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Roman Legions
The Roman legion (, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of Roman citizens serving as legionaries. During the Roman Republic the manipular legion comprised 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry. After the Marian reforms in 107 BC, the legions were formed of 5,200 men and were restructured around 10 cohorts, the first cohort being double strength. This structure persisted throughout the Principate and Roman Empire, middle Empire, before further changes in the fourth century resulted in new formations of around 1,000 men. Size The size of a typical legion varied throughout the history of ancient Rome, with complements ranging from 4,200 legionaries and 300 ''equites'' (drawn from the wealthier classes – in early Rome all troops provided their own equipment) in the Republic, to 5,500 in the Imperial period, when most legions were led by a Roman Imperial Legate. A legion had 4,800 Legionary, legionaries (in 10 Cohort (military unit), cohorts of 6 centuries o ...
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Roman Empire 125
Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of Roman civilization * Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter written by Paul, found in the New Testament of the Christian Bible * Ar-Rum (), the 30th sura of the Quran. Roman or Romans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Romans (band), a Japanese pop group * ''Roman'' (album), by Sound Horizon, 2006 * ''Roman'' (EP), by Teen Top, 2011 *" Roman (My Dear Boy)", a 2004 single by Morning Musume Film and television * Film Roman, an American animation studio * ''Roman'' (film), a 2006 American suspense-horror film * ''Romans'' (2013 film), an Indian Malayalam comedy film * ''Romans'' (2017 film), a British drama film * ''The Romans'' (''Doctor Who''), a serial in British TV series People * Roman (given name), a given name, including a list of people and fictional characters * Roman (sur ...
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Ala (Roman Allied Military Unit)
An ''ala'' (Latin for "wing"; ''alae'') was the term used during the middle of the Roman Republic (338–88 BC) to denote a military formation composed of conscripts from the ''socii'', Rome's Italian military allies. A normal consular army during the period consisted of two legions, composed of only Roman citizens, and two allied ''alae''. The ''alae'' were somewhat larger than normal legions, 5,400 or 5,100 men against the legion's 4,500 men, and it contained a greater quantity of cavalry, usually 900 horsemen against the 300 supplied by the Romans. From the time of the first Roman emperor, Augustus (ruled 27 BC – AD 14), the term ''ala'' was used in the professional imperial army to denote a much smaller (), purely cavalry unit of the non-citizen ''auxilia'' corps: see ala (Roman cavalry unit). History When the Roman armies started being composed partly of Roman citizens and partly of ''socii'' (allies from the rest of the Italian mainland), either Latini or Italici, it ...
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Legio XVIII
Legio XVIII ("Eighteenth Legion", spelled XVIII or XIIX) was a Roman legion, legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was founded ca. 41 BC by the future emperor Augustus. The legion was, along with Legio XVII and Legio XIX, destroyed in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest (September, 9 AD). The legion's symbol and ''cognomen'' are unknown. This legion was probably created to deal with Sextus Pompeius, the last opponent of the Second Triumvirate, garrisoned in Sicily and threatening Grain supply to the city of Rome, Rome's grain supply. It was probably one of the eight legions Augustus promised Mark Antony for his campaign against the Parthians, but never delivered. Following the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt, Cleopatra in the battle of Actium (31 BC), the legion was stationed in Gaul. In the end of the 1st century BC, the XVIIIth was sent to the Germania Roman provinces, provinces in the Rhine to take part in the enormous army led by Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and later T ...
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Legio XVII
Legio XVII ("Seventeenth Legion") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was founded by Augustus around 41 BC. The legion was destroyed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (September 9, 9). The legion's symbol and ''cognomen'' are unknown. This legion was probably created to deal with Sextus Pompey, the last opponent of the second triumvirate, garrisoned in Sicily and threatening Rome's grain supply. Following the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra in the battle of Actium (31 BC), the legion was stationed in Gaul. In the end of the 1st century BC, the Seventeenth was sent to the Germania provinces in the Rhine and was stationed in Castra Vetera (Xanten). In AD 5, the provinces were pacified and Publius Quinctilius Varus was assigned governor and commander of the Germania army. On September 9, Arminius, leader of the Cheruscan allies, reported a rebellion in the Rhine area. Without suspecting the information received, Varus took his three legions, the XVII along with X ...
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Arab Conquest Of Egypt
The Arab conquest of Egypt, led by the army of Amr ibn al-As, took place between 639 and 642 AD and was overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate. It ended the seven-century-long Roman Egypt, Roman period in Egypt that had begun in 30 BC and, more broadly, the Greco-Roman period that had lasted about a millennium. Shortly before the conquest, Byzantine empire, Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire, Roman) rule in the country had been shaken, as Egypt had been Sasanian conquest of Egypt, conquered and occupied for a decade by the Sasanian Empire in 618–629, before being recovered by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. The Caliphate took advantage of Byzantines' exhaustion to invade Egypt. During the mid-630s, the Romans had already Muslim conquest of the Levant, lost the Levant and its Ghassanid allies in Arabia to the Caliphate. The loss of the prosperous province of Egypt and the defeat of the Byzantine armies severely weakened the empire, resulting in further territorial losses in the centu ...
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Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an Roman imperial cult, imperial cult and an era of regional hegemony, imperial peace (the or ) in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The Principate system of government was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century. Octavian was born into an equites, equestrian branch of the plebeian Octavia gens, Octavia. Following his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar's assassination of Julius Caesar, assassination in 44 BC, Octavian was named in Caesar's will as his Adoption in ancient Rome, adopted son and heir, and inherited Caesar's name, estate, and the loyalty of his legions. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirat ...
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Legio V Macedonica
Legio V Macedonica (the Fifth Macedonian Legion) was a Roman legion. It was established in 43 BC by consul Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus and Augustus, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (later known as the Roman Emperor, Emperor Augustus). and based in the Balkan provinces of Macedonia (Roman province), Macedonia, Moesia and Dacia. In the Notitia Dignitatum records from beginning of the fifth century, the legion was still stationed in Dacia, with detachments stationed in the east and Egypt. The last known evidence shows the legion, or detachments from it, stationed in Egypt in the seventh century one or two years before the Islamic conquest of Egypt. It is often assumed that the legion fought in this war and was destroyed, although it is uncertain whether detachments or the whole legion were in Egypt, and there is no further evidence of the legion's eventual fate. Its symbol was the bull, but the eagle was used as well. History 1st century BC: Creation and deployment in Maced ...
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Honesta Missio
The ''honesta missio'' was the honorable discharge from the military service in the Roman Empire. The status conveyed particular privileges (''praemia militiae''). Among other things, an honorably discharged legionary was paid discharge money from a treasury established by Augustus, the '' aerarium militare'', which amounted to 12,000 sesterces for the common soldier and around 600,000 sesterces for the ''primus pilus'' until the Principate of Caracalla. Specific privileges The honorably discharged legionary also presumably received a certificate after a service of approximately 20 to 26 years. Only a few, called ''tabulae honestae missionis'', have been preserved, presumably because most were made of ephemeral materials. Emperor Augustus began the practice of granting retired soldiers a benefit known as the ''missio nummaria'' which gave soldiers financial compensation. Legionaries could earn the equivalent of 10 to 13 years of their wages from this. Another benefit was a land ...
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Roman Cavalry
Roman cavalry (Latin: ''equites Romani'') refers to the horse-mounted forces of the Roman army throughout the regal, republican, and imperial eras. In the regal era, the Roman cavalry was a group of 300 soldiers called ''celeres'', tasked with guarding the Kings of Rome. Later their numbers were doubled to 600, then possibly 1,800. All of the cavalrymen were patricians. In the republican era, the general name for the cavalry was equites and these united consisted of the equestrian class and the first class, with a group of 300 cavalrymen in every legion. They were divided into 10 groups of 30 men. Each group elected three leaders known as '' decuriones''. Later the Roman cavalry stopped using Roman citizens as cavalrymen and relied on Auxilia and foreign recruits. Roman cavalrymen wore a Corinthian helmet, bronze chestplate, and bronze greaves. Later mail was adopted into the army. Their arms included a lance ('' lancea''), a long sword ('' spatha''), and a short throwi ...
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Auxilia
The (; ) were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen Roman legion, legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 27 BC. By the 2nd century, the contained the same number of infantry as the legions and, in addition, provided almost all of the Roman army's Roman cavalry, cavalry (especially light cavalry and horse archer, archers) and more specialised troops. The thus represented three-fifths of Rome's regular land forces at that time. Like their legionary counterparts, auxiliary recruits were mostly volunteers, not conscripts. The were mainly recruited from the ''peregrinus (Roman), peregrini'', free provincial subjects who did not hold Roman citizenship and constituted the vast majority of the population in the 1st and 2nd centuries (c. 90% in the early 1st century). In contrast to the legions, which only admitted Roman citizenship, Roman citizens, members of the could be recruited from territories outside of Roman contro ...
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Heavy Infantry
Heavy infantry consisted of heavily armed and armoured infantrymen who were trained to mount frontal assaults and/or anchor the defensive center of a battle line. This differentiated them from light infantry who were relatively mobile and lightly armoured skirmisher troops intended for screening, scouting, and other tactical roles unsuited to soldiers carrying heavier loads. Heavy infantry typically made use of dense battlefield formations, such as shield wall or phalanx, multiplying their effective weight of arms with force concentration. Heavy infantry were critical to many ancient armies, such as the Greek hoplites, Macedonian phalangites, and Roman legionaries. After the fall of Rome, heavy infantry declined in Europe but returned to dominance in the Late Middle Ages with Swiss pikemen and German Landsknechts. With the rise of firearms during early modern warfare, dense formations became increasingly hazardous, and heavy armours were either ineffective o ...
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Phalanx
The phalanx (: phalanxes or phalanges) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar polearms tightly packed together. The term is particularly used to describe the use of this formation in ancient Greek warfare, although the ancient Greek writers used it to also describe any massed infantry formation, regardless of its equipment. Arrian uses the term in his ''Array against the Alans'' when he refers to his legions. In Greek texts, the phalanx may be deployed for battle, on the march, or even camped, thus describing the mass of infantry or cavalry that would deploy in line during battle. They marched forward as one entity. The term itself, as used today, does not refer to a distinctive military unit or division (e.g., the Roman legion or the contemporary Western-type battalion), but to the type of formation of an army's troops. Therefore, this term does not indicate a standard combat ...
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