The Auxilia
There were three kinds of units in the auxilia of the early empire. The cavalry alae, the infantry cohorts and the mixed infantry and horsemen cohortes equitatae. The Ala (The …
The Roman Standards
Nothing in military history quite matches the Roman standards. Perhaps the closest equivalent is the regimental colors in contemporary armies. The Roman standards, the signa were a recognition signal and …
Legion Name List
This is not a complete list of all legions, but a listing of examples of legionary nick-names and their origins. NAME ORIGIN OF NAME TIME OF CREATION I Adiutrix pia …
Roman Military Tactics
Information about tactics can be derived from accounts of battles, but the very military manuals known to have existed and to have been used extensively by commanders, have not survived. …
Roman Army Camp Layout
Below you find the layout of camp of a Roman army on the march. Every night the legion would halt and erect a camp in this layout. As every Roman …
The Legion’s Equipment
The equipment to the legionaries was remarkably uniform throughout the empire and it is possible that there were large centres in Gaul and North Italy for the mass manufacture of …
The Roman Army Overview
Nowhere does the Roman talent for organization show itself so clearly as in its army. The story of the Roman army is an extensive one, demonstrated in part by the …
The Roman House
Early Italian houses grouped around the atrium, with a small garden, the so-called hortus, at the back.The classic Roman house, however, was divided into two parts. The first part grouped …
Household Sex
In a Roman household sex was in plentiful supply. Except, so it seems, between the actual married couples. The existence of slaves in the house naturally mean that, particularly the …
Conjugal Love
Love was irrelevant to the success of a marriage in Roman eyes. Marriage was there in order to provide children. Loved was a welcome thing, but by no means necessary. …
The Roman Games
There were two kinds of roman games: ludi scaenici and ludi circenses. If at first the games of the early Roman republic had religious significance, then later the ‘secular’ games …
Roman Dress
What is a Roman dress? What did the Roman fashion looked like? Roman clothing owed much to that of ancient Greece, but it had distinct forms of its own. Read …
Obligations of Nobility
The civilization that was Rome had high demands on its people. The Roman citizen may have enjoyed rights and had room to follow his ambitions, but so too did he …