Why Was the Roman Legion so Powerful?

The legions of Rome were one of the biggest factors in Rome's success as an empire. They conquered vast quantities of land, and were often used by the government to improve the morale of people living in cities, which often had parts that were cramped and unsanitary. The legions were set apart from contemporary armies due to their level of organisation and especially as they fought as a unit and not as individuals, as many tribes did.

The powerful and well known Roman army was another key factor in maintaining the empire. The Roman army was large, well equipped, well trained, disciplined and skilled military force that was stationed throughout the empire to prevent uprisings and crush rebellion. Military training was a very important and arduous affair in the Roman Empire. It was essential for each soldier to achieve a high level of skill in fighting and using their weapons. They also had to march 30 kilometers 3 times a month wearing 20kg armor, do drills twice a day, learn to build camps, swim, mount and ride a horse and fight mock battles. The Roman army was quite ruthless when it came to crushing rebellion. They did not hesitate to hurt or even slaughter the people who went against the Roman rule.

In its time, the Roman Empire was the largest empire the world had ever seen. The fact that the Romans were able to control and obtain an empire of this size was due to plenty of factors, but the main ones are the Roman army, the Roman roads, Pax Romana, the borders of the empire, and the benefits of the barbarians who became ruled by the empire. On their own, these factors wouldn’t do much at all, but such a combination brought great success.

Many of Rome's successes were due to its highly trained and disciplined army. Rome's army became the best in the known world. The Roman army was organized into divisions of soldiers according to their social class. The ranks of the army could be divided into five classes. The first class were those who were the most well-off, they were equipped with the best weapons,

The military prowess of Roman commanders and legionaries proved to be successful enough to turn a small community into an ancient super power. There are many discussions to be had about the tactics and success of the Roman army, some of which are: their style of fighting, the attitude toward the fight, and the fruits of their war.

The Roman empire approximately began in 753 B.C through 476 A.D(also known as the fall of the Roman empire). The empire stretch from the Italian peninsula to all the Mediterranean sea and also stretching far north to the British isle. The empire was a highly advanced society, just like he Aztec in their lifetime. In addition the roman shared many similarities with the Aztec and one of them was having a highly trained and skilled army. The roman empire army conquer all of the Mediterranean sea and most of western Europe. The training they had to experience were also experience by the Aztecs. They both start a young age and if you did well you would have a high ranking in the social society. The military did serve a high purpose in Romans society,

Their incredibly good fighting techniques helped with the control and safety of the empire. To keep order in the empire they had a civil guard maintaining peace. They dealt with less threatening affairs while the Roman legions and auxilia suppressed higher level rioting and rebellion. The Romans were highly skilled when it came to battles, and even though their weapons were not significantly better than their enemies they were highly disciplined. The army was organised in a very simple way, they would be split into groups in equal amounts with a leader or commander.

With all that was now available to the Romans, building bridges and writing poetry, having a life full of culture, surely the Romans were now unbeatable. With each new ruler came a slight change in government, some of whom wanted to go back to the original system and others clamoring for more sole power over the city and it's

It must be noted that at this particular time, the Roman military was not a professional

The Roman army was essential in the creation and upkeep of the Roman Empire. It defended the homeland and conquered other nations to bring wealth that benefited the nation. The Roman army was the most advanced of its time, using new techniques and weapons that brought other nations to their knees. The fighting techniques that they came up with were only able to work due to the rigorous training that took place. “They developed fighting techniques that were linked to a very hard training regimen” (Trueman). Training was very tough, long days of parading and maneuvers as well as physical fitness and martial skills was what a typical day would consist of. Recruits would often be punished for failure so they would become very fit and disciplined or else could face extra duty or even worse, a whipping.

Mythically established in 753 BC by Romulus and Remus, and brutally broken in AD 1453 by the Ottoman Turks, Rome’s Empire wasn’t just war and conquering, “Rome was also an idea. Inhabitants from the farthest reaches of the empire wanted to be-and became-‘Roman.’” Amy Chua’s thesis for this chapter is that the tolerance of Rome allowed it to go beyond the point of empire and become a hyper power. And not only was it a hyper power, but it lasted for an extremely long time. Rome’s amazing capability of using its citizens as part of the roman life expanded its empire and broke the ceiling for new ‘romans’. Their ideas can be expressed most clearly through Emperor Claudius’ speech, saying that the downfall of powerful cities was that they ‘held

The leaders were confident that they were going to win, so they motivated their soldiers by reminding them to keep the rewards in mind. The Romans “erant et virtute et studio pugnandi pares” (were equal in both courage and enthusiasm for fighting) (34.3); however, “ab duce et a fortuna deserebantur” (they were being deserted by their leader and by fortune) (34.3). Ambiorix then was able to identify this weak point and ordered that the soldiers “procul tela coniciant neu propius accedant” (throw weapons from afar and not to approach nearer). They were able to do this since “levitate armorum et cotidiana exercitatione nihil eis noceri posse” (that because of the lightness of their weapons and their daily training nothing could be harmful for them) (34.7). If the Romans had a thorough strategy, then they also could have been

The Roman Army was well-organized. Soldiers were trained to fight and to defend themselves and used various weapons.

Rome was the most powerful empire that has ever existed in the history of mankind, spanning for over a thousand years. What was most important and threatening about the Roman civilization was its military. For many moments in the Roman civilization, the state only existed to provide for its military; however, even its strong military had rules placed upon it. One very important rule that the Romans had over their military was that the Roman state required that their soldiers own property. However, this rule did not last forever as certain social, economic, and political developments made this rule impossible to enforce and keep a strong military. Abolishing this rule brought about many changes upon the Roman political life and helped change

Gladiator didn’t show much of the training that the men received. Most of it was them in battle, but not what went on behind the scenes and all the vigorous training they had to go through. Watching the behind the scenes was interesting because throughout the whole thing I thought to myself, ‘wow this is crazy how much work it took for all these men to become gladiators for the film.’ No wonder they were all buff, because they did hours and hours of training everyday. In Roman times, gladiators had to endure lengthy and demanding training so that they could be prepared for what lay before them. In the movie, Maximus was Rome’s greatest general so they just assumed he was the best around and didn’t need any training.