How Good Were Roman Weapons And Armour? 

Five centuries of tricks and an incredible amount of stamina to pull it off

In -390 the Gauls of Brennus annihilated the Roman army and were the only ones to pillage Rome, even Hannibal did not succeed. It would take 800 years for the Goths to achieve the feat of the Gauls again.

They could do soooo many shows based on Rome. I'd watch them all!

there are a large number of shows (many of them from the 1950s, and 60s) that include Marius and his contemporaries, but none that I know of that focus solely on him. edit - Movies, rather. Not 'shows.'

his rival Sulla as well

HE WAS A CONSUL OF ROME!!

Really…..I mean, what’s the point?

Not if they're pointless!

@@Raz.C point! taken!

I get the point, thank you!

Touché

The pila can actually double as a stabbing spear. There are period drawings depicting Romans stabbing at enemy infantry with the pila, and many Roman texts talks about using the pila as a spear against cavalry. Stabbing may have been preferred at certain times, but Roman soldiers were trained to both stab and slash as needed. Roman writers talked about the horrific slashing injuries that the Hellenistic armies suffered (heads and limbs being chopped off) caused by the gladius.

The British did. The War Office (later, the Ministry of Defence) has a long history of issuing cheap sub-par equipment.

you missed the part that Germanic tribes imported Roman swords. Also hamata would be easily adopted to Germanic use because the warrior class wore the same type of armor (and again importing Roman chainmail armor might be cheaper). Javelins similar to pila are also not rare across ancient Europe. Probably scutum is a bit divisive because if you use a different type of shield it might not go with the fighting style of your unit. I believe you overstate a perceived moral effect when really there is little reason the Roman legions would need any more reason to hate the tribes that killed their comrades and desecrated holy eagle standards. They made a pretty big deal of getting those back. In contrary we know from other instances that soldiers used what was useful and took armor and wore it. The main issue might be that it was more worthwhile to sell it as loot and there may be a bit of a class distinction that the warrior class would like to be the ones wearing armor. For the levy it may not be affordable or more profitable to get rid of

it did originate when they started colonies in spain

The gladius was indeed Celtiberian in origin

Would that be the spatha? Mainly used by the cavalry.?

@@danielearley5062 The gladius my dude, spatha was longer because it's better on horse back and metallurgy improvements in the days of the empire. Gladius was copied from Iberian designs as they started to expand outside what we know as Italy, as it fit their maniple fighting system better.

@@danielearley5062 The gladius sometimes known as the gladius hispaniensis was the short sword used by 1st Century AD Legions and was originally adopted by Roman troops fighting in Iberia. The Spatha was a long sword only used by Roman Cavalry in the 1st Century AD though much later in the 3rd and 4th century AD when Roman Infantry became much less pure close formation heavy Infantry it was also used by the Infantry. Roman's being a very pragmatic bunch seem to have adopted all sorts of foreign weapons so the 1st Century Legions were carrying short swords originally from Iberia while their scutum shields and their helmets were originally of Celtic design. Though it should be noted that they were also hard core modifiers of other peoples original designs so while the helmet is based on the Celtic Montefortino design 1st century Roman helmets had added extra ribs and lengthened and changed angle of neck guard. They also did same with the short swards. The spatha seems a pretty geneic long sword used by a lot of different people though the Romans could have got it originally from Greeks or Gauls. The Pilum seems a unique Italian design though it may have been Samnite in origin. Indeed the only uniquely Roman design seems to be the lorica segmentata. Though this replaced the chain mail used by the troops of the republic originally adopted from the Gauls. Which the Romans later went back too. Not 100% sure why the lorica segmentata was abandoned for the earlier design. May have had something to do with ease and cost of production. Also the lorica is believed to have a rust problem.

Roman military tunics and cloaks (plus togas) were made of wool. There are several inventories and orders that specify that the tunics were made of wool, some of them from Egypt (so they were wearing wool even in the Egyptian desert), and they specify the type of weave and thickness of the thread to be used. People all over the world kept sheep for wool, not just the Britains.

@@fenriss749 well j haven't seen that, but all that j have shown it difficult, even if they could the shield was know useless.

@@robo5013 I seriously doubt that, wool comes from North Europe, and frankly wool in Egyptm suicide, considering the heat.

​@@fenriss749that's not the conclusion Tod reached at all.

@@TheAegisClaw my bad I must have forgotten what happened, thanks for correcting me

Barbarians (βάρβαρος) are all people that are not speaking Greek (or strange greek dialects). This makes Romans Barbarians.

@@Warentester i dont agree with you but sometimes romans act like barbarians

​@@Mr.KaganbYaltrk it's true, they considered all outsiders barbarians

I mean the barbarians won in the end.

Yes - Bruder ! Tube - "" Wir Rufen deine Wolfe "". Make you feel Better 😊

It was designed to cut with edges as well as for stabbing.Both is very obvious from how are those swords constructed and also confirmed by several written sources.One of the most common popular myths about Roman army is that hispanic sword was meant only for stabbing.This myth is chiefly based on misinterpretation of words by Vegetius(while ignoring words of other writters at the same time)who however merely says that soldiers primarily used it for stabbing not that it was only used for stabbing(and even Vegetius in fact also mention slashing).That is was also quite effective for shashing is well attested too.

No,it was not.That is by far the most common myth about Roman army from those several others.

Agreed, the listeners are not stupid.

​@@SB-sj4uz speak for yourself 😅

@@markdotinc8371 so you're saying you're stupid. Fuck me it's like he is talking to a five year old. Lmao.

It's aimed at a general audience. You might be surprised how many viewers don't know as much as you.

@@skepticalbadger I never meant to insult your intelligence ...

Probably depended a lot on the tactical situation. At the battle of Pharsalus expecting his Cavalry to be swept away by greatly superior Pompeian horse deployed a Infantry flank guard who were ordered not to throw their spears but retain them to fend off the cavalry. As this was a specific order this would imply that the standard practice at this time was to throw the pila and then get stuck in with the sword. In much later Roman (Byzantine) manuals the instruction was to throw the spear and then engage with the Sword if fighting Infantry but retain the spear if fighting cavalry.

The pila is perfectly functional as a close quarters weapon used for stabbing. There are period drawings depicting Romans stabbing at enemy infantry with the pila, and multiple Roman texts talks about using the pila as a spear against cavalry.

The pila a great weapon was only good as the man who threw it!!! Most were one shot affairs good enough to scare you thats fir sure

Avalon Celtic

They would not.What you mention is possibly the most common and deepest entrenched from all popular myths about Roman army.

Plus another 1000 years in the East. Byzantium only fell in the XV century. In total it lasted 2 millennia!!

I thought it was just Arminius that was a former Roman legionary, not the whole Germanic fighting force. I could be wrong here, but my understanding was that Arminius essentially led his former tribe in Teutoberg and afterwards tried to unite the Germanic tribes. Either way, the Germanic side had someone from the Roman side to understand their weapons and tactics

Si vis pacem para bellum

I think it's more of using vernacular for a lay audience. Wouldn't fly in an academic paper, but to someone new to learning history, it sounds more familiar.

And the throwing darts

Roman Legionaries were only ever issued their 2 pilums, gladius and Scutum.

​@@graham5716early roman legion had the triarii. Older veteran Spearman used as a last resort. But yes in this period it was pila, short sword and shields for everybody.

@@ericwilliams1659 in different time than army from this video.Darts you have on mind were not in use yet.

Roman legionaries(and commonly Auxiliaries)also had limited use of spears,however in period shown in this video they were issued with Pilum as they standard shafted weapon.

In the final years of the Empire many legions were in fact made by "romanized" German mercenaries. Curiously, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire (the original one), a new ”Holy Roman Empire of the German People" was formed, and lasted until the Napoleonic wars! This was the official adoption of the Roman civilization, alphabet, Latin language (in the official documents), Christian religion.

Because the cartridge was not compatible with NATO standards.

They were using the AD47 to be historically accurate

The roman war machine was equipped by the state as a professional force. The Germania tribesmen only had access to simple weapons like long spears and small wooden shields. Nobility had swords and chain mail armor.

Size wise I imagine he was similar to the men in the Legions. :D