Environment Essay: Life In The Roman Army

In Rome, there were around 30 different gladiators that were experts with the different shields, weapons, and armor. There were the elite gladiators, who were freed and decided to remain as gladiators. Then there were heavily armed gladiators that had a lot of armor and were protected, but had very little movement when fighting. Finally, there were the lightly armed gladiators, they had little to no armor, but had the ability to move more freely when fighting. The armor used during their practices was wooden swords and shields instead of real equipment, for the protection of the gladiators, the soldiers, and trainers who worked there. When it was time for a match the gladiators would use real swords, shields, and sometimes armor to battle (Types of Gladiators). The gladiators also were used to represent strong gods by the way they were dressed and the weapons they used. For instance, there were unusual weapons, such as a trident, used by the god Neptune, and the use of a net to follow the water god theme (Retiarri). Unlike in actual gladiator schools, in the movie, it did not seem to have the men separated by their specialty but they all train together. Spartacus, and the other gladiators did train using wooden swords and shields. There was a scene were Spartacus had to actually fight till the death with another gladiator from the school, because some wealthy government men and their wives came to “Ludi Gladiatorium” and wanted to see a fight. They paid a high percentage of money to make this happen, since it was not allowed to fight these gladiators till death in the schools. Spartacus was given a short sword and a shield, while his opponent was given a fish net and a trident to battle. Although, Spartacus did not win that fight because his opponent spared his life, the man did unfortunately get murdered on

Some classes are the Eques began their matches on horseback, but ended in hand-to-hand combat. They wore tunics, bronze helmets, round shields and a long sword. Another class was the Hoplomachus who fought with a long spear as well as a short sword or dagger; he wore a visored helmet with crest and long greaves over both legs to protect them since he carried only a small shield, usually round. The attacking class was the Provocator was the most heavily armed and the only one who wore a pectoral covering; the extent of the armour hindered the gladiator’s ability to dodge making it slower and agile. However, he was pair with another gladiator to assist him.

The U.S. military uniforms are completely different from the Roman Republic; nothing is the same except for the use of a helmet. Warfare has changed since the ancient times and with that change, what soldiers wear for protection had to change as well.

Some examples of these would include The Battering Ram, The Turris, and The Ballista. The Roman army was also very willing to incorporate the war tactics and the weapons of their defeated enemies if they were deemed beneficial. (Alchin) These improvements provided the Roman army advantages in battle. The Roman generals that were picked to lead the army were highly skilled in the art of war. They were masters of attack and counterattacks, the use of mounted and unmounted calvary as well as archery. As a result of the Roman army's successful tactics, Rome therefore was able to achieve massive amounts of territory and assemble a substantial empire. (Cavazzi)

One of the many noteworthy reasons Rome came to its demise was the unstable nature of their military. The Romans were rarely using their armor to shield themselves and it was getting tiresome to wear the armor. The emperor then did not require the use of body armor anymore, “Therefore, they first asked the emperor to set aside the breastplates… and then the helmets.” (page 15). Because of the decision to cast away the breastplates and helmets, it made it effortless to wound and kill the Romans with skilled archers, such as the Huns (Doc D). Another pivotal fault was the draft, “The exempted categories were...numerous” (Doc B). Draft exemptions meant that not enough men were fighting and too many were lazing around. Even bakers and cooks were not required to serve under martial law(Doc B). Because of these mistakes, the Roman military became weak. Not having enough members on their command,

With no strength, the armor they wore seemed heavy, as the Roman Historian Vegetius states from an excerpt in Document B. The military men started to ask to remove the breastplate,and later removed their helmets. With no armor protecting them in battle, the numbers grew short,as countless soldiers fell from numerous wounds. Rome tried to fix the problem by conscription, but failed to enforce it as numerous categories were excluded from the draft. With no soldiers to defend Rome, the invaders viewed this as an opportunity to attack, which was the third problem that played in Rome’s

Vegetius, a Roman historian writing about his empire’s military concerns in 450 C.E, wrote that “But when, because of negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned, the customary armor began to seem heavy since the soldiers rarely ever wore it.” (Concerning Military Matters, Document B). Eventually, the army, with the support of the emperor, abandoned their helmets and breastplates wholly, marching forward against Germanic tribes, like the Goths, unarmed. Now without armor, where past soldiers would have stood & fought-even if it meant their own deaths-soldiers fled away from the enemy. Another historian, writing 1532 years later, Michael Grant argued that the Roman army eventually was reduced to civilians as people were excluded from “regular conscriptions”

“Before the year 400 CE foot soldiers wore breastplates and helmets. But when, because of negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned.” This quote came from Document B in the DBQ packet. The Roman army did not train or wear armor so more often than not, they got killed. Not wearing armor was one of the many mistakes that the military made.

The council allowed the army to ditch the breastplates and other armor because they were saying it was too heavy. According to Roman historian Vegetius, “...because of negligence and laziness, parade ground drills were abandoned, the customary armor began to seem heavy since the soldiers rarely ever wore it. ”(Doc B) The laziness in Rome’s defenses were causing it to become an easy target to its enemies.

When Rome lost a majority of their people they also lost their leadership. Their leaders changed every 2-5 years. They had 22 leaders in 50 years(Doc A). All 22 of them of them had different ideas of course. So all of them had different ideas on military wearing armour(Doc B). They probably even

An excerpt from an ancient book by the Roman Historian Vegetius states, “The customary armor began to seem heavy since the soldiers rarely ever wore it. Therefore, they first asked the emperor to set aside the breastplates… and then the helmets. So our soldiers fought the Goths without any protection for chest and head and were often beaten by archers” This shows that the laziness of the soldiers lead to weakness and could not win any battles. Also, it is stated, “Thus it happens that troops in battle, exposed to wounds because they have no armor, think about running and not about fighting.” This explains that the soldiers got killed and could not defend Rome because they wore no armor. Military weakness contributed to the fall of Rome because they could not protect the empire because they were lazy and wore no armor. Enemies could have easily one battles against

An important contributing factor to an army's success is armor for defense. An army can have skilled soldiers, but cannot be successful without the right armor. Roman and Greek armies wore similar types of armor. The Roman and Greek foot soldiers wore a square breastplate on their torso. While the Romans only wore one greave on their left leg, Greeks wore greaves on both legs. A greave was a sheet of metal worn to protect the legs (Horsepower: Harnessed…). Soldiers wear greaves even in current day. Recently, the greaves have been upgraded to protect the legs from ‘Improvised explosive devices,’ such as those in Iraq (Frost, Quad Guard). Roman soldiers wore a helmet that protected the neck, and came around to protect their face. The Greek’s helmets were more full and protective than the Roman helmets. Greek helmets covered their entire head and only left small

Rome also had very strict requirements of war, including their uniform, which still has an influence on current military uniforms, and also who could join. Rome's military uniform was quite elaborate. It had many elements, including many different weapons. The eight main elements of the armour were the tunic, the scarf, the baldric, the body armour,

The documents I chose were about the roman army (From a book in 450 CE called Concerning Military Matters by a Roman historian Vegetius) and about the foreign invasions ( A map from various sources). Why I chose the document about the roman army is because when you have a military that is not really willing to fight or wear their armor, I don’t think they will be successful in winning the war at all. It probably all started because when Rome was wealthy and full of power, they probably didn’t have a lot of worries so they got lazy and thought they don’t have to go to war and wear armor, but they still went, but not so prepared. So when they went to war (with no armor or anything to protect themselves) they probably ran away instead of fighting, and most of them died because the enemy or the invaders probably knew already from previous wars that now the romans don’t wear armor so they brought archers and just shot them with the bows and they would all die because of no protection whatsoever, and the rest would run away. That is one of the reasons that led the roman empire to fall apart, not having anyone willing to do anything about the war.

Thankfully, due to the Romans writing a lot down, there are many sources (unlike in the "Dark Ages" for example) available to study how the Roman army worked. In this project, the aim is to find out how the training and organization of the