Since my series will be jumping around before and after 107 BC, I will present the legions pre and post Marian reforms. I will also be presenting the consequences of these reforms at the end. The Marian Reforms were one of the most important things to the End of the Republic, and had dire consequences.
Pre Marius, the Legions were not a volunteer force. Once a year, Rome held a draft and the the Consuls and Tribunes would select the people to be in the Legions. These Legionaries would be drafted for a period of one year, and if they wanted to, they were given the option to stay. The units were divided up by wealth, because one had to furnish their own armor and weapons.
The basic military unit of the time was the Century, which consisted of about 60 men. Two centuries made a Maniple, and 10 Maniples formed a battle line. The pre battle line unit was the Velites, who were skirmishers who harassed the enemy formations and were attached to the maniples of other kinds of infantry. The first actual battle line was the Hastati, who were the light infantry. Once they got tired, they would fall back and let the more heavily armed Principes do the fighting. Usually by this time, the enemy would be routed.
If the first two lines failed to break the enemy, the Triarii would come up. The Triarii were a different kind of unit in the legions. While the other three classes of infantry consisted of approximately 1200 men, the Triarii were half the size and had about 600 men in their 10 maniples. If the Triarii failed to break the enemy, the Consul or Proconsul had two options. They could either retreat and call the battle a failure, or have the Triarii fall back behind the Principes and repeat this process again.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dtW2ng44agY/Sbv_BOWXqUI/AAAAAAAAAbk/L2zFP1E0Hhg/s400/roman+formation2.bmp
This is a pretty accurate picture, except the numbers would result in a double size legion. This is an easy mistake to make because most armies were about two legions in strength.
The military was set up this way so everyone had skin in the game. If you were a landowner, you would be fighting for your land, not the general in charge. Also, this affected campaign season, because the men had to be home for the harvest.
Eventually, when Gaius Marius came around (Later Topic), he radically changed the legions. One of the most important things that he did in his reforms was that he removed the requirement for people to own land and supply their own armaments. He also formed a standing army so Rome could more quickly fight off an attack. This led to a rise of professional soldiers who would be given land after they served for 16 years.
In his restructuring of the legions, Marius got rid of the different classes of infantry and instead divided the legion into ten cohorts, each consisting of six centuries of 80 men each. Marius attempted to reduce the number of camp followers by making the men carry most of their equipment themselves, earning them the nickname of “Marius’s Mules.”
http://www.criterionforum.org/caps/spartacus00008.jpg
The Two Legions of Crassus from the movie Spartacus. You can see the front legion prepare for battle while the rear is in a checkerboard formation
After the Legionaries were done with their 16 year commitment, they were settled in the province that they had been stationed in and were given a plot of land. If they weren’t already Roman citizens, which happened more and more as the Empire (Spoiler Alert) went down the drain, they were given Roman citizenship.
These reforms had major impacts on the Republic. First, it greatly increased the military capacity of Rome. If someone attacked Rome, A legion could be on site much faster and it would be better trained. It also made protracted wars possible because Rome the legionaries did not have to return home for the harvest season. Also, since the legionaries retired in the province that they fought in, it would help quell resistance because Romans would now be living there. The Legions now were more consistent and could fight better.
Now for the negatives. Of which there were many. The allegiances of the legions went from the city of Rome to the generals. This led to a rise in people such as Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, and eventually Gaius Julius Caesar (Later Topic). The soldiers now did not have the same motivation to lay down arms at the end of the war and go back to farming their land, because they didn’t own any land to farm. Generals now found it in their best interests to keep going with campaigns so that they could keep their power. This led to a rise in the aforementioned people.
These people stopped being generals and became gods among men. Private disputes were now public policy. These circumstances struck a killing blow to the Republic and bring about the Empire that we all know today.
http://de.trinixy.ru/pics2/20071029/podborka_180_05.jpg
Whenever the legions needed to get somewhere and bring some heavy firepower, the used a Jeep with an M2HB Machine Gun. In Seriousness, guy with the fancy helmet would have been a Centurion, who would command a century. The rest are dressed as regular legionaries.
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Update: I’m not certain yet, but I’m considering setting up the battles in Rome: Total War so I can get better pictures of the formations. If you like that idea, tell me or something
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
