Rome: Rise of the Republic historical legion

Total War: ROME II - Emperor Edition785 views30 favorites2 min readby ChrisView on Steam ↗

Intro

I've been looking into creating a historcal legion in Rome 2, specifically in Rise of the Republic.
There are other guides documenting a historical Polybian Legion, this is the sort in play at the start of Rome 2's grand campaign, and Legion's of the later Roman Republic/Empire, but as there wasn't one for the Camillian Legion, I created this guide.

Historical Background

So, the early Republic based it's two legions on the Etruscan enemies it faced. They divided their army into 2 different ranks of hoplites, 2 different ranks of javelin armed support units, a slinger/skirmisher support unit and a cavalry division.

The cavalry, or equites, were the richest citizens, consisting of roughly 300 men. they typically formed on the legions flanks.

The first line of hoplites were the richest and best equipped. The second line of hoplites, were poorer and less well armed, generally not having breastplates. Together, they numbered 3000 men.

The light javelinmen/slingers at the rear numbered 1200.

We don't accurately know how each contingent was split, but it is probable that each of the two hoplite lines were equal in size and that as there were two javelin lines to one slinger, it sugests a ratio of 2 javelinmen to each slinger.

So, per legion, we have:

300 equites
1500 veteran hoplites
1500 light hoplites
800 leves
400 accensi

totalling 4,500 men.

Early Army Composition

So, staright away, we can ignore the velites, ballista and polybolos units. These were all later additions to the roman military.

If we give the early army:
2 units of equites,
3 veteren centuriae,
3 centuriae
4 roman light hoplites,
3 leves
1 of accensi
we'd have roughly the right ratio of men, with 4 slots left in the stack for rorarii and mercenary/native units. Roarii are less well documented, but 2 units of them and 2 of local mercenary units would probably give the most realistic flavour to your legion. Generally, I'd have the general in an equite unit.

Camillian Reforms

After Camillus' reforms, each legion changed significantly. The hoplites were split into hastati, principes and triarii, hastati being poor than the principes who in turn were not as well off as the triarii. Javelin armed skirmishers were attached to the hastati at the front of the legion, and slingers were kept at the rear of the formation with the triarii. Equites remained as they were.

So, per legion, we have:

300 equites
900 hastati
900 principes
900 triarii (it asn't unitl the Polybian reforms that these were reducedin number)
300 leves
900 accensi

Camillian Compostion

After the reforms, it's actually easier to split into a 20 stack army.

As before, we ignore the velites, ballista and polybolos.

We now have:
2 units of equites
3 hastati
3 principes
3 triarii
1 leves
4 accensi

the last 4 slots could conceivably be given over to mercenary/native units, but would probably be most realistic if all were rorarii. I would generally put the general into an equite unit.

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