the roman army, focused on triarri group 3rd line of defence of the roman army

Summary

The triarii comprised the first section of the third line within the Roman army of the Republic . The organization of the Roman military force in the three fighting s is traced back to the first Gallic invasion of Italy in 390 /387 B .C . The triarii as the supporting formation of the veterans fighting with long spears and covering the withdrawing of the first two lines proved their efficiency during the Pyrrhic and Punic wars in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B .C . Upon the reorganization of the Roman army by

Consul Gaius Marius about 107 B .C , the triarii lost its original significance . Since the Romans stopped fighting exclusively in the quincunx formation and utilized more flexible structures in both the offence and defence , the triarii turned into pilani , the soldiers who attacked in columns

Annotated bibliography

Fabricius , Ernst . Some Notes on Polybius 's of Roman Camps ' The Journal of Roman Studies 22 (1932 : 78-87

The British scholar referred to some obscure passages from Polybius to clarify the structure of the Roman consular army and camps in the 2nd century B . C . Fabricius praised the British historian General William Roy for accurately analyzing the arguable piece of the Greek text to investigate the excavations of the Roman camps and fortresses found in Great Britain . It is clear from the discourse that typical Roman camps of the 2nd century B . C . were arranged as enclosed spaces of rectangular form with four gates in a fence . The article is of interest for historians who are able to enjoy the discussion of original Greek texts and exact location of buildings within the camp area

Gabriel , Richard A . Great Captains of Antiquity . Westport , Conn Greenwood Press , 2001

The book heavily relies on ancient biographical writings about famous commanders of antiquity . Among the six great Captains ' as Gabriel called them , two , namely Scipio Africanus (236 - 183 B .C .E ) and Caesar Augustus (63 B .C .E . - 14 C .E ) were Romans . It is interesting that the historian described his characters as individuals varying from each other and simlutaneously great chiefs having ten characteristics in common . The book is valuable for the multicontextual perspective taken under which war is treated as science and craft , and a commander is regarded as an individual and a typical social agent

Gabriel , Richard A . The Great Armies of Antiquity . Westport , Conn Greenwood Publishing Group , 2002

In this book the author observed the development of ancient armies taking the Roman army as an example of the most everlasting military organizations (from the 8th century B .C . to 478 C .E . Gabriel provided a complex analytical framework for each of the periods of Roman military history , consisting of armor , tactics , technology , political contexts and individual leaders ' contributions . Altogether with the strengths of the Roman army such as organization , discipline , and tactics , the researcher mentioned the weaknesses such as the underdeveloped officer corpus and poor techniques of encampment . This is a well-structured and concise history of the Roman army...