If you have found a spelling error, please, notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.
Army is a collection of curiosities about the ancient Roman army and its functioning. This category includes lesser-known facts, interesting information, and unusual details about the legions, weaponry, discipline, tactics, and daily life of soldiers of the Roman Empire.
In the light of social norms or Roman law, from the earliest years of its existence, the Roman state limited access to military service. Only Roman citizens (cives Romani) had the right or duty to serve in the legions, and foreigners (peregrini), slaves (servi) or criminals were not.
In each Roman military camp, latrines were built, fed with running water from nearby streams. The analysis of the contents of the septic tank rinsed from these sanitary facilities allowed archaeologists to reconstruct the diet of Roman soldiers (it turns out that not only digging in the ground but also in… excrement can be extremely beneficial for science). The thing is, there are some remnants of the digested seeds there. Here in cold Britain, on the line of fortifications known as Hadrian’s Wall, products such as olives, figs and dates were often eaten, although apples were also not scorned.
Many of us think the Roman legions were brave, disciplined, tough and well-trained soldiers It is true. However, the Romans were like us and they had their own weaknesses. For example greed.
Combat gases are associated primarily with the First World War and their terrible effectiveness. It was then that chemical weapons were used on a massive scale, but this method of fighting was not new at all. The ancients were so ingenious that they used chemical weapons on the battlefield as early as the 3rd century CE.
