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Roman Army
By Grant B.
The Roman army was a very powerful army with experts with their accuracy and
their agility. A Roman soldier had to be tough enough to go through the traveling. Roman
soldiers were expected to march
20 miles a day with their heavy
armor, food, and their stuff to set
up their camp. Each soldier on
the march had to carry more than
66 pounds when they were
traveling place to place. The
Roman Army made their men fit
and skilled as the next. When it
comes to night, they have to put
up their campsite every single
night. All Roman army camps followed the same rectangular
plan, divided by two main streets, with the generals
headquarters in the middle.
The training was bad and horrible for the Roman
soldiers but that was the only thing that could get the Roman
soldiers to be tough, skilled, and trained to be a Roman soldier.
When a man was going to join the army, he would swear to
fight to the death. In training their daily drills were in weapons-
handling, running, jumping, and carrying heavy packs. If a man misbehaved, he was
going to be punished severely. After 20-26 years with the army, a legionary would be
given a plot of land to live on.
The Romans war machines were big and they were very dangerous. The ballista
were large catapults, used to fire arrows and iron-tipped bolts. The ballista was a very
large machine that needed ten Roman soldiers to operate the giant machine. The biggest
and most powerful Roman siege engine is the onager. The onager is a huge one-armed
catapult that fired massive missiles. The battery ram was made from a tree trunk with an
iron tip. The battery ram was used to smash the enemy’s wall in so that you can get to the
city and do what the soldiers do to destroy it. The siege tower is a big tower made out of
wood and was wheeled up to the wall and the archers would shoot the enemy so that the
soldiers down on the ground would not be shot at by missiles. The siege tower was about
seven stories high.
Roman soldiers had to wear their protection so they would not get hurt as bad.
They had a sturdy iron or bronze helmet, and each soldier carried a large curved shield.
Legionaries wore three different types of protection over their tunics. The most common
was the breastplate. Most of the soldiers wore the same style helmet by what their
ranking is. Most of the Roman soldiers weapons were short.
Bibliography
Brocklehurst, Ruth. Roman Army, London: Usborne, 2003.
The Romans. 2005. BBC. 21 Mar. 2005 <http://www.bbc.co.
uk/schools/romans/>.