![]() Each turmae had three decurions who led ten men. When it comes to cavalry, the legion’s force of horsemen was divided into ten turmae of thirty cavalrymen. The primus pilus centurion normally commanded the right hand maniple. Each legion was divided into maniples which were composed of two centuries each. Republican Roman army formation from 1960 film, Spartcus. Centurions themselves were able to appoint an optio as a rear-guard officer, and two standard bearers, or signiferi. The most senior centurion was known as the centurio primi pili, or ‘first spear’. Each tribune in the legions could select ten centurions who chose their own seconds. Senior tribunes could also command extra legions that needed to be raised beyond the standard four. But what were the other officer ranks in the manipular army? Rome’s four legions included twenty-four tribunes at this time. One or more legati went with a governor or magistrate when he took control of a new province, and so they had both civil and military duties. Apart from overall command by the dictator, from about 190 B.C., the army was still under the control of the consuls or praetors, but forces could also be commanded by legati, or ‘legates’ who were senior senators. During the dictatorships of Julius Caesar, both Marcus Antonius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus served as magister equitum, appointed by Caesar himself. The dictator could himself, appoint a second-in-command known as the magister equitum, or ‘master of horse’. At this time, praetors, who were lesser magistrates beneath the commanding consuls, could also command a legion, and in times of crisis, a dictator was appointed for a six month period, taking over full command of the army from both consuls. Allied forces could also be called upon, and mercenaries hired, if Rome needed to bolster its forces. Stele depicting Polybius (200-118 B.C.) The total force of the Roman army at this time was four legions with a total of sixteen to twenty thousand infantry and fifteen-hundred to twenty-five hundred cavalry. 290-88 B.C.) has come to be known as the ‘Polybian’ army, and this army was divided not into cohorts and centuries, but rather maniples. The first detailed account of the military hierarchy of the Republican Roman army comes down to us from Polybius (200-118 B.C.) who was a Greek historian during the Hellenistic period, and an eyewitness of the sack of Carthage in the third Punic War as well as the Roman annexation of mainland Greece, both in 146 B.C. Each legion had six military tribunes that were elected by the comitia centuriata. the army was divided into four legions, and the command of these legions was divided between the two consuls. These men were elected every year and they held supreme civil and military power. when Lucius Junius Brutus and other noblemen expelled the last king, Tarquinius Superbus, and the Roman Republic was born, the king was replaced by two consuls, also known as praetors. Basically, the Servian reforms created a sort of hoplite army, based on the phalanx used in the classical Greek and Hellenistic world.ĭepiction of a Greek hoplite battle In 509 B.C. Below these five classes were the capite censi, or landless men. ![]() Equites were the richest, and the rest of the population, which formed the infantry, were divided into five classes with descending degrees of weapons and armour. There were financial groupings or ‘centuries’ that meant men of military age were divided according to their ability to provide their own arms and equipment for military service. What we do know is that Servius Tullius (580-530 B.C.), the sixth king of Rome, divided the people into classes with his constitution, and these divisions had both political and military purposes. Other than this, however, little else is known about the chain of command in the army before the fourth century B.C. At this time, the army was commanded by a tribunus, or ‘tribal officer’, beneath the king. ![]() The men from these tribes formed one, big army, a citizen army. This early Roman army under the king, was made up of approximately three thousand men from the three tribes of Rome: the Ramnenses (named after Romulus himself), the Titiensies (named after Titus Tatius), and the Lucerenses (name origin unknown). However, as Rome conquered more neighbours in the Italian peninsula, its army grew bigger, and so a hierarchy of command was needed. The king had direct command of the military. From 753 – 509 B.C., beginning with Romulus and ending with Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, Rome’s army was the king’s army. Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome (580-530 B.C.) In the early days, of course, Rome was ruled by kings. ![]()
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