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Gai Iuli Caesaris De bello gallico commentariorum II. III.
Gai Iuli Caesaris De bello gallico commentariorum II III Author:Julius Caesar Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: '' ' / THE ROMAN Apt Y." 4 A. /J k . " V . The Romans were a nation of soldiers!,, and it" is necessary to know something about the; Bomsfo army in... more » order to understand the writings-of the' greatest Roman general. Every one knows" Aow Rome was not built without bloodshed; and it was 5 by firo and sword, by blood and iron, that she pushed forward year by year the boundaries of her empire. But, except in point of discipline, the legions of Caesar bore little resemblance to the citizen host which Romulus had led to victory 10 seven centuries before. The history of the Roman Army divides itself into periods, but it is impossible to understand accurately the military terms of a later period without knowing something of those which preceded. 15 We will give a slight outline of the military systems previous to that which was in use when Caesar fought in Gaul. In the time of the kings the order of battle was the phalanx, in which the soldiers formed one compact mass. Camillus, at the 20 beginning of the fourth century B.c., is said to have broken the phalanx up into smaller bodies, called manipuli, capable of acting separately, but trained to act in concert. The whole legion was arranged in three lines. The first line was composed of the 25 youngest men, the second of men in the full vigour of life, and the third of veterans. These three lines were called respectively Hastati, Principes, and Triarii, and each contained ten manipuli, drawn up separately at a short distance from each other. 30The legion so drawn up presented a chequer formation :— Hastati — — — — — — — — Principes — — — — — — — — — — 5 Trinrii — — — — — — — — — — Each manipulus was divided into two centuriae, each of which was commanded by a centurio. The centurion commanding the right wing (ce...« less