What made the roman army so good?

Steve C

Determination and professional status. Before Rome, most armies were part-time farmers who could only fight after the harvest. Rome made a professional soldiers and provided them with uniforms, training, and weapons. In the past, the soldiers had to provide their own weapons. Rome's greatest successes occurred during harvest times, when other armies were busy taking care of their crops.

Phil M

technology, training, tactics and overall numbers.

casapulla2001

Good roads for transport, and for supplies. ("An army travels on its stomach.") Tactics, armor, training, generals, terrain, and being paid. Fighting inferior & disorganized tribes. Fear of being killed, if you ran away (that helps). Plus, good music and pageantry leading along and into battle... that impressed nearly everyone. They matched, they excuded the 'Glory that was Rome' and confidence and power. And, they had great wealth behind them (taxes, organization) for ships, weapons, war tributes, merit pay for great performance in battle... and could make a grand career, if word got out of their valor.

Edmund

Organisation and Equipment (Same as the ancient Greek forces).

Their weaponry was state of the art at the time and their organisation and drill training made them difficult to rout or break ranks. Their adversaries weaponry was barbaric and often to weak to penetrate their armour.

Their weakness was in their mobility and their requirement for supplies. Maintenance of equipment etc. This is why they began to struggle as the empire expanded.

The Mongolians on the other hand were practically self-sufficient fast moving lightly armoured mounted forces. That built the biggest empire known to history.

It is said the sun never set on the mongolian empire.

The Oracle

Several key factors.

Discipline
Advanced weapons and armour.
Advancted tactics.
Professional soldiers

One of the main reason the empire eventually fell was that the so called barbarians were able to mimic Roman startagies and weapons manufacturing. Once Rome lost this edge, it was a matter of time before it fell.

Rooikat

Leadership and discipline

fuad_enjoy

mini-skirts n metal helmets

henry m

merciless training and fear of authority

some pride in being Roman or being in a Roman army

great generals who studied great conquests

man_marathon

discipline

aswkingfish

They fought in masses that in most times outnumbered there opponents, or struck without warning in surprise. The roman soldiers kept high moral by pillage and raping woman and children of the villages the beat. Resistors and innocents were often killed.

Chris

They were the first modern professional army. Most of the armies they faced would be called mobs today. Very few were permanent forces that trained together. Most would form to fight a battle or war, then disband again. The Roman Army was a permanent force. Their was a clear rank structure. The trained together as a unit. The had a good supply system. They built roads and fortification to ensure the fast movement of soldiers. The had better weapons and technology than their opponents.

The system started to fall apart when their enemies copied their style of combat and developed weapons as good as or better than the Romans.

Jon C

First trained Paid soldiers. Before them, there were no professional soldiers.

J10

They were a professional full time army who who were well-trained and well-disciplined.

They were very well organized.

The mobility and flexibility of their formations to manuver on the battlefield.

Excellent infantry man-to-man mass fighting tactics.

Good armor and shields.

Very good weapons such as the gladius (short sword) which were an advantage fighting closed in packed battlefields. The pilum (throwing spear) a very effective throwing weapon that did alot of damage or stuck in the enemy shield forcing him to discard it.

Due to those things mentioned had and advantage and were better in almost every single aspect from the equipment they used, to their style of fighting, to their tactics on the battlefield, than any other enemy infantry at that time.

Its not true they always outnumbered their foes. In numerous occasions they defeated armies larger than themselves.

elENTERAOlaCAJAelAGUA

Superb organisation and tactics: they were one of the few armies of the time to employ formations were each legionnaire protected himself and the others around him (using their massive shields entangled,...in formations like the "turtle"). Romans also were keen to adopt tactics and soldiers from other cultures. High degree of military engineering, both offensive and deffensive.

steve j

Dedication, dedication
Dedication, that's what you need
If you wanna be the best
If you wanna beat the rest
Oh-oh dedication's what you need;

SnoddersB

No other fighting force was trained like them. for instance they had the first standing army so, when it came to war they had the practise and the opposition did not. However they could not use their main method in hilly country which is why the Roman empire did not extent to Scotland or the extreme North of Europe.

wild-man of Borneo

Decode this lyrics " If you don't know me by now"
"The spoils of the war" with our creator's universal gifts of life.
Joshua 7.11
What do you think?

Snowy

Discipline, pure and simple. That was a unique feature of any army at the time.

The countries which the Romans succesfully beat in battle tended not to have proper armies but big warlike groups of men with no structure plan or craft.

when the romans did come up against organised or disciplined armies, they tended not to get it all their own way.

rock star

they had more pointy weapons

dels replies

Discipline and tactics

topcop

The same thing that has made every Army in history good:

THE NCO CORPS!!

D. Jansen
MSG MPC RET

NORMAN W

Discipline, Training and the structure of their Legions.

A little bit angry

They were trained well and in a way that up till then no-one else had thought of
also they got their slaves to fight for them
Romans just generally kicked @$$

Korky

Discipline and fear

Chuck T

Wine , lots and lots of wine...