Roman Army Tactics

Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, Constatine, Vespasian and many more were some of the greatest Roman emperors who ruled the empire or Rome. It is said, the empire on which the sun never sets was the great Roman empire, and it was only because of the rulers like these that the monarchy lasted for hundreds of years. The Romans were and are till date considered to be the strongest rulers in the history of the world. There were none after them who had the perfection of performance in battle.

The Romans used a unique blend of intelligent strategies and manipulation during their battles with the enemy. They were very famous for pushing their enemy to such an extent, that the battle was avoided and the enemy surrendered to their power. The Roman army was an example of this thoughtful and practical battle plan, which got them victory over every enemy they fought. In the paragraphs below, there is a small attempt of putting together some of the most effective Roman army tactics, that worked wonders for them. Take a look.

Roman Army Strategies

There is a saying which goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day". Though this saying has nothing to do with Rome literally, it means that perfection cannot be attained without practice or hard work. You need skill, strength and strategy to overcome any battle in life. This was exactly, how the Roman soldiers were trained, where they were personally taught the techniques in battle and tested with their lives. The army consisted of legions or groups of men who were assigned particular jobs and were only ordered to do them. The main core of this army consisted of a heavily armored infantry, where these men were provided with ancient Roman weapons.

They formed most of the army as these were the ones, who used the various Roman army tactics against the enemy. There were strict rules for the men in the infantry, where each man walking in the battle line had to have 3 ft space between his front and back. The distance between the ranks or rows of men, had to be 6 ft and with this arrangement about 10,000 men were occupied in the entire legion. The infantry stood in the center, with the cavalry on the sides making wings. To find more about these interesting Roman military tactics, keep reading!

Shield to Shield
The first tactic, also known as the tortoise, which was taught to the infantry was that, the soldiers other than the first row were to stand with their shields overhead. The first or front rows of soldiers were to hold their shields to their side, also standing sideways or parallel to each other. This way they created a shell like armor, for themselves and their neighbors, from bows and missiles from above and front.

Wedge
This one of the Roman army tactics was a very commonly used defense strategy. The soldiers formed a triangular structure with the front as the tip which flattened at the back. This was known as the wedge and they used this to thrust small groups into the enemy with a strong impact and pushing the enemy troops behind. When they were pushed behind, a hand to hand fight was not easy as the Roman soldiers were well equipped with the ancient Roman armor.

Cannae
This was also known as the "weak center", where the soldiers left a weak central battle line, so that the enemy was tempted to attack there. But in this course, the enemy usually forgot, the rest of the battle line was stronger. This way, when the enemy was in their league, the rest of the battle line enveloped them and deployed the enemy very effectively.

Zama
This is a very interesting one of the Roman army tactics, which is also known as the maniple channel strategy. In this technique, there were channels made between the legions or maniples, so that the enemy got confused as to which maniple to attack first. They were also left to save the soldiers from the enemy war elephants. This was used very rarely because, there were ricks of the infantry becoming vulnerable and giving into the pressure of the enemy.

Rolling Up
This was also a very commonly used tactic and usually very effective. There were more soldiers concentrated on one part of the battle line, for example the right flank. These soldiers tried to break the left flank of the enemy and then entered into the enemy's legion with the left flank of the Roman army, rolling up. This would help destroy the entire army of the enemy because they would not have sufficient time to fight the right or left flanks.

With these, very intelligent Roman army tactics, hope you have found the secret to their unimaginable victory. The Roman empire spread throughout the world and their battle strategies are used by many armies even today!