Societas Via Romana - Discussion Archives

Salvete
I always wondered how the Greek army looked like? Was the build up similar to Roman legions or different? I know armies tend to be different from city-state to city-state but was there a general idea or concept how a army looked like?
And how did it change under Roman rule? One can imagine, they were adopted into the legiones but what happened to these soldiers under Roman rule?
Enough questions to keep us occupied, i guess.
valete

Salve Sokare!

As in my response to Ti. Dionysius' question in Collegium Militarium, I would like to refer to the wonderful book by Peter Connolly ("Greece and Rome at war").

The Greek army was certainly totally different from the 'classic' Roman legions. In fact, the Roman army under the kings most likely fought in exactly the same manner as the Greek troops.

Some sites that offer much good information on this matter:
http://digilander.libero.it/tepec/the_a ... oplite.htm
http://www.classics.und.ac.za/projects/ ... armour.htm
http://www.hoplites.co.uk/


Under Roman rule all cities abandoned their armies, simply because it was not necessary anymore. Roman citizens from Greece who wanted to join the army, just did so like all others throughout the empire. They simply became Roman soldiers like all others. In the late republic and early empire, there were however some special contingents of Cretan archers attached to the Roman legions (like there were also slingers from the Baleares or Numidian horsemen). It is possible that Greeks served in the later Roman armies as auxiliaries, but I don't have any exact information on this. If I ever find more information on this, I'll post it.

For now, vale bene!