My Roman Republican Legion

The Roman Legion in the time of the Republic circa 200 B.C.is a much talked about subject. Let me help finish beating the horse.

The point of this page is to paint a picture of how I arrange my Republican Roman Army in Classical Hack Second Edition. On this page the photo uses a 1:100 figure scale (1figure representing 100 real men. You will be able to see my Romans at Historicon. I'll refer you to these events as they become available.

What is a full Republican Roman Army

A full army for the Republic at this time would contain 2 sections of Romans and 2 sections of Italian allies in each legion. Two legions put together made a consular army. When two consular armies were required four legions were brigaded together (shown below). When deployed the Roman sections would be in the center and the Latins or Italian Allies would guard the flanks. Each section would deploy into 4 lines as follows (starting from the bottom of the photo to the top). Line one up to 1200 velites (Li). Line 2 up to 1200 hastati (either Hi or Mi; I like to use them as loose order). Line 3 up to 1200 princeps (Hi in close order). Line 4 up to 600 triarii (Hi in close or loose order) and the legion commander with a guard of 120 men called the swift (either Mi or Hi in loose or close order as required). In the photo you will see that each section appears almost as a column. The two section on the far left are Latin Allies. Next stand their two Roman counterparts (making one full legion). Then in the center right are two more Roman sections with their two Latin ally section on the extreme right (making a second full legion). Cavalry guard the extreme flanks. To the center rear of each legion is its leader and his foot guard. The triarii are deployed to each side of the legion commander.

To recap: each individual legion had 2 sections one Roman and one Latin. When fighting each legion would stand one beside the other. The legion deploys in 4 distinct lines. When put together 2 legions would form a consular army. The legion then was really 2 legions of about 8400 men. Each section had about 4200 men.

There would also be a cavalry arm attached to each legion called an ala or wing (300 Hc or Lc cavalry). Each legion section had one such ala totaling 1200 for the entire consular army or up to 2500 for combined consular armies. Unfortunately Roman cavalry was not very good or it was poorly lead and used.