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Origins of the Roman

Army
GIAMBATTISTA CAIRO

When Rome was only a simple alliance of villages, the Roman army was a federated army in
which the inhabitants of each village fought
together as a clan. After the city was founded, the
army modeled itself on the Curiate Assembly
(comitia curiata), where the Romans combined in
30 groups called curiae. Each curia provided a
centuria of infantrymen and a decuria of cavalrymen, which was equivalent to 3,000 infantry and
300 cavalry. Battles were fought as a series of individual encounters in which an individuals fury
(furor) was commended. It was this same fury
that separated the warrior from his normal persona and turned him into a man possessed.
Even in the ancient world, the cavalry was a
separate unit and not merely a mounted version
of the infantry. Cavalrymen were aristocrats, the
only people with the means to purchase a horse.
Cavalrymen, like infantrymen, fought individual
battles that emphasized their individual merits.
Ancient literature contains two distinct versions
of how the cavalry developed. In addition to those
who claim that it was the monarchy that increased
cavalry numbers from 300 to 600, then to 900,
and later to 1,800 under Tarquinus Priscus (the
fifth king of Rome) there are those who state
that before Priscuss reign the cavalry numbered
only 300, and later 600. There is a preference for
the latter theory. This is because it was only at the
end of the 5th century BCE, when the state
decided to grant allowances to the cavalry for the
acquisition and upkeep of their horses, that 12
new cavalry centuriae were created. These new
centuriae replaced the six oldest centuriae in the
field, which were thereafter reserved for ceremonial roles, though maintaining their political role
in comitia centuriata.
At the end of the 7th century BCE Rome
adopted the Etruscan hoplite tactics that had
originated in Greece. The infantry grew in importance at the expense of the cavalry. The main hoplite weapons were a long thrusting spear (hasta)

and a round bronze shield (clipeus). The hoplites

held the shield in their left hand to protect themselves on the left as well as to protect the soldier
on their right in the line of advance. In battle the
army adopted a closed formation. They collided
head-on with the enemy infantry and whichever
side succeeded in driving out the enemy was considered victorious. Discipline replaced the furor
of the individual warrior, and the hoplite was
required to maintain his position in the phalanx.
The ancient values of hand-to-hand fighting
therefore began to be questioned. They were the
values on which the aristocracy modeled its own
identity. This led to a resistance to hoplite warfare
from the most conservative sections of society
and outdated attempts to return to a nobler form
of warfare (Livy 2.48.72.50.11) or to a form of
combat in which the cavalry took precedence
over the infantry (Livy 2.43.72.43.10), or even to
hand-to-hand infantry attacks in which the individuals furor could be praised (Livy 2.46.3
2.46.4). It was only in the 4th century BCE that
the Romans, faced with the difficulty of fighting
the elusive Samnites in the mountains, became
more flexible. They adopted a new tactical unit,
the maniple, in which the first line of men was
armed with a new type of shield (scutum), which
provided better protection than the clipeus and
popularized hand-to-hand sword combat again.
There are differing opinions on the development of the infantry that are based, at least in
part, on various ideas of the development of the
comitia centuriata. In the comitia of the 3rd century BCE, everybody who was capable of fighting
in the army was divided into five classes, in
decreasing order of wealth from the first to the
fifth class. Within each class the population was
grouped by centuriae, where each centuria was
then divided equally into two groups, one group
made up of young adults aged from 17 to 45 years
who were intended to undertake active military
service, and the other group made up of older
adults aged 46 to 60 who made up the reserve
force. The first class comprised 80 centuriae, the
second, third, and fourth classes each had 20, and
the fifth comprised 30. There were also 18 cavalry
centuriae, two of engineers, and two of musicians.

The Encyclopedia of the Roman Army, First Edition. Edited by Yann Le Bohec.
2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118318140.wbra1097

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A separate centuria was made up of those who did
not have the means to join up, the proletariat. The
first three classes were given weapons that allowed
them to serve in the heavy infantry; the other two
were given weapons for serving in the light infantry. In the beginning, the Centuriate Assembly
probably only consisted of soldiers that had actually been recruited. Some scholars, such as
Fraccaro (1931), believe that in the middle of the
6th century BCE, when the comitia are traditionally believed to have been formed, there were
6,000 heavy infantry equivalent to 60 centuriae of
young adults in the first three classes who numbered approximately 100 per centuria. At the
beginning of the Republic the army split into two
legions, each with 3,000 hoplites in 60 centuriae at
half their strength. The 2,400 light infantry,
equivalent to about 25 centuriae of young adults
from the last two classes, were then divided into
legions each containing about 1,200 men. Some
scholars, such as Sumner (1970), agree with
sources that refer to the oldest Roman army as
classis (Paul. Fest. 48L), identifying it with the
first class of wealth (Gell. NA, 6.13), and think that
heavy infantry initially amounted to only 40 centuriae of first-class young men from the comitia.
Later, 2,000 hoplites, equivalent to 20 centuriae of
second-class and third-class young adults, with
less wealth but still enough so that they could
purchase a clipeus and a hasta, were combined
with the 4,000 first-class hoplites. A further 2,500
light infantry may then have been added, equivalent to 25 centuriae of fourth-class and fifth-class
young adults. Other scholars, such as Cairo

(2010), believe that the 9,000-strong hoplite army

of the mid-6th century BCE was divided into 90
centuriae, three for each of the 30 curiae of the
comitia curiata, and was first transformed into a
4,500-strong hoplite army in two legions of 90
centuriae, but at half their strength, along with
1,800 light infantry per legion. Three military
tribunes with consular powers were appointed in
444 BCE to restructure the army so that it could
cope with the increasing number of military
fronts (Livy 4.7.2). The army adopted 3,000-strong
hoplite legions of 60 centuriae and 1,200 light
infantry per legion.
See also etruscans, army of the; italians as
enemies of rome; wars of the first republican period, 509201 bce.
REFERENCES
Cairo, G. (2010) Rileggendo Livio VIII,8,314: una
nuova ipotesi sulla legione. RSA 40: 85101.
Fraccaro, P. (1931) La storia dellantichissimo esercito
romano e let dellordinamento centuriato. In Istituto
di studi romani (ed.) Atti del II Congresso nazionale
di studi romani (pp. 9197). Rome.
Sumner, J.V. (1970) The legion and the centuriate
organization. JRS 60: 6778.

FURTHER READING
Brizzi, G. (2008) Il guerriero, loplita, il legionario (2nd
edn). Bologna.