Articles (War and army)

History hides unfathomable layers of secrets and puzzles, the solution of which is sometimes at your fingertips, and other times it is lost in the abyss of oblivion and will never be found again. This is one of the things that attracts me to it – searching, discovering, wandering among possibilities. The knowledge of the ultimate truth is not always the most important thing, sometimes the enigmatic nature stimulates the imagination and allows theories to be made, developing intelligence and motivating for research. This is also the case here – IX Legio Hispana.

Aquileia was founded by the Romans as a colony in 181 BCE, during battles with the Illyrian tribes. The city was located on the Natisa River, south of the Julian Alps, several kilometres north of the lagoons. It had an important military significance at the very beginning of its existence – it was a fortress protecting the Pre-Alpine Gaul from the east, and, if necessary, enabling the support of the Venetians – solid Roman allies. The colony was granted the Latin law by the triumvirs: Publius Cornelius Scipio Nazyka, Caius Flaminius and Lucius Manilius Acidinus. Soon after its founding, it probably had approx. 20 thousand. inhabitants, most of whom were Latins.

Soldiers of the Roman legions were able to enjoy some advantages over civilians. This special treatment was reflected in many aspects of society and clearly distinguished the military class.

The Roman army of the early empire is still considered to be the unrivalled role model in terms of quality, discipline and efficiency. The aim of the article is to show what the Roman army looked like from the inside: what the legal status of soldiers was; what the recruitment and training process and the service itself looked like; and, above all, what relations prevailed in the units between comrades in arms.

Wars have accompanied the Romans from the very beginning. During the Roman Kingdom, any skirmishes and fights were rare and they were mostly local.