11/1/2022 0 Comments Legion of gaius julius caesar![]() ![]() For most of the Roman Imperial period, the legions formed the Roman army's elite heavy infantry, recruited exclusively from Roman citizens, while the remainder of the army consisted of auxiliaries, who provided additional infantry and the vast majority of the Roman army's cavalry. (Provincials who aspired to citizenship gained it when honorably discharged from the auxiliaries.) The Roman army, for most of the Imperial period, consisted mostly of auxiliaries rather than legions. In terms of organization and function, the republican era legion may have been influenced by the ancient Greek and Macedonian phalanx. In the fourth century AD, East Roman border guard legions (limitanei) may have become even smaller. ![]() By the third century AD, the legion was a much smaller unit of about 1,000 to 1,500 men, and there were more of them. Legions also included a small ala, or cavalry, unit. In the late republic and much of the imperial period (from about 100 BC), a legion was divided into ten cohorts, each of six (or five) centuries. During much of the republican era, a legion was divided into three lines of ten maniples. The subsequent organization of legions varied greatly over time but legions were typically composed of around five thousand soldiers. In the early Roman Kingdom "legion" may have meant the entire Roman army but sources on this period are few and unreliable. A Roman legion (from Latin legio "military levy, conscription", from legere "to choose") was a large unit of the Roman army. Let’s begin with a brief historical reference. ![]()
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