Curiosities of ancient Rome (Army)

Arcani, also called areani, were agents in Roman military units based in Roman Britain during the later part of the island’s occupation. They were used as both scouts of legions and secret spies. Many of them were mercenaries. This unit was disbanded by the father of the later emperor Theodosius I – Flavius Theodosius, for their participation in conspiracies.

Until the fourth century CE, the production of armor and weapons in the Roman Empire was centralized and their execution was the responsibility of the so-called fabricae. Armories were deployed throughout entire provinces and their main task was the production of military equipment.

Aquilifer was Roman Roman soldier signifer bearing the eagle standard of a Roman legion. He belonged to a group of legionaries (principales) and was entitled to double pay (duplicarius). He enjoyed enormous prestige and belonged to the best protected people in the legion during the battle. Not only he did carry the sign of the legion, whose loss was the greatest dishonor for the individual and Rome, but he also probably kept watch over the money of the legion. For this reason, soldiers surrounded him with special protection.

The Roman army was unique in many ways and to this day its organization is copied in many different variants. During the times of the greatest Roman conquests, under Emperor Trajan, the area controlled by his army ranged from Britain and Spain to Asia Minor and North Africa.

Roman army and the weapons it used are associated (especially for the laymen on this subject) mainly with the equipment of a Roman legionary. Who has not heard of a rectangular shield called a scutum, a short sword called gladius or a spear – a pilum? Not everyone, however, even heard about siege machines and their role in the Roman army, and some know them only from films like “Asterix and Obelix”.

Sometimes an important event from the history of ancient Rome caused that the English language appeared with a reference to this event.

In films, historical reconstructions and illustrations, Roman legionaries are dressed in red tunics. But in reality, did the ancient Romans in the army have a unified dress, which was mainly made up of red?

Hippika gymnasia was a Roman sport competition for the formation of a riders, which consisted of a simulated fight of two groups of soldiers, playing the roles of Greeks and Amazons, who fought with javelins with a wooden arrowhead.

Pretorian Guardians next to the Emperor Claudius. Contrary to what mass culture tells us in movies, pretorians did not actually wear armor when they served in the city of Rome and the imperial palace (except for special occasions like the triumphal march), especially not for the first time two centuries of its existence.

In the Roman army, attention was paid to the state of armament and its quality. As claimed by Vegetius (IV / V century CE) in “De Re Militari” (II, 378): “Can that man be reckoned a good soldier who through negligence suffers his arms to deteriorate by dirt and rust?”.