The Evolution of the Roman Army Part III – The Cohort System (113 BC - late 3rd century AD)In

The Evolution of the Roman Army Part III – The Cohort System (113 BC - late 3rd century AD)In Case You Missed: Part I, Part IIThe maniple system had served the Roman Republic well, allowing it to take over all of Italy, defeat it’s mortal enemy Carthage, and conquer Greece as well as much of Anatolia. However, as early as the Punic Wars the maniple system was showing several weaknesses. First the maniple itself only contained at most 120 men. This was the perfect size unit when fighting the fierce Samnites in the hills of Southern Italy, who also tended to fight in small bands. However against large well organized armies such as those fielded by the  Carthaginians and Greeks, maniples were often found to be undermanned. Secondly, the Roman Republic had grown from a city state, to a regional power, until by the end of the 2nd century BC it was a de facto empire that dominated the Mediterranean.  By instituting wealth requirements in order to serve in the army, the Romans limited available recruits to a relatively small pool of men. Often these men didn’t stay in the army very long, as they had farms, businesses, and families back home to attend to. It was not  uncommon for wars at this time period to recess or end right as the planting season began so that the soldiers could go home and plant their crops. The result of this class based military system was that the Roman Republic found that it often lacked the men needed to defend and police it’s new “empire”. In 113 BC when two German tribes called the Cimbri and the Teutons invaded the Roman Republic along with many allied Celts.  The tough and warlike Cimbri overwhelmed the Roman Army, killing up to 80,000 soldiers at Arausio in 105 BC, a defeat which was as bad as the slaughter that had occurred at the Battle of Cannae a century earlier at the hands of Hannibal’s army.   The Romans found themselves in a situation in which they suffered severe manpower shortages, as the Cimbri had culled the elite citizens of Rome who made up the army’s recruitment pool.  In desperation, the Romans elected the famed general Gaius Marius Consul in absentia, an unprecedented move in the republic’s history. Gaius Marius was, perhaps, the greatest Roman general in history, fighting enemies as diverse as fast and mobile guerrilla horsemen in the Sahara Desert to barbarians in dark forests Northern Europe.  He was especially known as a sly commander, never sticking to one battle doctrine but constantly modifying his tactics, equipment, and the training of his men in order to adapt to different situations. Marius was immediately recalled from his post in Africa and given emergency powers to beat back the Cimbri.With unquestioned command of the army, Marius instituted reforms to deal with Rome’s manpower shortages.  The old tradition of a militia of landowning citizen soldiers was swept away and replaced with a standing professional army.  Marius ordered recruitment of the masses, allowing for commoners to enlist in the army for a period of 15 years (late 25 years).  Recruitment policy still required soldiers to be Roman citizens, however Romans of all classes were eligible for service. The ranks swelled with new recruits, many of whom could not find employment otherwise. The reward for honorable service was to retire with a pay bonus, a pension, and a plot of land. Since they could not afford their own weapons and equipment, Marius made provisions for the state to supply the military. Under Marius’ command, there were no longer going to be any more hastati, princpes, and triarii.  All solders were to be heavily armed, well trained, and well equipped with standardized equipment. The soldiers were trained regularly; becoming the most disciplined and organized force in the known world.  In essence what Marius created was a full time standing professional armies.The basic military unit of Marius’ new army was the cohort. Consisting of 500 men, each cohort was designed to be a small self sufficient army, each with its own camps, commanders, supply officers, and support personnel. Cohort commanders, typically a senior centurion, were given greater initiative to command their troops in the field, allowing a Roman general to delegate tasks to different cohorts and thus coordinate complex maneuvers on the battlefields. It also made it easy for commanders to build armies. Typically a legion consisted of around 10 cohorts or 5,000 men, give or take a few hundred men depending on time period. However, since each cohort was identical, a commander could chose to beef up a legion by assigning a few more cohorts to it, or he could  make a legion lighter by subtracting a few cohorts from it. He could even create special task forces that only consisted of a few cohorts if need be. The new cohort system offered unparalleled flexibility in organization. Now a Roman commander no longer had to worry if he had too many hastati maniples and not enough triarri maniples, organizing an effective fighting force was a simple as a child playing with toy blocks.Since the new Roman Army was now manned by full time professional soldiers, a new system of training and drill was deeply ingrained into the cohort system. Whereas the maniple and especially the phalanx was very limited in it’s combat formations, cohorts drilled and trained to the point where at the signaling of a command the cohort could form a different formation, including square, rectangular, line, column, circular (in case of being surrounded), or wedge formation. One special formation was called the “testudo”, where soldiers locked shields together in order to deflect arrows or other incoming missiles.Even the old phalanx was among their repertoire as they would lock shields together with javelins arrayed toward the enemy. Roman training involved using wooden weapons that were twice as heavy as real weapons. Trainees would spend countless hours in front of a wooden post called a pell to build the skills and stamina of combat. Later, they would conduct sparing exercises against other soldiers.The typical legionary was armed with a short sword called a gladius, a dagger (pugio), two or three javelins, a large rectangular shield called a scutum, a helmet, and some form of torso armor. For the most part this armor came in the form of chainmail (lorica hamata), although in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD was supplemented with a type of segmented plate armor called the lorica segmentata. I’ll being doing a special post on the lorica segmentata towards the end of this series. Before close combat, Roman soldiers would begin the battle by throwing volleys javelins at the enemy. Often a few javelin volleys was enough to halt the charge of a “barbarian hoarde”. In close combat, the front ranks would immediataly slam their shields in the enemy, fighting in extremely tight confines. This made larger enemy weapons such as longswords, spears, and battleaxes useless in the tight quarters of Roman combat. The ranks to the rear would brace the front ranks so that the formation could not be driven back. The soldiers would then stab at the enemy from the sides of their shields, hence why the Romans chose the shorter gladius over longer weapons. The new cohorts were not tight formations like the old phalanx, however each soldier was spaced out from one another. This gave room for each soldier to work with his sword, and also provided a narrow corridor with which soldiers in the front could retreat through. Typically after a few minutes the cohort commander would give signal, and the front rank would retreat to the rear while the next rank would step up to continue combat. This ensured that the cohort would not become too fatigued too quickly. One of the reasons the Roman Army was so successful against the Celtic and German “barbarians” was because the Romans paced themselves, while the babarians would spend all of their energy on one large assault, then become exhausted. Thus Roman armies numbering in the tens of thousands were able to slaughter barbarian armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Perhaps the most historically accurate depiction of this combat system in popular media can be found in the opening battle of HBO’s series “Rome”…Among the Marian reforms was a regulation to turn the army into a more mobile force.  Throughout history one of the greatest challenges for any military commander was transporting an army quickly while keeping it intact.  Often armies were slow moving affairs with miles of baggage trains which contained vital equipment and supplies.  To eliminate this large cumbersome supply train, Marius required every eight men to use only one mule.  These eight men were a squad of “battle buddies” called a “contuburnium” who shared a tent. Whatever could not be carried by the mule was carried by the men.  This included armor, shield, sword, dagger, javelins, tools, toiletries, 15 days worth of rations, a shovel and a pickax, a canteen, a bedroll, cooking tools, and any other necessary equipment. To help his soldiers carry all this equipment Marius devised an early type of backpack; a wooden cross with which the soldier could hang his equipment while carrying on his shoulders.   Overall the pack weighed around 60-100 pounds, and soldiers were expected to march a minimum of 20 miles in five hours, all while wearing either simple leather shoes or sandals. Once march was done, they would then be expected to build a camp, fully fortified with wooden palisade walls and watchtowers, thus so that they could sleep in safety from night ambush. The next morning after breakfast, they would tear down their camp and repeat the process all over again. Marius understood that mobility was the key to victory, and often on campaign his soldiers could be expected to march for days, weeks, even months on end, covering hundreds of miles on foot while carrying all their equipment. Needless to say, the new soldiers of the Roman Army were very tough and rugged men, earning them the nickname “Marius’ Mules”.Finally, another advantage of the Marian Reforms was that because Roman soldiers were now being recruited from the plebeian class, they brought with them skills that Roman soldiers in the past did not have. These included cooks, butchers, blacksmiths, carpenters, stone masons, artisans, laborers, and various other craftsmen. In addition the army contracted with civilians to provide other important services such as scribes, engineers, priests, doctors, lawyers, accountants, musicians, entertainers, and prostitutes. As a result a Roman Army had a wide variety of skills that it could use. It could build bridges, forts, roads, trenches, siege equipment, and various other constructions. Throughout Roman history many battles were won because the Romans were able to build a fort, road, bridge, or ramp in a matter of days. It was not uncommon for Roman soldiers to be used as laborers on infrastructure projects when not on campaign.With his new army, General Marius was able to crush the Cimbri and Teutons, thus sealing his reputation as one of Rome’s greatest military minds. After that, the cohorts would form the armies of Caesar and Pompey, Marc Antony and Octavian, and of course the Roman emperors. The cohort system would continue in throughout use in the late republic into the golden age of the Roman Empire. It would be discotinued with Emperor Diocletian’s reforms in the late 3rd century AD. By the time of Julius Caesar the Roman Army was manned with around 180,000 men. By the end of the first century it had grown to around 250,000, and by then end the third century consisted of around 350,000 - 400,000.To be Continued… -- source link

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