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Maniple (Latin: manipulus) was a tactical unit of the Roman Legion, consisting of two centuriae within a single cohort. It was also the name of the military insignia carried by such unit. The Roman legion (from the Latin legio, meaning levy) was the basic military unit of ancient Rome. ...
Centuria (Latin plural Centuriae) is a Latin substantive rooting in centum a hundred, denoting units consisting of (originally, approximatively) a 100 men. ...
A cohort (from the Latin Cohors, plural cohortes, a military-type unit, as the infantry batallions constituting a Roman legion) is a fairly large group of rather homogenous individuals : original Roman Cohortes military cohort Originally it was a sub-unit of a Roman legion, consisting of 600 men (infantry), itself...
Maniple members, seen as each others brothers in arms, were called commanipulares (singular Commanipularis), but without the domestic closeness of the much smaller contubernium. The Contubernium was smallest group of soilders in the Roman Army. ...
Historical origin
In 390 B.C., the Gauls sacked Rome after defeating the Roman Republican army at Allia River. One of the weaknesses of the Roman army that the Gauls had exposed was the inflexibility of their Hellenic style phalanx formation that they inherited from the Etruscans. To overcome this sort of limitation, the army was split up into subsets called Maniples (it translates roughly to English as 'handfuls') that could perform actions with more independence from one another. The Battle of the Allia was a battle of the first Gallic invasion of Italy. ...
A Macedonian phalanx, as portrayed in the Rome: Total War computer game. ...
During the Roman Republic, the army was organized into three lines, the hastati, the principes, and the triarii. Each of these lines was divided into maniples of 120, 120 and 60 men, respectively. Thus, the legion proper consisted of about 3,000 men. The three lines of infantry were divided by experience and fighting ability, with the youngest soldiers in the hastati making the first engagement. Where resistance was strong this rank would dissolve back through the Roman line and allow the more experienced soldiers in the principes to fight. In turn, the principes could yield to the hardened triarii if necessary. See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century) The Roman Republic (Latin: Res Publica Romanorum) was the republican government of the city of Rome and its territories from 510 BC until the establishment of the Roman Empire, which sometimes placed at 44 BC the year of Caesar...
The Hastati (sing. ...
The plural of the Latin word princeps Specifically, usually in the plural, in the military, the so-called Principes formed the second line of battle in the Roman Republican Army. ...
The Triarii was the third standard line of infantry of the Roman Empires army. ...
There were also very light troops called velites. Unarmored and armed with stones or slings, they stood in front of the line to launch missiles first and screen the army's formation and size from the eyes of the enemy, but then they moved off when the battle began. The velites were not separated into maniples. Velites were a class of light infantry in the army of the Roman Republic, The Velites (pronounced well-ih-tays) were skirmishers, armed with a short sword (Gladius) and several javelins. ...
A sling is a projectile weapon typically used to throw a blunt missile such as a stone, it is also known as the shepherds sling to distinguish it from other meanings. ...
Drill and fighting formations - No part of drill is more essential in action than for soldiers to keep their ranks with the greatest exactness, without opening or closing too much. Troops too much crowded can never fight as they ought, and only embarrass one another. If their order is too open and loose, they give the enemy an opportunity of penetrating. Whenever this happens and they are attacked in the rear, universal disorder and confusion are inevitable. Recruits should therefore be constantly in the field, drawn up by the roll and formed at first into a single rank. They should learn to dress in a straight line and to keep an equal and just distance between man and man. They must then be ordered to double the rank, which they must perform very quickly, and instantly cover their file leaders. In the next place, they are to double again and form four deep. And then the triangle or, as it is commonly called, the wedge, a disposition found very serviceable in action. They must be taught to form the circle or orb; for well-disciplined troops, after being broken by the enemy, have thrown themselves into this position and have thereby prevented the total rout of the army. These evolutions, often practiced in the field of exercise, will be found easy in execution on actual service. (De Re Militari)
References - Primary sources for early Roman military organization include the writings of Polybius and Livy.
A primary source for later Roman military organisation and tactics is Epitoma rei militaris (also referred to as De Re Militari), by Flavius Vegetius Renatus Polybius (ca 203 BC - 120 BC) was a Greek historian of the Mediterranean world famous for his book called The Histories or The Rise of the Roman Empire, covering the period of 220 BC to 146 BC. // Personal experiences As the former tutor of the Scipio Africanus the Younger, the...
Bust of Livy Titus Livius (around 59 BC - 17 AD), known as Livy in English, wrote a monumental history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, from its founding (traditionally dated to 753 BC). ...
De Re Militari (Latin On military matters) was a treatise of late Roman warfare that became a military guide in the middle ages. ...
Vegetius (Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus) was a celebrated military writer of the 4th century. ...
This is a list of Roman military terms. ...
Pauly-Wissowa is the name commonly used for the Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, 1894ff, a German encyclopedia of classical scholarship. ...
External links - The Military Institutions of the Romans (De Re Militari) Translated from the Latin by Lieutenant John Clarke (1767)
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