When Russell Crowe, playing the Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, leads his army into battle against the hordes of Germanic warriors in the opening scenes of Gladiator, the action gets very bloody, very quickly. Anyone who has seen the Ridley Scott-directed film will remember the extreme violence it portrays.
First of all, the Roman legionaries rain down a firestorm of burning arrows and catapulted projectiles. Then, marching forward in strict formation, they engage with the barbarians in vicious hand-to-hand combat. Next, in a pincer movement, the Roman cavalry gallops around the rear of the battle line, hacking down the enemy with their swords. Finally, they butcher any stragglers until the entire opposing army is destroyed.
Many historians agree these film scenes, set in 180AD, are historically accurate. Among them is Richard Abdy, curator of a new exhibition at The British Museum, in London, called ‘Legion: life in the Roman army’.
“It does feel convincing,” he tells MF, explaining how, when lined up for combat, legionaries – the infantrymen of the Roman army – would position themselves in three ranks, according to their seniority, just as they do in the film. The youngest troops, at the front, were the hastati (spearmen). “They had the most stamina to bear the brunt of the fighting and wouldn’t have experienced the true horror of battle,” Abdy says.
Behind these spearmen were the principes (best men). These were seasoned soldiers, with plenty of experience, who could step into the fray if necessary. They also prevented their younger – and possibly more fearful – comrades from retreating from the violence of battle.
The third and most experienced line were the pili (javelin-men) who mainly used projectiles to attack the enemy from a distance. They tended to be the oldest soldiers, with retirement looming, held in reserve and only deployed if things got really desperate.
Career soldiers
The British Museum exhibition demonstrates how legions were the heavy infantry of Ancient Rome, with a small component of cavalry supporting them on horseback. Each legion comprised over 5,000 foot-soldiers, split into ten cohorts, most of which contained six centuries of 80 soldiers each. By 117AD, when the empire was at its widest expanse, there were some 300,000 troops keeping control of around 60 million people, spread out across Europe, North Africa and western Asia. This fighting force was split between legions and a second tier of mostly non-Roman citizen soldiers called the auxilia.
In his book accompanying the exhibition, Abdy stresses what a vital role these career soldiers played in imposing the might of Rome onto the lands it controlled. ‘They were the expanders of limitless empire who later became the settled wallbuilders who cemented its borders,’ he writes. ‘The first to bring a shared cultural,
