Notes

In the early years of the republic, the Roman infantry used a version of the Greek phalanx. In this formation, soldiers stand shoulder to shoulder in a tightly packed formation that can be more than a dozen soldiers deep. Soldiers in the front were protected by a wall of large shields, and they tried to reach around their shields with long spears to stab the enemy. While this formation worked well on level ground, the Romans found it was too brittle for the hilly terrain where they did much of their fighting. It became extremely vulnerable if a gap opened up in the ranks. To address this weakness, the Romans developed the maniple formation illustrated here, sometimes described as a “phalanx with joints.” Instead of a single line of men, the Romans divided their infantry into groups of about 120 men, each of which could maneuver independently, and arranged them in a checkerboard pattern. Maniples behind the front line can step into any gaps that open up in the front line. The Romans put their least experienced soldiers in the front line (the bottom in this picture), in hopes that the enemy would waste energy fighting them, making them too exhausted to put up a fight when they reached more experienced (and better-armed) soldiers further back.