014b - A Phalanx With Joints

Hello, and welcome to the History of Rome. Last time, we focused on the Greek phalanx, the formation of battle used by the Roman army until the time of the Samnite Wars. This week I want to talk about the new system the Romans developed during and after their war with the Samnites. The new organizational structure would remain the standard for the next 250 odd years until the Marian Reform of 107 BC and become known to history as the Manipal system.

It was called the Manipal system because it was based around a tactical unit of 120 men called the Manipal, which roughly translates as a handful. This unit was capable of acting independently of the rest of the army or in concert with the whole, giving Roman commanders an advantage over their predecessors who had to deal with the bulky single line of a phalanx designed only for closely coordinated forward movement. In a pinch, a general could now order off a single Manipal to secure a ridge or plug a hole or turn to face an enemy from behind without jeopardizing the cohesion of the rest of the army.

And the new Roman general had another advantage over his predecessor. The Romans abandoned the single line in favor of a staggered three-line deployment. At the outset of battle, the lines formed with 10 Manipals in the front, 10 in the middle, and 10 half Manipals in the back, arrayed in a checkerboard fashion. Some sources say there were 15 Manipals in the front line and some say there were 15 in the front too. The specifics are hard to weed out due to the lack of source material and the competing claims held therein. So I'm saying 10, 10, and 10 because that seems to be the general consensus but just know that I could be wrong, and without a time machine we'll never know for sure. Somewhere between 10 and 15 in the front two lines, anyway, and definitely 10 in the back.

The front line Manipals were made up of the youngest and most inexperienced soldiers, generally aged 16 to 20, out on their first campaigns. The second line was made up of soldiers in the prime of their lives, between the ages of 20 and 40. The back line was made up of the oldest troops, veterans of countless campaigns with all the wisdom and skill that follows from age and experience.

Organizationally, each single Manipal had four officers, two front, senior centurions, and two back, junior centurions. They were called centurions because they commanded a single sentry, the most basic organizational unit of the army, and a Manipal was composed of two sentries, hence two officers. A Roman army sentry was not composed of 100 men, as is commonly and mistakenly believed, but rather 60 to 80 men. The senior of the two senior centurions was the commander of the Manipal and placed in the front right when in battle. They were expected to lead by example and be the first ones in and the last ones out of any fight. The mortality rate amongst centurions was thus the highest in the army, but again, as with the front ranks of the phalanx, men clamored for the position because of the honor it brought them and their families.

The basic theory was to attack first with the front line only, who, being young, were strong and full of stamina. Ideally, the rest of the army would never have to attack and the front line would take care of the enemy. But this rarely happened. Inevitably the second line would be ordered in to support the first. These troops, hardened, strong, and experienced, were usually enough to secure victory. The enemy, worn down from fighting the Roman youth, would be no match for those youth plus an equal number of veterans. If this was not enough, however, the last line was ordered in to support. If this back line got involved, it meant that things were not going well for the Romans, but the old men were usually enough to break the back of a particularly stubborn enemy.

The maniple system was based around the principle of time-release freshness. Opponents of Rome would attack all at once and with great fervor, often overexerting themselves by the belief that they could overwhelm the front Roman line easily and move on to the rest of the army. But things were rarely that easy for them and, bogged down by the front line of Roman youth, the opposing armies became fatigued and were then routed when the rest of the Roman army got involved.

Among these three basic lines of heavy infantry, there were three other important elements needed to complete the legion as it lined up for battle. First, there was the light infantry, made up of men rich enough to qualify for service, but too poor to afford all the gear needed to survive in heavy infantry fighting. In any given legion there were between a thousand and twelve hundred of these fighters, who, at the beginning of battle, stood in front of the three lines to mask the size and formation of the Roman army. When the signal for battle was given, the light infantry would rush the enemy and hurl spears and javelins, attempting to disrupt the cohesion and inflict some minor damage, before retreating quickly through the three lines to the back of the legion. Light infantry never made much of a difference in the actual fighting, having served their purpose if the enemy remained in the dark about Roman formations and eventually, when the state began to take responsibility for the arming of soldiers, the light troops were phased out and folded into the rest of the lines.

On the wings, as was typical of the day, the Romans placed the cavalry. Their job was to engage the opposing cavalry and take them out of the fight, so the two infantry lines had to fight head to head without help, a fight the Romans always felt they could win. Once the opposing cavalry was out of the way, the Roman horsemen would plunge into the enemy lines and attempt to do as much damage as they possibly could. In addition to these two basic tasks, the cavalry was always watchful of potential flanking maneuvers or surprise attacks from the rear. Constitutionally, the cavalry was initially made up of the richest Romans, the equites, but as the years passed, the Romans farmed out cavalry work to their allies, never being great horsemen themselves.

And these allies were the third element needed to complete a standard legion. Also stationed on the wings, between the Roman lines and the cavalry, the allies were somewhere in between heavy and light infantry. Through the Republican period they were led by Roman officers, but as time went on they began to be led by their own chiefs or generals. The allies were required to contribute an equal number of infantry and twice the cavalry that the Romans themselves provided. These draft requirements would cause constant tension between Rome and her subjects and was the main precipice for the Latin War, the Latins becoming fed up with sharing equally in the burdens but getting shafted in the spoils.

In total, the Roman fighting strength was optimally between 8 and 10,000 men, with 4,200 Roman legionaries, an equal number of allies, and just shy of 1,000 cavalry. The numbers varied based on time, place, and mitigating factors and these numbers are round, but they will give you some ideas to the size of the legion as it marched into battle. When it marched from place to place, however, it was attended by a baggage train of non-combatants numbering themselves in the thousands, so it would not be surprising to see a legion of 4,200 men marching through the countryside 15,000 strong.

When actually engaging the enemy, the Roman tactics were straightforward. Each soldier was equipped with two spears and a sword. As they approached the enemy, they hurled the spears and inflicted as much damage as they could before meeting them hand to hand. This tactic differs little in theory from today's artillery, which is supposed to soften up the enemy for an infantry attack. The Romans experimented with the composition and design of their spears, settling generally on an instrument that had a thin metal connector between the blade and shaft, so when the spear struck its target, the thin metal connector would bend under the weight of the heavy shaft behind it. This served two purposes. It weighed down soldiers and shields that were struck, but it also made the Roman spears unusable to the enemy, for it was common practice in the ancient world to throw back spears hurled in by the enemy.

When the gap between the armies was closed, the legionaries pulled out their short swords, double-edged and sharp at the tip. This could be used either for stabbing or slashing, and were incredibly destructive in close quarters. The famous gladius has not appeared yet in our narrative, which emerged after the Romans encountered Spanish swordcraft in the next century, but the principles behind that famous sword were already present. Once engaged in hand-to-hand combat, it was simply a matter of killing or wounding everything that moved until the enemy broke and fled.

In addition to these forward, offensive-minded tactics, the new maniples system also had a built-in defensive strategy. If the front lines were overwhelmed, they could quickly retreat between the gaps in the middle line and regroup behind the more capable middle-aged fighters, and if they faltered, then they could all hide behind the third line, and by this time the first line would be ready to fight again, which allowed the Romans to retreat without having it devolve into a frightened, unorganized free-for-all. The phalanx lacked this element, and once it broke, it was every man for himself. The maniples system also had the advantage of being far harder to flank than a phalanx. Any attempt to do so would either be met by the cavalry, back-line maniples ordered forward, or by front-line maniples themselves, peeled off from the main fight and sent in a different direction. All in all, it was a significant advancement from the phalanx, and as we will later see when the Romans clashed with the Macedonians around 200 BC, the result would be a clear and decisive victory of maniple over phalanx.

But it was not just the system that made the legions so dominant. It's not that anyone could be inserted and the result would have been the same. Nor was it the case that the Romans were bigger or stronger than their opponents. In fact, in many cases, facing huge lumbering Germanic tribes, the Romans looked puny by comparison. Rather, the legions prevailed because of a group discipline that became the nightmare of opposing armies. In general, ancient warfare was a passionate affair with lots of yelling, chest-beating, and frenzy. But the Roman legion was a cold, inhuman machine. They were never intimidated and rarely broke ranks. Their comrades could be dying to their right and left, but the legionnaire himself seemed unaffected and kept moving forward. This was unsettling to say the least and sapped the morale of Rome's enemies.

The Roman soldier did this not because he was unfeeling. Quite the contrary, the Romans were a passionate people. But in war, there was only one thing a legionnaire feared more than the enemy, his commanding officer. Roman discipline was notoriously harsh, though it was not without its positive aspects. It was based on a system of rewards and punishment that were designed to promote bravery and eliminate cowardice. Punishment ranged anywhere from psychological humiliation—for example, a disgraced sentry might be forced to eat standing up so their comrades would always know who had lost their standard—to scourging for, say, disobeying orders—and up to death, a punishment that was handed down routinely when the actions of an individual put the entire army at risk, like, for example, falling asleep while on sentry duty. Woe to the sentry who fell asleep. He was stoned and beaten to death by his comrades. Not a pretty sight, but keeping watch was a sacred trust that could not be breached under any circumstances. It was simply too important.

On the flip side, the Romans invented a plethora of fancy medals and awards given out to soldiers who distinguished themselves in battle. I have already talked about the grass crown given to a soldier who saves an entire legion, but there were literally hundreds of other honors. For example, an award was given to the first man over a wall when the army was assaulting an enemy camp or city. And this was not taken lightly. For whole centuries, lines and legions took it as a matter of great pride when one of their own took the prize. So when competing claims were brought to the attention of a commander, great care had to be taken in adjudicating the decision, because tempers were always running hot when awards were on the line. The most common rewards ranged from double rations, a huge motivator, to promises of more land when released from service, to heads of cattle. Anything a soldier valued would be metered out for instances of selfless bravery which the Roman commanders were always promoting.

There was a darkly humorous case during the Second Punic War of a commander promising extra rations for every enemy head brought back to camp. But the soldiers became so burdened by the work of beheading and carrying heads that they began to actually lose the fight. And in the heat of battle, the commander had to issue a proclamation that everyone would receive extra rations regardless of the heads, but they did have to actually win the fight, which the soldiers, now free of their grisly baggage, promptly did.

This discipline allowed the Romans to keep their cool in battle and keep plugging away rather than running. They knew what would happen if their corpse was found on the field with a wound in the back. They would be buried without honor and their family would be ostracized. Those who fled from Cannae, one of the greatest defeats in Roman history, were never allowed to return home, remaining in exile, fighting in Sicily until finally they were allowed to serve as bait for Hannibal and die with dignity in a suicide mission, something they had pleaded for for years and were finally granted.

The last thing I want to impress upon you about the superiority of the Roman legion over enemy forces was their meticulous attention to detail. It is often said that amateurs study tactics, but professionals study logistics, and the Romans embodied this belief. They took great care to always preserve supply lines, communication lines, and set up their camps in the most defensible possible position. This last was critical because the Greeks, for example, set up their camps to simply be close to the site of battle without thought to any other practical considerations. The Romans, however, took great care in ensuring they held the high ground and were in a well-defensible spot. A routed Roman army often staved off final defeat behind the walls of their camps and many Roman victories were secured by overrunning the poorly constructed camps of their enemies. The Romans always scouted and protected sources of food and fresh water, and, knowing that this often meant the difference between a strong army in the field and a weak one, always sought to cut off the food and water supplies of their enemies before engaging in battle. Battles were often won or lost based on nothing more than the existence of a good breakfast on the day of the battle. So as much time as they spent trying to figure out how to neutralize opposing cavalry, they spent ten times as much time thinking about how to secure pasture land for their horses. It was the boring details of making sure everyone had proper footwear and that the trenches were dug to a proper depth that really set the Romans apart from their enemies, who often had every intention of just showing up for a fight. The Romans never just showed up for a fight. They planned everything down to the smallest detail. The fight itself became almost an afterthought.

So there you have it. That in a nutshell is the Roman Legion of the Republic. Three lines made up of units of 120 men, with cavalry and allies protecting the wings. More versatile than the phalanx, the maniple system would remain largely unchanged for the next 250 years and it would be this incarnation of the Legion that did most of the heavy lifting of the territorial expansion throughout the Mediterranean. When we get to Marius I will discuss at length the changes he introduced and how they changed the face of Rome forever, but that is for another time.

Next week we will get back into the action as Rome prepares for her longest and most grueling challenge to date, the second, or great, Samnite War.