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The Glory That Was Rome: Difference between revisions
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{{Useful Notes}}
[[File:9568564833923473_Rome-ontv_942.jpg|frame|{{smallcaps|Ave Caesar!}}]]
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In terms of armor, the movies sometimes get this right; they wore heavy iron cuirasses (breastplates) over wool padding, hardened leather skirts, and heavy boots. The design of the helmet reflected their focus on slashing swordplay, as it protected the top and side of the heads, but not the face. Contrast this with the design of Greek helmets which protected the face from the thrusts of fifteen-foot long spears (and, later, eighteen-foot pikes under Philip and Alexander of Macedon). The plumes and such that you see on TV (and at casinos) were actually reserved for officers as an identifier of rank.
The term "legion" was somewhat similar to the modern term "regiment" or "battalion", denoting a portion of the army of a particular size. During the height of the direct (as opposed to hegemonic) empire, the legions spent their time at the outskirts of the empire maintaining control. The more troublesome a region, the more legions it received. Thus Iberia (modern Spain) only had one legion, but Judea (modern Israel, Jordan, and surrounding countries) had three.
Each legion was divided into ten cohorts named "first cohort", "second cohort" and so on. The first cohort was the most prestigious, the tenth the least. Each cohort was divided into six centuries containing ~80 (not one hundred) men, led by a centurion. In terms of seniority, the centurion of the first century of the first cohort was the most senior officer and that of the sixth century of the tenth cohort the most junior. All told, the legion had a strength of approximately 5400 men, once officers, engineers, and auxiliary cavalry were accounted for.
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* [[Attack Pattern Alpha]]: Romans set great store in careful formations.
* [[Badass Army]]
* [[Boot Camp Episode]] : The Romans didn't invent boot camp but they might as well have.
* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] : Your typical centurion. In particular, a centurion would carry a stick called a ''vitis'', as a sign of seniority, that he would use to beat his legionaries with regularly. The ''true'' [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]], however, was the centurion known only as ''Cedo Alteram'', which means "Give me another," named so because when he'd beaten a soldier so hard his ''vitis'' broke, he'd ask for another ''vitis'' in order to continue the beating. {{spoiler|(And not quite unlike [[Full Metal Jacket|Gunnery Sergeant Hartman's]] eventual fate, his soldiers partook in a mutiny and killed him.}}
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Forces With Firepower]]
[[Category:The Glory That Was Rome]]
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