Watch our episode on the "True Size of a Spartan Army" which covers their organization, formations, and fortifications: ua-cam.com/video/XLd1tab8f0c/v-deo.html
And this kids, is how you conquer the world. Not with the sword..... but with logistics. I am still at awe at what they managed to pull off 2000 years ago.
And then there's Russia who's army ran out of fuel a few days into the War even though Russia is a oil producing country and the war takes place right along its borders 😅
The difference is the battle lines in WW2 are hundreds of km across. The battle of Cannae had about 130,000 people fighting in hand to hand combat in a very large field. The NFL stadium where I'm from holds about 70k people. That's 2 full stadiums of people. That would truly be something to behold. If there was a WW2 battle to see it'd say it would have to be Kursk. @@jeffmacarthur9722
yea huge but they didnt have to walk everywhere.....imagine if youre in ny and were going to invade cali and you had to march there lol.....one poor bastard crossed the alps with elephants i forget who wasnt romans maybe hannibal? @@jeffmacarthur9722
Well yeah, that's an entire campaign worth of men, most of whom won't fight each other. For the Romans, this is upwards of 50k+ men all fighting within an area of maybe 2 miles.
I’ve been wondering this exact thing. I’ll be staring at a big field at a park and just wonder how many legions would fit in it and how they would manage the terrain.
It's not until you actually see the physical size that you realise how gigantic the legion was. Also telling and showing how long it would take for an entire legion to walk past you was the icing on the cake. It gives you a new perspective as we everyday deal with time and how long something could take. This was awesome!
They make look big described this way, but modern armies utterly dwarf them in size. A legion as described here has 5240 fighting men. Thats only just more than the number of militia that banded together to fight the Americans at the Battle of Mogadishu in the early 1990s. Talking of America - they sent 43,250 shooters ashore in the Omaha Beach assault alone. Thats 8 legions. The whole invasion of Europe used 2 million troops - ie 190 legions. In total on the Western Front, the Allies had the equivilant of 1460 legions, while the Axis had 1530 legions.
@@Debbiebabe69 When Germany was marching through Belgium in WW1, the time it took the army to pass through wasn't measured in hours but days. The Battle of the Marne had about a million soldiers on each side. A nice point of comparison is that the number of soldiers in a legion is approximately equal to the number in a brigade. In the 20th century, the smallest unit considered capable of fully independent operation was the division which is 2-4 brigades depending on organization. More recently however the trend has been back towards the brigade level as the smallest independent tactical unit.
It's true, and yet Caesar tosses the word around as though referring to rugby teams in his Gallic Wars, "I sent three legions hence to counter the threat and withdrew two more from the North," etc., etc.
I once read if you were watching Napoleons army passing by on his march towards Russia, you had to be standing there for 3 day's and nights.......incredible !
Well, wait till you see the Chinese armies back in those days... their standard armies are ranged from 30k to 800k in size. Imagine the food and time they need to take to invade. If Europe is near to China, it will have been crashed. I think even the Chinese army splitting on the castles can flood them. Lol
And don't forget that legions often had additional auxiliaries with them, such as archers, slinger, additional Cavallari etc. A legion or even an Roman army on campaign must have been massive. A truly fearful sight on any battlefield.
And at the battle of cannae against Hannibal, the Roman army almost 90,000, 87,000 to be exact. Just imagine the sight and the area that this army would cover
Loving the use of Unreal Engine to make documentaries like this one, big props! There are still some improvements to be made but it's a great contribution to the video and I can see it becoming a key point in a any historical video!
Thanks! This is indeed just one small step for the channel. We will continue to find ways to improve this series so all feedback is greatly appreciated. Some ideas so far are to start color coding the soldier bases, add more info graphics, and start to introduce animation
@@InvictaHistory love the visuals that you guys have started using, and a great new topic area to go into "size of the ancients" keep up the good work!
@@InvictaHistory as a 3D artist myself, i would suggest fixing the trees' LODs that keep popping in the distance first. The environment shading looks good, you could maybe use some dither blending when you add megascans on top of it (to hide the seams on the ground) As for the soldiers models, It would be REALLY interesting to have actual static 3d models of Roman soldiers: with Unreal 5 and nanite you would actually be able to have this many without performance issues (assuming they're not moving). I know some crazy talented people that could help you model them, in case you don't have a character artist. Hope the feedback can be of use, peace!
Why are they all white, where are the womxn and stunning and brave transsoldiers? I left Twitter recently after the elonazi took over but this non Twitter world is so confusing and triggering... Reeeee
@@dawnblade9126 I'm still playing Total War these days although I'm using the mod 'Europa Barbaroum'.Once you use that mod you can't go back to vanilla.
Really good to see the "Combat Service Support" aspect of a classical army considered. So often overlooked in both modern and classical analysis of an army's structure and yet so critical to their success.
Awesome video! The true size of the battle of Ecnomus between Rome and Carthage would be incredible, being one of the largest naval battles in history.
The legionary size is something I've always been curious about. For something who is writing a fantasy nation based around these guys, this is incredibly helpful!
Dude small fuckin' world, I'm working on something with a small group of my own friends, dividing the work of the world-building and lore creation amongst three of us (I got the Roman inspired part, go figure)
I'm doing something similar for the sci-fi military novel I'm working on, with a special forces unit roughly based on the legion structure, each "Contubernium" being a spec-ops team (on par with SPARTAN-II's or III's from Halo)
Its genuinely amazing how we now have access to this level of information, presented perfectly with visuals to help us understand and be entertained - thanks to dedicated people like those who run this channel. Thank you very much!
You can thank those scribes mentioned in the video probably. They're probably the ones that wrote all this down literally millennia ago. Or at least some of it. Then, over the years, it ended up getting into the hands of different historians.
@@masonjohnson4310 Yep then monks or scribes of Arab world copied it before the originals fell apart from age. Unfortunately most of it not copied or lost with Empires fall. .
Unlike the majority of Ancient Civilizations, the Romans were EXTREMELY good at keeping precise records in detail. Hence they are one of the most well known ancient civilizations. Not saying we know a lot about them, but we know more about them than most civilizations from ancient times.
@@masonjohnson4310 we have had this information for 2k years... but people get impressed by play things on a video... Reading something is too difficult for today's ignorant population (Roman populous was also ignorant )
@@guillermoelenes7252 Words can rarely do something justice when trying to portray something of this size or complexity. There is a reason videos like this are so popular, because people like being able to visualize the information we've had for 2k years. We should be embracing things like this, not jesting at someone for watching this instead of reading the primary source.
@@joegibson4946 Politicians had to be proficient in military tactics during those times. Of course, some were better than others, but they all knew at least the basics.
This is a perfect example of why I LOVE this channel! You really delve into the more obscure things, things people may think about like “What would a legion look like in size comparison” or “How big an area would they need to build into a camp” Its stuff you can’t really finf any other place other than Invicta!
As a kid I attempted to make a Legion from Airfix figures. Over the years I got to about 75% full strength even using other figures and products to make up the slaves, slingers, archers and mules and logistics train. Etc. I still have them sat in boxes in my hobby room which is now made out to 1:300 tank models.
@@Abebe345 Ive read that Paris at the time of the Viking Invasions, was 30,000 people. I would imagine that the rural areas have a lot of population compared to cities, as everyoine is farming.
The absolute power disparity between the Roman legions and their contemporary neighbors has always seemed so insane to me. The uniformity, quality, and expertise that none of their opponents could hold a candle to until the Empire tore itself apart from within.
The Legions did loose an awful lot of the time, it was just that there was always another legion, or consular army, to replace the losses. And look up the Parthians and how they faired against them.
@@ondras5241 You can't really describe the power of the Roman military by just using battles. Yes, many times Greeks and others were a match for them in a battle. But only Rome had a massive standing military machine. You can win against them in a battle, but they just keep coming. They never lay down their arms for a harvest or start getting angry because they've been away from home too long. With the exception of a small core of the Spartan army, Greek armies were made of citizens drafted for the purpose of fighting for a season, and the Parthians for example looked more like many medieval armies comprised of nobles and their serfs and a heavy addition of mercenaries. The power of the Roman military was in its ability to keep men in the field, keep them supplied, and their mobility. No other force in the world at that time was comparable.
@@Kelnx Your understanding on the matter is not very good. It is correct that Rome had a standing military, but Roman soldiers did lay down their arms, not for harvest, but for infrastructure projects, policing and administration. A legion would be spread out in the area, hard at work even in peace time. Furthermore, the idea that Roman soldiers "didn't get angry because they've been away from home too long" is, with all respect, laughable. We have tons of accounts of mutiny, often of whole legions. And while the ability of the Romans to raise another army in time of need is remarkable, those new raised armies were often of significantly lower quality and were basically the equivalent of a local levy. And if we look at Persians, they also had the ability to "bounce back" from lost battles/wars. Rome notably struggled with that, as the Persian powercore was located in the far East and even after the Romans captured Ctesiphon (Sassanid capital) five times, they weren't able to completely defeat the Persians, who managed to return to their previous strength and the Sassanids eventually outlasted the Roman empire. To wrap it up, while Roman empire was exceptional in many areas, a large part of it's today's prestige is because of good PR and not because of it's actual perfection and many societies at the time could match it in certain areas.
I love this video. Absolutely amazing and have been waiting for an in depth description like this about Rome's juggernaut for a long time from this channel. You never disappoint Invicta!!
It’s content like this that elevates UA-cam far above other sources. It would have taken 4 days for a network to get this much information across. Outstanding work.
@@liamcullen5105 "All Rome will be amazed at such a victory! The day is *(voice cracks)* ours!" - The guy that shouts out when you win a battle in Rome Total War
Thank you for making this video. I had always wondered how a legion was structured and was particularly interested in how they set up their officers and specialists. The romans are one of my favorite fighting forces of history. This was certainly an interesting video and brings more realism to the battles you read about from books, knowing how these legions were generally structured and who had what duties.
@@corylemons7242 exactly, I always think about logistics too, the total army sizes including camp followers and animals is crazy, literally a moving column of a city's population!
The overall thoroughness is just wonderful. The graphic animation serves the audio perfectly. The simplicity of the animation as is, allows to keep focus easily. Thumbs up!
Most if not all major Roman defeats were due to terrible decision making and utter leadership incompetence, and that can destroy any army in the world, even modern ones, just look at Ukraine.
While we can say Roman defeats were due to incompetence, lack of preparedness, etc, other flip side you can also say that Roman victories were due to the lack of preparedness, incompetence, poor leadership, disunity, etc of their enemies. Hannibal during the Punic Wars didn't even have the support of his country's leadership. Vercingetorix could barely hold together thr disunity Gallic tribes that had been fighting each other for centuries (many of whom still allied with Rome), and he wad convinced by his Chiefland to fight a pitched field battle instead of sticking to a winning strategy of avoiding big ptiched open field battles and relying on small skirmishes and hit and run.
@@Intranetusa What is simplier and easier, be organized and competent or the opposite? So we can say the victories of Rome were not due to the desorganization and incompetence of their enemies, but due to the organization and competence of the romans
Ancient, yes. Medieval warfare... here you only get truly big battles if you go to the East or if you wait until the last centuries of the Middle Ages.
@@thefuture1892 Ancient battles are mostly larger than medieval battles because, during those times it's civilizations vs civilizations kinds of battles as opposed to medieval battles that involve smaller countries. I mean just look at the size of the roman empire and it's contemporaries, and compare it to medieval states.
Dear lord. Imagine seeing that large train of so many people just marching. That must have been terrifying and awe inspiring for people in antiquity. I feel like you just wouldn’t ever see that many people in one place back then. Especially all on the move at once.
Shovels and axes were in every soldier's kit for a reason. There wasn't a road when they started moving. There was one when they finished. As the legion moved, it cut the forest, dug and paved the road, and built the wall. That is why all roads lead to Rome. Because the army altered the terrain to fit them as they moved, and they connected the fortress they built to camp in one night, to the fortress they built to camp in the next night. Leaving a network of ready-to-inhabit towns behind them as they went.
Anywhere no. There were scouts who preceded the army, scouted the land and relayed information to army command about where it was thought bet to pitch camp. Drainage, water, survivability in case of attack and obtaining tactical situations all helped to indicate where best to pitch camp for the night.
@@williambarnes5023 That is almost entirely false, and blatantly so - they did not construct anything close to a regular Roman road while on a march, and they certainly did not construct a wall while moving in between camp sites. And the camps themselves would not be left behind as anything close to a “ready to inhabit town”. This channel has a good video on a typical 24h while on the march, please watch it and don’t present your imagination as facts without at least trying to gain some proper knowledge beforehand.
Thank you so much. I'm attempting to write a historical fiction novel set during Trajan's first Dacian War. It revolves around a veteran legionnaire, an optio in Legio IV Flavia Felix, who aspires to become a centurion, so as an officer he can legally marry his love interest. He also wrestles with converting to Christianity, the risk he and his love interest take in doing so, and the breakdown of his friendship with one of his fellow veteran legionnaires. This video helps me immensely with my research, giving me a greater understanding of the size and depth of a Roman Legion. Thank you.
Awesome! I've been consuming Timaeus' Roman History podcast every day for hours and while the legion structure and roles are explained well, the visual aids help a lot 👍
@@MrJabbafett It was a great victory by the German tribes, united under Arminius. Unfortunately, following their victory, Arminius tried to become leader of all the tribes. The same spirit of freedom and independence that drove them to vanquish the Roman legions at Teutoberg, caused them to kill Arminius.
@@AudieHolland the Romans came back anyway, and they had no real interest in conquering the full germanic territories for political reasons. After the heavy defeat, the Romans reorganized to avenge Varus and the lost legions. The battle of Idistaviso is considered the revenge of the Roman Empire against the Germans, after the defeat suffered by Varo. In 16, the imperial legate Germanicus managed to beat Arminius in two great battles: the first in the plain of Idistaviso, the second in front of the Angrivarian wall, both between the right bank of the river Visurgi (current Weser), the surrounding hills, the great Germanic forest and marshes further north. The Rhine was consolidated as the definitive northeastern border of the Empire for the next 400 years.
@@MrJabbafett the Romans, on the other hand, were heroic, and after having burned and abandoned most of the carriages and all the unnecessary baggage, the Romans advanced anyway, arranged in more orderly deployments until they reached a location in the open field, not without further losses. From there they continued their march, still confident of being able to save themselves; knowing that on the journey they would have suffered numerous new losses and perhaps only a few would have been saved, the hope was to get as close as possible to the camp of Castra Vetera on the river Reno, where perhaps the legate Asprenate could have reached them and saved them. The army proceeded in wooded areas that seemed interminable, attacked mercilessly by Arminius' men, who knew the terrain well and who shouldn't allow the Romans to organize and take sides, since in the open field the legions would certainly have prevailed.
This channel is by far one of my most favourite. I love how the men of the past formed a world of such high intelligence and organization. Yet today with all our technology we can't even come close to the levels of discipline, organisation and power that the Roman Empire had. It almost makes you think that humanity peaked about 2,000 years ago.
Fascinating visuals. I'd love to see a Late Antique Roman Army (per the Strategikon), as well as an Early Medieval one (per the Praecepta Militaria), as well as naval visualizations (again, Classical, Late Antique, and Early Medieval).
Great video, excellent research and production which puts the massive size of a single legion in perspective. Now just imagine the size of an army comprising three to four legions and you will see how formidable the Roman army was - and that isn't even counting the auxiliary units!
I would love to see a full Roman Imperial Legion assume battle field formation. Just to see how well trained those men were, to do all of this without radio communications. Just signifiers and trumpets used to announce changes. Its absolutely unimaginable to me, how much training it took to reach that level of organization and discipline.
This was such a good video! As someone who writes stories involving roman-inspired armies, this is ridiculously useful information. And I am really impressed by how well it is presented while being both very easy to understand and also thorough in what it covers.
Bravo and superb job done here,as an Italian from Rome who dedicated his younger days in the study of my city and it's former military and tactical aspect you deserve a great thank you.
As an Italian you would have done much better to learn Latin and read your own history from your own primary sources than listen to this make believe idealised Roman legion that never existed in real life.
Thank you. I always knew that the armies etc. were massive. With your detailed break down of the Legion, the shear size of this is mind boggling. Once again thank you.
This is the best video I have seen regarding the Roman Legions. You've done a superb job of breaking Legion down into its constituent parts and demonstrate how they operate as one large or even small unit. I will be most interested in seeing you do more of these films. For instance the alexandrian army, the armies of Egypt, and the Army's of China and the Mongols as suggestions. I have been asked to deliver every once in awhile a clear breakdown of the Revolutionary Army compared to the British army, the words of 1812 and the American Civil War. There's no rush on this I think they can wait I will recommend your site for other educators who I am sure will be most pleased to see your work, once again thank you so very very much.
This was an amazing video and great detail, the modelling system implemented was a super nice touch! Really appreciate the time and detail put into this, I personally love the Roman Empire's History and this about the Legions was well done. I look forward to seeing more in the future!
Great video! You really appreciate the sheer logistics that go into organizing and fielding such a force. The fact that such military organization is not seen in such scale till the age of gunpowder is a wonder.
Not seen in Europe yes, in China no. They have different ranks of leaders and officers since the spring and autumn war. Not to mention 9k army is just a small squad to them.
OMG :O This video is absolutely amazing. This things should be seen by teachers all over the world in order to show children how things really worked and looked like thousends of years ago. Amazing job
Very few videos on UA-cam have left me truly without words, this is one of them, numbers are big enough but visualizing the raw size of just a century, specially for a visual learner, is truly something else, well done, the first chance I got to watch this again in 4k I'll do it
it is astounding to me how the organizational structure is so similar to modern day standards with the centurian being similar in role to a Lt. today and the other officers being similar to senior NCOs and sgt majors, really makes you appreciate how well we had it figured out even all the way back then and the only difference is our horses weigh 60 tonnes and everyones an archer ;)
The main thing we seemed to have figured out since then is the psychology of medium-sized units, a company of 150-200 men is far far easier to command than a cohort of nearly 500 with multiple junior officers.
You seem to forget that at Sanhurst and West Point they still study the Romans and therefore it is not a matter of the ancient Romans being similar to us, we, who they have never known, but it is entirely plausible that we are similar to them as we succeeded them, studied and copied them. There is absolutely nothing astounding about this except that you used reverse and therefore wrong logic.
Pulling all this coherent information, I am grateful. You are most generous. You leave us with something wonderful. Detail is worthy of the master Gibbon. Eager to review again trying to realize your immense setting. I also appreciate the full titles of officers which now I learned for the first time and being able to piece together the leather and storm of journaled battles
Gibbon was not at all exhaustive about Roman army formations, tactics, strategy, fighting spirit, marching order, logistics etc. He got lost in a jungle of verbiage.
Looking forward to this. It always irritates me when I watch military videos and they talk about legions. I mean, I know what they are but I often can't remember their size in numbers or visualise them.
Amazingly detailed explanation of one of the best and most effective military organizations of all times.
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Wow! this is the most impressive video about the real size of one legion that I've ever seen. I really hope to watch more videos of another army size of antiquity, maybe the Spartan organisation or Macedonian Phalanx in times of Alexander the Great, something like that will be awesome.
Recently visited Culloden battlefield in Scotland. There were around 5000 & 9000 on the two side (so somewhat close to the size of a legion?). The field is laid out where each line would have stood, with flags (blue and red) marking out the two army lines. There are paths cut through the field along the lines, and a field hospital (stone cottage). I could not get over the length of the two lines and the scale of the battle field. Being there and seeing it all marked out really helped get a sense of it. The field is actually only half the width of the original lines of soldiers as a road cuts the original field in half and still feels huge. If anyone gets chance, visit, best of all it's free.
Love it! I was trying to do something like this a while back using 3D models of LEGO minifigs, drawn from the minifigs that LEGO actually made in their mystery sets. I built the models but never got much further than that.
This video was absolutely amazing. I have always had a hard time envisioning the scale of this and how the sheer size of this force must have been a weapon in and of itself inspiring fear and doubt into the enemy about how to oppose them. Whoever came up with the idea for this video I really appreciate it. You should do more videos on the scale and make up of other historical forces for comparison.
I never really thought about the size of these formations, but as soon as I saw the video title I knew I wanted to know. Good work, and I am looking forward to the next video.
Amazing video. I have been a fan of the Roman Age ever since taking 4 years of Latin in high school! I occasionally have issues with word pronunciations in some channels, the difference between Church and Roman Latin, but I love these just the same. I binge all the videos on the subject of Rome when the come out. Keep up the incredible work!
The Latin that is taught at school and that is engraved on the marbles of the ancient Roman ruins (and written by the ancient Authors) is "classical" Latin: the language spoken by the upper most educated classes and used in the Senate of Rome. The language spoken by most people and throughout the empire was "vulgar" Latin. Although both forms were mutually intelligible, they were not the same. With the fall of the Western Empire (476 AD) there was no more any central authority to manage the language, and the only language left to be used was vulgar Latin. This language in turn started to change (every live language evolves over time), and the change was greater across geographic barriers (mountains, big rivers). By the VIII century classical Latin (used by the Church) was no more readily understood by normal (un educated) people. Additionally national languages (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian) started to emerge and differentiate. Although all came from vulgar Latin, and still mutually intelligible to some extent, they were clearly different. In the Middle Age the Church too used vulgar Latin, further enriched with modern words that did not even exist centuries before. During the Renaissance period the national languages were formally codified and extended forcibly by law to the whole nation (for political reasons), so that the jump across a border became greater than before. For example the Occitan language spoken in the south of France was much more similar to Italian and Spanish than current day French (which was the romance language spoken in the area of Paris, much farther away). Romanian, being cut from contact and influence of other romance languages for centuries, had an autonomous evolution.
When I went to the Varusschlacht Museum In Kalkriese, Teutoburg Forest, Germany, they had a really nice display of metal miniatures showing the marching column of the 3 legions involved in the battle (XVII, XVIII and XIX). The display was huge, even though it was a scale model. Really gave you an idea of the dimensions of a Roman army. I can really recommend the museum by the way! Would be a great place to visit for anyone interested in Roman stuff. The museum is built on a section of the ancient battlefield and most of the collection was excavated on site. In a year from now they will probably be putting there best find so far on display: a full set of lorica segmentata, which predates any other Roman samples found so far.
The refinement and standardization of the legion was a work in progress that changed throughout the ages. The first instance of military organization was referenced by Plutarch and Xenophon to be the Rule of the first Nike. It is explained in a book titled "The Arm of the Nike". The Greeks modified the order of battle with the phalanx. When Roman began, they were little more than tribes conducting horde tactics, but quickly adopted the organization of the Greeks. Further modifications came with the development of shield tactics and the use of the phylum instead of relying on units of slingers and javelin throwers. Consider doing separate videos on the three military reforms of the Roman armies from hordes to Legion, Marius, and then Julius.
Many people say Napoleon was a genius for innovating with the army "corps" system. But I've been wondering, aren't Corps just a modern spib in the Legion? Like Corps Legions were self-sufficient mini armies that could operate independently from other Legions or combine with other legions to form a larger army. I've been wondering how did it take until Napoleon to rediscover something that all of Rome's enemies had fought against for hundreds of years? Rome's Legions didn't fade from memory like many ideas after the fall of Rome. So how did people not take more contemporary spins of the Legion until Napoleon?
It was because Napoleon and the Revolution before him did what most nations in the world feared doing: he armed the people. Massive armies are a threat to most nations because they are inherently dangerous to pre-Nationstate polities. Building massive armies to wage vast conflicts is not something most kings would ever seriously consider because If he wasn't leading the army, then whoever was would gain massive political power. If he was leading the army, then he would be politically unstable back home. Professional regular armies simply were beyond most national economies until about the 17th century. Germany is perfect proof of this.
The legionary system and the corps system serve different functions. An army of legions march together. Corps march along different roads and only converge to fight battles. In the video it's estimated that for a legion of about 9000 men, on less than ideal road conditions, it takes 45 minutes for the legion to pass a single point. That means that in the morning after the first soldiers have started marching, the guys positioned at the rear of the coloumn would have to wait another 45 minutes before they can start marching. For a large Roman army of 6 legions (54 000 men) the guys at the rear would have to wait 4½ hours (6x45min) before they can start marching. For this reason a large army won't be able to march as long a distance in a day as a small army. Fast forward to the Napoleonic era and armies ballooned in size. It now becomes impossible to march an entire army in single colon. It has to be split up in different groups marching along parallell roads. Thus I'd say the corps system is not a stroke of genius, it's a necessity that happens when armies grow over a certain size.
It was very informative to see it laid out like this I was hoping that you would also cover the fortifications that the Romans built each night went on the March. They must have been enormous.
They were not fortifications but camps. Fortifications are far more permanent structures than a one to camp overnight. That said they equally needed to be engineered but since each legionary knew what he had to do, it was set up in double quick time with ditch and all.
The visual representation by the 3D style in this topic is just wonderful! ❤ Could you make a video which discusses the about the medical unit of a legion ?
Yes. I'm also astonished about that lack of mention of the most important auxiliary forces, which some other channels make almost as numerous as the legionaries themselves.
Yes but the Auxiliary component was hugely variable in both size and composition. Any representation would almost certainly be wrong in either or even both of those categories.
@@Belisarius1967 - They could have made a more or less arbitrary average, at the very least a mention: "and we're not counting all the auxiliaries, we leave that for a future video".
Idea: You should do an animated docuseries about the most famous Battles of Antiquity (Troy, Kadesh, Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Issus, Gaugamela, Zama, Alesia, Teutoburg, Chibi, and the Catalaunian Plains), the studio that could make the animation would be on the same style of Héroes Verdaderos ("Truth Heroes) which is an Animated film about the Mexican War of Independence.
It really helps to watch this while looking out across an airport tarmac. I can visualize how a legion or true army in battle might have looked. Imagine having to convey orders to units that you can't see several kilometers away through dust.
A legion and a modern company are about the same size in terms of number of men. That's because ~100 men/people is the extent that one person (captain/centurion/etc) can know a person well enough to be familiar with their name, personality, traits, etc. It's considered a natural quantity for a person to lead a formation, in that regard.
Overall. a good job. However it should have been noted that a decanus was the leader of a contubernium. I'm curious if they were ranked among each other. So, as the pilus prior was the ranking centurion of a cohort, was there an analogous position for the ranking decanus of a century? Thank you!
small oversight but there was another rank. in the contubernium you had the decanus, the first among ten. this position was usually chosen by the contubernium itself as their chosen squad leader.
AH ha! I've always thought there must've been a leader for what was basically the Roman squad, but I've never been able to find out what he was called or how he was chosen. Thank you for clearing this up. Any chance you could give a link to a source, just for infomation?
@@FelixstoweFoamForge Though wikipedia does show it, i was more referencing a similar video by Historia Civilis here. ua-cam.com/video/YKBWAYZOXqA/v-deo.html
This is brilliant!!! I have been watching this channel for years, and this may very well be my personal favorite thus far. I have read this information in depth regarding sizes of various legions through both the Republican and Imperial eras, but the way you’ve described and illustrated here to me is the perfect depiction for a standard imperial legion!!! You nailed it!!!
The precision and accuracy of record keeping and logistics needed to make that size force viable with the tech they had available is insane. Makes you wonder if units or formations ever "found" things like extra ballista the same way units in the world wars always seemed to manage.
Do the armies of Carthage, Diadochi Alexander's successor states, Vikings, Italian city states and Mongol under Genghis khan pls 😃👍 Maybe some more modern armies as well like Napoleon's grand arme or the armies from both world wars
@@thestanleys3657 I don’t think you realize the amount of work that goes into a video such as this, maybe one suggestion, but all of those? Also, I’m sure he’s already thought of that or they🙄
@@rdrdrd7777 that's a bit presumptive. Do I think that a vid like this can be knock out in a day no, it takes weeks at a minimum. Also I'm assuming that this true size series will be on going for years probably so a list of factions to do may help to narrow down what are people's interest
![True Size of Napoleon's Army - The Infantry [c. 1808] 3D DOCUMENTARY](/img/n.gif)
Watch our episode on the "True Size of a Spartan Army" which covers their organization, formations, and fortifications: ua-cam.com/video/XLd1tab8f0c/v-deo.html
_ pes 20 T numerol _ 20 sid gamadion _ pythagoras tetractys hexagram 20 _ atlas _ atlast20 _ 048 even _ 1235679 odd _ english T 20th letter _
And this kids, is how you conquer the world. Not with the sword..... but with logistics. I am still at awe at what they managed to pull off 2000 years ago.
It helps GREATLTY if you poke them WITH the sword and then exercise the logistics.
@@SuperChuckRaney Poke a lot of people real good with the sword THEN start adding the numbers up.
@@Joseph-ic8xd The Pointy End.
I wouldn’t agree about conquering world but yea , this is the best army in the world on those days
And then there's Russia who's army ran out of fuel a few days into the War even though Russia is a oil producing country and the war takes place right along its borders 😅
I can’t even begin to imagine how insanely massive battles with 50k+ armies would look like on the battlefield. It would be incredible even today
Can you imagine Operation Barbarossa when the Germans invaded Russia during WW2? Makes these ancient battles look tiny...
@@jeffmacarthur9722not really. a battle involving over a hundred thousand men is still going to be massive.
The difference is the battle lines in WW2 are hundreds of km across. The battle of Cannae had about 130,000 people fighting in hand to hand combat in a very large field. The NFL stadium where I'm from holds about 70k people. That's 2 full stadiums of people. That would truly be something to behold. If there was a WW2 battle to see it'd say it would have to be Kursk. @@jeffmacarthur9722
yea huge but they didnt have to walk everywhere.....imagine if youre in ny and were going to invade cali and you had to march there lol.....one poor bastard crossed the alps with elephants i forget who wasnt romans maybe hannibal? @@jeffmacarthur9722
Well yeah, that's an entire campaign worth of men, most of whom won't fight each other. For the Romans, this is upwards of 50k+ men all fighting within an area of maybe 2 miles.
I’ve been wondering this exact thing. I’ll be staring at a big field at a park and just wonder how many legions would fit in it and how they would manage the terrain.
Let me guess, not even a whole legion fits
@@franciscol3510 I doubt it could fit more than a few cohorts although it depends on the size of the park
Hahajahaha brooo me two
I just look at a big football stadium and think "yeah, this is about how many people Caesar commanded at Alesia."
@@Ishkur23 Totally wrong.
It's not until you actually see the physical size that you realise how gigantic the legion was. Also telling and showing how long it would take for an entire legion to walk past you was the icing on the cake. It gives you a new perspective as we everyday deal with time and how long something could take.
This was awesome!
They make look big described this way, but modern armies utterly dwarf them in size.
A legion as described here has 5240 fighting men.
Thats only just more than the number of militia that banded together to fight the Americans at the Battle of Mogadishu in the early 1990s.
Talking of America - they sent 43,250 shooters ashore in the Omaha Beach assault alone. Thats 8 legions.
The whole invasion of Europe used 2 million troops - ie 190 legions.
In total on the Western Front, the Allies had the equivilant of 1460 legions, while the Axis had 1530 legions.
@@Debbiebabe69 When Germany was marching through Belgium in WW1, the time it took the army to pass through wasn't measured in hours but days. The Battle of the Marne had about a million soldiers on each side.
A nice point of comparison is that the number of soldiers in a legion is approximately equal to the number in a brigade. In the 20th century, the smallest unit considered capable of fully independent operation was the division which is 2-4 brigades depending on organization. More recently however the trend has been back towards the brigade level as the smallest independent tactical unit.
It's true, and yet Caesar tosses the word around as though referring to rugby teams in his Gallic Wars, "I sent three legions hence to counter the threat and withdrew two more from the North," etc., etc.
I once read if you were watching Napoleons army passing by on his march towards Russia, you had to be standing there for 3 day's and nights.......incredible !
Well, wait till you see the Chinese armies back in those days... their standard armies are ranged from 30k to 800k in size. Imagine the food and time they need to take to invade.
If Europe is near to China, it will have been crashed. I think even the Chinese army splitting on the castles can flood them. Lol
When you study the legions you cannot help but notice the massive logistics to move such a formation. A lesson still being fumbled recently.
And move it on the order of 20 miles a day and set up for battle at the end of that 20 miles!
@@HammerOn-bu7gxwithout any air or motorized logistics/ support + no telecommunication.
Logistics back then were a pain and still time made it work.
And don't forget that legions often had additional auxiliaries with them, such as archers, slinger, additional Cavallari etc. A legion or even an Roman army on campaign must have been massive. A truly fearful sight on any battlefield.
and in case of Caesar, artillery and walls, a lot of walls.
Yup the auxiliary will have added another 5000 men in there
@@sciencefliestothemoon2305 You mean axes. To build *WALLS*
@@justsam0511 Yes ~ usually rather than often.
And at the battle of cannae against Hannibal, the Roman army almost 90,000, 87,000 to be exact. Just imagine the sight and the area that this army would cover
Loving the use of Unreal Engine to make documentaries like this one, big props! There are still some improvements to be made but it's a great contribution to the video and I can see it becoming a key point in a any historical video!
Thanks! This is indeed just one small step for the channel. We will continue to find ways to improve this series so all feedback is greatly appreciated. Some ideas so far are to start color coding the soldier bases, add more info graphics, and start to introduce animation
@@InvictaHistory love the visuals that you guys have started using, and a great new topic area to go into "size of the ancients" keep up the good work!
@@InvictaHistory the only thing i did not like was the pop in on the trees :D
@@InvictaHistory as a 3D artist myself, i would suggest fixing the trees' LODs that keep popping in the distance first. The environment shading looks good, you could maybe use some dither blending when you add megascans on top of it (to hide the seams on the ground) As for the soldiers models, It would be REALLY interesting to have actual static 3d models of Roman soldiers: with Unreal 5 and nanite you would actually be able to have this many without performance issues (assuming they're not moving). I know some crazy talented people that could help you model them, in case you don't have a character artist. Hope the feedback can be of use, peace!
@@InvictaHistory Truly magnificent Video. Enjoyed the info and visuals.
The 3D styled art and models made for this video is just perfect.
Thanks! We wanted to make something that maintained a visual connection to our typical style. I also like how it invokes miniature models
@@InvictaHistory Yes! The miniatures are great. Just like a board game. ☺
Ah this takes me back to the Total war documentary days
Why are they all white, where are the womxn and stunning and brave transsoldiers? I left Twitter recently after the elonazi took over but this non Twitter world is so confusing and triggering...
Reeeee
@@dawnblade9126 I'm still playing Total War these days although I'm using the mod 'Europa Barbaroum'.Once you use that mod you can't go back to vanilla.
Really good to see the "Combat Service Support" aspect of a classical army considered.
So often overlooked in both modern and classical analysis of an army's structure and yet so critical to their success.
I was a Classics major. We studied this exactly.
Awesome video!
The true size of the battle of Ecnomus between Rome and Carthage would be incredible, being one of the largest naval battles in history.
The untrue size is incredible too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was someone watching Oversimplified?
The world at war : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Catalaunian_Plains
The legionary size is something I've always been curious about. For something who is writing a fantasy nation based around these guys, this is incredibly helpful!
Glad to hear it! We will be doing a lot more on such army organizations and related topics like logistics, engineering, and tactics
Dude small fuckin' world, I'm working on something with a small group of my own friends, dividing the work of the world-building and lore creation amongst three of us (I got the Roman inspired part, go figure)
Just found a conversion calculator and 6’ Roman is 5’ 9” 59/64 English. The average Roman male height at that time was 5’ 5” English feet.
@@septimus7524 not small at all the amount of Rome inspired fantasy is massive
I'm doing something similar for the sci-fi military novel I'm working on, with a special forces unit roughly based on the legion structure, each "Contubernium" being a spec-ops team (on par with SPARTAN-II's or III's from Halo)
Its genuinely amazing how we now have access to this level of information, presented perfectly with visuals to help us understand and be entertained - thanks to dedicated people like those who run this channel. Thank you very much!
You can thank those scribes mentioned in the video probably. They're probably the ones that wrote all this down literally millennia ago. Or at least some of it. Then, over the years, it ended up getting into the hands of different historians.
@@masonjohnson4310 Yep then monks or scribes of Arab world copied it before the originals fell apart from age. Unfortunately most of it not copied or lost with Empires fall. .
Unlike the majority of Ancient Civilizations, the Romans were EXTREMELY good at keeping precise records in detail. Hence they are one of the most well known ancient civilizations. Not saying we know a lot about them, but we know more about them than most civilizations from ancient times.
@@masonjohnson4310 we have had this information for 2k years... but people get impressed by play things on a video... Reading something is too difficult for today's ignorant population (Roman populous was also ignorant )
@@guillermoelenes7252 Words can rarely do something justice when trying to portray something of this size or complexity. There is a reason videos like this are so popular, because people like being able to visualize the information we've had for 2k years. We should be embracing things like this, not jesting at someone for watching this instead of reading the primary source.
Now it’s easier to understand why Augustus was so traumatized when he lost three veteran legions. Argghh! Varus! Give him back his legions!!!!
It was Arminius' fault. Damn traitor! Let's face again in open field!
scary to think that they lost all those men on an ambush.
@@antistiolabeo8950 teutons rise!
Considering that Legions were politicians and not military personnels it's easier to understand the defeats the Roman Legions suffered.
@@joegibson4946 Politicians had to be proficient in military tactics during those times. Of course, some were better than others, but they all knew at least the basics.
This is a perfect example of why I LOVE this channel! You really delve into the more obscure things, things people may think about like “What would a legion look like in size comparison” or “How big an area would they need to build into a camp” Its stuff you can’t really finf any other place other than Invicta!
As a kid I attempted to make a Legion from Airfix figures.
Over the years I got to about 75% full strength even using other figures and products to make up the slaves, slingers, archers and mules and logistics train. Etc.
I still have them sat in boxes in my hobby room which is now made out to 1:300 tank models.
Just thinking about Caesar moving through Gaul in full force is mind-boggling! The collumns of his legions stretching for kilometeres without an end!
Imagine if they all had to pee at once :)
Especially with population density in those days. Seeing several thousand soldiers and equipment marching past would be eye opening.
Read second chapter of gaul war, written by Caesar
Mars!!!
@@Abebe345 Ive read that Paris at the time of the Viking Invasions, was 30,000 people.
I would imagine that the rural areas have a lot of population compared to cities, as everyoine is farming.
The absolute power disparity between the Roman legions and their contemporary neighbors has always seemed so insane to me. The uniformity, quality, and expertise that none of their opponents could hold a candle to until the Empire tore itself apart from within.
The Legions did loose an awful lot of the time, it was just that there was always another legion, or consular army, to replace the losses. And look up the Parthians and how they faired against them.
@@savagesnayle301 they gained alot more than they lost for a long time
Middle Eastern armies often matched them, so did the Greeks.
@@ondras5241 You can't really describe the power of the Roman military by just using battles. Yes, many times Greeks and others were a match for them in a battle. But only Rome had a massive standing military machine. You can win against them in a battle, but they just keep coming. They never lay down their arms for a harvest or start getting angry because they've been away from home too long. With the exception of a small core of the Spartan army, Greek armies were made of citizens drafted for the purpose of fighting for a season, and the Parthians for example looked more like many medieval armies comprised of nobles and their serfs and a heavy addition of mercenaries. The power of the Roman military was in its ability to keep men in the field, keep them supplied, and their mobility. No other force in the world at that time was comparable.
@@Kelnx Your understanding on the matter is not very good. It is correct that Rome had a standing military, but Roman soldiers did lay down their arms, not for harvest, but for infrastructure projects, policing and administration. A legion would be spread out in the area, hard at work even in peace time. Furthermore, the idea that Roman soldiers "didn't get angry because they've been away from home too long" is, with all respect, laughable. We have tons of accounts of mutiny, often of whole legions. And while the ability of the Romans to raise another army in time of need is remarkable, those new raised armies were often of significantly lower quality and were basically the equivalent of a local levy. And if we look at Persians, they also had the ability to "bounce back" from lost battles/wars. Rome notably struggled with that, as the Persian powercore was located in the far East and even after the Romans captured Ctesiphon (Sassanid capital) five times, they weren't able to completely defeat the Persians, who managed to return to their previous strength and the Sassanids eventually outlasted the Roman empire.
To wrap it up, while Roman empire was exceptional in many areas, a large part of it's today's prestige is because of good PR and not because of it's actual perfection and many societies at the time could match it in certain areas.
I love this video. Absolutely amazing and have been waiting for an in depth description like this about Rome's juggernaut for a long time from this channel. You never disappoint Invicta!!
Für Kaiser, Gott und Vaterland!
It’s content like this that elevates UA-cam far above other sources. It would have taken 4 days for a network to get this much information across. Outstanding work.
Remarkable, how this happened and a delight to watch
The use of the figurines really eases the ability to 'see' the unit makes ups. It's even more impressive showing the logistical support elements.
‘A wolf can’t destroy the world, only the Roman army can’ - Varus, from Barbarians series
"Pain is just weakness leaving the body." - Roman soldier in Caesar III game.
@@jerseyjunior ‘ A man is never too weak to fight, if the cause is greater than his own life’ - Oenomaus, from Spartacus
@@liamcullen5105 It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience. - Julius Caesar
@@liamcullen5105 "All Rome will be amazed at such a victory! The day is *(voice cracks)* ours!" - The guy that shouts out when you win a battle in Rome Total War
@@alextowers3564 "A shamefur dispray!" -Shogun total war announcer
Thank you for making this video. I had always wondered how a legion was structured and was particularly interested in how they set up their officers and specialists. The romans are one of my favorite fighting forces of history. This was certainly an interesting video and brings more realism to the battles you read about from books, knowing how these legions were generally structured and who had what duties.
I've always wanted a video like this. I try to imagine how big and how much space ancient armies took up. The scale was mind boggling
The logistics of moving all this shit back than too would have been mind numbing
@@corylemons7242 exactly, I always think about logistics too, the total army sizes including camp followers and animals is crazy, literally a moving column of a city's population!
The overall thoroughness is just wonderful. The graphic animation serves the audio perfectly. The simplicity of the animation as is, allows to keep focus easily. Thumbs up!
Brilliant! Thank you for this. As a history teacher, it's difficult to get across to students the sheer scale of the roman Army.
The quality of this channel cannot be underrated. Yet you keep getting better! Awesome work, thank you for your incredible insights.
I can't believe a army so well organize as the Roman can be defeated in battle. The enemies of Rome were formidable indeed.
Usually I said they lost do to leadership incompetence.
A drop of water will destroy a mountain with enough time and repatriation.
Most if not all major Roman defeats were due to terrible decision making and utter leadership incompetence, and that can destroy any army in the world, even modern ones, just look at Ukraine.
While we can say Roman defeats were due to incompetence, lack of preparedness, etc, other flip side you can also say that Roman victories were due to the lack of preparedness, incompetence, poor leadership, disunity, etc of their enemies. Hannibal during the Punic Wars didn't even have the support of his country's leadership. Vercingetorix could barely hold together thr disunity Gallic tribes that had been fighting each other for centuries (many of whom still allied with Rome), and he wad convinced by his Chiefland to fight a pitched field battle instead of sticking to a winning strategy of avoiding big ptiched open field battles and relying on small skirmishes and hit and run.
@@Intranetusa What is simplier and easier, be organized and competent or the opposite? So we can say the victories of Rome were not due to the desorganization and incompetence of their enemies, but due to the organization and competence of the romans
The sheer scale of ancient and medieval warfare is absolutely mind boggling even with a visual aide
Ancient, yes. Medieval warfare... here you only get truly big battles if you go to the East or if you wait until the last centuries of the Middle Ages.
the scale of ancient warfare was actually bigger than the scale of medival warfare
Ah yes "Medical warfare in Europe was big
@@malipedduparthiv6147 were the armies of ancient Europe larger than medieval Europe? If so what civilisations were they?
@@thefuture1892 Ancient battles are mostly larger than medieval battles because, during those times it's civilizations vs civilizations kinds of battles as opposed to medieval battles that involve smaller countries. I mean just look at the size of the roman empire and it's contemporaries, and compare it to medieval states.
Dear lord. Imagine seeing that large train of so many people just marching. That must have been terrifying and awe inspiring for people in antiquity. I feel like you just wouldn’t ever see that many people in one place back then. Especially all on the move at once.
Imagine the earth trembling when the legion approach
@@hazhoner5727 the terrifying might of the Roman Empire
The terrifying things were 3 - The quantity - all armed to the teeth - professional warriors all year long.
It's kinda cool how such a large amount of people could just basically set up camp anywhere in such an organized manner.
Shovels and axes were in every soldier's kit for a reason. There wasn't a road when they started moving. There was one when they finished. As the legion moved, it cut the forest, dug and paved the road, and built the wall. That is why all roads lead to Rome. Because the army altered the terrain to fit them as they moved, and they connected the fortress they built to camp in one night, to the fortress they built to camp in the next night. Leaving a network of ready-to-inhabit towns behind them as they went.
Anywhere no. There were scouts who preceded the army, scouted the land and relayed information to army command about where it was thought bet to pitch camp. Drainage, water, survivability in case of attack and obtaining tactical situations all helped to indicate where best to pitch camp for the night.
@@williambarnes5023 That is almost entirely false, and blatantly so - they did not construct anything close to a regular Roman road while on a march, and they certainly did not construct a wall while moving in between camp sites. And the camps themselves would not be left behind as anything close to a “ready to inhabit town”. This channel has a good video on a typical 24h while on the march, please watch it and don’t present your imagination as facts without at least trying to gain some proper knowledge beforehand.
Thank you so much. I'm attempting to write a historical fiction novel set during Trajan's first Dacian War. It revolves around a veteran legionnaire, an optio in Legio IV Flavia Felix, who aspires to become a centurion, so as an officer he can legally marry his love interest. He also wrestles with converting to Christianity, the risk he and his love interest take in doing so, and the breakdown of his friendship with one of his fellow veteran legionnaires. This video helps me immensely with my research, giving me a greater understanding of the size and depth of a Roman Legion. Thank you.
I hope you finish your book. It sounds like an interesting story
Flavia is feminine, you might want to change the name to Flavius Felix
@@timoverdijk3176most the time I might just refer to it as the Fourth Flavian Legion so the majority of readers understand.
@@davidbuckley2435 thank you I really want to finish it.
Sounds cool
Awesome! I've been consuming Timaeus' Roman History podcast every day for hours and while the legion structure and roles are explained well, the visual aids help a lot 👍
lol thats the channel name. it's actually produced and voiced by Mike Duncan
@@derrheat154 yep! Everything Mike puts out is amazingly detailed
THIS is the video I've been waiting for my entire life. Thank you guys. Your content just keep getting better and better.
Now I am able to imagine the disaster that occurred at the Teutoberger Forest much better, thank you!
they lost full 3 Legions , if i remember correct...
it was like Titanic sank when the news arrived in Rome...
Depending on which perspective you view it from, it could be seen as a heroic victory at Teutoburg Forest
@@MrJabbafett It was a great victory by the German tribes, united under Arminius.
Unfortunately, following their victory, Arminius tried to become leader of all the tribes.
The same spirit of freedom and independence that drove them to vanquish the Roman legions at Teutoberg, caused them to kill Arminius.
@@AudieHolland the Romans came back anyway, and they had no real interest in conquering the full germanic territories for political reasons. After the heavy defeat, the Romans reorganized to avenge Varus and the lost legions. The battle of Idistaviso is considered the revenge of the Roman Empire against the Germans, after the defeat suffered by Varo. In 16, the imperial legate Germanicus managed to beat Arminius in two great battles: the first in the plain of Idistaviso, the second in front of the Angrivarian wall, both between the right bank of the river Visurgi (current Weser), the surrounding hills, the great Germanic forest and marshes further north. The Rhine was consolidated as the definitive northeastern border of the Empire for the next 400 years.
@@MrJabbafett the Romans, on the other hand, were heroic, and after having burned and abandoned most of the carriages and all the unnecessary baggage, the Romans advanced anyway, arranged in more orderly deployments until they reached a location in the open field, not without further losses.
From there they continued their march, still confident of being able to save themselves; knowing that on the journey they would have suffered numerous new losses and perhaps only a few would have been saved, the hope was to get as close as possible to the camp of Castra Vetera on the river Reno, where perhaps the legate Asprenate could have reached them and saved them.
The army proceeded in wooded areas that seemed interminable, attacked mercilessly by Arminius' men, who knew the terrain well and who shouldn't allow the Romans to organize and take sides, since in the open field the legions would certainly have prevailed.
This channel is by far one of my most favourite. I love how the men of the past formed a world of such high intelligence and organization. Yet today with all our technology we can't even come close to the levels of discipline, organisation and power that the Roman Empire had. It almost makes you think that humanity peaked about 2,000 years ago.
Fascinating visuals. I'd love to see a Late Antique Roman Army (per the Strategikon), as well as an Early Medieval one (per the Praecepta Militaria), as well as naval visualizations (again, Classical, Late Antique, and Early Medieval).
Late antique? Dwindled in size, lots of foreigners, just a few cohorts per legion.
Great video, excellent research and production which puts the massive size of a single legion in perspective. Now just imagine the size of an army comprising three to four legions and you will see how formidable the Roman army was - and that isn't even counting the auxiliary units!
You know the content is amazing when its only been out 2hrs and already has 2k+ likes. Outstanding.
Please make a video about a certain village in Gaul that is still holding out on the Romans!
That would be good to Getafix of!:)
I would love to see a full Roman Imperial Legion assume battle field formation. Just to see how well trained those men were, to do all of this without radio communications. Just signifiers and trumpets used to announce changes. Its absolutely unimaginable to me, how much training it took to reach that level of organization and discipline.
The 3D look is AMAZING!!!
This was such a good video!
As someone who writes stories involving roman-inspired armies, this is ridiculously useful information. And I am really impressed by how well it is presented while being both very easy to understand and also thorough in what it covers.
This is why Roman ruled! To even us now a legion lined up for battle sound vast and expansive.
Imagine facing one 2000 years ago
A legion on its own wasn't an army. Even during the mid rebublic it took two legions to form a army
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl either way, frightening stuff
Bravo and superb job done here,as an Italian from Rome who dedicated his younger days in the study of my city and it's former military and tactical aspect you deserve a great thank you.
As an Italian you would have done much better to learn Latin and read your own history from your own primary sources than listen to this make believe idealised Roman legion that never existed in real life.
Thank you. I always knew that the armies etc. were massive. With your detailed break down of the Legion, the shear size of this is mind boggling. Once again thank you.
Can you imagine seeing the 30 Legions Rome had at the peak? 150,000+ men and thousands more animals too…..
Roman hell march...
And this is leaving out their Auxiliary troops, so the scale becomes even crazier.
It must be really costly, several hundred millions per year?
this is a MUCH BETTER DOCUMENTARY than ANY BIG MEDIA delivers
congrats for the amazing work you've always done with your videos
This was amazing! Would love to learn how legions organized their centuries after suffering casualties.
This is the best video I have seen regarding the Roman Legions. You've done a superb job of breaking Legion down into its constituent parts and demonstrate how they operate as one large or even small unit. I will be most interested in seeing you do more of these films. For instance the alexandrian army, the armies of Egypt, and the Army's of China and the Mongols as suggestions. I have been asked to deliver every once in awhile a clear breakdown of the Revolutionary Army compared to the British army, the words of 1812 and the American Civil War. There's no rush on this I think they can wait I will recommend your site for other educators who I am sure will be most pleased to see your work, once again thank you so very very much.
This was an amazing video and great detail, the modelling system implemented was a super nice touch! Really appreciate the time and detail put into this, I personally love the Roman Empire's History and this about the Legions was well done. I look forward to seeing more in the future!
Great video! You really appreciate the sheer logistics that go into organizing and fielding such a force. The fact that such military organization is not seen in such scale till the age of gunpowder is a wonder.
Not seen in Europe yes, in China no. They have different ranks of leaders and officers since the spring and autumn war.
Not to mention 9k army is just a small squad to them.
You should do a video on Roman auxiliary units aswell
OMG :O
This video is absolutely amazing.
This things should be seen by teachers all over the world in order to show children how things really worked and looked like thousends of years ago.
Amazing job
19:30 (Insert whistle) The size of the legion is really put into perspective thanks to this model, good work.
Very few videos on UA-cam have left me truly without words, this is one of them, numbers are big enough but visualizing the raw size of just a century, specially for a visual learner, is truly something else, well done, the first chance I got to watch this again in 4k I'll do it
Absolutely loved this video. Please do so many more of these.
it is astounding to me how the organizational structure is so similar to modern day standards with the centurian being similar in role to a Lt. today and the other officers being similar to senior NCOs and sgt majors, really makes you appreciate how well we had it figured out even all the way back then and the only difference is our horses weigh 60 tonnes and everyones an archer ;)
Their infantry even carries 80 pounds of shit everywhere they go lol
The main thing we seemed to have figured out since then is the psychology of medium-sized units, a company of 150-200 men is far far easier to command than a cohort of nearly 500 with multiple junior officers.
You seem to forget that at Sanhurst and West Point they still study the Romans and therefore it is not a matter of the ancient Romans being similar to us, we, who they have never known, but it is entirely plausible that we are similar to them as we succeeded them, studied and copied them. There is absolutely nothing astounding about this except that you used reverse and therefore wrong logic.
W.O.W!!!! Mind blown by the physical size!! Plus that was one Legion. Times by 4 to 33. A lot of people and animals is an understatement!!!
Pulling all this coherent information, I am grateful. You are most generous. You leave us with something wonderful. Detail is worthy of the master Gibbon. Eager to review again trying to realize your immense setting. I also appreciate the full titles of officers which now I learned for the first time and being able to piece together the leather and storm of journaled battles
Gibbon was not at all exhaustive about Roman army formations, tactics, strategy, fighting spirit, marching order, logistics etc. He got lost in a jungle of verbiage.
Looking forward to this. It always irritates me when I watch military videos and they talk about legions. I mean, I know what they are but I often can't remember their size in numbers or visualise them.
Yes! Thank you for all your research and the service you provide us with the information and high quality of video.
Absolutely love the animation style.
One of the best things about this is that it not only shows the size of a Legion, but, also, it shows the flexibility of the structure of the Legion.
Amazingly detailed explanation of one of the best and most effective military organizations of all times.
Wow! this is the most impressive video about the real size of one legion that I've ever seen. I really hope to watch more videos of another army size of antiquity, maybe the Spartan organisation or Macedonian Phalanx in times of Alexander the Great, something like that will be awesome.
Recently visited Culloden battlefield in Scotland. There were around 5000 & 9000 on the two side (so somewhat close to the size of a legion?).
The field is laid out where each line would have stood, with flags (blue and red) marking out the two army lines. There are paths cut through the field along the lines, and a field hospital (stone cottage). I could not get over the length of the two lines and the scale of the battle field. Being there and seeing it all marked out really helped get a sense of it. The field is actually only half the width of the original lines of soldiers as a road cuts the original field in half and still feels huge. If anyone gets chance, visit, best of all it's free.
Love the models and animation style to simply portray visually whats going on. super effectivie and easy on my eyes.
Been waiting for this exact type of series for YEARS.
Love it! I was trying to do something like this a while back using 3D models of LEGO minifigs, drawn from the minifigs that LEGO actually made in their mystery sets. I built the models but never got much further than that.
This video was absolutely amazing. I have always had a hard time envisioning the scale of this and how the sheer size of this force must have been a weapon in and of itself inspiring fear and doubt into the enemy about how to oppose them. Whoever came up with the idea for this video I really appreciate it. You should do more videos on the scale and make up of other historical forces for comparison.
Amazing video! Thank you, I've always wanted to know the inner workings of a Roman legion
I never really thought about the size of these formations, but as soon as I saw the video title I knew I wanted to know.
Good work, and I am looking forward to the next video.
This is the reason why i subscribed so very long ago 😁
Amazing video. I have been a fan of the Roman Age ever since taking 4 years of Latin in high school! I occasionally have issues with word pronunciations in some channels, the difference between Church and Roman Latin, but I love these just the same. I binge all the videos on the subject of Rome when the come out.
Keep up the incredible work!
The Latin that is taught at school and that is engraved on the marbles of the ancient Roman ruins (and written by the ancient Authors) is "classical" Latin: the language spoken by the upper most educated classes and used in the Senate of Rome. The language spoken by most people and throughout the empire was "vulgar" Latin. Although both forms were mutually intelligible, they were not the same.
With the fall of the Western Empire (476 AD) there was no more any central authority to manage the language, and the only language left to be used was vulgar Latin. This language in turn started to change (every live language evolves over time), and the change was greater across geographic barriers (mountains, big rivers). By the VIII century classical Latin (used by the Church) was no more readily understood by normal (un educated) people.
Additionally national languages (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian) started to emerge and differentiate. Although all came from vulgar Latin, and still mutually intelligible to some extent, they were clearly different. In the Middle Age the Church too used vulgar Latin, further enriched with modern words that did not even exist centuries before.
During the Renaissance period the national languages were formally codified and extended forcibly by law to the whole nation (for political reasons), so that the jump across a border became greater than before. For example the Occitan language spoken in the south of France was much more similar to Italian and Spanish than current day French (which was the romance language spoken in the area of Paris, much farther away).
Romanian, being cut from contact and influence of other romance languages for centuries, had an autonomous evolution.
When I went to the Varusschlacht Museum In Kalkriese, Teutoburg Forest, Germany, they had a really nice display of metal miniatures showing the marching column of the 3 legions involved in the battle (XVII, XVIII and XIX). The display was huge, even though it was a scale model. Really gave you an idea of the dimensions of a Roman army.
I can really recommend the museum by the way! Would be a great place to visit for anyone interested in Roman stuff. The museum is built on a section of the ancient battlefield and most of the collection was excavated on site. In a year from now they will probably be putting there best find so far on display: a full set of lorica segmentata, which predates any other Roman samples found so far.
The refinement and standardization of the legion was a work in progress that changed throughout the ages. The first instance of military organization was referenced by Plutarch and Xenophon to be the Rule of the first Nike. It is explained in a book titled "The Arm of the Nike". The Greeks modified the order of battle with the phalanx. When Roman began, they were little more than tribes conducting horde tactics, but quickly adopted the organization of the Greeks. Further modifications came with the development of shield tactics and the use of the phylum instead of relying on units of slingers and javelin throwers.
Consider doing separate videos on the three military reforms of the Roman armies from hordes to Legion, Marius, and then Julius.
Has anything ever looked more grand than a Ancient Roman army in formation from the eyes of those watching them pass
My grandmother always said "I dont care what they tell you in school, a roman legion is only 1 person"
Many people say Napoleon was a genius for innovating with the army "corps" system.
But I've been wondering, aren't Corps just a modern spib in the Legion? Like Corps Legions were self-sufficient mini armies that could operate independently from other Legions or combine with other legions to form a larger army. I've been wondering how did it take until Napoleon to rediscover something that all of Rome's enemies had fought against for hundreds of years? Rome's Legions didn't fade from memory like many ideas after the fall of Rome. So how did people not take more contemporary spins of the Legion until Napoleon?
It was because Napoleon and the Revolution before him did what most nations in the world feared doing: he armed the people. Massive armies are a threat to most nations because they are inherently dangerous to pre-Nationstate polities. Building massive armies to wage vast conflicts is not something most kings would ever seriously consider because If he wasn't leading the army, then whoever was would gain massive political power. If he was leading the army, then he would be politically unstable back home. Professional regular armies simply were beyond most national economies until about the 17th century. Germany is perfect proof of this.
The legionary system and the corps system serve different functions. An army of legions march together. Corps march along different roads and only converge to fight battles.
In the video it's estimated that for a legion of about 9000 men, on less than ideal road conditions, it takes 45 minutes for the legion to pass a single point. That means that in the morning after the first soldiers have started marching, the guys positioned at the rear of the coloumn would have to wait another 45 minutes before they can start marching. For a large Roman army of 6 legions (54 000 men) the guys at the rear would have to wait 4½ hours (6x45min) before they can start marching. For this reason a large army won't be able to march as long a distance in a day as a small army.
Fast forward to the Napoleonic era and armies ballooned in size. It now becomes impossible to march an entire army in single colon. It has to be split up in different groups marching along parallell roads. Thus I'd say the corps system is not a stroke of genius, it's a necessity that happens when armies grow over a certain size.
@@greghall4836 legions of 9000 men?
It was very informative to see it laid out like this I was hoping that you would also cover the fortifications that the Romans built each night went on the March. They must have been enormous.
They were not fortifications but camps. Fortifications are far more permanent structures than a one to camp overnight. That said they equally needed to be engineered but since each legionary knew what he had to do, it was set up in double quick time with ditch and all.
I should thank UA-cam for bringing this channel up in my feed.
Very cool! Informative, interesting, and intelligently presented. Thank you.
The visual representation by the 3D style in this topic is just wonderful! ❤
Could you make a video which discusses the about the medical unit of a legion ?
Yes I definitely want to do an episode on Roman Army medics
You guys forgot to talk about the 8-10 cohorts of auxiliaries that each legion had attached to it. So each legion was closer to 10,000 soldiers
Yes. I'm also astonished about that lack of mention of the most important auxiliary forces, which some other channels make almost as numerous as the legionaries themselves.
Yes but the Auxiliary component was hugely variable in both size and composition. Any representation would almost certainly be wrong in either or even both of those categories.
@@Belisarius1967 - They could have made a more or less arbitrary average, at the very least a mention: "and we're not counting all the auxiliaries, we leave that for a future video".
Good point, we should have included a placeholder at least for the auxiliaries. However we will indeed cover them in a follow up.
Idea:
You should do an animated docuseries about the most famous Battles of Antiquity (Troy, Kadesh, Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Issus, Gaugamela, Zama, Alesia, Teutoburg, Chibi, and the Catalaunian Plains), the studio that could make the animation would be on the same style of Héroes Verdaderos ("Truth Heroes) which is an Animated film about the Mexican War of Independence.
Here is an example (Warning! Is in Spanish!):
ua-cam.com/video/0kmvfW6gsUI/v-deo.html
Troy is a myth. It's isn't real
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl ua-cam.com/video/Ozwfn4B5NW8/v-deo.html
@@alejandrosakai1744 yes it confirms what I said. It's a myth.
An impressive video, full of fascinating facts and well-narrated. That this level of detail has been left to us by the Romans I find is truly awesome.
It really helps to watch this while looking out across an airport tarmac. I can visualize how a legion or true army in battle might have looked. Imagine having to convey orders to units that you can't see several kilometers away through dust.
A legion and a modern company are about the same size in terms of number of men. That's because ~100 men/people is the extent that one person (captain/centurion/etc) can know a person well enough to be familiar with their name, personality, traits, etc. It's considered a natural quantity for a person to lead a formation, in that regard.
Overall. a good job. However it should have been noted that a decanus was the leader of a contubernium. I'm curious if they were ranked among each other. So, as the pilus prior was the ranking centurion of a cohort, was there an analogous position for the ranking decanus of a century? Thank you!
small oversight but there was another rank. in the contubernium you had the decanus, the first among ten. this position was usually chosen by the contubernium itself as their chosen squad leader.
AH ha! I've always thought there must've been a leader for what was basically the Roman squad, but I've never been able to find out what he was called or how he was chosen. Thank you for clearing this up. Any chance you could give a link to a source, just for infomation?
@@FelixstoweFoamForge Though wikipedia does show it, i was more referencing a similar video by Historia Civilis here. ua-cam.com/video/YKBWAYZOXqA/v-deo.html
@@Amarok410 Thank you for the link, appreciate it!
This is beautiful. The quality is amazing. The teacher who shows this to his class first will be a g.
Looks like I'll be downloading total war again lol.
Thanks for this great video
This is brilliant!!! I have been watching this channel for years, and this may very well be my personal favorite thus far. I have read this information in depth regarding sizes of various legions through both the Republican and Imperial eras, but the way you’ve described and illustrated here to me is the perfect depiction for a standard imperial legion!!! You nailed it!!!
Yay! Glad to hear it. Our next episode is on the True Size of a Republican Legion
Awesome. Also do Macedonia under Phillip and Alexander
working on it!
@@InvictaHistory So cool!
The precision and accuracy of record keeping and logistics needed to make that size force viable with the tech they had available is insane. Makes you wonder if units or formations ever "found" things like extra ballista the same way units in the world wars always seemed to manage.
I can't believe this content is free. Congrats to all of you guys!
I will never not be in awe at how absolutely well trained, organized, and logistically tight nit the Roman army was.
I think about the Roman Empire at least once a week
Do the armies of Carthage, Diadochi Alexander's successor states, Vikings, Italian city states and Mongol under Genghis khan pls 😃👍
Maybe some more modern armies as well like Napoleon's grand arme or the armies from both world wars
I’m sure he will get right on that
@@rdrdrd7777not sure why you've said that but they're just suggestions I don't expect them all to be done.
@@thestanleys3657 I don’t think you realize the amount of work that goes into a video such as this, maybe one suggestion, but all of those? Also, I’m sure he’s already thought of that or they🙄
@@rdrdrd7777 that's a bit presumptive. Do I think that a vid like this can be knock out in a day no, it takes weeks at a minimum. Also I'm assuming that this true size series will be on going for years probably so a list of factions to do may help to narrow down what are people's interest