True Size of a Roman Legion of the Punic Wars (3D) DOCUMENTARY 

What True Size history should we cover next? Corrections for this episode: 03:41 - The cavalry model should NOT have stirrups 06:33 - There should be 20 NOT 60 velites per century (1,200 velites / 60 centuries = 20 velites)

Wow, it's amazing how the Romans organized their army. And to think this was a time before radios and wireless communication. Truly an impressive feat.

"...And once we conquer Sicily, we'll go after the Roman tribes. They're such good fighters. We'll have a hard time beating them, but I'm sure they'll serve us well in the future..." *Alexander the Great explaining his plans of conquest to the dying Hephaestion*

To clarify this video discusses a legion of the Roman republic before the Marian reforms and after they ditched the use of a Greek like hoplite system. Meaning this wasn’t what the Romans used for the entirety of the republics history. The manipular system was used in the mid republic. Not during the early and late republic.

I always loved the ancient uniforms worn by the Hastati (the one made up of a red tunic with a Babylonian breastplate and a helmet covered with three feathers). For those interested, the BBC docu-film "Hannibal: Rome's Worst Enemy" shows these uniforms with great historical accuracy

I have been following your channel for a few years now, I don't have the money to financially support you, I would if I could. I just want to say thank you for putting out these great documentaries for free! Much love Denmark

"Earthquake!?"-The captain "No captain batte formation"-Leonidas

This is excellent - I'd love to see a video on the creation of camps. How long it would have taken and how roles were assigned during the construction process.

I like how Historia Civilis put it: "The Romans had a saying: 'it's come to the Triarii'. It has a dual meaning; one, that this is the absolute last option you have to solve a problem, save disaster. Two, that it's time for the real adults to step in and take control."

Hey, could you do something about the organization of Alexander the Great's army? on average, that is. Or, just greek armies in general? the comparison to the Alexandrian Lochos sparked my curiosity~

Fun Fact: The gladius sword was not adopted by the romans till around 200 BC or before = during the late ending stages of the 2nd Punic war with Carthage... before that they used a Greek like sword. It was found & adopted off the battlefield from dead soldiers & warriors that Hannible brought with him from Illeria/Hispania during the 2nd war with Rome... they were so impressed by its killing lethality, that they decided to add it to their infantry forces from then on till the late 100s & 200s AD... 500 years mostly in usage after that. I would love to see the beginning Roman army from 753 - 390 BC = before the manipular system, during the time when they were bandit raiders with their earlier equipment shown and later with the phalanx being used up till they abandoned it post first sack of Rome by the Gauls/celts. Then, I would love to see the Marian reformed army when it all started up, all the way till Caesar's time, right up till Augustus started up the empire post war with Antony & Egypt... and how it improved itself from 106 - 27 BC. Then the army at its peak during Trajan's time with all the extra equipment made to protect their arms, head and legs during the Dacian wars... right up till Marcus Aurelius. Then the roman army during the crisis of the 3rd century and all its formations and new equipment they made from 190 - 284. Then the late roman army & formations = from 284 - 640 AD And finally, the Eastern Roman Byzantine Army = from 330 - 1453 AD Will that be ok for the many great videos to be made for next year coming up as requests? 😎😉❤⚔

Fantastic! I love these technical breakdowns of ancient armies. ⚔

Another fantastic video invicta ! Can’t wait to see if we will get a video of the late Roman empire army’s from the time of Honorius or arcadius close to fall of Rome I always found all the different type of units they deployed very interesting but regardless great video love it !

This is awesome

Positioning new younger recruits at the front was mainly for gaining prestige of combat experience, something highly sort after in roman culture. With later roman legions to boost morale by getting them directly into the action, other then long marching and patrols in peace times. The system of always placing well heavily armed experienced veterans right at the back was eventually changed to a mixed units. The older veteran soldiers have had a guts full of being kept out of direct combat.

I think what can not be overstated about the republican legions is Family. A 30 year old man from an average family probably had a younger brother in the Velites, an uncle in the Principes and several cousins mixed throughout. That is why I always agreed with the thought that Velites bunked with other units. This was probably they're first outting to war, they needed that foundation of experience and probably bunked with an older brother/family member.

Veles, Velites - literally "Wanting", or more proper "Volunteer" (funnily, volunteer comes from the same latin root "Voluntas" - "Will") Hastatus, Hastati - literally "Spearer", or more proper "Spearman" (the Roman word for spear is "Hasta", interestingly in the Republican period this type of infantry is no longer armed with spears) Princeps, Principes - literally "the First" (armed in the same manner as the Hastati, though regarded as more skilled and experienced) Triarius, Triarii - literally "Thirder", or more proper "Third Rower", "of the Third Line" (armed in the classical fashion, with a long spear "Hasta", these were the most experienced troops) Eques, Equites - literally "Horser", or more proper "Horseman" (drawn from the higher and wealthier social classes, as maintaining a horse and retinue was exponentially more costly)

excellent video, now all that's missing is a video of the legion of the late empire, which was much smaller but there were many more of them.

The choreography of how centuries moved in the battlefield to cover the spaces is what intrigues me. Everything else was just 👌👌 thanks for sharing . Would also he nice a video about how the units came to be in the early republic or monarchy

I get giddy excited watching videos like this. Keep it up!

I would like to see a video on the true size of Regiments from the nations participating in the Napoleonic wars. France, Bavaria, Spain, Britian, Austria-Hungary, Prussia, the Ottomans & Russia.

Very interesting presentation on the legion of the Republic. Great work.

Another great job!! Love the video and cant wait for more.

Concerning the battle formation, Dr Michael J. Taylor postulates a quite different interpretation of the source material. He examines what Caesar calls "opening the maniples" ( _manipulos laxare iussit_ ) and assumes that the Romans either fought with Polybius' 6 ft distance or with Tacitus' 3 ft distance between individual soldiers, depending on the situation. Leaning on examination of archaeological finds, he also assumes that this was achieved by being deployed in a checkerboard pattern in an _open_ maniple, with each second rank stepping forwards to make it a _closed_ maniple. He also assumes that the maniples deployed with gaps in between them, as wide as necessary to face enemy infantry formations.

Thank you, it's amazing to see the layout

Can we get one where you visualize the cost in silver denarii to fund the legion?

wow that was awesome, again; this time in sheer scale and implied logistics, great job!

Excellent content as always; thank you! A natural follow up to this video would be to cover what the sources always meant when referring to a Roman legion in the field during the republican era; that is 1 roman legion (covered here) and one socii ala, (which I believe for most of the republican period were not as uniformly equipped or organized as some sources insinuate, but rather more in line with each ala’s local custom). And then the consular army of typically 2 of each type of legions. All the best

As a new Acients enthusiast and war gamer thank you for this video. This helped me understand things so much clearer. Subbed,

Awesome video as always! Can't wait for the next one!!

Makes it clear why they had a problem in wooded areas... Thanks for the video!

Very interesting as comparison to the imperial Roman legion described by you in the earlier video. Both videos very informative and comprehensive.

This is awesome, thanks man.

Thank you for the video. I very much enjoyed it.

This was a cool way to present it guys thanks!

Can you guys make a video about "viking" trading town Hedeby and the siege by Harald Hardrada? It's not a well known location like birka but it's quite interesting and deserves recognition. For a long time it was the most important trading town in Denmark. Thanks to the siege this trading town lost its power and therefore importance in the Danish kingdom. Afterwards the inhabitants had to relocate and founded the town of Schleswig.

I rarely say this -> but it is a truly amazing video you just made ... as a great fan of roman history in general and roman military in particular ... congrats!

ah yes I love these videos!!!! mind boggling!!!

I always find maniples very disturbing. For a long time I couldnt find information whether these consisted only of same type soldiers or mixed. Good job with this vid!

Alright, now I'm excited for a True Size episode for the Late Roman Dominate.

Ive always thought of G2A as a pretty sketchy site. Loads of controversies over the years involving stolen game keys. I think one dev even said they would rather people pirate their game than buy from G2A. Has something changed with their rep? I was just really surprised by the sponsorship. Love Invica, it was just weird

Excellent video. I really enjoyed it

Please make a vídeo about the Martius Camp in Rome, i love your canal sooooo much

so glad that you spell triarii well!!

Excellent content as always. Now I've satisfied my daily requirement for Rome.

Great videos! Would like to see late-Roman field army breakdown if that's on the cards?

Mistaken I apologize in advance but in the model Equites Thier shouldn't be horse stirrups. Almost depictict as if there might be

Awesome Video!

Really good video 👍🏻 see a lot of people don't know the sheer size of a legion or in this day and age a military division.

As a former Quartermaster the idea of organising the logistics for 5900 men and 1700 animals AND all their gear is worrying. Just feeding, paying and moving them must have been a nightmare. Now consider armies made up of multiple legions...

great summary!

As engrossing as ever. May I recommend "Geat and Maethild", a recent upload on the Northworthy Sagas and Stories channel here on RU-vid.

great series I know it not really your thing but I would love to see military formations for other eras not just ancient history. Looking forward to a Macedonian or Late Roman era formation like this.

G2A sponor is a not caring about your community

Hi from French here, please make a video of a "True size of a Legion in the Late Roman Empire" since Constantin 1er with Théodose The Great etc... There are so much difference and so much to talk about this period. Limitanea, comitatenses .... There is such a wealth of information that a lot of people don't know

Flashbacks to when you first made this using Total War footage

The Velites were not the absolute poorest (both money and equipment) of the mid Republican Roman armies. There were even poorer troops called the Rorarii and Accensi (though the Accensi were phased out by the late mid Republic) who served as reserves and/or skirmishers.

@Invicta Greetings can you please make more videos on Sasanian military, architecture and administrative system.

22:24 Princep Colonel ONeill? Sweet 🫡

Nice video

I would find it helpful if your videos went into the timeframe of what you're describing and perhaps a short discussion of what is happening in that era or a familiar "landmark" before, during, or after.

16:00 actually a good consul would not put his legionary camps together. Keeping them separated by half a kilometre or more allows for one camp to protect another if attacked. It also prevents the spread of disease and allows for better sanitation and foddering.

I really hope that you are going to do a video on the late Roman army in this same brilliant format.

In just a week, I will personally lay flowers at the place where Caesar, the greatest leader of the republic, died⚘✌

Another quibble: in early Roman times. there was the century as the basic formation, never 100 men, but based on the manpower from each tribe in the Comitia Centuriata, going back to the (probably pre-Republican) tribal system. The maniple was unknown before the Samnite Wars, and its use in the First Punic War is impossible to determine.

Could you do a unit of history: knights?

Where do you get your miniatures? They look great! Are they paper or plastic? These would be great to build an army for tabletop gaming.

Interesting that the legion included ~4,500 soldiers, when acting as an independent warfighting force. In modern times, the Brigade is the usual independent warfighting formation, also made up of ~4,500 personnel.

Can you do a video on the effectiveness of an ancient doctor?

It's likely that no one will care but it should be noted that the image of the Equites is incorrect. The Roman Equites did not have stirrups, they were only introduced after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

awesome

Oh my god, they were TENT MATES!

A question about the maniple: did the members drill in formation? At least to be able to follow a "left face" or "right face" command? I ask this because in the Battle of Cannae, when the Romans were suckered by Hannibal into the middle of his formation, the Carthaginians attacked them on the flanks. If the maniples could turn in formation to face this attack, they would bear up to the attack much better than individually facing the attack, likely disorganized. Not that this made any difference in the end, but it would explain a bit how such a large army -- 4 double legions with an equal number of auxiliaries -- could have been annihilated by a smaller army.

Video idea: We are close to Christmas, and you could do a video about the Norse version of Christmas named Yule!

One theory (and one I think makes the most sense) is that the century was 80-100 men as in the imperial era, as the name suggests! It was just that at the time of the sources the legion was not at full strength, but we assumed that it was.

it would have been good to make a clear distinction between the legion of the republic before and after the marian reforms as some major changes were implemented around that time.

A wonderful historical coverage about Roman empire legions during ( republican) period 👍🏻..thanks (Invicta) channel for sharing .. this excellent arrangement of legions.it's proven that Ceasars was a great leader

please make a video on the late roman legion!!!!

I couldn't help but notice: the depiction of the Equites includes a stirrup in the drawing, which is totally anachronistic - I think.

Would be great to see Late Roman Western/Eastern Military Composition. could split into as many vids as appropriate as late era byzantine (i.e basically mediaeval) is a fair way different from Western Roman at the time of the split for example. Also split vids for Comitatensis vs limitanei army comps if needed

REPUBLIC FANS IN THE HOUSE!

Good video but there is some rough animation work. Artwork is out of focus (12:20) and labels are off (11:39 and 14:08). Like the style but hopefully the folks at Penta can clean it up on the next one.

Great video as usual. I'm not sure about the depiction of stirrups on the equites, especially in the republican era - is there evidence that these were used? From the pictures/reliefs available I think most cavalry would be depicted without stirrups?

One thing is missing - Early Republican Legions were formed from middle class citizens but entire process of "recruitment" was based on tribal structure of roman society... which means, that members of same tribe usually ended up in same century or maniple and therefore they could share the tents.. What it also means is, that members of family would usually serve together and therefore its quite possible they would form the contubernium despite being legally from different "age group" - Hastati, Principes and Triarii... There are plenty of videos and articles that just repeat what Polybius wrote, but nobody actually looks at the issue from socio-economical perspective (which btw, Polybius also mentions, but its rarely talked about)

This might be a stupid question but it appears to me there are no archers in this (and the other legion) video. Is it a misconception that the Roman's used archers or where are these categorized in?

I think there is an error in your display of the Equites. The Romans (of the republic age) did not have stirrups afaik.

This is all good, with the exception that the pre-imperial Roman legion changed vastly over its 500 years. Polybius is one thing, and he was on the outside looking in. Nothing in this video describes the Roman army or legion in the First Punic War or earlier, when phalanx tactics were practiced.

Day 2 of asking for Invicta to make the true size of Carthage’s army

Can you please do a documentary about Battle of Lyncestis

Can you please do a whole real size 3d video about the roman marching camp and roman camp?

Ancients doing war better than most medieval states.

nice

I would like to know where were the rorarii becouse they are usually left out when someone talks about the Roman army.

In reference to your comment that the senior Decurion was likely in charge of the overall cavalry force (13:30), I would have to disagree (in the absence of some source indicating it was so). I find it difficult to believe that one man could simultaneously directly command his own file, the two other decurions in his Turma, and the 9 other Turmae in the legion. What I find more plausible is that overall command of the equites was given to one or more of the tribunes who were not in overall command at the moment. The tribunes would have been high status men, and thus were likely trained and experienced equites in their own right. Furthermore, given the mobile nature of cavalry (and the possibility of operating at a distance from the rest of the army), I believe it would make sense that someone with significant social/military authority (and who had been present for all of the current leaders' planning) would be in charge of their manouevres in the field.

Ave true to Caesar.

I would love a Roman Republic vs Roman Imperial vid. Who would win?

Was that circular breastplate of the Hastati actually useful, or was it more symbolic? It seems much too small to provide adequate protection. I think I would rather have a greave on my shield leg, or some kind or arm protection for my spear/sword arm for the same amount of material.

So, if the maniple-based formation was so flexible and useful, is that where we got the word, "manipulate"?

so how many similarities can be found with the past and a present army. I bet more than half. that is pretty good for a 2000 year difference.

Please make a video on Chola Empire (c. 848 - 1279 CE)