why was the roman army so successful?

Answer 1

They were governed properly, the troops were well trained, they had large armies. They had strict rules of discipline. Their generals had amazing battle strategies and plans. And to top it all of instead of killing prisoners of war they turned them into slightly equipped cheap warriors in individual battalions.

They were an amazing army all round.

Edt: And bigtom is wrong, the Romans battled many armies, and didny actually conquer all of britain. They beat the french, carthaginians, some of the british. They were a very strong military force. And ella is wrong as well, they spoke Latin notn english, english hadn't been invented...or founded whatever lol...

Answer 2

There are a number of reasons. Perhaps the most important one was the Roman Legion's discipline, and unity. Most armies were made up of warriors. A warrior is a fighting man who fights as one. The Roman Legion was an army of soldiers. A soldier is a fighting man who fights as a group. The Legionairre did not fight alone, and he did not try to gain individual glory. The Romans had good training, and good equipment. They did have some faults, like never having an effective cavalry force. But they did understand some basic and very important military concepts. For instance, the legion was a highly mobile unit. The Romans showed the legion to be superior to the Greek Phalanx, when the phalanx tried to charge them down, the Romans just side-stepped and then attacked from the exposed rear. The Roman Legion was inventive. The Tortuga was the undoing of many British hill forts. They constantly attacked. They always moved forward, even when fighting defense.

And by the way, the idea that the other peoples of the world didn't know what "attack" meant is just idiotic. You get the idea pretty damn quick when a bunch of soldiers comes at you with swords bared. And to say "that is probably wrong but it's what i think" is just as dumb. If it's wrong, there is NO value in keeping that idea! And just because people didn't know how big the world was didn't mean that they simply said they won't fight. They fought all the time! Have you ever even GLANCED at history??? And by the way, the people of the ancient world were much more connected than many people think. There is evidence of trade between the Egyptians and the South Americans during the time of the pharoahs. Scandinavia is mentioned in the Oddysey (spelling?). Japanese were known to settle on America's West Coast.

Answer 3

Hate to burst your bubble the Romans got beat anumber of times, in fact a celt( yes celts lived on the mainland too) named brennus sacked Rome. Yes it was pre-Caeser and all but it happened. The Romans complained about the amount of tribute Brennus was taking and so he drew his sword and took more saying " vi victis" or "woe to the conquered" then he left.All in all the Romans were successful due to ....1) training 2) superior equipment, and if someone else had better they adopted it 3) all the soldiers were citizens pf the empire, it was at the end when barbarians were used to fill the gaps the Romans started to fall. Oh by the way yes the Pomans beat some of the British BUT they built a wall to keep all the scary naked blue guys away!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 4

Their training and tactics were about 1000 years ahead of their time. When you faced the Romans, you faced a group, not a group of individuals. This was rare before the Middle Ages.

Their technology was superior to most. While most of their enemies were carriying sheidls that were little more than wooden or leather bucklers, they used full-body shields. They opened fights with a volley of javelines that were designed to break in half from their own weight after striking a target, making them impossible to throw back at the Romans. Italy is mostly mountains, so they had plenty of miniral resources for military equipment as well.

And lets not forget that the roads made famous by the phrase "All roads lead to Rome" were built for military supply lines primarily.

Answer 5

They had good discipline, equipment and battle formations, with good flexibility - they also benefited from cavalry and advanced siege engines. There also happened to be a heck of a lot of them.

Of course, the Roman Legions weren't unstoppable - Hannibal of Carthage destroyed numerous Roman Armies with much smaller forces - attack those infamous formations from all sides and it's game over. Towards the end, the Romans were being routed by tribesmen.

Answer 6

Over the 600 years of Rome's existence, the roman army underwent a tremendous evolution from the legions of the Republic, to the professional standing legions of the emprire under Caesar (most notably his 10th Legion, to the legions of the late empire, filled with former barbarian adversaries. When you ask why it was so successful, it all depended on the time period in question.

The mobility of its cavalry on the wings, the strength of their shield walls, the tactics of their commanders, were all used t varying degrees throughout this time period. As some have stated above, many legions were defeated by better tactics, lack of funding in the later empire, etc.

Answer 7

Rome is undoubtedly one the most wonderful towns on the planet; each year countless tourists come from around the globe to admire the gifts and designs of Roman art and structure and to be one of them you should begin with Hotelbye . One of the very most popular of Rome's many sections is Piazza Navona. That place preserves the design of the Stadium of Domitian that when stood here. Piazza Navona was builted by Emperor Domitian in 86 AD and has three impressive fountains.

Answer 8

After the reorganization of the roman army by Marius the Romans may have lost many battles, but they never lost a war(example:2nd Punic War,Hannibal cost the Romans 100000 casualties in his first four battles 217-216BC but he lost the war-battle of Zama 203BC). Gradually they conquered all Itally,a great pool for recruitment,legions were numerous fighting against divided enemies and their weapons(Javellin-short sword and oblong shield) and disciplined training overcame armies similar to them due mainly to their versatility and endurance,so by the middle of the first century
century BC all the Mediterranean basin was under the Romans.Then,during the first Triumvirate(Crassus Ceasar and Lepidus) Crassus and his legions were butchered in Carre of Lydia in 54BC(Asia Minor) by the superb Parthian(Persian) cavalry using bow and arrow and shooting the roman footsoldiers of the legions at will.That defeat marked the end of the superiority of the legions against cavalry which either fought with spear and sword,(Goths,Vandals Francs etc) or later the undefeated shooting cavalries of Huns,Mongols,Turks,and which overrun Asia and Europe up to the Adriatic sea and were only defeated by the invention of
the cannon much later...

Answer 9

Superior discipline, excellent training, and better technology and tactics that MOST of their opponents. A few enemies gave the Roman army fits, like the highly mobile and very crafty Parthians, from which the expression "parting shot" comes--it used to be Parthian shot, meaning retreating on horseback while peppering your enemy with arrows...when they got tired of chasing you, you attacked them again.

The Roman army was not good in very open, mobile warfare. In close quarters combat or seige, they were well-nigh undefeatable and inexhaustible.

Like all armies, once their ranks became filled with mercenaries and foreigners, they gradually lost their ability and will to fight.

Answer 10

No offense but I can tell you that the Roman army had it's share of defeats. Between the Goths, Carthaginians, Pantheons, Huns and all the other groups wanting to occupy Italy....they lost many battles but in truth were the greatest diplomats. With great diplomats they could talk there way out of a fight to the death.