Previously, the Cold Weapon Research Institute used the article "How many people are there in a Roman legion? Why did Octavian say that 500,000 people served him" to summarize the changes in the size and structure of the Roman legion over the millennium, as well as the changes in

Author | Leng Yan author team - Pilan Reading History

Word count: 5583, reading time: about 14 minutes

Editor's note: Whenever we talk about ancient European military, Roman legions is an unavoidable topic. However, although many people in the world must mention the Roman legions, they actually lack real understanding and understanding of them. It is very common to lump together the Roman legions from different eras, different social foundations, and face different enemies to make generalizations and pretend to be blind. They always talked about how the Roman legions were regularized and how to be professional soldiers, and then defaulted to the fact that the classical Chinese armies were peasant mobilization soldiers who lacked training. Previously, the Cold Weapon Research Institute used "How many people are there in a Roman legion?" Octavian Why is it said that 500,000 people served him? The article summarizes the changes in the size and structure of the Roman legions over the millennium, as well as the changes in organization and scale. This article will go from the battle of Cannae in to the battle of Zama in . Let’s talk about the professionalism and professionalism of the Roman legions.

The Battle of Cannae was the most critical battle in the Second Punic War. This battle was the most painful defeat experienced by the Roman Republic since its establishment. According to Roman History written by Theodor Monson, a total of 76,000 Roman legionnaires participated in the war, and as many as 70,000 died in the battle. In addition, the consul Lucius Paulus, the former consul Gnaeus Servius, two-thirds of the officials and 80 senators were killed here.

Since Rome implemented a citizen compulsory military system at that time, after the news of the defeat was returned to the city of Rome, Romans " almost no family did not cry for one of their relatives. "

However, even after suffering such a heavy blow, Rome still did not choose to surrender to Carthage . In the Battle of Zama 14 years later, the Roman general Scipio defeated the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal , forcing the latter to sign a peace treaty with Rome. The peace treaty stipulated that Carthage had to hand over all war elephants and warships to Rome, pay war reparations for fifty years, and promised that starting wars from then on would require the consent of Rome. Since then, Carthage has degenerated from a commercial country into an undefended commercial city. The Second Punic War ended with a Roman victory.

When talking about the reasons why Rome turned defeat into victory in the Second Punic War, the most commonly mentioned thing is Rome's "resilience." Indeed, the Battle of Cannae was not Rome's only defeat in the Second Punic War. Before that, Rome had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Trabia (218 BC) and the Battle of Lake Trasimeno (217 BC), losing a large number of manpower.

Under such repeated blows, Rome did not succumb, but continued to mobilize all potential soldiers, including proletarians, who could enlist in the army, including male citizens under the age of 17, proletarians and even prisoners. With the support of the Senate , Rome even used the treasury to purchase 8,000 slaves to join the army. The Romans' exploration and mobilization of the country's potential was the key to winning the war.

However, one thing is often overlooked by people: as the iconic force of the Roman Republic, the Roman Legion, its organization and tactics gradually matured during the Punic Wars , and became the powerful regiment that people in later generations will know.

has a very interesting saying. When discussing the Roman Legion, many documents believe that in addition to its military functions, it is also an " administrative organization ". Indeed, tracing back to the beginning of the formation of the Roman Legion, its administrative function even exceeded its military value. Rome's military organization during the monarchy was extremely primitive. The king divided Rome into 20 tribes, and each tribe was further subdivided into 4 centuries.

Once a war breaks out, each tribe will bear the troop quota in units of hundreds.This method of conscription continued to the early days of the establishment of the Roman Republic. At this time, the last king Tarquin Superbus had been exiled, and Rome was replaced by two forerunners (later consuls) to jointly handle government and military affairs. The number of tribes has also increased to 21.

Therefore, the whole of Rome could provide 84 infantry centuries, 6 cavalry centuries, and 5 auxiliary centuries. After that, the Roman legions underwent many reforms due to regional conflicts and added squadrons (maniple). This intermediate unit, during the period of the Marius reform, added the cohort. However, in terms of nature, both the "centurions" and the "legions" had a strong sense of military and political integration. They were used for war mobilization and were also the organizational unit for Roman citizens to vote. As the territory of Rome gradually expanded, the forces that could be mobilized within its jurisdiction also increased, and this centurion-legion organizational structure also followed.

"The Art of Western War" praised the organizational form of the Roman Legion, saying " administrative organization is another element that enhanced the Roman system... When the Romans expanded their army, they added legions, thus providing good organization and management for any large field army pair."

But the problem also lies here. In the Roman army at this time, the "legion" was not an independent combat unit, but could only be called an administrative organization. During the battle, no matter how many legions Rome sent to participate in the battle, they still deployed and fought as a whole. This is especially true for the Centurion. In addition to daily management, the Centurion does not independently undertake military tasks in large-scale battles.

This flaw was most vividly reflected in the Battle of Cannae.

In the Battle of Cannae, there was a big gap in military power between the two sides. Rome sent 8 Roman legions and an equal number of allies. Generally speaking, when Rome sent out troops, it would ask its allies to provide an equal number of allies to the number of legions, and equipped with three times the Roman cavalry as a supplement. However, since Carthage, in addition to its own cavalry, also had elite Numidian (Numidian) light cavalry as support, with a total of up to 10,000 cavalry. Therefore, Rome’s 6,000 cavalry were still at a disadvantage in terms of quantity and quality of cavalry.

In terms of infantry, Rome has an absolute advantage. The configuration of 16 legions allows it to have nearly 55,000 heavy infantry, plus more than 8,000 light infantry , so that even including cavalry, Rome's total military strength is still more than double that of Carthage. Once the battle situation reached a stalemate, Rome seemed to be able to easily overwhelm its opponents by relying on its superior strength.

However, the power of the cavalry cannot be ignored. Although the cavalry at this time is not in the complete state of later generations, due to its advantages in mobility, once it attacks the weak wings and back of the infantry square, it is very likely to reverse the situation of both parties. Therefore, the commander of the Roman side in the Battle of Cannae, the consul Terentius Varro, asked the Roman army to assume an unprecedented deep formation, and each squadron in the Roman phalanx was stretched to the limit.

Delbrück believed that the frontal width of the Roman infantry formation in this battle was at most eight or nine hundred meters, and the depth was about 70 people. This was even two-fifths more than the Theban Holy Army whose formation thickness had doubled in the Battle of Leuctra.

To be fair, relying on large depth to resist cavalry attacks is not a whimsical way. In fact, comparing the phalanxes of Greece and Roman armies, it can be found that precisely because they often fought with barbarians who were good at cavalry, Rome rarely adopted wide and thin formations. More than a thousand years later, the Swiss phalanx that emerged in the Burgundian War also used a deep formation to fight against the plate knights who were already armed to the teeth. But the problem was that they met the famous general Hannibal, who had regarded Rome as his enemy since childhood and knew him very well.

After the battle broke out, the Roman right-wing cavalry was quickly driven away from the battlefield by the Carthaginian heavy cavalry. Subsequently, the left-wing cavalry troops also quickly displayed the white flag under the enemy's light and heavy cavalry. At this time, the infantry phalanx in the center of the Carthaginian army was suppressed by the superior strength of the Roman heavy infantry and retreated steadily. According to past battle examples, as long as the Chinese army is broken through, the heavy infantry who have lost their courage will quickly retreat, and even trigger a more serious chain reaction.

But it was at this time that Hannibal deployed behind the two wings of cavalry, and the African heavy infantry, which had not participated in the battle before, joined the battle and attacked the two wings of the Roman army. The Carthaginian and Numidian cavalry, which had already defeated their counterparts on the opposite side, also continued to harass the back of the Roman army with long-range projectile weapons at this time.

Under such an encirclement, the Roman phalanx would soon be overwhelmed by the enemy's forces that were far smaller than itself. Some people may find it strange that when the troops are clearly superior, can't the besieged people let the soldiers in the rear block the enemy while concentrating their troops to attack forward? The answer is, yes, but this operation was not something that the Roman legions at this time could do.

In the past, we often had the illusion that Greek heavy infantry and Roman legions were regarded as elites. However, in fact, except for Spartan people who did not have to engage in production, the heavy infantry under the early Greek city-state system would transform into craftsmen, merchants or rich farmers after taking off a suit of armor. They were not professional soldiers in the true sense.

Only after the Peloponnesian War and with the rise of a large number of mercenaries did the Greek heavy infantry finally become professional. The situation of the Romans was similar. Before the Marius reforms, the citizen soldier system was the core of the Roman military system. Soldiers only had to undertake military service for a certain period of time, which meant the completion of their duties. Although the Roman army was already a well-trained elite compared with the barbarians, when facing an opponent of the same level as Carthage, the shortcomings of the citizen soldiers were undoubtedly exposed.

During the Battle of Cannae, the Roman phalanx was often arranged in a grid formation like an expectation, with young soldiers - mature soldiers - old soldiers arranged in three columns in the order. After the young soldiers contact the enemy, the middle-aged soldiers will fill the gaps in the battle line in units of detachments (composed of two 60-man companies, and the elderly soldiers will be halved) to prevent holes in the formation that will lead to a collapse of morale. The middle-aged soldiers in the last row will also fill in the gap again when there is a gap in the previous row.

For the square matrix, the longer the horizontal width, the more difficult it is to coordinate the movement. The "Mushu Oath" in "Shangshu·Shu" which records King Wu's defeat of Zhou dynasty mentioned, "What happens today should not be done in six or seven steps, but it will stop in full order". This means that if the army marches no more than six or seven steps, it must stop and reorganize its formation. This is precisely because King Wu had three hundred chariots lined up to face the enemy.

On the contrary, narrowing the width of the square formation can not only achieve greater formation depth, but also improve the flexibility of the square formation. This squadron tactic is undoubtedly more suitable for Rome at that time. Each detachment of young soldiers can be supported by two detachments of mature soldiers behind them, and the mature soldiers can also be supported by the old soldiers behind them. In this way, the morale problem plaguing the infantry phalanx can be temporarily solved. But whether it is a Greek phalanx or a Roman legion using squadron tactics, the main body of the army is citizen soldiers. This realistic condition could not be changed at the time.

When the left, right and rear of the Roman phalanx were attacked by the enemy, the Roman army instantly fell into a dilemma of being unable to move. This is because although each detachment seems to be an independent group, in large-scale battles, commanders rarely give instructions to a specific detachment. As for the detachment flag, although it has already appeared at this time, its use in training is obviously more important. When fighting, each team would often fill the line under the leadership of a centurion, which was obviously enough in a head-on confrontation.

However, the Battle of Cannae was obviously an exception. Even if Terentius could notice the encirclement tactics of the enemy's cavalry and infantry, he had neither enough time nor mature methods to mobilize a sufficient number of old soldier detachments to defend and block the enemy. It is even more unrealistic to directly command an entire legion to turn to face the battle. 16 legions are already facing the enemy at the front. Deploying any one of them may cause the front to collapse. After all, soldiers in battle formations are often irrational. Once friendly troops around them withdraw from the fighting front line, the blow to their own morale will be huge.

The dilemma faced by the commander of the Roman legion at this time is just like you are about to encounter an enemy siege in the Total War series of games, but find that what you control is not each tactical unit that can be controlled independently, but an entire large phalanx that has already engaged the enemy.

Therefore, when a large number of enemies poured into the gaps in the phalanx, the old soldiers in the back row and the middle-aged soldiers could only fight on their own in the chaos. Once they lost the support of the middle-aged soldiers and the old soldiers, the young soldiers who suddenly felt a chill behind them would inevitably give up the forward attack and switch to defense. The entire phalanx instantly lost the possibility of continuing to command.

As for the situation of the Battle of Zama, it is another situation.

We mentioned earlier that Rome implemented a citizen soldier system, which can also be called a universal military service system. Theoretically, all citizens have the obligation to serve in the military, but who will be called up needs to be determined by drawing lots. However, as the scale of the war intensified, Roman soldiers often went to remote areas such as the Alps, Spain, and Asia. For wealthy Roman citizens, it was undoubtedly more cost-effective to pay for military service by others than to take risks themselves.

Therefore, a professional military system in a practical sense gradually took shape in Rome. As for the commander-in-chief, they are facing severe military challenges. In this case, strictly adhering to the recruitment time limit for conscripts is undoubtedly a self-defeating act. After all, no general is willing to replace his veterans with rich combat experience with new recruits who have not seen blood. Because of this, generals prefer to recruit experienced veterans to fight. This frequent recruitment of veterans is undoubtedly unfair to these soldiers, but under the threat of foreign invasion, people will always ignore the so-called fairness out of fear.

However, in order to win over these veterans, generals often promise generous military pay and trophies as incentives. Encouraged by these rewards, many veterans who have served for more than ten years are also willing to rejoin the war. At the end of the Second Punic War, the number of such veterans in the army commanded by Scipio had far exceeded that at the Battle of Cannae. According to Livy's "History since the Founding of the City", the remnants of the legions defeated in the Battle of Cannae, veterans recruited and collected from several subsequent battles, and some levies together constituted Scipio's army.

Another difference lies in the generals. The commander of the Roman army is the consul. Different from the "general" in the usual sense, the consul is actually the head of state during the Roman Republic. But the strange thing is that in order to limit the power of the consuls, there were two consuls in Rome. At the same time, their terms were only one year. Leading the army with such an official position was a typical " soldiers are impermanently commanders, and commanders are impermanent " (isn't it a bit like the Song Dynasty's garrison law ).

This resulted in the consuls often not knowing much about military affairs, and the mutual constraints and various government affairs often consumed the energy of the two consuls. On one side were politicians who were not familiar with military affairs, and on the other side was Hannibal, the most outstanding military genius in Western history. The disadvantages of Roman military command can be imagined. The situation at the Battle of Zama was much better. In order to fight against Carthage, the old enemy, the once stubborn Roman Senate almost found a life-saving straw for those generals who could compete with Hannibal. Before Scipio, they unprecedentedly granted Quintus Fabian Maximus Verrucosus the position of dictator, authorizing him to use delaying tactics of mixed reputation to stop the enemy.

Although Scipio was not a dictator, he was elected as a Spanish regional general at the age of 31 (usually, the minimum age for this position is 40 years old) and acting consul (an official position second only to the consul. If the consul dies or is impeached during his term, the acting consul will immediately become consul).

What is even more restrictive is that the tenure of these two positions lasted until the Carthaginians completely withdrew from Spain. Before the Battle of Zama, Scipio was given the power to command the African army, and his term lasted until the end of the war.

The continuous war allowed Scipio to steadily recruit experienced veterans, and the position without term limits allowed his influence to continue to ferment in the army. From the perspective of stability, this extremely strong personal prestige may indeed cause a backlash against the Roman political system, but at the same time, it makes the Roman army more hands-on. In the Battle of Zama, the Roman legions still faced the enemy in three rows, leaving a certain gap between each detachment.

However, the details are different. The second row of mature soldiers and the third row of old soldiers are not responsible for supporting the first row of young soldiers. Instead, they also attack from both sides when Carthage directs the elite infantry to outflank them. It is conceivable that in the Roman legions at this time, even the so-called young soldiers were not new recruits who needed to rely on the numerical advantage in the rear for support. Instead, the young and old soldiers placed in the rear row could already quickly maneuver to the wings of the square formation.

The military strength comparison between the two sides in the Battle of Zama was completely opposite to that of Cannae. Carthage had a greater number of infantry, while Rome, with the support of its allies, far exceeded Carthage in terms of cavalry. The only difference is that after defeating the Carthaginian cavalry, the Roman cavalry did not immediately support the disadvantaged infantry, but continued to pursue the enemy. It is conceivable that at this stage, if the Roman army was surrounded by Carthage, it is likely that the tragedy of the Battle of Cannae would be repeated. But Hannibal's tactic ultimately failed because the Roman legion at this time had gradually transformed from a traditional citizen army into a professional legion.

References:

1. Tong Liangkai "Research on the Roman Legions from the Early Republic to the Early Monarchy"
2. Wang Ning "Military Logistics System and Characteristics of the Middle and Late Roman Republic"
3. "War Art History"
4. "Western War Art"
5. "Illustrated World War Tactics"

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