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The immunes were ancient Roman soldiers who possessed specialized skills. They were exempt from the more tedious and dangerous tasks other soldiers were required to do, such as ditch digging and rampart patrol. [1]
Prior to becoming an immunis, men were required to serve as miles gregarius (also known as munifex), a non-specialist regular soldier. These men were the soldiers that made up the bulk of the legions, liable to perform guard duties, labour work and other less than desired duties. Milites would usually have to serve for several years before becoming eligible for training to become immunes.
Immunis status within the army was achieved either through selection or through promotion. If not possessing the specialist skills that could see a soldier chosen to become an immunis, the legionary who wished to become one would have to undergo a period of specialist training, during which time they would be known as discens . [2] The discens received the same basic pay and board as the non-specialists until he qualified for immunis status. [3]
Engineers, artillerymen, musicians, drill and weapons instructors, military police, carpenters, hunters and medical staff were among the multiple specialized jobs immunes provided for the Roman army. Immunes also received better pay than the regular troops. [4]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)The Roman legion, the largest military unit of the Roman army, was composed of Roman citizens serving as legionaries. During the Roman Republic the manipular legion comprised 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry. After the Marian reforms in 107 BC, the legions were formed of 5,200 men and were restructured around 10 cohorts, the first cohort being double strength. This structure persisted throughout the Principate and middle Empire, before further changes in the fourth century resulted in new formations of around 1,000 men.
Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics behind military tactics. Modern military engineering differs from civil engineering. In the 20th and 21st centuries, military engineering also includes CBRN defense and other engineering disciplines such as mechanical and electrical engineering techniques.
A sapper, also called a combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses, and road and airfield construction and repair.
The Roman legionary was a citizen soldier of the Roman army. These soldiers would conquer and defend the territories of ancient Rome during the late Republic and Principate eras, alongside auxiliary and cavalry detachments. At its height, Roman legionaries were viewed as the foremost fighting force in the Roman world, with commentators such as Vegetius praising their fighting effectiveness centuries after the classical Roman legionary disappeared.
Legio I Germanica,, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army, possibly founded in 48 BC by Julius Caesar to fight for him in the civil war against Pompey. The title germanic is a reference to its service in the Germanic Wars, rather than the place of origin of its soldiers. After the Revolt of the Batavi, the remaining men of the Germanica were added to Galba's seventh legion, which became VII Gemina. The emblem of Legio I is unknown, but it was probably Taurus, like all the other legions levied by Caesar.
Legio III Augusta was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. Its origin may have been the Republican 3rd Legion which served the general Pompey during his civil war against Gaius Julius Caesar. It supported the general Octavian in his civil war against Mark Antony. It was officially refounded in 30 BC, when Octavian achieved sole mastery of the Roman empire. In that year, it was deployed in the Roman province of Africa, where it remained until at least the late 4th century AD.
A cohort was a standard tactical military unit of a Roman legion. Although the standard size changed with time and situation, it was generally composed of 480 soldiers. A cohort is considered to be the equivalent of a modern military battalion. The cohort replaced the maniple. From the late second century BC and until the middle of the third century AD, ten cohorts made up a legion. Cohorts were named "first cohort", "second cohort", etc. The first cohort consisted of experienced legionaries, while the legionaries in the tenth cohort were less experienced.
In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word castrum was a military-related term. In Latin usage, the singular form castrum meant 'fort', while the plural form castra meant 'camp'. The singular and plural forms could refer in Latin to either a building or plot of land, used as a fortified military base. In English usage, castrum commonly translates to "Roman fort", "Roman camp" and "Roman fortress". However, scholastic convention tends to translate castrum as "fort", "camp", "marching camp" or "fortress".
Skirmishers are light infantry or light cavalry soldiers deployed as a vanguard, flank guard or rearguard to screen a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line, an irregular open formation that is much more spread out in depth and in breadth than a traditional line formation. Their purpose is to harass the enemy by engaging them in only light or sporadic combat to delay their movement, disrupt their attack, or weaken their morale. Such tactics are collectively called skirmishing.
The Roman army was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom to the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and its medieval continuation, the Eastern Roman Empire. It is thus a term that may span approximately 2,206 years, during which the Roman armed forces underwent numerous permutations in size, composition, organisation, equipment and tactics, while conserving a core of lasting traditions.
The Medical Corps (MC) of the U.S. Army is a staff corps of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) consisting of commissioned medical officers – physicians with either an M.D. or a D.O. degree, at least one year of post-graduate clinical training, and a state medical license.
A rifleman is an infantry soldier armed with a rifled long gun. Although the rifleman role had its origin with 16th century hand cannoneers and 17th century musketeers, the term originated in the 18th century with the introduction of the rifled musket. By the mid-19th century, entire regiments of riflemen were formed and became the mainstay of all standard infantry, and rifleman became a generic term for any common infantryman.
The military of ancient Rome was one of largest pre-modern professional standing armies that ever existed. At its height, protecting over 7,000 kilometers of border and consisting of over 400,000 legionaries and auxiliaries, the army was the most important institution in the Roman world. According to the Roman historian Livy, the military was a key element in the rise of Rome over "above seven hundred years" from a small settlement in Latium to the capital of an empire governing a wide region around the shores of the Mediterranean, or, as the Romans themselves said, mare nostrum, "our sea". Livy asserts:
The auxilia were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 27 BC. By the 2nd century, the Auxilia contained the same number of infantry as the legions and, in addition, provided almost all of the Roman army's cavalry and more specialised troops. The auxilia thus represented three-fifths of Rome's regular land forces at that time. Like their legionary counterparts, auxiliary recruits were mostly volunteers, not conscripts.
The Medical community as used in this article refers to medical institutions and services offered to populations under the jurisdiction of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. The Medical services of the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire were adopted from ancient Greece. It was first imported from Greece through Greek colonies in Magna Graecia and the Etruscan civilization. After the Roman conquest of Greece, enslaved Greeks brought more Greek medical knowledge to Rome. In 219 BCE a surgeon named Archagathus traveled from the Peloponnesus to Rome. He became a citizen and purchased a taberna near a crossroads. This became the first officina medica. Previously, the pater familias was responsible for the medical art in early Rome. Physicians in ancient Rome would take the Hippocratic Oath. Doctors would begin their appointments with patients by stating "si vales valeo," which translated to "if you are well I am well." Physicians were often wealthy. Augustus' physician, Antonius Musa, received a salary of 30,000 sesterces. Doctors would also serve in the Roman military and treat injured soldiers.
Romanmilitary engineering was of a scale and frequency far beyond that of its contemporaries. Indeed, military engineering was in many ways endemic in Roman military culture, as demonstrated by each Roman legionary having as part of his equipment a shovel, alongside his gladius (sword) and pila (spears).
Milites were the trained regular footsoldiers of ancient Rome, and later a term used to describe "soldiers" in Medieval Europe.
A discens was a soldier of the military of ancient Rome who was in training to become an immunis, or specialist within the army.
The Imperial Roman Army was the military land force of the Roman Empire from 27 BC to 476 AD, and the final incarnation in the long history of the Roman army. This period is sometimes split into the Principate and the Dominate (284–476) periods.