Articles (War and army)

The Roman Legion (legio) was organized to ensure maximum efficiency not only at the level of the entire legion, but also at its individual units. To this end, a strict command structure and precise division into individual units was created, which was largely due to the long evolution of the Roman army throughout history.

The history of ancient Rome is widely associated with the successes of the invincible legions that crushed the armies of the enemies of the Empire. In such situations, many people think of Caesar’s exploits under Alesia, Scipio under Zama or Marius under Vercellae. This very simplified image of ancient Rome does not take into account the broad context of the history of Roman military. Few people remember that the Roman state also experienced in its history moments of crisis in many areas, including military aspects.

Researchers have been looking for relics of Punic Wars for years. Underwater archaeology is very helpful in this. The seabed off the coast of Sicily has been explored for years, in the Aegean Islands (currently Aegadian Islands, or simply Aegadian Islands), where March 10, 241 BCE, during the First Punic War there was a battle between Carthage’s fleet and the Roman fleet. In the course of the work, numerous rams (rostrum) were discovered and excavated, once menacingly mounted on the beaks of Roman and Carthaginian warships. Since they were cast in bronze, the rams did not corrode and remained in excellent condition.

Everyone has heard something about Punic wars, everyone knows something. It was called the war of the Roman Republic with Carthage, a Phoenician colony that became a separate state. Qart Hadasht (New Town) was the capital of the North African country. A country that possessed great wealth, mainly thanks to its excellent fleet and well-developed trade, was second to none because of the merchants of Carthagina. But why do we call the Rome-Carthage wars the Punic? Well, because in Latin the word Punicus meant Carthaginian.

Body tattooing usually in the Roman or Greek world was associated with the barbarians and their mysterious cults. The custom among Greeks to tattoo bodies came from the Persians. They used tattoos to mark slaves and criminals, in case they tried to escape. However, tattoos in Roman world were also present.

Thanks to the work of Johann Lowenklau, we have the opportunity to get acquainted with the collection of military rights commonly referred to as Rufus’ military rights. This collection was one of the three codices attached to the Eclipse, and it is thanks to the aforementioned German scholar that we have survived to our times.