What was life like in the Roman army? - BBC Bitesize (2024)

FAQs

What was life like in the Roman army? - BBC Bitesize? ›

Roman soldiers weren't always at war - they spent most of their time training for battle. They practised fighting in formation and man-to-man. Legionaries also patrolled their conquered territories and built roads, forts and aqueducts (a bridge which carried water).

Roman soldiers spent a long time training and practicing their skills. Roman soldiers were also taught to fight as a unit rather than as individuals. They fought in tight formations and protected themselves behind long shields. One such formation was called the testudo – which in Latin means 'the tortoise'.

The Roman Army was one of the most successful in the history of the world and its soldiers were rightly feared for their training, discipline and stamina. As a result, the army was a major player in Roman politics and maintaining its loyalty was an essential task for any Emperor.

Daily life in a Roman city was completely dependent on one's economic status. The city, however, remained a mixture of wealth and poverty, often existing side by side. The wealthy had the benefit of slave labor whether it was heating the water at the baths, serving them their evening meal, or educating their children.

CULTURE, LAW, AND PRACTICE

This marriage ban is directly attested to in papyri from Roman Egypt that show that soldiers' marriages were illegal and that their children born during service were illegitimate.

A typical Roman army during this period consisted of five to six legions. One legion was made up of ten cohorts. The first cohort had five centuria each of 160 soldiers. In the second through tenth cohorts there were six centuria of 80 men each.

The first few years of a Roman girl's life were spent in the care of her mother and female relatives. They were taught household chores, such as cooking, cleaning, and weaving, essential skills expected of a Roman matron. Some girls from affluent families also had wet nurses and, later, tutors.

Explanation: The roman number system was basically designed to estimate the prices of goods and trading business. So the roman system did not need any value to represent zero. But instead of zero, the word nulla was used by the Romans to specify zero.

Everyone in the army had a role and knew what they needed to do - they were well organised. The Roman army also used highly effective tactics, such as the 'tortoise' formation, where soldiers overlapped their shields to protect themselves as they advanced.

The age of lawful consent to a marriage was 12 for girls and 14 for boys. Most Roman women married in their early teens to young men in their twenties.

Did Romans share their wives? ›

Emperors and other well-to-do men in Greece or Rome were monogamously married to just one wife at a time, but had sexual access to as many slaves as they could afford (Betzig, 1992a; 1992b; 2010; Scheidel, 2009, 2011).

during the Ptolemaic period, although the Ptolemies themselves did practice brother- sister marriage. In Roman law, meanwhile, marrying a close relative was not only sacrilegious to the gods but also illegal.

In the Roman army, a soldier's life was hard and tough even for the most resilient men. They were taken from their homelands, away from their families and friends and expected to defend provinces in far extremes of the empire.

The treatment of Roman soldiers under the Roman Empire varied depending on the time period and the specific circ*mstances. Generally, Roman soldiers were treated with a degree of respect and honor, but their treatment was not always consistent or equitable.

Legionaries lived in barracks in the camp, which was a wooden building in the main legionary base or a tent if the army was on the move. They were not allowed to marry but often had unofficial wives in the towns which grew up outside the camp. The men slept in bunk beds, with 8 soldiers to a room.

Assuming a constant rate of attrition (see above), this means that about 8% of a legion were lost each year for a variety of reasons other than retirement, 92% made it. If we assume twenty years of service, 0.92^20 gives ~ 0.188, so roughly one fifth of the legionaries made it to retirement.