Military Terms

The person I interviewed was Mr. Ireton:

1. What is a legion in modern military terms?
A legion is a battalion, and can be broken down into a squad which would be like a Roman ducuriae. The legion in Roman times was basically a small army which included men, cavalry, and artillery whereas now they are divided into different branches of service. A Roman legion included 5,000 men whereas a battalion includes 500-1500 men.

2. What is artillery in modern day military terms?
It is usually self propelled machines such as mortars, anti-aircraft batteries, howitzers, and rocket artillery. The Romans would have had scorpions, archers, and catapults available to them.

3. What is modern day infantry called and like?
They are called foot soldiers or ground-pounders. They are armed with a gun, wear camouflage, wear Kevlar armor, boots, and other gear such as a helmet, water and other stuff such as water and camp out gear. The Roman infantry were called Auxiliaries and wore a breast plate, greaves, a gladius, sandals, maybe some chain mail, a helmet, a shield, and some Hasta.

4. What is cavalry in modern day military terms?
They would be things such as tanks (the M1 Abrams), Bradley support vehicles, Humvees, and other support vehicles. In the Roman military they would have numbered about 300 per legion, and would have actually been men on horseback. They would have also been like the shock troops and would have been able to brake up a unit of the enemy.

5. What are formations in modern day military terms?
There are many formations for marching in parade form but there are also squad forms such as diamond formation or other assault or defensive formations. In Roman times some formations were manipuli (double companies, centuriae (which were made up of two centuries and fought in the quincunx-fashion), cohortes (which were batallions of three maniples), and the tortoise shell which provided cover from missile attack.

6. What are officers in the modern day military like?
They are the ones who gave out the orders and stay mostly in the back so they they do not have a chance of being killed. They give their orders down to the sergeants and sometimes captains to carry out the orders. The Roman Imperator was one of the main officers in the Roman legion and and his general staff. They would usually hang behind the main army during combat, but on the rare occasion would join in the combat usually to fight for their life. There were smaller commanders as well called Centurions that were in charge of 80 men. The Legate was in charge of a legion.

7. What is the modern day chain of command?
I goes as follows from lowest to highest: squad(9-10), platoon(16-44), company(62-190), battalion(300-1,000), brigade(3,000-5,000), division(10,000-15,000), corps(20,000-45,000), army(50,000+). The Roman chain of command goes as follows from lowest to highest: Contubernium(8), centuria(made up of 10 contubernium, 80 men commanded by a centurion), cohort (six centuriae, 480 men), legio(consisted of 10 cohorts, 5,000 men), Eques Legiones(120 cavalry).

8. What is the modern day special force unit for your branch?
The Green Berets are sent ahead before major operations and are also sent instead of the army in a conflict that can be solved by a small force. They are made up of 4500 men and deal with reconnaissance and direct action. The Roman special forces would have included engineers which repaired armor, build bridges, repair weapons, etc. The evocati were volunteers who would do extra tasks and would be ranked above the rest of the legionaries and would ride on horseback during marches.