The rank of ancient Rome

Roman citizens regarded joining the army as an honor, so most of the Roman troops in the third century BC were citizens who joined the army. The service period of robust infantry is 16 to 20 battles, and each battle is set at 6 months. The service period of cavalry is ten wars. In addition, the allies in Rome are obliged to provide the required number of troops. About 4200 infantry and 300 cavalry form a legion. As a rule, a Roman legion is always combined with an allied legion, with some informal auxiliary forces. Two such joint legions (ranging in number from18,000 to 20,000) formed the usual Roman army. The basic unit of the Roman army is 100 infantry, which was originally composed of 100 soldiers, but usually only 60 to 80 people entered the battle formation. Two teams of 100 people merged into a squadron. Rome's major tactical organizations (that is, legions) have thirty squadrons. Each squadron forms a small square in the battle, with 14 to 16 in the front and 10 in the back. But it is different from the more dense traditional phalanx of Greeks and Carthaginians: in the traditional phalanx, soldiers fight side by side; There is a gap of about five feet between the soldiers of the Roman Tetris team. In this way, every Roman infantry can wield weapons more freely. Soldiers need to have high training quality to keep such an interval in the fierce battle. But one advantage of this formation is that once the soldiers in the front row are tired or injured, they can retreat through the back interval, and a new row of troops will come forward to replace them immediately. In actual combat, three squadrons formed a brigade with about 420 people. In an infantry brigade, the interval between squadrons is usually 120 yards. The infantry brigade itself is arranged in a square formation in the legion: four brigades on the first line and three brigades on the second, third and third lines. The interval between brigades is about 360 yards, or the width of a brigade's front line. Just like in squadrons and brigades, soldiers in the front and rear rows can take the place of fighting, second-tier brigades can also move forward through gaps instead of first-tier brigades, and third-tier brigades can move forward instead of second-tier brigades. In actual combat, it may be that the first squadron dispersed to form a relatively sparse front, with a continuous front and five people in depth. However, we still don't know whether this is the case. Once a dense continuous front is needed (such as dealing with cavalry charge), the second-line brigade can move forward and stand side by side with the first-line brigade. The third line is usually reserved as a reserve team. Roman cavalry was not as well-organized and well-trained as infantry, and its sources mainly depended on Roman allies. The decision-making power on the organization and tactics of cavalry units is usually in the hands of allied commanders. Rome has no professional general to command the army. Elect two consuls every year. They are the highest officials of the Roman government and the field commanders of the three armed forces. If there was only one army at that time, they often drew lots to decide the ownership of the command. If two people are in charge of the military, they will take turns to exercise command every other day. The head of the team is a judicial officer or a financial officer, and his rank is equivalent to that of a modern major general. This hybrid power system has many defects. The reason why it can function normally is because the Roman army has been carefully trained and experienced in constant wars. At the same time, the Romans were loyal to protecting the country, and their commanders had absolute power to kill and detain their subordinates. However, the lack of consistent leadership and well-trained cavalry will be a big disadvantage for the Romans in the upcoming battle with Hannibal.