The Romans were probably the most successful empire ever. However what made them such a driving force was the sheer power and organization behind the formidable legions of the Romans.

The legions were split into various things:-

Legion – There were usually around 5,000 men in a legion. The whole army contained around 150,000 soldiers. It was commanded by a Legate or a Legatus Legionis who was usually from a wealthy or important family.

Cohort – For some reason one cohort (prima cohors) had more men than the other cohorts – the prima cohors had around 800 men while the others had from 480 men to 500 men. Each legion had 10 cohorts.

Century- Although the name “century” suggests that there were 100 men in each century, this was usually not the case. Oddly most centuries had only around 80 men, but some did have 100 soldiers. Despite this inconsistency, there was always 6 centuries in a cohort.

Contubernium – There was 8 soldiers in each contubernium. They ate together and shared the same tent or room. There was 10 contubernia in each century and each legionary belonged to one.

Pilum- each soldier carried at least one of these javelins - most carried two of them. It was quite long at around 7 foot tall and sometimes had a lead ball in the middle. The tip of it was extremely sharp and could possibly go through metal shields if thrown correctly (the Romans trained had so that they could throw it with power and precision). There has been a lot of debate about whether when the troops threw their javelins: did they want their javelins to go through the shield and mortally wound their opponents? Or did they want the pilum to go through the shield and weigh it down with a lead ball (found in some) therefore making it useless? Or would it bend on impact and either go through the shield and bend or bend on impact-making it useless? It is most likely to be all of them, since different pilums have been found with or without lead balls, and all of them have extremely sharp but weak tips.

Roman body-armor (lorica segmenta) – To the left is someone wearing replica armor. Roman armor had a curved shape like the shield and was held together by some lace and hooks or bronze wire at the front and had leather straps in the inside. It was very flexible because it was made of metal strips fastened together, but the shoulder-plates were over-lapping each other and this made it difficult to raise your arms above shoulder-height. It was designed to deflect projectiles and blows which is why it had the same curved shape as the scutum. It weighed approximately 20 kgs and took a long time to put on properly.

Some topics in this essay:
Cavalry Horses, Legatus Legionis, Hill Forts, Scorpion Ballista, Greek Palintone, Armour Scutumor, Tactics Romans, Punic War, Sometimes Romans, Africa Britain, lead ball, lead ball middle, ballista �, ball middle, curved shape, roman soldiers, prima cohors, horizontal slates, siege weapons, enemy soldiers, close combat, designed deflect projectiles,