The hastati contained the young fighters and carried body armour and a rectangular shield, the scutum, which should remain the distinctive equipment of the legionary throughout Roman history. At the front stood the hastati, who were most likely the spearmen of the second class in the previous organization of the phalanx.There were now three lines of soldiers, the hastati in the front, the principes forming the second row, and the triarii, rorarii and accensi in the rear.
The development of the early legion therefore might well be seen as a Latin development. For Rome was a founding member of the Latin League, an alliance initially formed against the Etruscans. Though much of the credit might not be due to the Romans alone. In abandoning the phalanx, the Romans showed their genius for adaptability. Something altogether more flexible was needed to combat such foes than the unwieldy, slow-moving phalanx. Far more it was a collection of hill tribes using the difficult terrain to their advantage. Italy was not governed by city states like Greece, where armies met on large plains, deemed suitable by both sides, to reach a decision. Undoubtedly the most important change was the abandonment of the use of the Greek phalanx. These changes were traditionally by the later Romans believed to have been the work of the great hero Fluvius Camillus, but it appears more likely that the reforms were introduced gradually during the second half of the fourth century BC. If Rome was to reestablish her authority of central Italy, and be prepared to meet any similar disasters in future, some reorganization was needed. In the early fourth century BC Rome received its greatest humiliation, as the Gauls sacked Rome itself. All in all the Roman army consisted of 18 centuries of equites, 82 centuries of the first class (of which 2 centuries were engineers), 20 centuries each of the second, third and fourth classes and 32 centuries of the fifth class (of which 2 centuries were trumpeters).
0 kommentar(er)
