The image of a boar on the banner of legion XX. | Photo: AgTigress | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Ancient Romans adopted the names of many animals for their military equipment, including: eagles (aquilae) for the legionary mark; the ram (aries) for the ram; “pig’s head” (caput porci) for wedge formation; raven (corvus) for the boarding bridge; cuniculus (“tunnel” derived from the word rabbit – coniglio, thus “rabbit hole”); wolf (lupus) for a defensive tool used to push siege ladders away from walls; or “Marius’s mules” (muli Mariani) to describe Roman legionaries after reform of Gaius Marius.
To make the operation of the troops more flexible, it was decided to increase the amount of equipment carried by legionaries.
