiers, the hastate in the front, the principles forming the second row, and the triarii, rorarii and accensi in the rear.At the front stood the hastate, who were most likely the spearmen of the second class in the previous organization of the phalanx. The hastate contained the young fighters and carried body armor and a rectangular shield, the scutum, which should remain the distinctive equipment of the legionary throughout Roman history. As weapons they carried a sword each and javelins. Though attached to the hastate were far more lightly armed skirmishers carrying a spear and several javelins.

early legion

Sited sources

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http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/romanarmy.html