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Item#:
IGN-AR022
Price: $69.98
Description:
The earliest Roman
army formation was the phalanx, the formation
used by the Greeks, Macedonians, and Carthaginians.
For the Romans the phalanx proved to be too
unwieldy a unit to fight on hilly and broken
ground and they soon began to change the nature
of their battle formations. The result was the
legion. Unlike the halanx, the legion was not
a static form; it varied greatly over the centuries.
The term legion did not originally mean any
specific type of military formation. Its origin
probably denoted those who were chosen for military
service during the annual public assembly of
citizens. As it developed, the legion became
a unit of from 4,000 to 6,000 heavy infantry
supported by cavalry and light infantry. The
term infantry simply means soldiers who fight
on foot; the terms light and heavy refer to
the kinds and weight of their weapons.
The legion did
not have to move in a solid block of men as
did the phalanx. The legion was divided into
maniples, groups of 120 men, which were able
to fight in a much more open and versatile battle
array; they marched in lines instead of solid
formation.
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